Imagine saying that with a smiley when Ukrainians die in droves and the country is being wrecked just as predicted...

SMH

Oleksiy Danilov interview: Ukraine counter-offensive 'ready to begin'

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-65731596

/e For the few i know the mud season was late and i read that it rained on kiyv last night. Probably a hard decision for them because M1 Abrams training just started and hundred(s?) of others armored vehicles are on their way to Ukraine.
With this reasoning they delay again and again waiting for more military power etc... but I guess at some point it's necessary to attack. Not sure he's telling the whole truth: Ukrainians could Hype the counter-offensive alot to gather more and more support.



So we can summarize the joke as: "shrodinger-prepared Russia will win in 3 months" + no smile allowed ? Well played...

This post was edited by Meanwhile on May 27 2023 08:28am

"Ukraine targets Russian oil pipeline installations with drone attacks - Russian media " <-- as reported by western media.
So (more) strikes on Russia, this will probably ramp up the escalation.

I am trying to remember what Biden said re: Strikes on Russian soil. "we dont enable strikes on russia" or some such, but he wont condemn them (why should he right??) and thus the war escalates.

lets see what i can find :

U.S. Believes Ukraine Behind Kremlin Drone Attack, Report Says. U.S. officials believe Ukraine carried out a drone strike on the Kremlin earlier this month, the New York Times reported Wednesday, after Russia initially blamed the U.S. for the strike they claimed was intended to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine war latest: Russian forces 'intercept British-supplied missiles'; Moscow issues message to US over nuclear weapons. Russia claims to have shot down 19 drones and intercepted two Storm Shadow missiles in 24 hours; Moscow tells the US to use "some introspection" after Joe Biden criticised Putin's nuclear weapons plan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Shadow

Around 400 Ukrainian soldiers start training on American M1 Abrams tanks - reports. Around 400 Ukrainian soldiers have started training on American M1 Abrams tanks in Germany, according to reports. The first group of Ukrainian soldiers began training focused on "how to operate and maintain" the vehicles, which are known to be the most advanced battle tank in the world, the New York Times reported. Half of the group started training in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels in southern Germany, being taught medical skills and how to shoot firearms. The other half began training on how to fuel and maintain the tanks. Around 31 tanks were due to be sent to Germany to be used in the training programme, which is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks, the news outlet said. The deployment of Abrams tanks to the battlefield is expected to give Ukraine a major equipment advantage over Russia.

The United States and the rest of the “Group of Seven” major economies are on Friday set to unveil new sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The sanctions will aim to disrupt Moscow’s ability to get the materials it needs for the battlefield and close loopholes to evade sanctions

EU slams Russian agreement to deploy nuclear warheads in Belarus. The European Union has condemned an agreement to allow the deployment of Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus. “This is a step which will lead to further extremely dangerous escalation,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. Russia moved ahead on Thursday with its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move. The plan was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March

This post was edited by ferdia on May 27 2023 08:48am

We've already seen pretty great consequences. Russias economy is in shambles, the world is reorienting away from their energy sector, and they've lost hundreds of thousands of men and basically all of their tech manufactured after like 1980.

yep the US and their western allies are now forcing Russia and China together, and forcing them to shop elsewhere in terms of trade or to be self reliant (you can read all about what China is doing in this regard...). Therefore all the safety checks of mutual benefits are being removed which will pave the way for an even more escalated West vs East conflict. "sure we can go to war with Russia and China now, after all, we dont believe that they can do anything to hurt us short of nuclear weapons and they would never do that (even though we used nuclear weapons in the past). Provided we dont invade them we can do w/e the hell we like, and if our allies (who we militarized) invade them well, that was not us".

What can possibly go wrong with this master plan!?

This post was edited by ferdia on May 27 2023 08:54am

Russia never played ball and were a destabilizing force for decades. If they had they would have stayed the world's oil depot and the benefits of globalization would have been realized.

Not our fault they won't cooperate when given every opportunity

Why won't those pesky Ukrainians just surrender and live in peace under despotism???

SMH

Ah yeah let's talk about all this, especially CCP:

I usually don't like WSJ but well it's pretty much recognized as accurate, very certainly much more than eastern news ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-pushing-ukraine-cease-fire-gets-cool-reception-in-europe-614774dd

Europe Rebuffs China’s Efforts to Split the West in Pushing Ukraine Cease-Fire
European officials are questioning Beijing’s ability to be an honest broker

The Chinese envoy dispatched to push Beijing’s peace plan for Ukraine carried a clear message: U.S. allies in Europe should assert their autonomy and urge an immediate cease-fire, leaving Russia in possession of the parts of its smaller neighbor that it now occupies, according to Western officials familiar with talks in capitals across the continent.

Diplomat Li Hui, who has visited Kyiv, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and Brussels this month, urged European governments to view China as an economic alternative to Washington and said they should move quickly to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine before it spreads, those officials said. Li was due to travel to Moscow on Friday.
The officials, while saying it is too early to dismiss Beijing’s efforts, questioned China’s ability to act as an honest broker in any negotiations given how closely it is aligned with Moscow. The officials said they didn’t think peace would be possible until Russian troops withdraw from Ukraine.
China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We explained that freezing the conflict is not in the interest of the international community unless there is withdrawal of Russian troops,” a diplomat who spoke to Li said. The diplomat said Li was told “it’s impossible to split Europe from America” and that Europe wouldn’t withdraw support from Ukraine.

“They are probably testing the unity of the West and trying to show initiative,” another diplomat said.

==>

So i will make it clear: China (I should say CCP high ranked members) does not want peace, they want to:

- Freeze and maintain conflict as long as it arrange them
- To divide the west US <=> EU <=> Ukraine
- Acting like they are key peace actors. They could, but they aren't doing it.




On a side note: LULA (Brasil) the weathercock

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3222002/ukraine-war-brazils-lula-turns-down-vladimir-putins-invitation-visit-russia

.