Put simply - Russia invaded a sovereign nation and will get no sympathy for anything bad that happens to them. The asymmetry in aggressive maneuvers and power is glaring - totally black and white.
There are no excuses for war crimes. It's not OK for one side to execute or torture prisoners. No one should.
It's no less a tragedy when a child is carried out of rubble in Dontesk as in Kiev. It makes no difference if it was a Ukraine mortar round or Russian.
Morally, it is not totally black and white. One crime does not justify any number and type of successive responses. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
All the people that work for me make more than you do guaranteed. Peace?
You are the one defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s even worse if you’re not Russian. It appears you have absolutely no purpose at all.
Sorry, I forgot ..
I am not defending Russian attack on Ukraine. I have clearly stated that, several times.
I am fighting hypocrisy and evilness of people who feel the urge to pile on Russians, name them subhumans, barbarians and what not, call for the extinction (real genocide) of whole nation. All that because Russia does the same thing, but to lesser extent, as nations of people who demonize and dehumanise Russians.
Sure you are. Why else would you try to normalize what is happening by saying it happens everywhere else? “To a lesser extent”… You truly are a morally bankrupt individual. But I have said that before to your registered name.
Plenty of independent sources have verified 10's of thousands of dead Russians. There is no debate except among the Putin-lovers. You've made it clear where you stand. Head in the sand.
Russia will take Kiev any day, I'm sure.
I'd love to take you on your word here, but my I am not finding plenty of independent sources verifying 10's of thousands of dead Russians.
Here's what I did find:
12 March - Ukraine side acknowledges 1300 of its soldiers killed
25 March - Russian side acknowledges 1351 of its soldiers killed
25 March - Russian side claims "more than" 14,000 Ukraine soldiers killed
12 April - Ukraine side claims 19.600 Russian soldiers killed
Both sides are lying. The understate their losses and overstate losses on the other side.
This is particularly evident in Ukraine claims of Equipment losses inflicted. These are mostly between 5 to 10 times overstated in comparison to totals provided by ISW and OSINT.
You forgot an easy one:
23 March - NATO estimates 7000-15000 Russian troops dead, with 30k-40k killed, captured, or wounded.
We all enjoy arguing whether RT is banned. Or debating analogies to deterministic qualities of quantum vacuum fluctuations.
But nobody is commenting on the recent Surrender of more than 1000 Ukrainian combatants today in Mariupol (mostly the 36th Marine Brigade) ?
Or why the Ukraine Government refuses to acknowledge this?
Up until now, the UDF and Ukraine Government have been quite open, providing full and factual reporting.
When they disavowed the recent attack on Belgorod, Russia with Tochku-U missiles and attack helicopters, even though there is video of it, I believed the Russians attacked their own fuel facility and city.
In fact, a few days earlier, this was predicted: "Russia is believed to be planning a series of fake attacks on its own cities, with the aim of blaming it on Ukraine..."
While Russians are attacking their own people in false-flag operations, the Ukraine side would never do that. Like strike a train station in a Donbas city. Inconceivable.
When had the Ukrainian government "been quite open" on their own battlefield losses? You just make a bunch of crap up. The rest of your post reads like fan fiction in need of an editor.
Put simply - Russia invaded a sovereign nation and will get no sympathy for anything bad that happens to them. The asymmetry in aggressive maneuvers and power is glaring - totally black and white.
There are no excuses for war crimes. It's not OK for one side to execute or torture prisoners. No one should.
It's no less a tragedy when a child is carried out of rubble in Dontesk as in Kiev. It makes no difference if it was a Ukraine mortar round or Russian.
Morally, it is not totally black and white. One crime does not justify any number and type of successive responses. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
You have been very consistent with your message all along. Keep your message or explain your change in tone.
Somehow you feel that the killing of the invaders is the equivalent as the rape and murder of children and woman. Is my memory fuzzy?
There are no excuses for war crimes. It's not OK for one side to execute or torture prisoners. No one should.
It's no less a tragedy when a child is carried out of rubble in Dontesk as in Kiev. It makes no difference if it was a Ukraine mortar round or Russian.
Morally, it is not totally black and white. One crime does not justify any number and type of successive responses. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
You have been very consistent with your message all along. Keep your message or explain your change in tone.
Somehow you feel that the killing of the invaders is the equivalent as the rape and murder of children and woman. Is my memory fuzzy?
My recollection is that Ernest has been a consistent moral absolutist in regards to war crimes the whole time.
I wouldn’t rely on anything you read about this war. Generally speaking news reports stand on very shaky legs during war time. I do think it’s safe to say this invasion is not going as well as Putin would have liked.
There isn't any way to sugar coat it.. it's been a disaster for Putin. He can erase any accounting of missing bodies and military inventory, but the fact is Russia's military hasn't yet gotten close to beating a military 1/20th of its size.
Totally agree - it's not going well for the Russian side. Not a complete disaster, but nothing like a success.
This isn't all thanks to the bravery and pluck of Ukraine defenders.
This is a proxy war with NATO.
In meetings in Kyiv today, Baltic state leaders made that clear when it was stated "We have to win this war".
The 2014 change in government was Western backed.
Since then, the CIA, along with US, Canadian, and nearly every other NATO country continuously provided the UDF with money, training, and weapons to prepare them for war, looking the other way when those trained were the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion.
Now, at wart, the Ukraine is being fed real-time intelligence.
It's being supplied and re-supplied with seemingly-endless arms and money.
Western Mercenaries and boots assist on the ground. In Britain, their special Ops teams were disavowed by shuffling paperwork so they appear as inactive status volunteers funded from undisclosed benefactors.
Even the Starlink systems supposedly donated by Musk were actually paid for by the US government.
Those two-thousand Russian burned out Russian tanks and similar heavy equipment have more to do with the 20,000-odd Javelins and Stingers rained down on the Ukraine than anything.
There isn't any way to sugar coat it.. it's been a disaster for Putin. He can erase any accounting of missing bodies and military inventory, but the fact is Russia's military hasn't yet gotten close to beating a military 1/20th of its size.
Totally agree - it's not going well for the Russian side. Not a complete disaster, but nothing like a success.
This isn't all thanks to the bravery and pluck of Ukraine defenders.
This is a proxy war with NATO.
In meetings in Kyiv today, Baltic state leaders made that clear when it was stated "We have to win this war".
The 2014 change in government was Western backed.
Since then, the CIA, along with US, Canadian, and nearly every other NATO country continuously provided the UDF with money, training, and weapons to prepare them for war, looking the other way when those trained were the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion.
Now, at wart, the Ukraine is being fed real-time intelligence.
It's being supplied and re-supplied with seemingly-endless arms and money.
Western Mercenaries and boots assist on the ground. In Britain, their special Ops teams were disavowed by shuffling paperwork so they appear as inactive status volunteers funded from undisclosed benefactors.
Even the Starlink systems supposedly donated by Musk were actually paid for by the US government.
Those two-thousand Russian burned out Russian tanks and similar heavy equipment have more to do with the 20,000-odd Javelins and Stingers rained down on the Ukraine than anything.
I don't think we every day Americans have a clue as to how its going for Russia.
Put simply - Russia invaded a sovereign nation and will get no sympathy for anything bad that happens to them. The asymmetry in aggressive maneuvers and power is glaring - totally black and white.
There are no excuses for war crimes. It's not OK for one side to execute or torture prisoners. No one should.
It's no less a tragedy when a child is carried out of rubble in Dontesk as in Kiev. It makes no difference if it was a Ukraine mortar round or Russian.
Morally, it is not totally black and white. One crime does not justify any number and type of successive responses. An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
This is not really true. If we assume all war has collateral damage (it does), then collateral caused by the murderous invaders is objectively worse than collateral caused by those fighting to defend their homeland. No reasonable person disagrees.
There isn't any way to sugar coat it.. it's been a disaster for Putin. He can erase any accounting of missing bodies and military inventory, but the fact is Russia's military hasn't yet gotten close to beating a military 1/20th of its size.
Totally agree - it's not going well for the Russian side. Not a complete disaster, but nothing like a success.
This isn't all thanks to the bravery and pluck of Ukraine defenders.
This is a proxy war with NATO.
In meetings in Kyiv today, Baltic state leaders made that clear when it was stated "We have to win this war".
The 2014 change in government was Western backed.
Since then, the CIA, along with US, Canadian, and nearly every other NATO country continuously provided the UDF with money, training, and weapons to prepare them for war, looking the other way when those trained were the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion.
Now, at wart, the Ukraine is being fed real-time intelligence.
It's being supplied and re-supplied with seemingly-endless arms and money.
Western Mercenaries and boots assist on the ground. In Britain, their special Ops teams were disavowed by shuffling paperwork so they appear as inactive status volunteers funded from undisclosed benefactors.
Even the Starlink systems supposedly donated by Musk were actually paid for by the US government.
Those two-thousand Russian burned out Russian tanks and similar heavy equipment have more to do with the 20,000-odd Javelins and Stingers rained down on the Ukraine than anything.
So your two options are:
1) Give credit to Biden and the neolibs for supplying Ukraine to the level they can defeat the Russian army
2) Acknowledge the bravery and fighting capability of the Ukrainians.
A very, very tough pill to swallow for the Putin lovers.
I am not siding with Russia or the Ukraine, but with facts and fairness, and against falsehood and hypocrisy.
If arguing these sometimes entails calling out Russophobic hate-mongering or calling BS on claims made without factual basis, then that's where the chips landed.
"facts and fairness" would be more plausible if you were less selective in which facts you chose to promote. Selective "facts" contradicts "fairness".
I am not siding with Russia or the Ukraine, but with facts and fairness, and against falsehood and hypocrisy.
If arguing these sometimes entails calling out Russophobic hate-mongering or calling BS on claims made without factual basis, then that's where the chips landed.
This is about as cute as the thousands of "I'm not a Trump supporter, but..." posts that blanketed the internet in 2016.
Try not to be so blatantly disingenuous.
Unfortunately, still plenty of folks STILL saying that......
Now Russia is fighting for scraps of land they basically already occupied before the invasion.
Imagine invading a country and ending up with LESS land than before. Baffling.
Unfortunately, it's broader than that. I believe that there effort will be to expand from the separatist areas farther north, farther west, and farther southwest, along the Sea of Azov to Crimea. And MAYBE all the way west along the coast to Odessa, wiping out their Black Sea coast/port(s).
Here's hoping they fail, of course.
....and if they do, and if there is ANYTHING that could prompt Putin to use a nuke, is the prospect, however unlikely, of him coming out of this with LESS territory than when started something that could do it ??? I guess that might be the ole' mixed blessing......
As there will be consequences to losing for Ukraine too. Russia will not stand NATO in Ukraine, and there is literally NOTHING anyone can do to about that.
Just like USA didn't stand Soviets in Cuba and tried to overthrow Fidel many times.
You can bark all you want, but that's how the cookie crumbles.
Tough talk from a military that spent the past 50 days bleeding out all over the Ukrainian countryside. Faltering against a country 1/4th your size.
What exactly is Russia going to do if NATO extends membership to Free-Ukraine after Russia steals the east? You going to come at the king with that rinky-dink military of yours?
Still doing significantly better than the US did in Syria or Afghanistan. Considering that Ukraine is being supported with hundreds of millions in weapons from the West.
There is not gonna be a "free Ukraine". Only a neutral Ukraine with a signed "non-NATO" agreement, you can bet your house on it.
Attribute something never said, then refute that by a moral appeal. Same-O, Same-O.
I've stated being a pacifist and decry bigotry.
I note and take issue with failings on both sides in this conflict.
Others here state the situation is "black and white".
They defend graphic videos of Russian prisoners being executed bound and helpless.
On seeing Russian prisoners tortured and kneecapped, it was lamented they were not all shot in the head.
One poster noted "The only good Russian is a dead Russian".
The usual suspects up-voted these and back-slapped each other with supportive comments - while calling down those who took issue with it.
For them, moral expectation, and the Hague and Geneva conventions, apply for some - but not others.
How many Russian civilians have the Ukrainian army killed so far? How many Russian houses have been destroyed? How many Russian civilians have been raped? How many Russian towns have been reduced to rubble?
But keep it up with the endless sophistry and fake altruism.
Last week, Peskov said Russia would have to "rebalance the situation" with its own measures if Finland and Sweden finally decide to join the alliance.
You can imagine, what "rebalance" means. NATO expansion is finished, unless they're willing to begin a WWIII.
World War 3 would require a respectable military fighting on both sides. There's no evidence that Russia's current military could win the Battle of France, let alone fight a modern military like the US.
So that just leaves the nuclear weapons that Russia isn't touching. No one is buying that bluff.
Yeah, the respectable military of the US, which didn't win a single war? I mean, Afghani cavemen are three levels under Ukrainian military, just saying...
One thing you don't get, Russia is leading this as a military operation, not war. They're trying to neutralize targets, not to level cities. Airstriking Helsinki to vanish 100.000 lives would be much easier than picking off Azov nazis, one by one.
Tough talk from a military that spent the past 50 days bleeding out all over the Ukrainian countryside. Faltering against a country 1/4th your size.
What exactly is Russia going to do if NATO extends membership to Free-Ukraine after Russia steals the east? You going to come at the king with that rinky-dink military of yours?
Still doing significantly better than the US did in Syria or Afghanistan. Considering that Ukraine is being supported with hundreds of millions in weapons from the West.
There is not gonna be a "free Ukraine". Only a neutral Ukraine with a signed "non-NATO" agreement, you can bet your house on it.
The Russian military has lost more soldiers in a few weeks than the US military has lost in all combat combined since Vietnam. Sad!!!
