https://news.yahoo.com/satellite-images ... 24719.html
Iranian media showed video and Fotos .. no damage
Increasingly lethal military aid to Ukraine from NATO powers is “deeply immoral” and will only extend Kiev’s bloody conflict with Russia, causing more casualties and heightening the risk of nuclear war in a pointless pursuit of absurd goals, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has claimed.
“I am against sending any lethal weapons there,” Milanovic told reporters at a briefing in Petrinja, south of Zagreb. “It’s only prolonging the war. What’s the goal? Carving up Russia? Regime change? They’re talking about partitioning Russia. This is madness.”
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“This is deeply immoral, what we’re doing, the collective West,” the Croatian president said. “German tanks will just unite the Russians, and China. My goal is to distance ourselves [Croatia] from it, to not be circus dogs. Any kind of participation in this is deadly dangerous.”
SARAJEVO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never again be part of Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday in remarks detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv.
In December, Croatian lawmakers rejected a proposal that the country join a European Union mission in support of the Ukrainian military, reflecting deep divisions between Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
In sober terms, the report’s authors, political scientists Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe, spell out the troubling structural factors of the war: Neither Russia nor Ukraine has a chance to secure “absolute victory” in the way they see it, yet both countries feel optimistic about their ability to win out in the longer run and are pessimistic about what may follow a cease-fire or uneasy peace.
Whatever the political rhetoric, uncertainty looms over how long the West can sustain its flows of aid and weapons to Ukraine. A new Pew poll shows that more Americans already believe the United States is giving too much to Ukraine, while the Rand report’s authors point to the obvious reality that an extended war would see more Ukrainian suffering and more economic havoc in Europe.
Then there’s the question of nuclear weapons.
For months, Ukraine and its allies have urged their supporters to ignore Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sporadic attempts at nuclear brinkmanship.
Parodite wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 11:54 pm A lot of anyone’s guess works in the Rand report. Aside the already "some things are hard to predict, especially the future" fact of reality. The risks are numerous and immense in any scenario and the uncertainties omnipresent. One can make a case for anything, any scenario and make it sound reasonable and even likely. But none are.
I'll guess here saying that things are going very good for Ukraine and NATO, primarily because Putin already lost; the Ukrainians will never tolerate Russian occupation, more than ever want to join EU and NATO to keep the Russian rapist at bay in the future and Putler inspired all other ex-girlfriends/sex slaves like the Baltics to invite forward presence of NATO onto their territory; European NATO members doubled their expenses on defense... and one could go on.
For those having a problem reading Putler: he knows he will never conquer all of Ukraine, perhaps hold on to some dumbass territory and 50/50 chance of keeping Crimea. His main goal is to destroy, mutilate Ukraine as much as possible, turn Ukraine into a crippled non-entity. Why is that? Because a healthy, successful, rich and independent Ukraine embedded in the Western alliance, will be the biggest long-term threat to Putin's mafia regime.
Russians at one point will ask and wonder: why is the Ukraine so rich and successful while Russians are still plagued by never ending paranoia of old and ruled by the latest corrupt tyrant Tzar?
A failed USSR empire, now a failed Russian federation. New generations of Russians will want to leave Russia emigrating to Ukraine, Western Europe, the USA. And no.. they won't apply for visas to Iran or other shitholes.
The strategy of the West imo is to just drain Putin's military with a war of attrition. Until Putin dies or is removed by peers. Which means: the longer this war lasts... the better. Time is Putin's biggest enemy.
This war is Putin's last reality and his shameful legacy. Persona non grata, game over. War crime tribunals are being set up already. He can threaten as much as he wants with strategic nuclear weapons, but using those will only hasten his demise and he knows it.
The territorial concessions Blinken is tabling include Crimea, the Donbass, and the Zaporozhye, Kherson “land bridge that connects Crimea and Russia”.
West of the Dnieper River, north around Kharkov, and south around Odessa and Nikolaev, Blinken has tabled for the first time US acceptance of “a demilitarized status” for the Ukraine.
Also, US agreement to restrict the deployment of HIMARS, US and NATO infantry fighting vehicles, and the Abrams and Leopard tanks to a point in western Ukraine from which they can “manoeuvre…as a deterrent against future Russian attacks.”
This is an offer for a tradeoff – partition through a demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the east of the Ukraine in exchange for a halt to the planned Russian offensive destroying the fortifications, rail hubs, troop cantonments, and airfields in the west, between the Polish and Romanian borders, Kiev and Lvov, and an outcome Blinken proposes for both sides to call “a just and durable peace that upholds Ukraine’s territorial integrity”.
Also in the proposed Blinken deal there is the offer of a direct US-Russian agreement on “an eventual postwar military balance”; “no World War III”; and no Ukrainian membership of NATO with “security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5.”
Blinken has also told the Washington Post to announce the US will respect “Putin’s tripwire for nuclear escalation”, and accept the Russian “reserve force includ[ing] strategic bombers, certain precision-guided weapons and, of course, tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.”
President Putin has offered a hint of the Russian reply he discussed with the Stavka and the Security Council last week.
Putin told a meeting with university students on Wednesday, hours after Blinken’s publication. “I think that people like you,” the president said, “most clearly and most accurately understand the need for what Russia is now doing to support our citizens in these territories, including Lugansk, Donetsk, the Donbass area as a whole, and Kherson and Zaporozhye. The goal, as I have explained many times, is primarily to protect the people and Russia from the threats that they are trying to create for us in our own historical territories that are adjacent to us. We cannot allow this. So, it is extremely important when young people like you defend the interests of their small and large Motherland with arms in their hands and do so consciously.”
Western supplies of Leopards and Challengers have made the news, but the biggest donor is the enemy
Some times, all you have left is “I told you so”.
Being a paid-in member of the Blob means never having to say you're sorry. The same miscreants who bungled Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria are in charge, with the same ideological fixation on End-of-History export of democracy. No consequences for failure.
Pundit Spenglerman knows about military strategy and geopolitics like he demonstrably knows about quantum mechanics, i.e., bupkes.Apollonius wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:14 pm Some interesting views from David P. Goldman, much of it about Ukraine:
https://twitter.com/davidpgoldman
Our old friend BerzerkSavant responds:
Some times, all you have left is “I told you so”.
To which Goldman replies:Being a paid-in member of the Blob means never having to say you're sorry. The same miscreants who bungled Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria are in charge, with the same ideological fixation on End-of-History export of democracy. No consequences for failure.
Parodite wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:39 pm
I wonder why it is that all the time things happen that nobody predicted. It makes casinos very popular. Usually only the owners of casinos make good money however.
Goldman believes he is in a similar special position and virtually "owns" de euro-pagan-christian casino scape. I suspect however he is just as any addict gambler, betting against the final divine dices thrown. Outsmarting reality aint easy; all bets are off.
We are most fortunate that we have you, mini-Spengler, to enlighten us as to what is "really going on" .Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:19 amParodite wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:39 pm
I wonder why it is that all the time things happen that nobody predicted. It makes casinos very popular. Usually only the owners of casinos make good money however.
Goldman believes he is in a similar special position and virtually "owns" de euro-pagan-christian casino scape. I suspect however he is just as any addict gambler, betting against the final divine dices thrown. Outsmarting reality aint easy; all bets are off.
Sometimes I read past articles by big shot political analysts, from NYT , WSJ or FT (and outside Iran so called opposition)
One wonders how blind they were to what was happening, after knowing the fact now and seeing how things turned out
Did those who "wonder why it is that all the time things happen that nobody predicted" not discovered why so ?
West not realizing the "reality" .. again and again, fallin into "wishful thinking"
Typhoon wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:21 amWe are most fortunate that we have you, mini-Spengler, to enlighten us as to what is "really going on" .Heracleum Persicum wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:19 amParodite wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:39 pm
I wonder why it is that all the time things happen that nobody predicted. It makes casinos very popular. Usually only the owners of casinos make good money however.
Goldman believes he is in a similar special position and virtually "owns" de euro-pagan-christian casino scape. I suspect however he is just as any addict gambler, betting against the final divine dices thrown. Outsmarting reality aint easy; all bets are off.
Sometimes I read past articles by big shot political analysts, from NYT , WSJ or FT (and outside Iran so called opposition)
One wonders how blind they were to what was happening, after knowing the fact now and seeing how things turned out
Did those who "wonder why it is that all the time things happen that nobody predicted" not discovered why so ?
West not realizing the "reality" .. again and again, fallin into "wishful thinking"
good to see he is alive and grumping.Apollonius wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:14 pm Some interesting views from David P. Goldman, much of it about Ukraine:
https://twitter.com/davidpgoldman
Our old friend BerzerkSavant responds:
Some times, all you have left is “I told you so”.
To which Goldman replies:Being a paid-in member of the Blob means never having to say you're sorry. The same miscreants who bungled Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria are in charge, with the same ideological fixation on End-of-History export of democracy. No consequences for failure.
Russia prepares 2,000 tanks and 300,000 troops for ‘huge invasion’ in Donbas
The attack is expected to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin's launch of the war in Ukraine on February 24
This afternoon I met @ eucopresident for a frank and constructive discussion. I’d like to thank EU MS for their trust and openness to support me and my country’s democratic future and economic recovery.
“The primordial interest of the United States, over which for centuries we have fought wars– the First, the Second and Cold Wars– has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united there, they’re the only force that could threaten us. And to make sure that that doesn’t happen.” George Friedman, STRATFOR CEO at The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs
The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.
The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO. There’s also no need to transact energy deals in US Dollars or to stockpile US Treasuries to balance accounts. Transactions between business partners can be conducted in their own currencies which is bound to precipitate a sharp decline in the value of the dollar and a dramatic shift in economic power. This is why the Biden administration opposes Nord Stream. It’s not just a pipeline, it’s a window into the future; a future in which Europe and Asia are drawn closer together into a massive free trade zone that increases their mutual power and prosperity while leaving the US on the outside looking in. Warmer relations between Germany and Russia signal an end to the “unipolar” world order the US has overseen for the last 75 years. A German-Russo alliance threatens to hasten the decline of the Superpower that is presently inching closer to the abyss. This is why Washington is determined to do everything it can to sabotage Nord Stream and keep Germany within its orbit. It’s a matter of survival.