Ukraine Watch...

[BritDownUnder]

Thinking about Nord Stream again, whilst you & I don't know who did it, it's interesting to think just how many people *do* know. Heads of state & inner circles of ~all NATO members & Russia, plus hundreds/thousands of military personnel involved in planning/carrying out the task. That must be a minimum but it could be a lot more, the boards of lots of major European energy and industrial companies? Truth will out but in the meantime it must already be influencing geopolitics. Can we infer who blew the pipeline from the subsequent geopolitical actions of those who do know?

Maybe it is like that Agatha Christie novel where everyone stabbed the victim. Russia, US, EU, Sweden, Finland, China and even North Korea all did it. It the Iranians could read a map maybe even they had a part in it.

What matters is that making Russian gas not matter. That's up to stupid Western governments to solve.

[BritDownUnder]

... presumably in preparation for it becoming the new Stalingrad, where they defend it house by house to the last untrained ethnic non Russian conscript inflicting maximum casualties on the advancing Ukrainians in a glorious defeat that will go down in history as Putin’s greatest legacy...

Yes but who is the German Sixth army in this? The Russians as it marks the limit of their advance into enemy territory or the Ukrainians as they are the fascists after all. Hard to know.

All what needs to happen is that the Ukrainians inflict maximum casualties on the Russians with little casualties of their own. Take their time.
After all. Winter is coming!!!

[Vortex2]

Thinking about Nord Stream again, whilst you & I don't know who did it, it's interesting to think just how many people *do* know. Heads of state & inner circles of ~all NATO members & Russia, plus hundreds/thousands of military personnel involved in planning/carrying out the task. That must be a minimum but it could be a lot more, the boards of lots of major European energy and industrial companies? Truth will out but in the meantime it must already be influencing geopolitics. Can we infer who blew the pipeline from the subsequent geopolitical actions of those who do know?

Maybe it is like that Agatha Christie novel where everyone stabbed the victim. Russia, US, EU, Sweden, Finland, China and even North Korea all did it. It the Iranians could read a map maybe even they had a part in it.

What matters is that making Russian gas not matter. That's up to stupid Western governments to solve.

I have it on good authority that it was the Isle Of Man wot did it.
They are the master puppeteers in the background.

[BritDownUnder]

Maybe the Illuminati were pulling the strings somehow. Molloch worshipping plutocrats down Bohemian Grove way.
All with bunkers in New Zealand ready locked and loaded for Doomsday.

[Vortex2]

This confirms (for me at least) that this is a NATO v Russia conflict.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/n ... ory=foryou

[BritDownUnder]

This confirms (for me at least) that this is a NATO v Russia conflict.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/n ... ory=foryou

That is what NATO is there for. I hear Russia is using a powerful radar based in Belarus to keep an eye on the Ukrainians.

[kenneal - lagger]

This confirms (for me at least) that this is a NATO v Russia conflict.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/n ... ory=foryou

Bad, Bad NATO! What are they doing helping those nasty Nazi Ukrainians!

NATO isn't fighting Russia. We are helping a friend who has been illegally invaded, who is having its people killed, who is having their country trashed by giving them information about the war criminals attacking them.

Russia and the Russian run Soviet Union before them has been doing exactly the same thing against the west ever since WW2 ended. In the Korean conflict they even supplied piloted planes which shot down many of our aircraft. Did we cry foul and threaten them with nuclear weapons? No we didn't. Putin should back down and shut up and accept that his and his crony's corruption has rendered the armed forces of Russia incapable of fighting a modern war. If Russian troops are willing to obey Putin's orders and start a nuclear conflict we might as well have it now because if we don't it will only delay things for a few years until Putin comes back at us again and he undoubtedly will just as Hitler did. They are both psychopaths of the same order.

[Vortex2]

Did we cry foul and threaten them with nuclear weapons?

Err - yes we did.

Every night a lone US heavy bomber would drop a nuclear bomb sized device on the N Korean HQ.

This was to show that one night it might actrually be a nuke.

[clv101]

...only delay things for a few years until Putin comes back at us again and he undoubtedly will just as Hitler did. They are both psychopaths of the same order.

Psychopath maybe, but Putin military adventurism has, so far, killed far fewer people than US/UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last couple decades. If he's a psychopath, what does that make us?

[PS_RalphW]

Russia appears to have announced the full withdrawal from Kherson city. There are reports of increased fighting as Ukraine appears to be advancing on two fronts, but details are limited. A major bridge near the city has been blown, probably by the Russians to cover their retreat.

I guess Russia wants to avoid the rout they suffered in Kharkiv, it will be interesting to see how much hardware and conscript troops they leave behind this time. I can imagine the sheer number of surrendering conscripts might slow the advance.

Very little news has been reported from the Ukrainian side in Kherson recently. Ukraine keeps tight control of reporting of its preparations for attacks.

Ukraine is expecting significant numbers of fighters to remain in the city, probably dressed in plain clothes, after the pullout. These might be special forces or ethnic Russian volunteers or militia.

[kenneal - lagger]

...only delay things for a few years until Putin comes back at us again and he undoubtedly will just as Hitler did. They are both psychopaths of the same order.

Psychopath maybe, but Putin military adventurism has, so far, killed far fewer people than US/UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last couple decades. If he's a psychopath, what does that make us?

I would suggest that the reasons that the US/UK were in Iraq and Afghanistan were substantially different to the reasons that Russia invaded Ukraine. Afghanistan was hosting and supporting a terrorist group which had, among other things, carried out a terrorist attack in the US which had killed over 3000 people. This amounted to an attack on a NATO member, hence our involvement. NATO facilitated free elections in Afghanistan and then supported the government against an insurrection from a group which didn't take part in the elections. Since the NATO withdrawal there has been an exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the new government and the human rights abuses, mainly aimed at women, in the country have been many.

There is less justification for the invasion of Iraq, the stated reasons were shown to be false, but Saddam Hussein was conducting a genocide against parts of his population. The subsequent democratically elected, admittedly corrupt, government then came under attack from various groups and an inter Islam civil war broke out. We cannot be blamed for the bloodshed of the religious civil war nor for the Islamic State attacks.

Russia's attack on Ukraine is pure colonial conquest, or an attempt at it anyway, as had been admitted on TV by Putin himself. That is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[kenneal - lagger]

Did we cry foul and threaten them with nuclear weapons?

Err - yes we did.

Every night a lone US heavy bomber would drop a nuclear bomb sized device on the N Korean HQ.

This was to show that one night it might actrually be a nuke.

Did we threaten Russia and China, the countries supporting North Korea, with nuclear weapons?

[adam2]

The russian retreat from the city of Kherson is being reported as a significant backward step for russia/putin. Putin himself was noticeable by his absence, with the retreat being announced by the military.

The Ukrainian forces are reportedly being very cautious, perhaps for fear of some form of trap.

Latest report here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63573387

[BritDownUnder]

Did we cry foul and threaten them with nuclear weapons?

Err - yes we did.

Every night a lone US heavy bomber would drop a nuclear bomb sized device on the N Korean HQ.

This was to show that one night it might actrually be a nuke.

I like that supposing it is actually true. A bit like Dial-a-yield psychology for keeping dictatorial lunatics on edge.

Perhaps when hypersonic vehicles are developed there could be daily 'flights' over Russia and China for the same effect.

[adam2]

Ukraine reports "major gains" as the invaders retreat from Kherson city. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63589297
Perhaps Kherson will not be renamed "Putingrad"

It is also reported that the invaders have built substantial fortifications along the East bank of the Dnipro river, so retaking areas behind those fortifications will be more challenging.