I love that their generals are being assassinated and puta is hiding underground.
Zelensky is really showing the world what modern warfare can do when standing up the international heavy weights.
And yet Zelensky is also traveling the world meeting leaders and going about his day in full view of the world.
Russia’s assassin’s must have lost their edge
Furthermore, it is the only Russian refinery that produces cracking catalysts, which are components that other facilities depend on for secondary oil refining.
So an even bigger win for Ukraine if this indirectly reduces refining even more at other locations.
Still a mystery to me why Vladimir Dipshit decided to invade. Russia and Ukraine could have been besties. Together they could be an economic powerhouse. They’re neighbors, they speak each other’s language…this is nuts.
The thought he easily could have it all to himself. Instead he has shown the world some valuable info : “Never piss off Ukraine”
Yeah he should’ve known better. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the story behind it are famous for a reason.
“In the 19th century, the historical Zaporozhian Cossacks were sometimes the subject of picaresque tales demonstrating admiration of their primitive vitality and contemptuous disregard for authority (in marked contrast to the more civilized subjects of the authoritarian Russian state). … Mehmed demanded that the Cossacks submit to Ottoman rule. The Cossacks, led by Ivan Sirko, replied in a characteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities. The painting exhibits the Cossacks’ pleasure at striving to come up with ever more base vulgarities.”
Now thanks to Putin we all know where Zaporizhzhia is, and it illustrates quite effectively how they react to such demands.
They have also been the catalyst for modern drone warfare. On one hand, more drones should mean more targeted strike minimizing collateral damage and casualties. On the other hand, it’s a lot easier for the worst to carryout attacks rapidly and cheaply.
Putin surrounded himself with yes men while rampant corruption rotted away his military.
Still a mystery really? Listen to Jeffrey Sachs or Mearsheimer please
I don’t think it’s just a matter of reacting to NATO expansion like those guys would have you think. Russia had already prevented Ukraine from joining NATO with the Crimea invasion (plus earlier Georgia) and successfully muddied the waters such that almost no one in the West even really cared that much. Trump’s antics were deteriorating relations such that Macron was publically calling NATO brain-dead. Nordstream 2 was soon to come online and bring new fissures between particularly Germany on one side and Poland and Ukraine on the other, since more bypass capability allowed Russia to pressure Ukraine and Poland with gas games without giving up on German cash. They were basically already winning as they were with NATO looking irrelevant more and more by the day, they were making tons of money with western Europe which was fed up with what they saw as petty eastern European disputes threatening stable gas supply, etc.
Invading Ukraine more seriously than they had been blew all that nice position up and put new urgency and energy into the alliance, scared Sweden and Finland into throwing their lot in with NATO, moved NATO borders much closer to Russia and made re-arming a far FAR more salient issue in EU countries while also getting a jillion sanctions slapped on Russia. And it’s not like those measures would have been unexpected unlike Ukraine actually being able to fight back surprisingly well. It’s a weird anti-NATO maneuver that’s practically designed in a lab to make NATO more relevant than it had been in decades.
Rather, Peter Zeihan. He was forecasting this over a decade before the invasion. It’s about geography, population decline and the desire to create a buffer against possible invaders. Not that anyone was seriously looking to invade Russia. But their history has hardened their perspective on this matter.
I don’t get the buffer thing. Russia already has an immense, absurdly hard to invade territory, even if anyone had any interest in invading it.
And if Putin is successful at invading Ukraine and Ukraine becomes Russia, like Crimea… then what? They need more buffer to protect Bigger Russia?
Unless it’s not buffer against oursiders coming in but a wall against Russians leaving. That I can imagine. “You escaped Putin? Haha, joke’s on you, now have fun with f###ng Lukashenko” sounds like a pretty good deterrent.
He wants empire.
I dont think we have the genetic cloning capabilities for that yet…let alone memory transfers.
Because he sees himself as the successor of previous emperors of Russia such as Nicholas I. To him, Gorbachev was just a fake leader, watching over disaster and dissolution, while he’s a monarchical figure of inevitable destiny.
He sees the invasion of Ukraine as a defensive war, trying to keep the empire together. Prior to 2014, the Ukrainian government was essentially a puppet to Russia, after that it was like another piece of the empire was “taken”.
I recommend listening to Vlad Vexler to get an insight into how the tyrant thinks. His chat channel is also great.
The more you stay in such a highly powerful position, the more you lose your touch with reality. Your men start lying to you. You get reports about how great you are doing and how everything is working perfectly.
Combine it with massive ambition and ego. He was, and still is, way too many layers of delusions in. The problem is, the corrupt system he created prefers him alive.
I’ve been telling since 2022, the only way this operation ends is one of his own people putting a bullet in ole Dimi’s head. He’s not the type to back down until his enemies knock on his door. Maybe he’ll do it himself in a bunker who knows.
That’s kind of an insane distance. The article mentions it’s the first refinery they’ve hit east of the Urals. No shit. So is China, and Omsk is about that far away from Ukraine.
The strikes have hit the unit’s process columns. The refinery
hasa capacity of 8.4 million metric tons of crude oil per year.had
One of the most techno beat sounding things you can name an Oblast
TechnO-blast Omsk
After a dozen or so staff were assassinated, everyone left chooses to be obsequious to save their own lives. No one dares to tell Putin that he’s making an unwise decision.
… and he had a pretty good run, considering. But he got too greedy, and so did his sycophants.
In the first month, I thought Russia would win. I thought their army was quite a bit better.
Omskbird welcomes you.
Comrade Vladimir, initiate Operation Red Storm!
