re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

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4 years into a War

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A war that your boy crush said when the war started that it would be over in 3 days?

And after a week Peskov, Putin’s spokespuppet, amended and told the press that Putin was misquoted when Putin REALLY said the war would be over in 3 WEEKS.



This is the first time Putina has acknowledged the war is causing the Russian people to suffer. He didn’t just come up with that thought all by himself…

russian fuel crisis news has reached the US...

Russian gasoline production buckles under Ukrainian drone strikes

The government has extended its ban on gasoline and diesel exports until year’s end as supply disruptions have affected at least 10 regions. Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been hit the hardest, forcing the Russia-installed governor to limit gasoline sales to eight gallons per person in late September and then again to five gallons on Wednesday.

“This can lead to an uncontrollable growth of social tension — you can lull people into a state of clam by saying that we will beat everyone in the war on TV or that the shops are full of products,” Russian economist Vyacheslav Shiryaev said. “But it’s different with gasoline when your car just stops after five stations don’t have fuel.”

President Vladimir Putin’s model of waging war through massive spending, however, is thrown into doubt when the financial resources are no longer there, Shiryaev said.

“It’s important to consider these two situations together, because gasoline is the blood of the economy,” he said of the fuel crisis against the backdrop of an increased budget gap.

“I wouldn’t go as far as saying Putin has no money to fight, but he doesn’t have the money to fight the same way he had in 2024 and the beginning of 2025,” Shiryaev said, adding that if Russia moves to buy more expensive gasoline from China or Singapore, it will have to subsidize domestic sales, dampening the efforts to balance the budget.

In addition to the rising gasoline prices, Russians will be footing the bill for war spending directly and indirectly. The most visible move to plug the budget hole is a hike in sales tax from 20 percent to 22 percent, which the government expects to generate an extra $14 billion annually.

The Finance Ministry is also stripping small businesses of long-standing tax-relief options, pushing many into higher tax brackets. Social spending, which traditionally was higher than defense spending before the 2022 invasion, has been eclipsed as defense and security now absorb roughly 1½ times more than what is spent on medicine, education, culture and sports.

WP via MSN - no paywall

I was going to reply with a point where I hadn't seen anything credible from Russians themselves about taking Ukraine in 3 days, but that Ukraine did find a bunch of vehicles with dress uniforms in them which would imply they expected a fairly quick victory.

However, I asked ChatGPT to pull up some stories about this just to verify. Of all the ones it pulled up, I couldn't find a single picture of the uniforms.

If anyone has any picture evidence of that, please share. I genuinely would like to know.

If it doesn't exist.... that raises some doubts. Ukranians aren't the most truthful bunch, though clearly outdone by the Russians on that front.

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If Ukraine capitulated today, what would Russ’s have gained? A nation that hates them, leveled cities, towns and villages. Thousands of burial plots to maintain. An exposed military mainly dependent on nukes.

They can not come out of this ahead

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We have now reached the "Ukraine can surrender and still win" phase of the spin zone

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We have now reached the "Ukraine can surrender and still win" phase of the spin zone

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You claim to be literate, right? Where did I say Ukraine was winning or could win.

In fact I’ve provided my opinion several times already, I believe both countries are losing.

But keep on playing gotcha wingman.

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The only person that said Russia will take Kyiv in 3 days is US General Mark Milley, appointed by Trump himself & a good friend of him.

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It is just so sweet of you to continue pimping yourself out to Putina. Your natural Slavic birthright of lying continues. You are the Poli Board's ultracrepidarian. (Look it up.)

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Putin's 3 day war prediction means Russia's troops "running short on supplies"

The Russian army was only given supplies and rations to last three days because Vladimir Putin was confident they would be able to seize Ukraine quickly, according to reports.

Russian troops are running short on supplies because over-optimistic commanders expected to seize Ukraine in three days, sources in Ukraine are reporting.

A news alert from Russian newspaper Pravda, citing a report from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) read: "Putin expected to seize Ukraine in three days. This is the supply of provisions he distributed to his soldiers."

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Daily Star.uk.com

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Deluded Putin ‘thought he would capture Kyiv in three days

Vladimir Putin initially thought Russia could defeat Ukraine and overthrow its government in just three days, according to leaked FSB intelligence.

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Metro.co.uk

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Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin believed overthrowing Ukraine government would take ‘just three days'

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The West Austrailian.com - Only the headline is available to non-subscribers

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How Russia's 'three-day' Ukraine invasion became Putin's humiliation

Putin has refused to call his invasion what it is - a war. Instead, he only refers to it as a "special military operation" to "de-Nazify" Ukraine. He had hoped it would last just three days.

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The Mirror

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A news alert from Russian newspaper Pravda, citing a report from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)

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The NYTimes did this in depth article "The Inside Story of a Catastrophe" that quotes extensively from captured documents of detailed war plans. They went to Ukraine with only a few days of food, little fuel, little ammunition, untrained troops, troops that didn't exist, and were told to pack dress uniforms.

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How did they get their hands on detailed war plans? Some guy on the front line just had the entire battleplan? Do you think Russia would share that kind of info with even an officer on the front? At that level you get an assignment, do it, then get back in touch with someone higher up the chain to find out what to do next. You aren't backpacking around official war plans.

I think its clear they were unprepared. There is a lot of evidence for that.

That's why I asked for a picture of the uniforms. If there were any, you'd think that would get out. So to me that seems more like a morale boosting story along the lines of the Ghost of Kyiv.

Its also clear (at least to me) that the force they initially sent wasn't as large as you'd think it would be if they expected a victory within 3 days, a week, 10 days, or whatever the claim is.

I'll lay out my theory for the early stages of the war:

1) Russia had expectations of a quick victory, but those expectations weren't so high that they pushed all of their chips in.

2) The initial assault was meant to try and end the war quickly, but not be so large that if it were repelled the war would be effectively over for Russia at that point. This is why they didn't have an abundance of supplies. Of the 200,000 troops Russia amassed on the border before the invasion, only a quarter or so of those were sent toward Kyiv and its not clear how many of that 50-60k actually participated in the repelled assault.

This is also evidenced by some of the units they are using... every modern military has special forces units (though usually they aren't as highly regarded as something like the Seals) who solely focus on capturing air strips, airports, and establishing field communications. Ours used to be in the Air Force, don't know if that is still the case. Those were the guys that got chopped up at the Kyiv airport in I believe the first day of fighting.

3) Russia had defensive lines and supply routes to those lines established relatively quickly after the initial assault was repelled. The failure of the initial assault wasn't something Russia was unprepared for, even if they were surprised by it.

I trust the NYT's reporting, I believe they have some kind of document and it probably says what they are saying it says. But I think that document was probably more something an individual or group of individuals made independently or semi-independently, or just outright Russian propaganda for the guys charging headfirst into the Ukrainian military. As for the other stuff, there are a lot of potential reasons for that.

I'm open to all the possibilities, thats just my current theory and it could change tomorrow if some new info comes out.

If you don't understand why I thought that source in particular was funny, I can't really help you.

The other sources were fine