I heard on the news last night that the latest estimates to rebuild Ukraine are on the order of about $1 trillion USD... just seems so wasteful and pointless.
It's hard not to be pessimistic of our species sometimes.
The defense that Ukraine is putting up in the face of overwhelming odds should be enough to reinforce your faith in humanity.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
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Originally Posted by Sliver
Just ignore me...I'm in a mood today.
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The crazy part is that traditional Prussia (which is basically the predecessor of actual Germany along with Bavaria) is like 50% outside of present day Germany. There was some serious ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Red Army AFTER the war that many people don't talk about.
They lost most of it to Poland though after WW1 and WW2 (who to be fair lost a lot of land to the USSR after WW2). Originally Prussia was a region under the sovereignty of the Polish Crown, until the German rulers of Prussia became strong enough to declare their independence and eventually went on to dominate the German states.
Given the previous history of German-Polish relations and especially during WW2, it's no surprised that German inhabitants were expelled and ethnically cleansed.
The pearl clutching would be funny if it wasn't also infuriating.
Not saying I ever cheer when civilians are killed, but retaliation was always going to be likely. You can't rape and pillage a country and not expect them to hit back. Of course, it's possible this was a false flag as well.
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The pearl clutching would be funny if it wasn't also infuriating.
Not saying I ever cheer when civilians are killed, but retaliation was always going to be likely. You can't rape and pillage a country and not expect them to hit back. Of course, it's possible this was a false flag as well.
#### them, rain hot metal down on their heads.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
The pearl clutching would be funny if it wasn't also infuriating.
Not saying I ever cheer when civilians are killed, but retaliation was always going to be likely. You can't rape and pillage a country and not expect them to hit back. Of course, it's possible this was a false flag as well.
I highly doubt that Ukraine targeted civilians - they have been running a campaign trying to undermine popular support for the war by trying to get Russian Civilians on their side. Ie. calling mothers of KIA soldiers.
I would suspect either an accident (missed their target) or Russia.
Also Ukraine is trying to destroy supply lines, so I would suspect they would target fuel, weapon, and rail targets first and foremost as destroying supply lines has worked well for them.
Now that Ukraine has acquired advanced Western artillery and rocket systems, it has gradually begun a campaign to take out Russia’s key military infrastructure. Over the last four weeks, nearly 20 Russian ammunition depots in Russian-occupied Donbas and Ukraine’s south, including some of the largest, have been hit or completely destroyed.
As Russia continues with its slow but steady advance in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas, Ukraine’s military is working to undermine Russia’s overwhelming artillery power and disrupt its logistics deep in occupied territories.
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Ukrainian strikes upon Russian facilities continue on a daily basis.
As a result, by July 7, Russia had lost most of its key ammunition depots, and many of its smaller depots in occupied Donbas. Notably, many key targets as much as 50-80 kilometers into Russian-controlled territory have been successfully destroyed.
This suggests that, along with Western-made rocket systems, Ukraine has also managed to improve its reconnaissance, situational awareness, and target indication, to the point of being able to identify targets even of medium importance deep in Russian-occupied areas.
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“One must clearly understand that the Soviet Union produced munitions enough to wage a thousand years of war,” says Igal Levin, a Ukraine-born Israeli defense expert.
“But — if all those forwarded bases, depots, repair facilities, all of the logistics chains are destroyed — they will have to deal with the need to bring supplies from beyond the Ural Mountains, then be thinking how to store and distribute them, how to bring munitions to artillery."
“So even if this does not shut up the Russian artillery completely, reducing its ability to deliver fire by 50%, to 3,000 rounds a day or even less, will be of a considerable effect on the battlefield.”
Hopefully these are the steps that really begins to #### Russia's #### up as this stupid war grinds on. Russia only understands force and coffins sent home, so let's hope this message is loud and clear over the summer.
Also heard a rather disturbing story from my MIL yesterday, as they are still held hostage in their occupied village of Kozacha Lopan. A large unexploded rocket/bomb hit their garden about 10m away from their apartment. Luckily it didn't explode and no one was at home at the time, as they are in their basement 95% of the time in a different location. A couple hours later some Russian soldiers came and took it away.
Still no evacuations able to be done in their village except for a couple dozen people who were allowed to evacuate to Belgorod a few days ago. 10 pregnant women, a couple amputees and some seniors. No word yet on if my wife's family will be able to get out, but god knows they keep trying. But at least someone in charge finally showed mercy to those who needed it the most. Still, #### Russia and how they use these people as human shields.
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Putin says war could continue until "last Ukrainian is left standing"
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On Thursday, during a meeting with the heads of the State Duma party factions that was aired on state media television Russia-24, he warned of a long war, saying it will drag on until the “last Ukrainian is left standing.”
“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Let them try,” Putin added, before concluding with the ominous statement that “everyone should know that we haven’t started anything serious yet.”
What...did they kick his dog or something? Where has this outright hatred come from?
When it was the USSR did some Ukrainian stiff him on the bill for bread? What is it?
I wonder what the Russian population think of his “everyone should know that we haven’t started anything serious yet.” after over 35 thousand Russian soldiers have died.
What...did they kick his dog or something? Where has this outright hatred come from?
When it was the USSR did some Ukrainian stiff him on the bill for bread? What is it?
I mean if Russia was currently pounding Germany and he said those things, you could conceivably say I get the hatred.
Ukraine? Ukraine & Russia are close neighbors and for the most part, have been friends. Is he pissed off another European leader looks better than him without a shirt on? The hatred is seriously bizarre.
I wonder what the Russian population think of his “everyone should know that we haven’t started anything serious yet.” after over 35 thousand Russian soldiers have died.
I dont know man, I really dont.
Like...if Trudeau started a war tomorrow, what would I do about it?
Like we invade England as retribution for Colonialism or some nonsense, what could I do about it? I could at least be confident that some trucker would drive through his house or some nonsense, but thats about it.
How though, in a state where information and communication are strictly controlled are any Russians going to do anything? Not to mention, Putin's had a 20 year head start on creating a power-base, isolating citizens, controlling media and information and quelling and removing dissidents.
He has preemptively gotten rid of the people most likely to stand up and stop him and that wasnt an accident.
So, based on all of that I'm not confident the Russian people are really going to rise up and put a stop to this lunacy.
The only consolation I have is that historically speaking, if it gets to a breaking point for the Russian people they have shown that when they've taken enough #### then heads tend to roll. But under these circumstances and conditions? I dont even know what that breaking point would look like.
Hopefully it happens and sooner rather than later.
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I think 99.9% of Germans don't even want it back because it's filled with Russians now. Most of it's neighbors would probably welcome it being German again I'd bet.
An interesting part of the German constitution is that there's a statement along the lines of the current borders of Germany are the true and historic Germany and that they renounce all claims to anything outside of the present day Germany.
The crazy part is that traditional Prussia (which is basically the predecessor of actual Germany along with Bavaria) is like 50% outside of present day Germany. There was some serious ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Red Army AFTER the war that many people don't talk about.
....and Prussia had taken large parts of Greater Poland. During the partitioning of Poland Prussia took over huge part of Prussia and absorbed them into their eastern territories:
I wonder what the Russian population think of his “everyone should know that we haven’t started anything serious yet.” after over 35 thousand Russian soldiers have died.
Thats assuming they even are told that number. Even if it was, who would dare speak out without expecting serious repercussions?
Until sanctions really hit and the average citizens quality of life really takes a dip, I cant imagine anything happening.
An independent investigation by the UN on a Russian attack at a nursing home in Luhansk two weeks into the invasion has concluded that Ukrainian forces are partly to blame for the deaths to the seniors as they purposefully used innocent civilians as human shields in this specific incident. Ukraine has not yet responded to the report.
On the surface it doesn’t make sense that Ukraine is also at fault. An invading hostile military struck a nursing home. How can the country being invaded be at fault. I’m sure there’s nuance to it, but just doesn’t make sense right away.
On the surface it doesn’t make sense that Ukraine is also at fault. An invading hostile military struck a nursing home. How can the country being invaded be at fault. I’m sure there’s nuance to it, but just doesn’t make sense right away.
Russia obviously holds the vast majority of the blame given they are the aggressors and the ones invading and launching strikes, but I am assuming the rules of war don't allow for armed forces to hide out in civilian places due to the obvious risks to the innocent. Similar to when people talk about Hezbollah, hiding both insurgents and remote missiles in schools.
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Russia obviously holds the vast majority of the blame given they are the aggressors and the ones invading and launching strikes, but I am assuming the rules of war don't allow for armed forces to hide out in civilian places due to the obvious risks to the innocent. Similar to when people talk about Hezbollah, hiding both insurgents and remote missiles in schools.
If that truly did happen and the UA armed forces are at fault, well then shame on them for doing this and they deserve to be punished. Obviously you can't go around doing that.
Having said that, this is happening in pretty much ALL occupied territory under Russian control by the Russians, including the village my in-laws are trapped in. They were told to their faces that they were being held in their village to be used as human shields, since it discourages the UA forces from all-out attacking those Russian positions.
So while it's discouraging to know some UA forces might have done this, it's very strange how the UN report seems to have been steered towards this investigation in the first place. I'd like to see the report(s) on the Russians doing the exact same thing but on a significantly much larger scale, very clearly with orders from above.
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