Kremlin says pullout was rushed and chaotic as it congratulates its soldiers on biggest gain since last May
  • TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6921·
    10 months ago

    Nothing shows how bought out the Republicans are to Russia more than the statement on how they didn’t want to send weapons to perpetuate war. That’s all these assholes want to ever do. The one time they don’t and it’s for daddy Putin. Half the issues with populism in the US seem to stem from the level of destructive populism Russia enjoys.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
      318·
      10 months ago

      People just keep parroting this nonsense about money being allocated to Ukraine being the problem when the actual problem is lack of industrial capacity in the west to produce weapons and ammunition at the rate they’re being consumed. The west has now largely run through the existing stockpiles, and lacks the capacity to produce more in time. Mainstream western media now openly admits this https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/rate-of-russian-military-production-worries-european-war-planners

      Allocating more funds for Ukraine isn’t magically going to make stuff like artillery shells appear out of thin air.

      • TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        56·
        10 months ago

        That’s interesting. In one breath The Guardian is saying money but I guess what you’re showing me is The Guardian indicating it’s more of a production issue. I guess I could read the new link you’re sharing but I’m going to guess it doesn’t really cover how Russia is outpacing the western world.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
          177·
          10 months ago

          The whole thesis of the article is basically that western private industry driven industrial complex can’t compete with Russian state driven industry because it’s not profitable for companies to do so. Russia was able to do things like plan for surge capacity and to keep large mothballed factories ready for use even though it didn’t make financial sense to do so. Western military defence contractors are not willing to do this because it affects the bottom line negatively.

          Furthermore, as it becomes increasingly evident that Russia is winning the war and the whole thing isn’t going to last that much longer, the companies have zero incentive to invest into building large new facilities that will only be used for a short time.

          This war is basically invalidating the whole free market model.

          • TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            10 months ago

            So basically another version of guerilla warfare, right? The US is trash at guerilla warfare. Thinking Afghanistan and Vietnam, off the top of my head. We don’t even fuck with Central America on the ground. Just economically. It sounds like Russia’s figured out a way to fight outside of the free market … which is honestly funny as fuck when I think about how shitty the defense contractors in the US are for perpetuating death for cash. And here’s Putin, perpetuating death for lesser.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
              44·
              10 months ago

              The idea of running some sort of an insurgency has been floated around a lot. I agree that it’s a dumb idea and I imagine it will backfire spectacularly because Ukrainian nationalists will be resentful of the west when the war is lost. They will blame the west for not full supporting Ukraine and for using them as a battering ram against Russia. Europe might end up seeing a sharp rise in terrorism in the near future. Also worth remembering that a lot of the weapons sent to Ukraine ended up on the black market, and likely in the hands of far right cells across Europe.

            • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              92·
              10 months ago

              I get that you couldn’t be bothered to read the article, but to comment on a thread and not even read the headline. Liberal brain rot is something else.

            • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
              81·
              10 months ago

              They are winning the war tho, they’ve been destroying Ukraine military capabilities, creating buffer zones between russia - ukraine and even developing economic alliances with the rest of the world through BRICS. Meanwhile Ukraine economy gets worse by the day, same for Europe.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
              115·
              10 months ago

              The Russians don’t need to make decisive offensives because those are very costly as Ukraine discovered last summer. What the Russians are doing is a slow push of attrition all across the front using their superior artillery and air force power. Ukraine and the west are very clearly not able to keep up with that. Now we’re already starting to see the signs of the Ukrainian army breaking under pressure with the loss of Avdevka being a prime example of that.

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                  96·
                  10 months ago

                  If you bother reading the article I linked in this very thread, it answers all those questions for you. The Ukrainians also have not shown anything of the sort. They’ve literally lost every engagement so far.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
          175·
          10 months ago

          Allocating funds is not the solution when you lack industrial capacity to convert those funds into actual weapons and ammunition. Here’s what actually happens in a scenario where you allocate funds and supply of a commodity is limited:

          In October, NATO’s senior military officer, Adm. Rob Bauer, said that the price for one 155mm shell had risen from 2,000 euros ($2,171) at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion to 8,000 euros ($8,489.60).

          https://www.defenseone.com/business/2023/11/race-make-artillery-shells-us-eu-see-different-results/392288/

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
              135·
              10 months ago

              So far, there’s been very little actual expansion of military production. There’s been a bit in the US and practically none in the EU. The reality is that even if companies committed to this, it can’t be done overnight. You need trained workers skilled in trades, you need to build factories, you need secure supply chains, and so on. All of that takes years to implement. Real life isn’t like video games.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.mlEnglish
          81·
          10 months ago

          Historically the free-market has never attempted to do anything except maximize profit. The way the contracting system works in the Us, you never have to actual produce anything to get paid, all you have to do create a shell company that will produce the thing you are contracted to produce. When the shell company can’t produce the thing, you blame it on the suppliers of the shell company, and then you pocket the contract money. At no point would shells ever be produced.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1910·
      10 months ago

      This is how proxy wars go. The Republicans aren’t bought out by Russia. The USA uses proxies for specific strategic goals. When the goal is achieved or becomes untenable, they cut off the proxy. That’s just how it goes.

      To avoid showing voters the realpolitik they need some plausible reasons for cutting off the proxy. Usually it’s a combination of fiscal responsibility noise and isolationist noise. This is no different.

      The USA was provoking Russia. Russia got provoked. The USA activated some sleeper cells, those cells got neutralized. The USA wanted to see Russian capabilities, they got what they could, including intel on hypersonic missile performance, but I don’t know if they got what they wanted.

      And then multiple fronts got opened up against the West (Niger, Palestine, etc) and threat escalations emerged in unexpected locations (Iranian missiles im Venezuela). And it’s become clear the West can’t produce the war machine it needs for the conflicts that are coming. So, it’s time to cut off the proxy. Russia doesn’t have the means to occupy Ukraine. The USA is not worried about Russian expansion, so there’s no more reason to be there, except of course the rhetorical reasons that were used to mask the proxy nature of the conflict in the first place (russophobia, anti-communism, moral posturing, etc). So, to control the domestic mood, the Republicans get to play their part as dirt bags, make a bunch of rhetorical noise about why we can’t fund them anymore, and psyops adds some Russiagate flavor through networks of influence to mask the reality: the proxy has outlived its usefulness and the USA is cutting them off.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
      329·
      10 months ago

      Not from the US or Europe, but I kept hearing news about Ukraine countering Russia? What just happened?

      US Republicans are working towards autocratic facism in the US, and fundamental yet unspoken within that is their palpable relationship with other autocratic and autocratic hopefuls like Un and Putin.

      US Republicans (and their voters) would rather live under theocratic facism than to have to share the world with people they don’t understand. They believe by supporting Putin, they’ll achieve their goals, which to date, has show to be an effective strategy.

      Republicans, the elected ones and the ones that just vote R, have become the enemies of Democracy globally, and within the United States.

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      185·
      10 months ago

      You have probably been reading propaganda. Russia has been clearly winning for over a year, and all indications are that time and attrition is on Russia’s side as well. This was quite obvious and clear from the start to anyone familiar with the history of wars involving Russia versus Europe; Russia has massive resources to tap into and an extremely educated population with extensive military and logistic legacy knowledge from the Soviet Union, which was the world superpower militarily in terms of land wars on the Eurasian continent. Russia is also a handful of kilometers from the frontline and capable of massive standardized domestic production of arms - Ukraine is getting a hodgepodge of expiring arms from all over the world in an uncoordinated piecemeal fashion. Of course Russia’s system of war is better. It’s also the soviet advantage in WW2, logistics and industrial production.

      Pro-Ukrainian propaganda has been flooded through everywhere in the Western media world, so it’s likely all you have been exposed to. I recommend dabbling in Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern diplomatic and news sources to get a wider picture of what actually is going on. Ukraine is never getting back Donbas or Crimea, and they will be lucky to get out of this with Kharkiv or Odessa

    • Jackinopolis@sh.itjust.works
      126·
      10 months ago

      Massive swell of people to make any progress to have something to campaign with for Putin’s re-election. Ukraine has been generally running low on artillery and can’t fully capitalize on countering large unit offenses. The Ukrainians have a lot of western equipment but are low on funds to supply them.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        92·
        10 months ago

        The average age of Ukraine’s army shot up by almost 10 years. They have depleted their troop count, a tragic example of killing off all the military aged males through war.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        148·
        10 months ago

        You can’t reload Western equipment with funds, and the West’s ammunition production capacity has proven to be lacking compared to Russia’s.

          • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.mlEnglish
            114·
            10 months ago

            Karma for the US constantly treating NK like shit for the gall of existing. Their ideology is literally “leave me alone and i’ll leave you alone” but that wasn’t enough apparently, they had to slam them with murderous sanctions and constant warmongering propaganda.

            • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
              4·
              10 months ago

              How is it karma that Russians are killing Ukrainians with those shells? It’s not like it’s Americans dying.

              • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.mlEnglish
                15·
                10 months ago

                Ukraine is basically the last thing Russia needs to reestablish the Soviet Union. The US is willing to let that happen just so that they can put all their chips into shooting at people who literally can’t shoot back. When they eventually lose to the full might of communism, that will be why.

                Basically they’re prioritizing maximizing harm so much they don’t even care just how stupid their actions are for their long term survival.

                • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
                  3·
                  10 months ago

                  I’m not sure if you’re joking or being serious. Russia is trying to reestablish Soviet Union…?

        • Gabu@lemmy.ml
          37·
          10 months ago

          Hahahahaha, good joke. Well, I suppose it’s true, if you think of rusty nails and pellets as being “ammunition”.

    • Gamma@beehaw.orgEnglish
      66·
      10 months ago

      Russia has been trying to get this for a few months, estimates show ~30k Russian solider fatalities and over 400 tanks/infantry vehicles.

      From what I know it was strategically important to the Donetsk region, which Russia would like to get back under control. It’s also a bragging point for the “election” because it’s the largest advance they’ve had since last May, they pushed a ton of lives through the meat grinder to take it.

      source

      As to the counteroffensive, there’s a page about it on wikipedia! It wasn’t as successful as they’d hoped, they didn’t even manage to get the minimum goal. They’ve been focusing on taking out the Black Sea fleet, overcoming anti air in Crimea, and sabotaging fuel depots inside Russia since.

  • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
    186·
    10 months ago

    I sure hope some alphabet agencies in the US are looking deep into the senators blocking aid to Ukraine for being foreign agents of Russia.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
      187·
      10 months ago

      But you see, a bazillion Russians were killed during meat wave assaults with nothing but shovels to take this city that only has symbolic significance.

      • GenEcon@lemm.ee
        47·
        10 months ago

        Which has one said about this city, only about Bahmut – which is a strategically irrelevant city. This city however is pretty important.

        Nevertheless, Putins meatgrinder is still running extra hours and thousands of Russians are dying for his imperial ambitions every month. But it seems like unless the supporters of Ukraine send more weapons, the meatgrinder will grind more Ukrainians and not only Russians.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the city in the industrial Donbas region to avoid encirclement, the army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Saturday, adding that he had acted to “preserve the lives and health of servicemen”, stabilise the situation and move troops to more favourable defence lines.

    The capture of Avdiivka gives Russia full control of the area surrounding Donetsk, a large Ukrainian city that was seized by Russian proxy forces in 2014, and comes as the second anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears.

    The Ukrainian army had struggled on the frontline around Avdiivka in recent months during one of the most intense battles of the war, which left the city almost destroyed and caused nearly all of the more than 30,000 prewar population to leave.

    The US president, Joe Biden, had warned that the city might fall to Russia due to weapons shortages exacerbated by months of Republican congressional opposition to a new US funding package for the Ukrainian military.

    After the failure of Ukraine to pierce Russian lines last year, Moscow has been trying to grind down Ukrainian forces just as Kyiv weighs up a major new mobilisation and Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appointed a new commander to run the war.

    It holds particular symbolism for Russia as it was briefly taken in 2014 by Moscow-backed separatists who seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine but was recaptured by Ukrainian troops who built extensive fortifications.

    The original article contains 451 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Gabu@lemmy.ml
    812·
    10 months ago

    As usual, mods remove replies calling attention to discussion manipulation by a specific nationality mentioned in the post.