the answer might surprise you

the soviet union collapsed because of economic problems, mainly because of low oil world price.
Without money, Russians couldnt keep the proper "strong hand" occupation of Soviet republic and Warsaw Pact countries.
NATO has slowed down after the cold war, reduced its numbers and military spending, but it didnt quit totally, because they knew that Russia might become bad again, and there were also some more risks like terrorists or North Korea, Iran and similar.
In fact Putin/Russia has absolutely no right to rule or decide about Baltics, Poland, Germany or any other country they used to occupy as a result of WW2.

Cool map not terrible, not great.

MSM now blasting anti-putin RU militias press conference around. They aren't even trying to hide the propaganda. The commander has the strangest accent for a RU. Never heard a native raised and born RU speak with that accent. Even the ones who were well versed in English have the RU accent. Sounds like British theatre.

Accent seems fine to me. I heard similar accents from educated Russians. TV shows do their magic. Definitely non-native.

From black box analysis, ignoring all the propaganda casualty number claims, it seems like simple arithmetic. Both sides agree Russia has had an overwhelming artillery advantage. Vast majority of deaths are from artillery. The cities Russia has advanced into have been visibly razed to the ground and reduced to rubble. That doesn't add up to a rosy picture. And at some point the Ukrainians were being so pummeled they issued a formal war crime declaration that they would summarily execute any russian artillery operators that surrendered.

heh

2021: Russia is the second best army in the world

2022: Russia is the second best army in Ukraine

2023: Russia is the second best army in Russia

Spoiler alert : everyone dies

Japan transfers 100 military vehicles to Ukraine


"the ban on lethal weapons exports has been essentially unchanged for over 30 years."

"Now lawmakers at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Kishida, are trying to ease rules to authorize the delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine and other nations. Proponent of the change argue that if Japan doesn’t help Ukraine, the country won’t be able to expect to receive support from partners in Europe in the case of a contingency in the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands (which are administered by Japan but claimed by China) or Taiwan."


https://thediplomat.com/2023/05/japan-ground-self-defense-force-to-provide-ukraine-with-100-transport-vehicles/

Big piece on Ukraine war - but I feel like all talking points have been discussed here on this forum at lengths.

Something new for me was an interview with Ukranian presidential advisor Arestovich that openly said in 2019 that he acknowledges “that our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/the-war-in-ukraine-was-provoked-and-why-that-matters-if-we-want-peace



This post was edited by Malopox on May 25 2023 02:48am