So I am going to not post in the topic now for a bit. I want to see what Ukraine does re: its attacks, and the Russian response. It looks inevitable now that Ukraine is doomed.

YOU are dense, and you now changed the narrative from " Russia invades their neighbors" to "they're afraid of Russia" while the FACT remains that the USSR decided to peacefully withdraw their massive armies without a shot fired and NATO guarantees were given.

THAT is a FACT that no one here can refute and NATO choose to break their word and basically continue the cold war if you look at it from Russia's perspective.

You doubled down, now you got a war with a massive country that happens to have enough trade partners left and rich enough in resources to last them forever. And did I mention that Ukraine (the country you pretend to care for) is getting completely wrecked?

SMH

Ukraine may receive Mini-Taurus drones of Helsing production from Germany. They will reportedly be able to replace German Taurus cruise missiles, according to Defense Express.
Helsing will supply Ukraine with 4,000 AI drones. These drones are called Mini-Taurus.

This drone also has advanced artificial intelligence for autonomous targeting and ignoring electronic warfare. It probably has a range four times longer than Ukrainian kamikaze drones.

Mini-Taurus is also cheaper than the American Switchblade or the Russian Lancet.
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ai-powered-and-long-range-how-mini-taurus-1731936555.html

I wonder if Zelensky ever got his Tomahawks under the table from sleepy joe. Ukraine is 100% stockpiling all relevant munitions to make a big spectacle against Russia.

Is that the wunderwaffe that will finally turn the tide of the war?

Ukraine seems to be a fertile testing ground for military innovation from all sides at the expense of local population.

This post was edited by Malopox on Nov 18 2024 03:05pm

Your initial comparison is incorrect as I already pointed out in my other post (#45624) - Yanukovich was by no means a traitor. Corrupt? Maybe. But not a traitor. He toed a careful neutrality line playing both sides against each other to get the best deal out of EU and Russia. Russia offered a better deal with less covenants attached and Yanukovich - mandated by the democratic majority of the country to do such a deal - signed it. It’s how democracies work literally. There can be no discussion about it. It’s a fact. He had the legal right to do it and the popular support to do it.

What followed then was an illegal overthrow of a legitimate democracy. I’ve spoken to many people from Donbass, Crimea and Kiev over the past decade and protests against Yanukovich were not nationwide. Only in the west of Ukraine and Kiev (capital) with people being bussed from Lviv and so on. People that tried to reach Kiev from Crimea were attacked and their buses burnt.

As I said again. Poland Lithuanian Commonwealth fully occupied Moscow for few years between 1610 and 1612 and their cruelty was so bad Russians revolted, liberated all lands to the south including Kiev and managed to completely dismantle Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth a century later. Poland disappeared until the collapse of Austrian-Hungarian empire. Don’t wake the bear. FAFO.

The paragraph about imperialistic desire is nonsense. Where do you get this stuff? Neither Putin nor Russsians have any intentions to rebuild any empire and simply beg to be left alone to develop quietly for a couple of decades amassing badly needed capital through trade and cooperation. Russians acknowledge the collapse of USSR as a tragedy as so many people were personally affected, but do not seek to rebuild it.

This post was edited by Malopox on Nov 18 2024 03:37pm

"Mr Yanukovych, who attended an EU summit in Lithuania on Friday cited pressure from Russia for his decision." (to reject EU integration deal)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25162563

So not really an offer, but an ultimatum? Doesn't sound very democratic to me.

Yanukowych during his presidential campaign: "We will follow a pragmatic and balanced foreign policy. We will continue to develop the process of Euro-integration. But its basis will be the modernization and transformation of Ukraine internally". https://www.reuters.com/article/world/yanukovich-vows-to-keep-ukraine-out-of-nato-idUSTRE6062P3/

I'd say the biggest failure of Russia was to overlook the fact that rich neighbors eventually make you richer. Look at the steady GDP growth of Mexico, despite all the issues they otherwise need to deal with.

Russia could have simply allowed Ukraine to grow its economy and become a powerful trading partner, benefiting from its perfect location between Russia and the rest of the EU. Did they fear that a prosperous Ukraine would eventually shed any Russian influence and decide to join NATO on its own terms? Perhaps. On the other hand, you were able to see for yourselves how everything seemed to go smoothly between Russia and the whole of EU/NATO in the last 20 years, until some day in early 2022

Of course it was democratic, he was the democratically elected representative of the Ukrainian people. We don't live in a world where everyone gets what they want. In a representative democracy, leaders (i.e. the representatives) are tasked with making hard decisions. What Russia wants is a hard decision for any Ukrainian politician, as we've clearly seen more than ten years out.

He promised to continue on the EU path, yet he was pressured by an external actor to drop these ambitions. Yielding to threats or blackmail is not "making a hard decision," nor is it representing what some of his voters wanted. Russia interfered with the democratic process by applying pressure.

Maybe let's ask, why did Russia oppose the EU deal in the first place?

This post was edited by Ashirgo on Nov 18 2024 05:13pm

So the communists here are now openly admitting this whole thing is because Ukraine voted for the wrong person, not the Judeo-Bolshevik puppet they wanted

lol

This post was edited by El1te on Nov 18 2024 05:22pm