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© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Russia puts more strength behind Ukraine advance
By JOHN LEICESTER, INNA VARENYTSIA and ANDREA ROSA KYIV, Ukraine©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
51 Comments
Yrral
This has become more of PR war,by both side,you have one leader,that has a psychological inferiority complex, against another leader,that has too get validate by other western leaders,a recipe for disaster,while scores of people die, on each size,the Ukraine defense minister say the war will end maybe next year,that is not good for Ukraine,that put Ukraine on par with Yemen,a fail state dependent on other for survival
Laguna
Of course that is going to happen. Russia may be able to take territory, especially that on its doorstep, but it will not be able to hold it. That applies to Crimea as well - when the dust settles, its return will be demanded.
PTownsend
Contested province? But if it is within the borders of Ukraine, why are Russian forces even there, what right does Russia think it has to try to destroy the province and kill off civilians? Barbaric, in human behavior by the globe's new imperium, For those who do not trust 'western' media, how are Putin's media outlets reporting the depopulation of Ukraine? If Ukrainian citizens are being forcibly removed to Russia will they later form a separate population there and in a couple generations attack the Russian state claiming they are really Ukrainians, not Russians?
Blowing up apartments is another example of barbaric behavior shown by the invaders. Will Putin's armies continue to forcibly remove innocent people to a place somewhere in Russia? Will Russian citizens staying in Russia be forced to pay more for Putin's War and to accommodate the displaced Ukrainians? Or will Putin and his oligarchs pay for the costs of this war out of their own bank accounts; after all they are the ones who might profit most from this war. The money one oligarch got from selling EPL team Chelsea, could buy more mercenaries to fight this war for them. With many Russian. soldiers reportedly KIA, according to western media, what do Putin's media say about the number of Russian citizens killed in this war?
stormcrow
Ugly Russians doing ugly things.
The world is watching.
englisc aspyrgend
If and I emphasise the if russia manages to seize all of Luhansk, it will have cost so much in blood and treasure not to mention lost armour and other military equipment they will have little combat capacity left having poured so much combat ready forces in to the task that taking Luhansk is extremely unlikely. They may take but holding is another matter. Meanwhile Ukraine is already beginning to counter attack in other areas.
Mr Kipling
A very long article full of propaganda from Kiev..... in brief for those you can't be bothered to read...
Russia is winning the battle for the Dombas.
quercetum
There is no way Russia is returning the warm water ports.
Yrral
Rainday,this the actual facts what is gonna happen,if Ukrainain cannot pacify,I hate I too put that way,posting here is not gonna change the facts on the ground unless Ukraine come up with a long term solution for the war
rainyday
And they went with choice 3, subject the children of Eastern Ukraine to Russian shelling on a much more massive scale than anything the Azov militants had ever come near to doing, killing children, destroying children’s homes, turning others into refugees.
Yrral
PT,if you were informed,the sale of the team is going to compensate Ukrainian, nobody cares about the President scare today,in which jet were scrambled near Delaware
M3M3M3
Sounds like wishful thinking. In what world is it harder for an army to simply hold existing ground than to conquer or re-take enemy territory? Defenders always have the advantage. Being dug in and fortified in the most optimal strategic locations is partly why Ukraine has managed to hold out longer than most people expected. This advantage won't be there for any counter attack, if it ever comes.
u_s__reamer
Ukrainians will soon be bringing forward "ace in the hole" new long-range weaponry to the front to knock out the invaders' artillery and rockets without which Russians will run, run, run.
UChosePoorly
Daily update/assessment from the folks mentioned in the article:
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-june-4
Yrral
US,these rockets cost 40 thousands dollars a piece,do you think the US let their soldiers ,go through money like this and the long range rockets cost million UChoose,these people have no boots on the ground,how can they access what going on,M3,the Russian are carpet bombing ,these trenches for 100 of miles
UChosePoorly
Yrral - they cite their sources. If you have something better, feel free to share.
rainyday
True, but the Russians have the disadvantage of holding hostile territory, meaning they don’t just face the Ukrainian army, but also partisan resistance behind their lines. This isn’t likely to drive them out any time soon, but it makes it more difficult for them to actually control the territory they hold.
Laguna
Andrei Sidorchik, a journalist speaking on Russia's state-run TV station Russia-1, stated:
It is not a paradox. Nationality often trumps ethnicity. I'd fight on Japan's side if the US invaded in a similar way, and I'm sure Mexican-Americans in my home town would fight for the US if Mexico invaded San Diego.
Rob
Several 1000 poor Ukranian soldiers in Sievierodonetsk were given an ultimatum to surrender. They squandered it. So the Russians blew up the bridges, meaning the Ukranians can't retreat.
Rob
There are literally 100s of videos online, not YouTube but Rumble, TikTok and others, of the Russians entering cities and towns while the local people line the streets, cheering, throwing flowers, waving Soviet and Russian flags
UChosePoorly
Rob - do you have a source for that? Or is that just your wishful thinking?
UChosePoorly
Bronco - then you will be pleased to know that the Ukrainians are getting the necessary training.
M3M3M3
How many 'aces' are in this deck? First it was the Javelins that were supposed to stop the Russian military in its tracks, then it was the Bayraktar drones, then the M777 Howitzers, then the Switchblade drones. Do you really think that this time 4, and only 4, HIMARS rocket launching trucks with unguided munitions will be a game-changer? Ukraine had older but more sophisticated long-range guided rockets earlier in the war but they made no significant difference to the battle.
@rainyday
I don't think the population is nearly as hostile as some imagine. I haven't seen or heard of any civilian partisan attacks against Russian troops since at least March. I suspect any hardcore partisans have evacuated to western Ukraine. Also, the Ukrainian government isn't doing much to win hearts and minds. They've completely stopped paying old-age pensions, government salaries, and support payments to millions of people in occupied areas, effectively abandoning them. The Russians have stepped in with cash handouts. Most people are apolitical and will follow whoever butters their bread.
Rob
Rumble, Tiktok, RT, Chinese media.
RichardPearce
Kiev understands that once it loses its grip on the Donbass, the population will never let them return. Almost a decade of Kiev's brutality and oppression there ensures that, especially given that their forced expulsion was achieved despite all the US did to try and prevent it.
And that is why they're so desperately trying to hold on no matter how much destruction and deaths they cause.
Joemusic1980
Rob
TikTok, Rumble. Do you think RT sets up 1000s of people, lIning the streets, waving Russian and Soviet flags, throwing flowers and kissing the Russian soldiers?
rainyday
I imagine it would vary with the locality.
Well, there are continuing reports about them happening, though how reliable/accurate they are is a question, as is how widespread they are. Its probable that most people will just go along with whoever is in charge in order to survive, which is what happenned in Nazi occupied Europe during WW2 under similar circumstances, but I find it hard to believe they aren’t facing any partisan resistance at all.
How exactly are they supposed to be paying salaries to people in areas they no longer control or even have any access to??
RichardPearce
On the subject of the 'ace in the hole new American supplied weapons', well..
Even if they've solved the problem of pulling weapons that were stuffed in warehouses for long term storage until they were needed by some puppet regime (no maintenance or battle readiness checks means nonfunctional and missing parts)
Even if they've solved the problem of handing front lines fighters complex weapons they're not familiar with and expecting them to learn how to use them in the middle of fire fights
And even if they've a plan for overcoming how few of the weapons actually get to someplace that firing them is useful
There's still the logistics problem.
You need to get the weapons, the ammunition, the fuel and other support materials and equipment, the people trained to use them, the people trained to maintain them, their support materials and equipment, all in the right place, at the right time, and in communication with the people who know what targets they should fire on, and when. All while under the watchful eyes of the enemy, in territory where there are supporters of the enemy, and all of it happening in range of the enemy's precision weapons.
Bob Fosse
Are you sure they aren’t clips from a video game?
rainyday
My Google image search for the phrase “Ukrainians welcoming Russians as liberators” suggests their method of welcoming them consists of way less “Waving Russian flags and throwing flowers” and way more “Blowing up Russian tanks”.
Rob
I've said 4 times now. Rumble, Tiktok, RT, Chinese media.
Bob Fosse
Yiu didn’t know Russia has been caught doing this before? Really?
Rob
BTW most of those videos pawned off on Big Tech platforms and corporate media of Ukranians blowing up Russian tanks, is actually vice-versa.
Russians have Z painted all over their tanks to avoid friendly fire.
Bob Fosse
Are RT censoring themselves? I couldn’t find any such videos. Do I need to use DuckDuckGo?
Blacklabel
Yes, really.,Every one I saw was pro Ukraine. Including posted on Twitter by american generals.
can you give me a couple of pro-Russian ones? When is “before” and who “caught” them?
there are multiple liberal news articles praising tiktok as a way to get the “real” story from Ukraine. Well unless the story isn’t pro Ukraine.
rainyday
Of course it is, just keep telling yourself that.
Blacklabel
“30 TikTok stars received a Ukraine war briefing from the White House”
Blacklabel
who cares if it is “rarely” shelled. Civilians were just killed by Ukrainian rockets.
M3M3M3
How? Presumably by bank deposit as before? Despite the explosions highlighted on the news, daily life goes on as normal in many areas with firefighters, sanitation workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and so on still showing up for work. Even if cash withdrawal is a challenge, why shouldn't they be paid? The war is obviously not their fault. There's no excuse for stopping old-age pensions and other entitlements. Abandoning your own citizens and civil servants like this is not a great way to ensure loyalty.
cleo
Not into Rumble or Tik Tok and don’t read Chinese. I did some searching on rt, and found not a single mention of Ukrainian civilians welcoming Russian troops with so much as a smile, never mind cheering, flowers and flags. And of course not a single video of the same.
Calling BS on this one.
As an amusing aside, autocorrect suggests turning rt into rat.
Laguna
That may be true as the remaining population of Donbass will be overwhelmingly Russian ethnocentrists. Even ethnic Russian Ukrainian patriots are fleeing west. Worse, Ukrainians captured by the Russian army are being in essence kidnapped and sent to the Russian east. According to the Lieberman Institute at West Point:
As of March 22, nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries
Russian forces are deporting Ukrainian nationals to Russia
For example, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General has accused Russia of “the forcible transfer of 2,389 children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia”
Article 49 of the Geneva Convention IV states: “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”
Even Russian Federation regulations state: “Deportation of the civilian population from the occupied territory to the territory of another state shall be prohibited” (though, to be sure, Russia does not consider itself to be a separate state from Ukraine)
the “passportization” - that is, forced Russian "naturalization" - of nearly a million Ukrainians is highly questionable as a matter of law
the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which Russia has ratified, states “deportation ... for any purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory” is a “crime against humanity” whether “before or during war”Russia's actions are clear: They are aware that they are breaking both international and their own laws by forcibly deporting thousands of Ukrainians to Russia but are trying to justify their crime by pretending that the Ukrainians are actually Russian citizens. Hence the forced "passportization." In the end, some international court will sort out these crimes and punish those responsible if they are extradited from Russia. If Russia insists on harboring them, the harsh sanctions imposed on the country will continue.
A useful precedent to view this is the winding up of the Yugoslavian conflicts.
Bob Fosse
You should read more.
Mr Kipling
The people welcoming Russian troops are mostly Russians living in the Ukraine. There are many. The western propaganda press have you believing that all "Ukrainians" are against Russia. In the east, many are very much PRO Russia. Not all in the Dombas want to become part of Russia but they will either have to get used to it or move. Actually, my guess is that the pro Kiev population have mostly gone already.
Blacklabel
liberal fact checking 101:
So I can’t be bothered to check the locations where you say something is.
instead I just look where I want to look, because I can trust the place I look would never mention such a thing.
I don’t see it and “call bs”. All done! But not well done at all.
Blacklabel
You should share links- as I cannot read the entire internet. It’s your claim, back it up.
Blacklabel
I am looking for a video that shows Russia destroying something in Ukraine. that was later found to be video game footage and then debunked as propaganda and Russia didn’t really destroy it at all.
like the multiple Ukraine propaganda videos with tanks and airplanes being destroyed that were not.
ready, go.
Rob
Well, Rumble is basically uncensored You Tube. But if you only want to see what the ruling class wants you to see, stick with You Tube.
Well, you are obviously not looking hard enough.
I don't care what you call it. More importantly, the masses in Donbass don't care or the 1000s of people waiting in line for hours to get Russian passports in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Those regions are never going back to Ukraine. The people being interviewed by RT are saying Ukraine was fine until everything changed 8 years ago. They talk about not only the Neo-Nasties but also the EU austerity.
Bob Fosse
Nice. Keep looking.