well, if it limped to port and then sunk, that port is now closed, lol
How embarrassing, to lose your fleet's flagship to a country you tried to steamroll and commit genocide in… Major egg on Putin's face. I just can't get over the fight in these Ukrainians. They must have been the soviet muscle in the old USSR.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
I think there is another important point to be made here- this botched land grab has exposed the vaunted Russian military as the paper tiger it apparently has been for decades.
Putin and his cronies have been siphoning off Russia's assets for 20 years, hollowing out all manner of Russia's infrastructure, including the military. The Russian military's "new reputation" has been made from carpet bombing Syrian cities and running unopposed into the Crimean peninsula. 'Blunt Force Trauma' against helpless, powerless victims. Their last major military initiative was an abject failure in Afghanistan (take note- those people were also tough and unyielding...). It has now been made apparent that Russia's world image as a major military force was mostly propaganda, propped up by smoke and mirrors. They have 'big boy toys'- but only a few (to serve as runway models for propaganda footage). Mostly, they have 1990's era gear. Why? Because Putin came to power during Y2K- and that's when his grift got off the ground. Those megayachts and European villas come at a price.
As a result, Putin's military have now been exposed as undisciplined, poorly-trained, poorly-informed, poorly-equipped, poorly-fed and poorly-led. #secondrate. All this leads to the point I want to make: Regardless of how this military campaign plays out, Vladimir Putin has played his last cards as a major player on the world stage. There is no nation on this planet that isn't seeing what's happening, which means that every day this thing drags on, Putin looks weaker and weaker. His currency is valuable only as toilet paper, every Western 1st world country is aligned in solidarity against him, his personal offshore assets are frozen, his people are starting to grumble... and now, his world stage 'tough guy image' is taking a public beat-down. This is the kind of de-pantsing a short little man with Napoleon Complex does not come back from.
We are witnessing history- the demise of a despot.
Every bully on the schoolyard has his way- until that one quiet, skinny kid stands tf up, and punches him square in the nose. In front of the entire school. Ukraine ain't givin' up Her lunch money.
No. Just effing no.
Putin rolled up his sleeve, flexed his navy bicep, and Ukraine said:
Schoolyards... international politics... jackals/hyenas/cats on the Serengeti plains- the dynamics never change. Everyone sees that moment when The Alpha... ain't. His crew- and other crews, as well. That's when s# gets really ugly and interesting.
Watch every minute of this, my friends. History is being written right this moment.
Call it the Oprah strategy for defense (intimidation).
We will nuke you, and We will nuke you, and We will nuke you, and We will nuke you, and We will nuke you, everyone gets a nuke...
There will be no playoffs. Can’t play with who we have out there and compounding it with garbage playcalling and worse execution. We don’t have good skill players on offense period. Browns 20 - Bears 17.
This, in my opinion, means: Russia knows they've failed so far, and Russia is afraid of losing more.
I read somewhere, I'm sure other's have, that russia has said there will be severe consequences if the u.s. or other countries supply higher tech weapons.
To me, that is an admission of failure on russia's part, but possibly also an indication russia will up the ante - daring other nations to continue in an effort to thwart a loss.
Escalation on the russian part could easily happen, but I am convinced, with the history of this short, yet terrible unjustified war and the senseless and needless killings, IF russia escalates, all hell will reign down on them.
I was worried about him using nukes more at the beginning than now. He's busy getting his ass handed to him now and this screams desperation IMHO. Biden should tell him to put up or shut up. NO, I don't want war with Russia, but the only way to stop a bully is to stand up to him. And I think Putin is more bark than bite these days. Of course Zelenskyy and Ukraine probably have a different take.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 04/17/2209:15 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
This, in my opinion, means: Russia knows they've failed so far, and Russia is afraid of losing more.
I read somewhere, I'm sure other's have, that russia has said there will be severe consequences if the u.s. or other countries supply higher tech weapons.
To me, that is an admission of failure on russia's part, but possibly also an indication russia will up the ante - daring other nations to continue in an effort to thwart a loss.
Escalation on the russian part could easily happen, but I am convinced, with the history of this short, yet terrible unjustified war and the senseless and needless killings, IF russia escalates, all hell will reign down on them.
It might also reign down on everyone. That's the problem. How far as you willing to kick the dog in to a corner before the dog bites? Usually you find out a kick late.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
I have no real idea how this will play out going forward but the impression I get from Russia's troop movements seem relatively clear. From the way Russia went about this war at the beginning it seems they thought they could just steamroll the entire nation of Ukraine quickly. A general attack in several parts of Ukraine simultaneously. That failed miserably. So now by all reports their troops are gathering in eastern Ukraine. So it seems they plan to take a bite by bite approach by focusing on taking over sections of Ukraine at a time. I think that will be much harder for Ukraine to defend against.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
World Central Kitchen restaurant destroyed in Kharkiv
A restaurant operated by celebrity chef José Andrés’s non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK) was destroyed by a missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Saturday, officials said.
WCK CEO Nate Mook shared a video from the site that highlighted extensive damage around the building that housed the restaurant.
Mook said in a video on Twitter that staff members were wounded, adding that nobody was killed in the restaurant but “we are told that one person was killed in this strike.”
He also said that the missile strike was a “big hit” and showed the shells of burnt cars, debris and the carnage around the neighborhood.
“Just a tremendous amount of carnage left behind for no reason. In this area, there are offices there are residences. People live here. People work here people cook here and it’s absolutely horrific brutality,” Mook said.
He added that this is the reality for so many in Ukraine right now.
“Coming to work, cooking for people that are hungry is an immense act of bravery.”
In another tweet, he added that the restaurant team is moving all food products and non-damaged equipment to another kitchen location in Kharkiv.
“The injured staff are doing well—and all the team here wants to continue cooking,” he said.
Andrés also tweeted after the strike was reported.
“To everyone caring and sending good wishes to the team in Kharkiv, thank you, the injured are fine, and everyone is ready and willing to start cooking in another location,” he said. “All our friends are TRUE heroes! Many ways to fight, we do it with food!”
Andrés also said that “Russian attacks must stop against civilian buildings and markets and churches and schools.”
He told CNN last month that his non-profit organization has provided more than 4 million meals to refugees since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more almost two months ago.
World Central Kitchen aims to establish feeding systems in disaster and war zones.
Chef José Andrés is one celebrity I like for what he is doing with his fame. We need more like him, and to see this happen is just sad. Another reason to hate Putin, and anyone who supports him.
Last edited by OldColdDawg; 04/20/2204:32 PM.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — New satellite images show apparent mass graves near Mariupol, where local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians to conceal the slaughter taking place in the ruined port city that’s almost entirely under Russian control.
The images emerged just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol, despite the presence of an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters who were still holed up at a giant steel mill. Putin ordered his troops to seal off the stronghold “so that not even a fly comes through” instead of storming it.
Putin’s decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant likely indicates a desire to contain Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and free up Russian forces to be deployed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an assessment Friday.
Satellite image provider Maxar Technologies released the photos, which it said showed more than 200 mass graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting. The imagery showed long rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused the Russians of “hiding their military crimes” by taking the bodies of civilians from the city and burying them in Manhush.
The graves could hold as many as 9,000 dead, the Mariupol City Council said Thursday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Boychenko labeled Russian actions in the city as “the new Babi Yar,” a reference to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
“The bodies of the dead were being brought by the truckload and actually simply being dumped in mounds,” an aide to Boychenko, Piotr Andryushchenko, said on Telegram.
There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were discovered in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv after Russian troops retreated three weeks ago, Russian officials denied that their soldiers killed any civilians there and accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities.
In a statement, Maxar said a review of previous images indicates that the graves in Manhush were dug in late March and expanded in recent weeks.
After nearly two lethal months of bombardment that largely reduced Mariupol to a smoking ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port.
But a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Moscow’s estimate, have stubbornly held out for weeks at the steel plant, despite a pummeling from Russian forces and repeated demands for their surrender. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped there, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russia of launching attacks to block civilian evacuations from Mariupol.
At least two Russian attacks on Thursday hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, a way station for people fleeing Mariupol. No one was wounded, the regional governor said.
Among those who arrived in Zaporizhzhia after fleeing the city were Yuriy and Polina Lulac, who spent nearly two months living in a basement with at least a dozen other people. There was no running water and little food, Yuriy Lulac said.
“What was happening there was so horrible that you can’t describe it,” said the native Russian speaker who used a derogatory word for the Russian troops, saying they were “killing people for nothing.”
“Mariupol is gone. In the courtyards there are just graves and crosses,” Lulac said.
The Red Cross said it had expected to evacuate 1,500 people by bus, but that the Russians allowed only a few dozen to leave and pulled some people off of the buses.
Dmitriy Antipenko said he lived mostly in a basement with his wife and father-in-law amid death and destruction.
“In the courtyard, there was a little cemetery, and we buried seven people there,” Antipenko said, wiping away tears.
Instead of sending troops to finish off the Mariupol defenders inside the steel factory in a potentially bloody frontal assault, Russia apparently intends to maintain the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food or ammunition.
All told, more than 100,000 people were believed trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, which had a prewar population of about 430,000. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The city has seized worldwide attention as the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war, including deadly airstrikes on a maternity hospital and a theater.
Boychenko rejected any notion that Mariupol had fallen into Russian hands.
“The city was, is and remains Ukrainian,” he declared. “Today our brave warriors, our heroes, are defending our city.”
The capture of Mariupol would represent the Kremlin’s biggest victory yet of the war in Ukraine. It would help Moscow secure more of the coastline, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and free up more forces to join the larger and potentially more consequential battle now underway for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas.
At a joint appearance with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin declared, “The completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success,” and he offered congratulations to Shoigu.
Shoigu predicted the Azovstal steel mill could be taken in three to four days. But Putin said that would be “pointless” and expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops in deciding against sending them in to clear out the sprawling plant, where the die-hard defenders were hiding in a maze of underground passageways.
Instead, the Russian leader said, the military should “block off this industrial area so that not even a fly comes through.”
The plant covers 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is threaded with some 24 kilometers (15 miles) of tunnels and bunkers.
“The Russian agenda now is not to capture these really difficult places where the Ukrainians can hold out in the urban centers, but to try and capture territory and also to encircle the Ukrainian forces and declare a huge victory,” retired British Rear Adm. Chris Parry said.
Russian officials for weeks have said capturing the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas is the war’s main objective. Moscow’s forces opened the new phase of the fighting this week along a 300-mile (480-kilometer) front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Azov Sea.
While Russia continued heavy air and artillery attacks in those areas, it did not appear to gain any significant ground over the past few days, according to military analysts, who said Moscow’s forces were still ramping up the offensive.
Despite Russia’s renewed focus, its troops are still suffering from losses sustained earlier in the conflict, according to the British assessment. In order to try and reconstitute their depleted forces, the Russians have resorted to sending inoperable equipment back to Russia for repair, it said.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said the Ukrainians were hindering the Russian effort to push south from Izyum.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden pledged an additional $1.3 billion for new weapons and economic assistance to help Ukraine, and he promised to seek much more from Congress to keep the guns, ammunition and cash flowing.
___
Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine; Danica Kirka in London; and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world.
I wish to share with all of you, this opportunity to spend time on the ground in Kyiv, Ukraine. War has global implications, to be sure. War is also personal af.
1. Go here. 2. Click/stab/tap/jab the arrow in the circle, to get a listen. 3. Gain some new perspective about the Eastern European people who are now in our news every day.
These people have made a Democracy that is roughly the same age as America's, when we fought our War of 1812. They are fighting for not only their lives, but their principles, ideals, and sovereign status as a free people. I was happy I encountered this story, and I wanted to give My Dawgs a chance to experience it, as well. If we are going to discuss this subject/these people, we owe them the courtesy of hearing them personally tell the tales of their lives. We have a daily diary here, folks. Let's better know Ukrainians through the eyes of those who are living it.
The Russian Navy has to hate these drones. Imagine thinking you are state of the art and then get taken out with something small and invisible to radar.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Screw Putin, if he's going to use nukes there is nothing we can do to stop him that is not against our worst interest in the long run. You don't let thugs and bullies have what they want, or they never quit taking. A dead world would be better than one run by Putin era fascists.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
Haunting and thought provoking. On the one hand so down to earth, so ordinary (taking your dog for a pee who then wants to poop ! LOL) - and the situation and reality of living in a war zone. Touching lives and connecting with people in our community suddenly on a different level. Great piece. Makes me think the USA needs something to shake us all up and reconnect on a human level instead of where we are with politics, social media, sensationalism and so many decisions based on convenience instead of what is right and best regardless of how hard or the challenge. jmo
Last edited by mgh888; 05/03/2211:50 AM.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Isn't it odd how those who once claimed so strongly to stand for upholding democracy and fighting against communism now want to us to kiss the communists ass and back down just because of which political party happens to be in power at the time?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Screw Putin, if he's going to use nukes there is nothing we can do to stop him that is not against our worst interest in the long run. You don't let thugs and bullies have what they want, or they never quit taking. A dead world would be better than one run by Putin era fascists.
Not true. We have the ability to find solutions that don't involve Nukes.
You have to allow the bully a way out when he has a gun to your head.
You've given nothing to twist but vague statements without really saying anything.
We have solutions that don't involve nukes. Only Putin has mentioned nukes.
The bully has a way out.
So what are your solutions and ideas? As of now there's no way Putin leaves without Ukraine conceding land he has occupied. So is that your solution? Open the door for Putin to attack democracies and then give him part of their countries in concession?
You see, you just throw out BS without actually saying anything.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Screw Putin, if he's going to use nukes there is nothing we can do to stop him that is not against our worst interest in the long run. You don't let thugs and bullies have what they want, or they never quit taking. A dead world would be better than one run by Putin era fascists.
Not true. We have the ability to find solutions that don't involve Nukes.
You have to allow the bully a way out when he has a gun to your head.
Or die.
Choose.
If there is a gun to your head, you're dead already... you're just breathing through it. Attempts to appease in the hopes that it means you're not dead is just weakness and fruitless, wishful dreaming.
Reagan would get on Johnny Carson and mock Putin, say that he's too weak and soft-backboned to seek peace and leave Ukraine.... and he'd be right to because he's smarter in that you give the gift of saying that seeking the peace IS him being the strong ruler. You get to take your shot AND publicly steer him to your goal while also giving him the face-saving words he needs to not escalate.
You do NOT give ground just because the freaking Soviet trash tosses out threats.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
If we would have started with sanctions and tough talk when Putin was amassing troops on the border, he may not have moved on Ukraine.
But we lead from behind, chasing his every move. We chased him with sanctions that failed because he spent the last bunch of years stocking up on Gold to protect his economy.
Even now we could threaten him, with the gun to our heads, that any radioactive cloud that passes over a NATO country will be considered an attack on NATO.
it has never passed. You can ALWAYS draw a line in the sand.
and, I agree on the weak ass sanctions... the bunch of Neville's leading the circus really screwed the pooch on that, but that doesn't mean the opportunity is gone.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
it has never passed. You can ALWAYS draw a line in the sand.
and, I agree on the weak ass sanctions... the bunch of Neville's leading the circus really screwed the pooch on that, but that doesn't mean the opportunity is gone.
Imagine where we would be, if the men of America, acted like that in the 40s. Such a spineless tragic de evolution of American manhood.
Your feelings and opinions do not add up to facts.
it has never passed. You can ALWAYS draw a line in the sand.
and, I agree on the weak ass sanctions... the bunch of Neville's leading the circus really screwed the pooch on that, but that doesn't mean the opportunity is gone.
Putin did exactly that when he threatened Nukes over those Polish Jet Fighters and we backed down.
Putin has been threatening Nukes ever since because he had us where he wanted us. Scared.
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