Akka
Moody old mage.
Where in my post did I ever suggested that deliberately targeting civilians is good, and where did Ukraine or its allies ever somehow implied they would do it or support it ?
I'm not. I'm saying the criticism is still relevant even if said posters refuse to see the same being carried out by Russia. It shouldn't be opposed just because of who posted it.Where in my post did I ever suggested that deliberately targeting civilians is good, and where did Ukraine or its allies ever somehow implied they would do it or support it ?
There was a comment from Cameron that somehow could imply UK had allowed Ukraine to use the provided Stormshadow to target Russian territory (and was retracted).
This is then twisted into some false outrage about an imaginary "Ukraine will target innocent civilians" by the same ghouls that either happily support, or pretend to not see, Russia having deliberately and systematically targeted civilians with terror bombing for two years. Business as usual in this thread.
Now you’re getting it.These kinds of statements are actively counterproductive. As an American taxpayer I am told constantly that freedom is at stake in Ukraine. If Ukrainians think that "don't indiscriminately kill civilians" is a "Western peacetime moral" that "no longer works for us" then what stake do I have in the Ukrainian state's continued survival? I don't consider killing Russian soldiers a worthy end in itself, as some posters here seem to.
Now you’re getting it.
A little like how Biden heroically chastises Israel, right?
We quickly learned that we would have no reconnaissance, no evacuation teams - nothing. We were given only a couple of APCs. The only thing that saved me was that I was in the assault group, which was supposed to do evacuation in addition to assaults.
It was planned that each group would be sent forward in APCs or BMPs, and as they advanced, they would build up their forces. Simply put, we were to be driven to a certain point, and from there we would advance on foot. In the course of advances, some were wounded and some were killed. It was forbidden for the wounded to evacuate or crawl back: if you could hold a machine gun, it meant you were still a stormtrooper - advance. Desertion during the assault was impossible - machine-gun points were set up, and we were "met" when we returned. If anyone tried to go back, he would be shot, so the assault was only forward.
The first groups that came in were immediately demolished - they were met by artillery, a tank and infantry worked on them, and there was a pile of corpses. They were just moving out - and they were covered. Subsequent groups were able to squeeze the Ukrainians a bit, but almost the whole company was killed. On the first day we managed to capture three hundred meters. I managed to pull out three wounded. And it was a miracle - it snowed and it was possible to drag them on sledges: I put one down, dragged him to zero, came back - the next one, and so on as long as I could. It took about two kilometers to drag them.
There were no medics, they helped themselves, it was almost impossible to pick up the wounded - the artillery covered everything tightly. Nearby were flying kamikaze drones, there were about 20 of them - they were circling like birds. At the same time, our artillery was silent - they would fire once an hour, and then silence. Assault groups were advancing on APCs, BMPs, I think we even had a tank, but all this equipment was quickly hit, and the sky was black and black. When the equipment was hit, there was a short break - there was nothing to bring the attackers up on: you sit and listen to the first group shouting and shooting, the wounded asking for help, and no reinforcements arriving - there was nothing to bring them up on.
There were only a few survivors from the first groups - those who had time to burn themselves out. Or whose wounds were not so serious. Because [when seriously wounded] people there were drained in 30 seconds, that is, the first ten seconds you are on adrenaline and screaming, the next ten seconds you come to your senses, realizing what happened, and another ten seconds you try to do something. But if your strength is gone, that's it.
We didn't have any commanders with us. The only officer who was not afraid to go to the assault, went in the penultimate assault group on a par with everyone else. And the company commander didn't even show up at the positions. During the whole time I was in Ukraine, I saw him only once - at night. He went to see his deputy. But the deputy stayed in the dugout for the whole two days, during which we were thrown into the assaults, and kept his head down.
Toward morning it was our turn to go in. We were put on an APC and sent forward. As with the first groups, we were shot at with machine guns and automatic rifles, snipers and artillery - 150s and 80s (artillery and mortar shells of appropriate calibers - The Insider) were coming at us. RPGs were coming in. And this was at a time when we had not even gotten to the point we needed - we were just approaching.
We drove into a wooded area, dismounted, and the APC left. The wounded were lying there, no one was taken away. And for four hours it went on: tanks, artillery, mortars, infantry. Rockets were coming in. Explosions were everywhere - the woodland was completely strewn with corpses. They were not just corpses, but torn body parts, and we walked right over them, because it was impossible not to walk: you couldn't see the ground. Among these bodies we took shelter and hid from the explosions. You could lie on them somewhere, sit on them somewhere, walk on them somewhere.
The artillery worked for four hours, and then for another five hours we pretended to be dead, so that Ukrainian intelligence would not find out that we were alive. They stopped shelling, the "kamikazes" and "birds with drops" stopped flying in, and we continued to lie motionless until darkness fell. Out of the whole company - which was about a hundred men - there were seven survivors.
Russia has effectively declared war on Europe – so it makes perfect sense to signal that decision to the Russian public with this kind of indirect messaging."Attention! Staff of US, UK, Germany, France and Poland embassies have priority access to the exhibition"
"Glory to Geranium"
It is by design. A fascist state needs an assigned external enemy in order for the ruling elites to stay in power and to keep the populace materially and mentally mobilized. Those who aren't technically external, like liberal-minded and anti-totalitarian portion of Russian population, are intimidated into silence and branded as external too ("foreign agents").Russia has effectively by itself burned its bridges to Europe, and is now accusing it of arson.
More on that seems to be incoming:It is by design. A fascist state needs an assigned external enemy in order for the ruling elites to stay in power and to keep the populace materially and mentally mobilized. Those who aren't technically external, like liberal-minded and anti-totalitarian portion of Russian population, are intimidated into silence and branded as external too ("foreign agents").
It is by design. A fascist state needs an assigned external enemy in order for the ruling elites to stay in power and to keep the populace materially and mentally mobilized. Those who aren't technically external, like liberal-minded and anti-totalitarian portion of Russian population, are intimidated into silence and branded as external too ("foreign agents").
- Apart from our comrade in arms China, no one else is interested in us as comrades, we are no longer friends with anyone."
Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's agency for prisoners of war, told the BBC many of them came from low-income countries such as Cuba, India and Nepal, as well as African and Central Asian states.
"Every week we capture up to five persons from foreign countries on the frontline as prisoners of war," he said.
He sure wasn't talking about the Chinese manpower.I know of at least one Chinese serving for Russia against Ukraine, but I'm sure they're not the majority of foreigners in the Russian army.
Senior US officials said last week that China was helping Russia undertake
its most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster
timeline than we believed possible” early in the Ukraine conflict.
The links I provided have more than one sentence. More at Google.com.I read the first link:
The sentence there:
reads like an open admission that the US officials got it very wrong.