Has Putin won?

One of the things quite interesting about this, Russia took a lot of land by effectively turning cities into unusable egg-shells indiscriminately.

One of the problems with the counter offensive was a combination of landmines and lack of air-support.

It was confirmed the other minor incursions from Russians against Putin, with the blessing of Ukriane served to prop and understand how their defense worked.

It was non-existent. Some conscripts who had never seen combat. And it seems days on nothing has changed, still making advances with no opposition.

And this isn't like the incursions before, their are thousand+ troops using Nato equipment. They have taken something like 40 settlements and more in 3-4 days than Russia did in months losing thousand+ men a day.

Just guessing here, but If they dig in, Russia will have to use it's age old tactic of leveling it's own cities to ash as it's doubtful they will be able to switch up tactics.

Also the blanket of reality where Russians are almost immediately running or turning on themselves, when by comparison Ukrainian's were fighting against massive "you will die" odds at the start of this war.

Putin seems shaken by this snapping at someone explaining how deep they are.

Oh wow this seems like a really bad idea. US Senator calls on retired pilots and maintenance techs to fly and maintain Ukrainian F-16's.

And of course it's Lindsey F***ing Graham pushing this nonsense.

"If you're a retired F-16 pilot and you're looking to fight for freedom, they will hire you here," the South Carolina senator said at a press conference during his visit to Ukraine. "They're going to look throughout NATO nations for willing fighter pilots who retired to come help them until they can get their pilots trained."

While I am all for supporting Ukraine in terms of material and logistics and even some advisory circumstances, I have to draw the line at sending men and women to fight Russians.

Americans, especially retired from active duty Americans, should not engage in mercenary actions. Especially against countries we are not at war with.

What if the planes go down and Americans are killed? What if Americans kill Russians? What if an American is captured by Russians? Will their be combat search and rescue operations for downed Americans?

Everything about this screams escalation.

It should also be noted that Lockheed-Martin is a major contributor to Lindsey Graham's political campaigns. I'll give you one guess who builds and maintains the F-16 aircraft...

I might be underestimating Putin's control over his own people, but I can't imagine "scorched earth" tactics going over well in this day and age. Leveling villages, burning crops and salting fields, sabotaging resources...I would think, given the internet and the relatively large amount of freedom people have these days (relative to, say, WWII Russia), something would get out and we'd have a coup or uprising of some kind.

At the same time, if Putin avoided major cities he'd only risk the Russian equivelent of "rednecks" and those folks tend to be nationalists in regimes like this (just look at Iran; progressives tend to be in the city, so they bus in enforcers from the countryside to enforce their religious laws).

This is all fascinating and while I don't expect it, I really really really hope Putin has a moment of clarity or his billionaire benefactors force him to come to the table and talk terms. This whole invasion was bullshit from the start, Russia has clearly bit off more than it can chew, and it needs to end.

@mrbojangles25:

tbh think you're getting abit confused. A mercenary and someone who volunteer's are two different things.

People who have been volunteering to help Ukriane which has been happening since the start of the war are doing it for ideological reasons. Lending their abilities, whatever it may be for what they see as a greater good. Operating as part of army with a general legal code to follow.

A mercenary is someone hired and driven by profit. And under law, is not seen as a lawful combatant and typically operate outside normal laws and conventions. Outside the army.

Wagner are a mercenary group. They make money exploiting other countries and commit masses of warcrimes. Filming ISIS style executions and had conflict with the Russian army, including killing each other. And ending with a plane going kaboom.

Russia has also been exploiting people from poorer corrupts countries, as meat for the grinder.

The term "mercenary" is typically coined by troll farms, Russia accounts and magas to deliberately give a negative connotation. When in reality, it's Russia who uses them, even prior to the war.

-

When it comes to jets people think they just fly around and land, maintenance is actually a huge, massive part. Much of the time it's actually what is happening with jets than flying.

-

But generally disagree, if it's their choice, feel it's the right thing to do, see no problem.

Though I do agree, at least loosely, rather than actually flying themselves I think they would be better suited actually training Ukrainians, whereby someone who actually speaks Ukrainian, can have a drip effect teaching others.

But again, idk how the training process works, just guessing.

@mrbojangles25: Americans have been volunteering to fight for Ukraine. That's not what a mercenary is.

@mrbojangles25: Americans, and multiple other NATO citizens, have been fighting in Ukraine as volunteers for over two years already. Don't see why American pilots volunteering should be some kind of big deal at this point.

That Bitch Lindsey is at it again.

I f****in hate that guy and his stupid bitch face 🤛

Putin is in trouble... The only way I can see him coming out with a victory is if Trump comes to power and cuts off all US arms and funds to Ukraine.

Yeah lots of people were telling me Russia was in trouble last year too

"Counter offensive is going to crush the paper tiger that is Russia in the spring! Ukraine will even take back crimera!!"

Lots of talk

And whole lot of nothing but dead people and no real solutions or progress.

The USA shouldn't be funding this conflict nor should we be funding Ireal/Palestines conflict

It's different this time. The fact that Ukraine have been able to successfully invade and occupy Russian land, that turns the tables in Ukraine's favour.

Like I said, it mainly comes down to whether the US continues arming and funding Ukraine. If the US continues arming and funding them, then the conflict would likely continue for years to come and end up just like the Soviet-Afghan war, as I've mentioned earlier:

If the US stops arming and funding Ukraine, then that would turn the tables back in Russia's favour. In such a scenario, the conflict would likely end a lot sooner with a Russian victory. So it mainly comes down to whether or not the US chooses to continue arming/funding Ukraine. Same goes for the Israel/Palestine conflict (Israel likely wouldn't survive for long without US arms/funding).

It looks like the entire force of Ukrainians who crossed into Russia 2k-3k soldiers, 1,500 were killed in first 2 days . Plan was to take a nuclear power plant.. they didn't get to it. ..

He won when Biden took office.

Putin's losing. And if Trump had stayed in, Putin would have won.

@Elaisse: I don't know what you mean.

Trump has said several times he would not contest the invasion of Ukraine and would not support Ukraine.

Trump being in power would have made the invasion considerably easier and this is by trump own admission

Putin could smell Bidens weakness from a mile away and pounced.

Just posted a dubious source who invites and defends your other don't-bring-it-up pedophile source, knowing full well he's a pedophile.

Heads up my bro.

-

Edit, oh and it's a prepare for trouble, make it double

"""2008 to present

Michelle Obama hoax

Beginning in 2007, Johnson emerged as a critic of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.^[1] As a result he was attacked by his former allies on the political left.^[1] According to The New York Times, Johnson is "best known for spreading a hoax... in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians".^[12] On May 16, 2008, Johnson posted an item entitled, "Will Barack Throw Mama From the Train?" which alleged that a tape existed of Michelle Obama "railing against 'whitey' at Jeremiah Wright's church." Johnson claimed that Republicans were in possession of the tape and it "is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time." In a subsequent post, Johnson claimed that Obama's appearance had occurred when she was on a panel with Louis Farrakhan. He also explained that he himself had not seen the tape, but had spoken with "five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape." The Obama campaign's "Fight the Smears" website denied the rumor, saying, "No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word." On October 21, 2008, Johnson said that, according to one of his sources, the McCain campaign "intervened and requested the tape not be used.

Allegations that British intelligence wiretapped Donald Trump

In March 2017, Andrew Napolitano said on Fox & Friends that GCHQ, Britain's signals intelligence service, had wiretappedDonald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign on orders from President Obama. Johnson was the source for Napolitano's claim. Sean Spicer, President Trump's press secretary, repeated the claim. Fox News later disavowed the statement by Napolitano.""

Also lol

Notice again 2 years on how had absolutely nothing positive to say about Ukriane but the first port of call is a shit attempt from a pro-Russian propagandist trying to big up Russia.

Oh wells.

@sargentd: Weaker than trump saying: I admit i won't oppose the invasion because it's expensive?

You are just deceiving yourself.

Trump is not strong. Bravado and strength are different.

By announcing your lack of response before time you signal to everyone their capacity to attack with impunity.

In fact, the current vision of the Kremlin that a long term commitment to the fight is favorable is based on the fact that trump has announced he will cut support and that he has a good chance of being elected.

He is showing he will give up before even assuming power. That is strength? That is a gift to the Kremlin.

@nirgal: Makes you wonder if putin would have fucked off already if trump, or some other MAGA trash, was not running or had no chances of winning this year. Orcs are just waiting it out until one of their agents gets back in power in US, but without that option, they might have left Ukraine over a year ago after declaring that they have achieved their "objectives" or some shit.

More good news.

For ref -

https://x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1649354550568943617

@sargentd: Putin, china, Iran, they sad the limp dick suit enter office and drooled.

@rmpumper: I think russia would probably try to limit their losses if they saw the west as willing to provide long term support to Ukraine.

A long war is also very risky for them. They know their experience in Afghanistan contributed to the fall of the Soviet union, and they shouldn't keep the war going for several more years.

They also know their income is extremely to tied to the price of oil and that they won't be able to continue this level of commitment if the barrel goes down by too much.

So from my point of view their bet is to try to gain as much territory before the arrival of trump. Then if he is elected, he will force Ukraine to accept unfavorable terms and Russia will try to have their conquered territories aknolweged internationally and the sanctions removed in exchange for a cease fire.

If Kamala wins, then they will also be forced to stop the war as they can't sustain it indefinitely, but they would be negotiating with a weaker hand. Kamala will probably not consider a cease fire to be a concession, just a political and economical necessity from Russia and will try to get territory concessions.

Putin has Trump wrapped around his finger. Why do you think Trump was trying to weaken NATO?

Russia is not your enemy.

It's awll zewanki and gwaobawists

I'm fine with this.

Imagine how badly Ukraine would be spanking Russia right now if the GOP wasn't holding back aid for half the year.

Yeah we've only given them 75 billion fucking dollars in aid

But it's our fault they aren't "spanking Russia"

People got to come to grips that the money isn't going to win this war, it can prolong it, but it's not what can win it.

And that's always been the goal, to prolong it, not win it. NATO knows Ukraine isn't taking back the land they lost. It's not going to happen.

But if Ukranians will fight untill the last person, then hey atleast we punished Russia for invading and didn't have to waste our guys lives on it. Sure an entire generation of Ukranian men will get wiped but hey, atleast we made Russia work for it. It's a proxy war with no end goal of Ukraine winning. Gotta come to grips with it.

I've been saying it from the start. What's the end goal?? By escalating the conflict and pumping in all the money and weaponry.

Do people actually believe Ukraine is going to defeat Russia and take back the land they lost?? Do people actually believe that.. crazy

It is explicitly your fault (MAGAS) that they have lost land and more people have died due to withholding aid.

This is factually correct, probably the only factually correct thing ever actually posted on the topic even if, unintentionally. It is defacto, correct.

And yes, Russia should be punished, not rewarded. They have turned cities into egg-shells, went on mass torture, kill, rape sprees, looted, and attempted to wipe their culture.

And they should not be treated on equal terms, at all.

And who are you to say if they are wasting their lives? If someone invaded America and done the shit Russia is doing do you think you'd have that attitude?

Well, maga, probably.

Yes, but most of that money was already spent on the weapons we weren't going to use. So give them to Ukraine is the same as storing them or destroying them, both of which cost more money.

This is an interesting channel to follow. It tracks and translates the Kremlin propaganda. It's like Fox News on crack cocaine where it's designed to influence smooth brains. Fake pre-recorded debate where they are given guidelines of way to say and what not to say.

The dumbass basically acknowledged post above that the Russian army doesn't know how to fight without leveling cities and killing civs.

They also re-affirm they want Trump to win because he will let them win.

Honestly, you are a simpleton.

If 50% to 75% of the Ukrainians who crossed into Russia were killed in the first 2 days, why is it they hold twice the territory now after 8 days?

The most basic logic eludes you. You will trot out propaganda with zero critical thinking. I feel sorry for you.

@sargentd: there was conciliatory attitude in 2014 after the first invasion. It lead to the second invasion.

What makes you think playing nice in the second invasion won't simply lead to the third invasion?

@LJS9502_basic: Well thats a load of bullshit. but you do you, lol.

@Elaisse: right smh..

As expecting Russia has starting bombing it's own people and immediately blamed Ukriane.

https://x.com/UKikaski/status/1824208503486939429

What's interesting as well, the other day they were showing blurred footage of trenches being cleared claiming it was Russians. It was in fact, old footage of Ukrainians clearing old Russian trenches.

They've effectively took their own soldiers, who fought and died for them, and held them up as the enemy.

https://x.com/detcomfreak/status/1822972380051870022

Obviously this stuff is easy to figure out, even with a basic google search.

Unless you wear a red hat. In which case you've figured out the code and taken down the globalists.

That's facts. Trump is ON RECORD saying he'd let Putin have what ever he wanted. Maybe you should step away from the propaganda and find some unbiased and unedited sources. You're clearly not paying attention/able to process facts.

@LJS9502_basic: "Yes, but most of that money was already spent on the weapons we weren't going to use. So give them to Ukraine is the same as storing them or destroying them, both of which cost more money."

From our own national defense standpoint, our aid to Ukraine has been a large positive for future defense investment. Our military for the better part of a century has been fashioned to go up against an equal adversary yet most our own wars haven't been been anything close to what that equipment was designed to be used for. This is perhaps the largest field test of our military equipment against the adversary it was designed to be used against (plus equipement from other western allies). The results of which will likely go into future RnD with how we effectively spend our national defense budget. And in large part this war has blown up one of Russia's biggest ruses yet, that their army was nothing more than a paper tiger weakened by decades of corruption.

Already our own military is weighing replacing our own Abraham tanks with Bradleys as a result of seeing the benefits of the Bradleys mobility and firepower. Very early on we saw the incredible cost benefit of soldier carrying anti-air and anti-tank should mounted weapons. Every day we see the the effectiveness of drones, tactics to identify and neutralize enemy entrenchments, tracking logistics supply chains.

Not to mention the war has provided Ukraine the ability to capture or salvage Russia's advance technology like their electronics warfare systems, which are no doubt being handed over to western allies to be picked apart in some DARPA labs to develop future countermeasures.

The price tag on this war is rather inconsequential in context to what is actually taking place on a global scale. Russia's failure has likely checked China's own ambition toward attempting to take Taiwan, a move which could have let China have a global monopoly on advanced semiconductor inventory and production and now that's further being thwarted by Taiwanese companies opening manufacturing plants abroad. Not to mention, the field tests of Russian technology in the Ukraine theater is likely exposing the weak points in China's own military defense since it's all reversed engineered from Russia's defense technology, meaning they'd be going into a fight with the enemy having the advantages of countermeasures.

And that doesn't even touch on supporting Ukraine is just morally right, defending free democracy from the atrocities of a hostile foreign dictator needs to be stopped.

Of course, MAGA loves Putin because Trump loves Putin, and Putin loves Trump. If these MAGAts are going to boohoo the West's support for Ukraine for any other reason, they're just being dishonest. They elevate their bubble of lies as free speech and they hold the Constitution up as a holy relic, even if their ultimate aim is to tear it apart.

Just let them away with it broz. Russia is trying to stop gay Western globohomo degeneracy nazis, and is with gowd. Oh, and they have trolly carts you can slip coins into, amazing!

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1euhdzc/we_raped_3_boys_5_girls_6_women_and_shot_them_a/

By all means, don't send this **** to hell.

Another winrar for the pile

https://x.com/JayinKyiv/status/1825493927564022118

Interesting clip found today, a drone appears to be modified into dropping napalm or something similar to burn out forest area.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaUkraineWar2022/comments/1f75jtc/ukraine_is_using_drones_to_spray_something_like/

Sarge bioz.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/05/tim-pool-benny-johnson-influencers-russia-disinformation

US conservative influencers say they are ‘victims’ of Russian disinformation campaign

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson addressed allegations that a company they were associated with had been paid to publish videos with messages in favour of Russia

• Russia accused of trying to influence US voters through online campaign

A number of high-profile, conservative influencers in the US have said they are “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, after the Biden administration accused Moscow of carrying out a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson published statements on Wednesday evening addressing allegations that a US content creation company they were associated with had been provided with nearly $10m from Russian state media employees to publish videos with messages in favour of Moscow’s interests and agenda, including over the war in Ukraine.

The justice department indictment does not name the company, but describes it as a Tennessee-based content creation firm with six commentators and with a website identifying itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on western political and cultural issues”.

That description exactly matches Tenet Media, an online company that hosts videos made by well-known conservative influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.

The Guardian has contacted Tenet for comment. The company has not released a statement or commented on the allegations, or responded to other media organisations’ requests for comment, including the New York Times and CBS, according to their reporting.

Tenet Media’s shows in recent months have featured high-profile conservative guests, including Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican US senate candidate Kari Lake.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers – or to their millions of followers – its ties to [Russian state media company] RT and the Russian government,” US attorney general Merrick Garland said. His department described Wednesday’s indictment as the most sweeping effort yet to push back against what it says are Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election.

The Tennessee-based company published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube, according to the indictment.

Pool, a popular podcaster with more than 2 million followers on X, said “should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.”

“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical.”

Johnson, who has 2.7 million followers on X, said he was “disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme”.

Rubin said on X that he “knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity” and that the allegations showed “that I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme.”

The justice department accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of covertly funding the Tennessee-based content company to publish videos in favour of Russia. The justice department says the company did not disclose that it was funded by RT and that neither it nor its founders registered as required by law as an agent of a foreign principal.

RT ceased operating in the US after major television distributors dropped it following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. RT responded with ridicule to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency: “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections.”

Garland said: “The justice department’s message is clear: We will have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic systems of government.”

The nearly 2,000 videos posted by the company have received more than 16m views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said. The company paid $8.7m to the production companies of three of the online stars it recruited, according to the indictment.

The commentators, who were not named in the indictment, did not know they were paid by RT, the Justice Department said.

In one instance, the indictment said, one of the RT employees asked the company to produce a video that would blame Ukraine and the United States for a mass shooting at a Moscow music venue, the justice department said, even though Islamic State had claimed responsibility. A company founder responded that one of the commentators is “happy to cover it”, according to the indictment.

As part of the indictment, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two Russian state media employees in its most sweeping effort yet to push back against what it says are Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election.

The treasury department also sanctioned the RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and nine other employees of the network over the campaign of disinformation around the elections. Simonyan is a “central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts” the department said.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report

This is what we're up against

Bad actors spreading disinformation online to fuel intolerance.

Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see.

Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.

Authoritarian states with no regard for the freedom of the press.

Musk repeatedly spread this gunk in a loop to hundreds of millions of people.

No surprise.

OH MYYYYYYYIEEEEEEEEEE

HMMmmmmmMMMMmmmmmMMM

MMmmmmm

https://x.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1831557964848611336