To their credit (?), I think they feel they get the most legit info from Ukraine and Ukrainian allies versus sputnik news or whatever. So we end up getting a very Ukrainian perspective, plus in terms of getting clicks and views, American audiences are more interested in good news for Ukraine, (well, give or take some of our usual suspects, LOL.) War reporting is always very very hard though.
Outside of entertainment and the occasional war p*rn, I can't to take anything in these last 400 pages with much grain of salt. I posted about Yale's recent report on how Russia successfully distorted its economic strengths during the embargo. Those are a lot of key assumptions/myths still being promoted by MSM/Western media. Other than blown up tanks and the occasional satellite before/afters, it's like you're a spectator watching a live match with deep fakes intermixed inside half the feed.
The carrier USS George H. W. Bush and its battle group just entered the Mediterranean, joining the Truman battle group. It's been ages since we had two carrier groups in the Med. The sister ship of the Moskva, the huge missile cruiser that was sunk by Ukraine, RTS Marshal Ustinov, just went past Gibraltar on its way north, presumably to the naval base at Murmansk or to the Baltic, trailed by a pair of US destroyers detached from the Truman. The Ustinov had been in the Eastern Med, operating out of the Russian naval base at Tartus, Syria as a "show of force" since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Sort of lost it's impact after the loss of the Moskva. Meanwhile, 2 of our 4 guided missile subs, each carrying 154 cruise missiles, their location ordinarily secret, are known to be in European waters. One in the area of the Faroe Islands to the north, and one in the Eastern Med after leaving the Greek naval base at Souda Bay, Crete. This is obvious "muscle flexing" by the US Navy. Doesn't mean anything's about to happen, more of a message that we can do this anytime, if it's needed, in my opinion. The Truman's aircraft were flying 60-90 sorties across Eastern Europe while deployed there. The Bush is replacing her, but the process is deliberately being drawn out. Interesting stuff.
The US is receiving propaganda comparable to the Egyptians during the 6 days war, they're winning, the Israelis are being destroyed, hurrah The problem can be condensed down to people believing what they want to believe is happening, when what we need to know is what is happening, and those two things are massively at odds right now, and sincce they suffer no consequence for it, they will stick by it. You need only look at the maps published out of, for example, the french ministry of the army (other maps are all fairly similar, there's some question just how far into kharkiv they are (it was only thursday i spoke to someone who fled kharkiv, friend's family (they bribed their way into russia, then thru belarus so he wouldnt get conscripted as there's no border controls on that side, lol), their mother is still there and refuses to leave, she's hearing the odd explosion, but not seeing anything in the city itself for what its worth.) The reason Russia have moved so far north is this is how that region receives fresh water (and the ukranians had mostly cut it off since 2014, they'd been reduced to around 10% for 8 years), the red line is the water pipeline coming from the dnieper So then you have the eastern part (and a more detailed map of the region) So from the current map, the Russians have that north eastern region, all of Lubansk, what they don't have on Donbas is being called a meat grinder of the ukranian forces (where the 2 is), it's pretty much indefensible, they're half through Kharkiv Oblast, they have about 65% of Zaporizhzhia, and then 90% of Kherson In terms of mainstream, there are, just not in english, the Ukranians have estimated their own casualties at 200-500 dead a day (injured are usually about 2.5x deaths), the Russians suffered an unusually high toll for a modern military with their failed attempt at maneuver warfare at the beginning, the french had them around 7000 (for posterity sake, the russians claimed 1500, the english claimed around 15k, the ukranians 25k), and since it turned into attrition warfare, they fire around 20x as much artillery, rockets, air sorties, and their casualties have been of a comparable nature to the firepower, so we should be expecting similar casualty ratio to firepower, so 10-25 a day. the problem with this sort of cant even look at a map ignore isn't that it exists, but that it comes with such bravado and similarly disdain toward those who don't share your cluelessness
Russia is pulling all its fighter jets out of Crimea after a series of strikes on its military outposts there, secret NATO report says Russia is pulling all of its fighter jets out of Crimea in an apparent response to recent explosions at Russian military outposts in the region, a secret NATO report seen by Insider said. Russia has already moved ten aircraft — six Su-35S and four MiG-31BM jets — out of Crimea and into Russia and is set to continue until all fighter jets are removed, the report, which was dated August 22, said. The first ten jets were moved from Belbek airfield in Crimea to Kushchevskaya and Marinovka, two regions in Russia, the report said "Russia has dispersed 10x fighter aircraft from Crimea to other airfields in mainland Russia to likely prevent further losses from Ukrainian attacks," the report said. The report was referring to a series of apparent attacks in Crimea, the Ukrainian region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the explosions, though Ukrainian officials have suggested that it was involved. Multiple explosions hit Saki airbase and Russia's navy headquarters in Sevastopol, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made it clear that his ultimate goal is to retake occupied Crimea. As Insider previously reported, moving these assets farther from the front lines could make it harder for Russia to use them in operations The report noted that at the time of its publication, 32 Russian fighter jets remained in Belbek airfield: They were mostly the Su-27 Flanker J fighter jets, but there were also a small number of SU-35Ss and MiG-31BMs. These aircraft are "likely insufficient" to maintain the same level of air support in the region, the report said. Russia has also increased the number of its tactical surface-to-air missiles in Crimea to defend against attacks by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, the report said. "Ukrainian UAVs are hard for Russia to target due to poor IADS (Integrated Air Defense System) C2, likely a weakness across the full spectrum of Russia's armed forces' efforts in the Ukraine conflict," the report said.
I’ve felt that calls that Russia was going to be defeated in Ukraine and that the Ukrainians are going to push Russia out of all of Ukraine was overblown. At the same time though talk that Russia is winning I don’t think can be supported either. They have been able to consolidate and hold onto territory where prior to the current conflict they had a lot of support and where they can shorten their supply lines. They’ve failed to really make deep advances beyond that. By their own measures that they had back in March they have failed.
I hope the Russians dont find out about this secret NATO report. Do you think Russians are patrolling this board?
I have similar bravado and disdain for people who think 2+2 = 5. I'm good with that - if you're wrong, you're wrong, and there's not a lot I can do about it. It's quite clear from your post that you have created your own narrative here, and as we've seen over the last many years, once people buy into their alternative world view, there's not much that can be done to change that.
Haha first it was "lunch in kiev" on the first day Then it was "ok we'll just take Luhansk and donbas" Now it's "random pro russia american bbs basketball guy posting old maps to say that Russia is actually doing great, actually, thank you very much!" I mean, there's really other maps that show the literal centimeters per day that Russia has gotten out of its grand offensive at huge cost, but nah, just listen to this rando explain it! Russia should call some ukranian farmers with tractors - moving goal posts is exhausting work. There's a very good and obvious reason why your "Six day war" propaganda comparison fails. I'll give you about six months to think of what it is?
https://deepstatemap.live/ Vast.majority of Russian forces still positioned to push to Bakhmut, and still not gaining any appreciable ground. War should be divided into BH and HD BH = Before HIMARS HD = HIMARS Domini Calendar reset to HD occured sometime in mid July. It's been all **** for Russia since then. 6/27: 7/27 8/27
Proposed tip jar wager: 20 year under/over before Americans are tired of funding the Ukrainian war effort before it's ultimately handed back over to the Taliban Russians. Side bet: will CFBBS still be around?
The difference you seem to fail to grasp here is that the Russians are playing as the invaders and the Ukranians are playing as the insurgents. Even in Afghanistan, full scale military operations by the US against actual military forces lasted maybe a year or two? If you think Russia can sustain a full scale military campaign for 20 years, much less 2, without compromising their ability to defend actual Russia I wish you the best. US literally wouldn't have/be able to make enough heavy weapons to supply Ukraine at this pace for 5 years much less 20, but the Russians are much worse off and are already running out of Iskanders and S400s and other expensive weapons that they can no longer source parts for, and couldn't build fast enough to continue at this pace anyway, even if they could get the microprocessors and other high tech stuff.
This is absolutely the best use of our defense spending you could ask for. Russia gets weaker by the day, and the US takes zero human casualty. Its tragic for the Ukrainians, but the longer this goes on, the more likely the Russian economy will collapse and radical change occurs within the country. There is no other way to put it, this has been absolute disaster for Putin.
Europe will get tired of it way more than Americans will - the dollar amount we're spending is pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. But Europe suffers actual economic effects. Yet another reason we should be pushing harder. An endless campaign doesn't really benefit anyone - not the US, not Europe, not Ukraine, and not Russia.
I'd be surprised if there weren't popupar unrest in Europe this winter due to abnormally high gas prices and economic slowdown from shut down factories. They're in a tight situation with energy supplies that will put renewables and alternative energy to the test. Plus, they will burn metric **** tons of coal.
This resembles Vietnam more than anything. The US provided the weapons and troops. Russians provided the weapons. The key takeaway should be Vietnam eventually became a solid country when all the foreign powers left them alone. Russia and NATO should leave Ukraine be.
