Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1573337663561777155

The Russian army is raping, pillaging and murdering civilians en masse like the Mongol horde. Russia is a terrorist state like ISIS or Al Qaeda. You don't negotiate with terrorists, you defeat them.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

With Russia distracted with the war in Ukraine, Moldova should liberate Transnistria. There is no border that Russia has with Transnistria to provide support. Russia has a small garrison of around 1,500 soldiers.

There is a ammo depot in Transnistria that Moldova could send to Ukraine.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

That map above is a beautiful thing, suitable for framing. That one blue arrow to the south that protrudes the farthest north, is about to cut the last road to the east to enable an escape from the vise. After that the Russians inside will be free at last, free at last, to surrender. I assume the quisling cowards left long ago. That would be a bad zip code, very bad, for them to remain in.

When the Germans were about to surround Kyiv in 1941, the Soviet generals asked Stalin permission to retreat from the city. Stalin refused, and the city was surrounded and the whole Soviet army was captured or wiped out.

The same thing is happening with Lyman and Putin refusing to withdraw.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Kadryov (who alleges he wasn't allowed to retire) takes aim at the commander of one of Russia's four military districts and calls for the use of nukes.

https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1576212735527829505

Another Crimean airbase aflame:

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1576227894053208065

It was reported that the previous attacks on Russian military targets on Crimea were highly successful and had a devastating impact on the Russian army's ability to operate. Encouraging news this seems to happen again. It's also worth noting that Russia apparently was again unable to prevent this from happening.

I hope Ukraine can make more gains in the South and seriously launch a liberation offensive to take the entire peninsula back.

Russia said a few months ago that Crimea was part of Russia and any Ukrainian attack would be met with a nuclear response. It was all a lie by Russia.

Russia is also bluffing in regards to Ukrainian attacks on those illegally annexed territories as well

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Elon Musk proposes:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1576969255031296000?s=20&t=CwDCCBxJcJq5j...

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1576973049277992974?s=20&t=CwDCCBxJcJq5j...

Well he represents only himself

To go a bit further, he's part of all these people who still believe Russia is a great army while it isn't. Ukraine doesn't have to sign it, they will be able to repeal the russians by themselves.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost it's military superpower status. After the catastrophic Russian failures in the Ukraine war, Russia is no longer even a great power.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Some chatter that Ukraine might open up a 3rd offensive in the south, which was apparently part of the original plan before they scaled it back.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RALee85/status/1578118264596533248

Not surprising given how weak and fragile the Russian forces in Ukraine are right now, although I do wonder how many forces Ukraine can put into it, whether it could adequately support 3 concurrent major counter offensives, and whether it might be smarter to focus on recapturing Kherson City first and then shifting those forces to Zaporizhzhia?

After Kherson and the west bank of the Dnipro river is liberated, the next objective should be the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine liberating Melitopol would cut the highway and railroad to Crimea.

Ukraine controlling Melitopol would break Russia's back logistically. Ukraine should wait for Kherson to be liberated, it's too risky to launch 3 counteroffensives.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

https://twitter.com/PaulRitchiepr/status/1578658953927757824

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-blames-us-almost-forcing-putin-invade-ukraine-1750145

"Trump Blames U.S. for 'Almost Forcing' Putin to Invade Ukraine"

trump is such a pussy, why does he hate america so much

he's such a fan of all these axis of evil commies abroad that seek to undermine American interests

if he loves russia so much why don't he move there? u gotta wonder

Trump is a Russian intel asset, he has been groomed by Russia for a long time. He is Putin's puppet.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Woodbury says its all going swimmingly for them, though - who to believe?

Ukraine has lost around 10,000 soldiers and Russia has lost 63,000. That is just catastrophic for the Russians, it is a 6:1 kill ratio benefiting Ukraine.

Russians are still using outdated Soviet style horde attacks with massive losses. Ukraine does everything it can to keep their soldiers alive. When Ukraine runs into a fortified position, they surround it and wait for the Russians to retreat.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

So far the aid sent to Ukraine (~14 billion) has been less than 2% of the U.S. annual defense budget and less than 0.2% of the total annual budget.  While 14 billion sounds like a lot, its basically a rounding error in comparison to the sheers size of the US budget.  The U.S. could keep up the current level of investment pretty much indefinitely with negligible fiscal impact.

Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe, the US military aid is literally life saving. Ukraine has a military budget of around 5 billion dollars, they would not be able to defeat Russia without Western aid.

It's just a rounding error for the West, but it is a huge help for Ukraine.