re: Russia on verge of biggest gain in Ukraine since summer

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Nah, you groomed me. You admitted it many times. You were the best in the biz. Chris Hansen said that you were the Babe Ruth of Pedophilia, and you were so smitten by that you had it emblazoned on t-shirts at the pedophile cook-off

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Yep you definitely took them today!

The yellow one that your mom leaves you on the nightstand that you said helped you concentrate but made your tummy hurt!



I can wind you up like your fuk toy groomer!

The back and forth is so off putting. I haven’t been a regular poster in many years and I forgot how toxic this place is. Don’t even engage in the stupid middle school insults. It’s such a waste of time. Completely meaningless.

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You've been going on and on for FOUR frickING HOURS!

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Lol, you dumbshit. Regal me more about how Putin doesn't want NATO on his border, groomer.

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Lol, you dumbshit. Regal me more about how Putin doesn't want NATO on his border, groomer.

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Stop typing. You obviously get way too emotional about this topic.

Might want to sit this one out Champ.

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Omg is this why you post on the political board? To insult strangers anonymously? Get his email address and do it. It’s interfering with the thread.

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Ehrmagottt

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Stop typing. You obviously get way too emotional about this topic.

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You get cross-eyed after two sentences Karla. The groomer has hit you hard.

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Zelensky should have crafted a peace deal when he had a chance.

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a super power is crowing over managing to take a single small, abandoned, destroyed town, and they had to crawl over the bodies of thousands of their troops to do it. It's pretty pathetic, and it's pathetic you are excited about it. Soledar was only being defended by a single Ukrainian battalion

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You've been going on and on for FOUR frickING HOURS!

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Ukraine bros are serious! They won't fight but by god they'll put on a cheerleader uniform and let everyone know theyre in the fight.

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Why do you think Putin invaded Ukraine?

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Lots of reasons. Firstly, after Zelensky was elected, he opened up talks with Putin for the first time in a few years, as talks with Poroshenko had reached an impasse. It was after this first series of talks that Zelensky had with Putin that Ukraine's National Security Council produced a document outlining plans to 'de-occupy' Crimea. The Russians themselves produced their own National Security Strategy in response. Those actions, to me, signaled that both sides understood that the impasse remained and that the war, which had an uneasy ceasefire since 2016, would begin again at some point.

The timing of the invasion, and the prelude to it, seemed to attempt to maximize Russian influence in Europe, as Germany and France still believed that Putin could be negotiated with, while the US and Eastern European countries were much more skeptical. Macron was heavily involved in these talks, and was left somewhat embarrassed by Putin's invasion.

Geopolitically, the invasion doesn't really solve Russia's main issue, which is a smaller and smaller sphere of influence. They have a demographic catastrophe with respect to ethnic Russians, they have been under a consistent sanctions program which limits opportunities for trade, and the much lauded rebuild of the Russian defensive industry has produced few valuable contracts. Now the dynamics of Europe have changed considerably, with Germany promising several billion in modernizing its armed forces, which is a massive sea change from Merkel's 'change through trade' approach, which was a holdover from the West German approach to East Germany.

Russia will likely have to deal with Finland being in NATO, which limits their access to the Baltics, while their access to the Mediterranean has always been dictated by Turkey, who are trying to mediate the conflict. The end result is a security situation that is worse for Russia regardless of the outcome in Ukraine. It would have been a more shrewd move to gain concessions from NATO on paper rather than invade at all.

It's a small town of minor strategic importance, taken at the cost of thousands of troops. If every Russian victory goes like this, Russia will run out of troops before they get to Kyiv.