We all probably subconsciously knew this but it is still kind of a shock to see it in print.
This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
- Thread starter Nole Lou
- Start date
orcs have brought this on themselves. I feel for the peasants while hoping the leadership and party apparatus loses the ability to breathe.
You are missing one key thing about the votes, how many can Kevin McCarthy afford to lose if he wants to remain Speaker? He's going to try and straddle the fence and slow down aid to keep the crazies from forcing him out, while simultaneously trying to placate the few remaining traditional Republicans.
Meanwhile....in Russia and China, opposition to leadership gets jailed or killed
Cruz Delivers Floor Speech Explaining American National Security Reasons for Supporting Ukraine | U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) gave a floor speech today explaining why he is...www.cruz.senate.gov
Well over 6 months ago
And he hasn't visited Ukraine, has he?
When the primary GOP mouthpieces are pushing to slow the aid down?
Haven't you been posting article after article indicating how urgent the need is?
This says the US alone has trained 1k Ukrainians soldiers since January. Hope they are abrams tankers and associated support personnel.*
*edited to add a link to another story. Looks like a good chunk of them are trained on the Patriot. Also great.
finance.yahoo.com
*edited to add a link to another story. Looks like a good chunk of them are trained on the Patriot. Also great.
CNN: US, allies have trained over 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers
The U.S. has already trained more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers since January and over 4,000 since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, CNN reported on Feb. 28.
Last edited:
And what appears to be another flying man.
I support aid if others pay their share and oversight happens...
Joe doesn't seem intersested in either.
Cruz Delivers Floor Speech Explaining American National Security Reasons for Supporting Ukraine | U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) gave a floor speech today explaining why he is...
Coming up on 1 year ago (9 months ago, specifically)
What has he done recently?
And those folks "run" the base.
Just follow what Tucker Carlson and the Fox pundits are saying now, and you'll see where the GOP is heading. And it ain't good.
****, was just thinking how nice this thread was without He Who Shall Not be Mentioned chiming in constantly.
Was good while it lasted.
Was good while it lasted.
More likely to see him spend the 4th of July in Moscow before he visits Ukraine.
Man, I wish whoever makes these little short videos of orcs getting blown up would do away with the horrible rap music or euro metal soundtracks...if the video doesn't have audio, that would be just fine.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,906
- 204,182
- 113
Read this for a good look at how absolutely brainwashed and spiritually crushed the average Russian is. So, so brutal:
By Evan Gershkovich
PSKOV, Russia—A jackhammer pounded the frozen ground on a recent afternoon as gravediggers uncovered fresh soil to provide the resting place for the body of a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine.
At the Vybuty village cemetery in the western region of Pskov, the digging, the men said, has become a near daily job.
But even as the fatalities rise—Western officials estimate nearly 200,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine—there is little resistance in places such as Pskov to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Instead, Mr. Putin’s use of state oppression and relentless nationalist propaganda has secured the acquiescence to the war of most Russians, for whom the military offers a rare escape from the crushing poverty still widespread outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Mr. Putin’s claim that the war in Ukraine is meant to protect Russia from an aggressive West is felt vividly in Pskov, home to an elite paratrooper division just 35 miles from Latvia and Estonia, both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“Look at our history. Russia has never attacked first,” said Nadezhda Nikolayeva, who is married to a soldier fighting in Ukraine. “That our men have died is, of course, a tragedy for everyone. But it isn’t in vain. They defended their people, their wives, their children, their future.”
The armed forces have pride of place in Pskov, an impoverished region that offers few options to young men and where the military is the biggest employer along with a local distillery and the border control. The regional capital is home to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, whose paratroopers have been at the forefront of most major battles in Ukraine.
They took heavy losses in Russia’s early assault of Kyiv before occupying the nearby town of Bucha, where Ukrainian authorities say they were among the forces that committed war crimes against civilians. The division later defended Kherson before the city was retaken by Kyiv’s forces, and its paratroopers are now part of a brutal assault in the east.
A member of a Kremlin working group on mobilization said in January that Russia’s airborne troops have lost as much as half their combat forces.
Pskov’s elite 2nd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade, a special-forces division, also lost dozens of servicemen in the assault on Kharkiv, according to Janes, a defense and intelligence firm.
Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Putin, preparing Russians for a possibly long conflict, hails dying at war as honorable.
“The question is how we lived. After all, it’s not clear whether some live or don’t live, and how they depart, from vodka or from something else,” the Russian president told a mother of a soldier who died in Ukraine in a recent televised meeting. “Your son lived—you understand? His goal has been achieved. This means that he did not die in vain.”
Pskov’s own history provides fertile ground for Mr. Putin’s narrative. In a reminder of Soviet bravery in fighting Nazi Germany in World War II, a billboard in one village features the story of a man who “covered the embrasure of an enemy bunker with his body.”
On the banks of nearby Lake Chudskoye, known as Lake Peipus on its Estonian shore, is a monument for Alexander Nevsky, famed for defending Russia against European invaders in the 1240s, including on the frozen lake. Now a hero of Russian nationalists, his likeness appears on billboards outside the base of the 76th Division. One reads: “Russian borders don’t end anywhere.”
Mr. Putin has said that Nevsky showed that “there are people on Russian land who are ready to fight for it without sparing themselves.” State propaganda has drawn parallels between the Ukraine war and Nevsky’s defense of medieval Russia.
Lyudmila Semyonova, who runs an embroidery shop in the regional capital of Pskov, buys Mr. Putin’s narrative. She berates a 34-year-old nephew who she says is unemployed and sits at home drinking, living off his wife’s earnings.
“I tell him, ‘Why don’t you go to war?’” she said. “His mother scolds him and tells him to prove that he is worth something. There are a lot of people like this in Russia. They should prove that they are people, that they can sacrifice something.”
When Mr. Putin ordered a draft of 300,000 reservists last fall, Katerina Ivanova, a local psychologist, saw an uptick in clients—men worried about going to serve, women concerned about their husbands, fathers and sons.
Yet within several months, the anxiety receded. The war “is not as scary as it was,” she said. “It became something normal.”
The growing strains—for now—haven’t affected support for Mr. Putin’s war.
Ms. Nikolayeva, the military wife, and her friend, Yulia, whose husband is also fighting in Ukraine, run a volunteer group gathering food, clothes and letters of support for soldiers in the 76th Division. “Our guys are finishing what in their time our great grandfathers couldn’t finish,” said Yulia.
Asked if she was worried about her husband, however, Ms. Nikolayeva fought back tears as she said, “No.”
Days earlier, Yulia’s husband returned home on leave, she wrote on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook. She found him in the kitchen in the middle of the night with puffy eyes, thumbing through photos of fellow service members, half of whom were now dead. He was listening to a song released last summer about a soldier yearning to return home from war, titled “I’m Alive.”
The toll on Pskov continues to grow. A shopkeeper at a store for military equipment said soldiers—still bearing injuries—come for new gear before returning to the front lines. One soldier clad in a fresh uniform limped through town with what he said was a bullet wound to the foot.
At a cafe in the nearby village of Seredka, a barista manned the counter as a teenage boy watched television. The barista had one brother drafted over the fall; the boy had two. Nearly everyone in the village had a family member or friend drafted, the barista said. “My brother calls home every two weeks and says there may not be a next time,” she said.
Putin’s War Rhetoric Rallies Russian Border Towns, but Nerves Fray
Casualties haven’t so far shaken Pskov, region that is home to elite paratrooper division that occupied Bucha
By Evan Gershkovich
PSKOV, Russia—A jackhammer pounded the frozen ground on a recent afternoon as gravediggers uncovered fresh soil to provide the resting place for the body of a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine.
At the Vybuty village cemetery in the western region of Pskov, the digging, the men said, has become a near daily job.
But even as the fatalities rise—Western officials estimate nearly 200,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine—there is little resistance in places such as Pskov to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Instead, Mr. Putin’s use of state oppression and relentless nationalist propaganda has secured the acquiescence to the war of most Russians, for whom the military offers a rare escape from the crushing poverty still widespread outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Mr. Putin’s claim that the war in Ukraine is meant to protect Russia from an aggressive West is felt vividly in Pskov, home to an elite paratrooper division just 35 miles from Latvia and Estonia, both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“Look at our history. Russia has never attacked first,” said Nadezhda Nikolayeva, who is married to a soldier fighting in Ukraine. “That our men have died is, of course, a tragedy for everyone. But it isn’t in vain. They defended their people, their wives, their children, their future.”
The armed forces have pride of place in Pskov, an impoverished region that offers few options to young men and where the military is the biggest employer along with a local distillery and the border control. The regional capital is home to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, whose paratroopers have been at the forefront of most major battles in Ukraine.
They took heavy losses in Russia’s early assault of Kyiv before occupying the nearby town of Bucha, where Ukrainian authorities say they were among the forces that committed war crimes against civilians. The division later defended Kherson before the city was retaken by Kyiv’s forces, and its paratroopers are now part of a brutal assault in the east.
A member of a Kremlin working group on mobilization said in January that Russia’s airborne troops have lost as much as half their combat forces.
Pskov’s elite 2nd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade, a special-forces division, also lost dozens of servicemen in the assault on Kharkiv, according to Janes, a defense and intelligence firm.
Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Putin, preparing Russians for a possibly long conflict, hails dying at war as honorable.
“The question is how we lived. After all, it’s not clear whether some live or don’t live, and how they depart, from vodka or from something else,” the Russian president told a mother of a soldier who died in Ukraine in a recent televised meeting. “Your son lived—you understand? His goal has been achieved. This means that he did not die in vain.”
Pskov’s own history provides fertile ground for Mr. Putin’s narrative. In a reminder of Soviet bravery in fighting Nazi Germany in World War II, a billboard in one village features the story of a man who “covered the embrasure of an enemy bunker with his body.”
On the banks of nearby Lake Chudskoye, known as Lake Peipus on its Estonian shore, is a monument for Alexander Nevsky, famed for defending Russia against European invaders in the 1240s, including on the frozen lake. Now a hero of Russian nationalists, his likeness appears on billboards outside the base of the 76th Division. One reads: “Russian borders don’t end anywhere.”
Mr. Putin has said that Nevsky showed that “there are people on Russian land who are ready to fight for it without sparing themselves.” State propaganda has drawn parallels between the Ukraine war and Nevsky’s defense of medieval Russia.
Lyudmila Semyonova, who runs an embroidery shop in the regional capital of Pskov, buys Mr. Putin’s narrative. She berates a 34-year-old nephew who she says is unemployed and sits at home drinking, living off his wife’s earnings.
“I tell him, ‘Why don’t you go to war?’” she said. “His mother scolds him and tells him to prove that he is worth something. There are a lot of people like this in Russia. They should prove that they are people, that they can sacrifice something.”
When Mr. Putin ordered a draft of 300,000 reservists last fall, Katerina Ivanova, a local psychologist, saw an uptick in clients—men worried about going to serve, women concerned about their husbands, fathers and sons.
Yet within several months, the anxiety receded. The war “is not as scary as it was,” she said. “It became something normal.”
The growing strains—for now—haven’t affected support for Mr. Putin’s war.
Ms. Nikolayeva, the military wife, and her friend, Yulia, whose husband is also fighting in Ukraine, run a volunteer group gathering food, clothes and letters of support for soldiers in the 76th Division. “Our guys are finishing what in their time our great grandfathers couldn’t finish,” said Yulia.
Asked if she was worried about her husband, however, Ms. Nikolayeva fought back tears as she said, “No.”
Days earlier, Yulia’s husband returned home on leave, she wrote on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook. She found him in the kitchen in the middle of the night with puffy eyes, thumbing through photos of fellow service members, half of whom were now dead. He was listening to a song released last summer about a soldier yearning to return home from war, titled “I’m Alive.”
The toll on Pskov continues to grow. A shopkeeper at a store for military equipment said soldiers—still bearing injuries—come for new gear before returning to the front lines. One soldier clad in a fresh uniform limped through town with what he said was a bullet wound to the foot.
At a cafe in the nearby village of Seredka, a barista manned the counter as a teenage boy watched television. The barista had one brother drafted over the fall; the boy had two. Nearly everyone in the village had a family member or friend drafted, the barista said. “My brother calls home every two weeks and says there may not be a next time,” she said.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,906
- 204,182
- 113
But Russians are adapting. Nikolai Rassadin, managing director of Pskov’s Imperial Mall, says shoppers are spending less at his mall. Mr. Rassadin, who is against the war and moonlights as a poet and musician, has adjusted, selling more gardening equipment because people are growing their own vegetables to save money.
“Russia is a country that for all of its existence has been at war,” he said. “War is in our blood. And if, as we say, the motherland orders it, then you have to take a weapon in your hands and go. What else can you do?”
Less pessimistic is Lev Shlosberg, chairman of the local branch of the liberal Yabloko Party, one of the last remaining platforms for opposition in a country where the Kremlin has stamped out dissent. Mr. Shlosberg, who has received two misdemeanor charges for discrediting the military, believes that a quarter of Russians strongly support the invasion while a quarter are just as strongly against it.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Between them is a swamp—people who haven’t worked out a position and have a high level of doubt,” he said. “I think these 50% are gradually starting to wake up.”
Many in Pskov are afraid or reluctant to oppose the war, especially after Mr. Putin ordered state payments of 5 million rubles, equivalent to about $65,000, to the families of dead soldiers, said Yury Alexeyev, a former officer in the 76th Division. The average monthly salary in Pskov is around 39,000 rubles, or about $500.
And while the battlefield casualties are high, Mr. Alexeyev says, “more people die from drinking.”
For many, the war is inexorable.
After finishing vocational school in 2021 in Novoshakhtinsk, a small mining city on the Ukrainian border, Nikolai Kartashev was conscripted and dispatched for his mandatory year of military service to the base in Pskov, his half-brother, Dmitry, said by phone.
Drawn by a salary of 40,000 rubles a month—big money for a then 19-year-old from a provincial city—and the pride of military service, Nikolai signed a two-year contract with the 76th Division’s 234th regiment. He planned on signing his next contract for deployment in Syria.
Instead, he was dispatched to Ukraine, where Ukrainian authorities say his regiment occupied Bucha before shifting east in April. Then, early last summer, Nikolai and several fellow servicemen deserted and hitchhiked home, Dmitry said.
Nikolai sat in his room all summer playing computer games. “He became antisocial and didn’t see any of his friends,” Dmitry recalled. Nikolai told his mother that all of the soldiers he knew from home had died and that he didn’t want to go back to Ukraine, Dmitry said.
On Dec. 16, a military court found him guilty of desertion and issued him with a suspended sentence, according to the ruling posted to its website. But the prosecutor told Nikolai he still had to finish his contract, Dmitry said.
With his parents’ money, Nikolai returned to Pskov in early January and was soon sent to the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
At the start of February, Nikolai’s mother received a call saying he had been taken captive by Ukrainian forces, Dmitry recalled. Nikolai then came on the line and said that most of his unit died in battle before he was taken prisoner. Videos on Telegram showed Nikolai’s interrogations and the paratrooper denying having been in Bucha during his first tour.
Dmitry is worried about his brother, who went to war not once, but twice. “He was just a child,” he said.
“Russia is a country that for all of its existence has been at war,” he said. “War is in our blood. And if, as we say, the motherland orders it, then you have to take a weapon in your hands and go. What else can you do?”
Less pessimistic is Lev Shlosberg, chairman of the local branch of the liberal Yabloko Party, one of the last remaining platforms for opposition in a country where the Kremlin has stamped out dissent. Mr. Shlosberg, who has received two misdemeanor charges for discrediting the military, believes that a quarter of Russians strongly support the invasion while a quarter are just as strongly against it.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Between them is a swamp—people who haven’t worked out a position and have a high level of doubt,” he said. “I think these 50% are gradually starting to wake up.”
Many in Pskov are afraid or reluctant to oppose the war, especially after Mr. Putin ordered state payments of 5 million rubles, equivalent to about $65,000, to the families of dead soldiers, said Yury Alexeyev, a former officer in the 76th Division. The average monthly salary in Pskov is around 39,000 rubles, or about $500.
And while the battlefield casualties are high, Mr. Alexeyev says, “more people die from drinking.”
For many, the war is inexorable.
After finishing vocational school in 2021 in Novoshakhtinsk, a small mining city on the Ukrainian border, Nikolai Kartashev was conscripted and dispatched for his mandatory year of military service to the base in Pskov, his half-brother, Dmitry, said by phone.
Drawn by a salary of 40,000 rubles a month—big money for a then 19-year-old from a provincial city—and the pride of military service, Nikolai signed a two-year contract with the 76th Division’s 234th regiment. He planned on signing his next contract for deployment in Syria.
Instead, he was dispatched to Ukraine, where Ukrainian authorities say his regiment occupied Bucha before shifting east in April. Then, early last summer, Nikolai and several fellow servicemen deserted and hitchhiked home, Dmitry said.
Nikolai sat in his room all summer playing computer games. “He became antisocial and didn’t see any of his friends,” Dmitry recalled. Nikolai told his mother that all of the soldiers he knew from home had died and that he didn’t want to go back to Ukraine, Dmitry said.
On Dec. 16, a military court found him guilty of desertion and issued him with a suspended sentence, according to the ruling posted to its website. But the prosecutor told Nikolai he still had to finish his contract, Dmitry said.
With his parents’ money, Nikolai returned to Pskov in early January and was soon sent to the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
At the start of February, Nikolai’s mother received a call saying he had been taken captive by Ukrainian forces, Dmitry recalled. Nikolai then came on the line and said that most of his unit died in battle before he was taken prisoner. Videos on Telegram showed Nikolai’s interrogations and the paratrooper denying having been in Bucha during his first tour.
Dmitry is worried about his brother, who went to war not once, but twice. “He was just a child,” he said.
Pretty sobering...thanks for posting.But Russians are adapting. Nikolai Rassadin, managing director of Pskov’s Imperial Mall, says shoppers are spending less at his mall. Mr. Rassadin, who is against the war and moonlights as a poet and musician, has adjusted, selling more gardening equipment because people are growing their own vegetables to save money.
“Russia is a country that for all of its existence has been at war,” he said. “War is in our blood. And if, as we say, the motherland orders it, then you have to take a weapon in your hands and go. What else can you do?”
Less pessimistic is Lev Shlosberg, chairman of the local branch of the liberal Yabloko Party, one of the last remaining platforms for opposition in a country where the Kremlin has stamped out dissent. Mr. Shlosberg, who has received two misdemeanor charges for discrediting the military, believes that a quarter of Russians strongly support the invasion while a quarter are just as strongly against it.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Between them is a swamp—people who haven’t worked out a position and have a high level of doubt,” he said. “I think these 50% are gradually starting to wake up.”
Many in Pskov are afraid or reluctant to oppose the war, especially after Mr. Putin ordered state payments of 5 million rubles, equivalent to about $65,000, to the families of dead soldiers, said Yury Alexeyev, a former officer in the 76th Division. The average monthly salary in Pskov is around 39,000 rubles, or about $500.
And while the battlefield casualties are high, Mr. Alexeyev says, “more people die from drinking.”
For many, the war is inexorable.
After finishing vocational school in 2021 in Novoshakhtinsk, a small mining city on the Ukrainian border, Nikolai Kartashev was conscripted and dispatched for his mandatory year of military service to the base in Pskov, his half-brother, Dmitry, said by phone.
Drawn by a salary of 40,000 rubles a month—big money for a then 19-year-old from a provincial city—and the pride of military service, Nikolai signed a two-year contract with the 76th Division’s 234th regiment. He planned on signing his next contract for deployment in Syria.
Instead, he was dispatched to Ukraine, where Ukrainian authorities say his regiment occupied Bucha before shifting east in April. Then, early last summer, Nikolai and several fellow servicemen deserted and hitchhiked home, Dmitry said.
Nikolai sat in his room all summer playing computer games. “He became antisocial and didn’t see any of his friends,” Dmitry recalled. Nikolai told his mother that all of the soldiers he knew from home had died and that he didn’t want to go back to Ukraine, Dmitry said.
On Dec. 16, a military court found him guilty of desertion and issued him with a suspended sentence, according to the ruling posted to its website. But the prosecutor told Nikolai he still had to finish his contract, Dmitry said.
With his parents’ money, Nikolai returned to Pskov in early January and was soon sent to the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
At the start of February, Nikolai’s mother received a call saying he had been taken captive by Ukrainian forces, Dmitry recalled. Nikolai then came on the line and said that most of his unit died in battle before he was taken prisoner. Videos on Telegram showed Nikolai’s interrogations and the paratrooper denying having been in Bucha during his first tour.
Dmitry is worried about his brother, who went to war not once, but twice. “He was just a child,” he said.
Goodness....from the Czars and serfdom....to the Bolsheviks...to Putin.
Talk about a beat down society...
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,906
- 204,182
- 113
This quote says it all. And interestingly, it's from an ANTI-WAR Russian!:
Nikolai Rassadin, managing director of Pskov’s Imperial Mall, says shoppers are spending less at his mall. Mr. Rassadin, who is against the war and moonlights as a poet and musician, has adjusted, selling more gardening equipment because people are growing their own vegetables to save money.
“Russia is a country that for all of its existence has been at war,” he said. “War is in our blood. And if, as we say, the motherland orders it, then you have to take a weapon in your hands and go. What else can you do?”
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military might decide to pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine’s president said Wednesday as Russia pursued a bloody, months-long offensive to capture the city.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
The battle for Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and Russian troops suffer heavy casualties in the campaign to take the city.
Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group to try to encircle the city. The private military company known for brutal tactics is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
apnews.com
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
The battle for Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and Russian troops suffer heavy casualties in the campaign to take the city.
Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group to try to encircle the city. The private military company known for brutal tactics is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine official: Forces may pull out of key city of Bakhmut
The Ukrainian military might pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut. That's according to an adviser to Ukraine’s president.
apnews.com
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,906
- 204,182
- 113
I've read that the terrain just to the west of the city is even better for defensive purposes, made up of high ground and hills.KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military might decide to pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine’s president said Wednesday as Russia pursued a bloody, months-long offensive to capture the city.
“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back,” Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.”
The battle for Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance as defenders hold out against relentless shelling and Russian troops suffer heavy casualties in the campaign to take the city.
Rodnyansky noted that Russia was using the best troops of the Wagner Group to try to encircle the city. The private military company known for brutal tactics is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine official: Forces may pull out of key city of Bakhmut
The Ukrainian military might pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut. That's according to an adviser to Ukraine’s president.
Probably the wise move. I hope they get every single civilian out before they retreat though. The Russians are going to be in a very, very foul mood.
Yep....I was hoping the Russians would eventually collapse in Ukraine.
A "normal" military probably collapses with the casualties they've taken in an offensive action. I could see it if you're defending your territory....but this is nuts.
Last edited:
F china
thehill.com
China, Belarus call for cease-fire, negotiations in Ukraine
China and Belarus called for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine as leaders of the two countries meet in Beijing to improve their relations. Belarusian Pre…
thehill.com
