Russians execute another two captured Ukrainian soldiers near Selydove
This is a new development. I think it's done by the decision of the platoon leaders or soldiers themselves, without hierarchy's approval. However the hierarchy didn't condemn this and the Russian MoD didn't even denied that it happened.
The Russian are still exchanging prisoners Ukrainians took from the Kursk Region. Another 95 Ukrainain soldiers were freed recently. Many of these soldiers are from the legendary Azovstahl defenders. They are the most valuable PoW for Ukraine because they represent the heroic resistance against the invader. It's possible that Russian soldiers execute the best Ukrainian fighters to avoid that to happen in the future. Some of the executed soldiers were drone operators. So it could be a vengeance for those they killed in this case.
Lloyd Austin made an announced visit to Kiev. The following aid package announced later is impressive: Himars rockets, shells of all callibers, anti-tank weapons, and, form other sources, and I heard also of 2000 Humvees. The package is worth $400 million. US support is not being reduced as we can see.
Tu22 Boomber pilot killed with a hammer: Just retribution.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence said:
On the morning of October 20, Golenkov's body was found in an apple orchard in the village of Suponevo outside Bryansk, with multiple head injuries, “likely caused by a hammer”, the HUR defence intelligence agency noted, warning of a “just retribution” coming for every war crime committed.
Golenkov was a pilot with the 52nd heavy bomber aviation regiment of the Russian Aerospace Force (military unit 33310), based at the Shaykovka airfield, a home for Tu-22M3 bombers.
He is responsible for missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including the strike that hit the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk where nearly a thousand people were shopping at the time of the attack. Twenty-two people were killed in the strike, and dozens were injured.
Golenkov is also complicit in a missile attack that hit an apartment block in the city of Dnipro on January 14, 2023, where 46 people died, including six children.
I rare assassination of an air force pilot. The last time I remember it was when they shot down a pilot in his car while he crossed the air base
shlagbaum more than a year ago, I think. It seems not easy to hit them.
The fact that this one was not killed by a handgun with a silencer let me think that they hired locals to do the job.
Ukrinform reported
Russian army loses another 1,710 soldiers in Ukraine in the past day.
I rarely report this since it's regarded as garbage here. Nevertheless the number surprised me. It's 600 more than they report usually. A few days ago they reported 1500. The number of tanks and armoured vehicles is alaso impressive.
While these numbers are certainly inflated, it still reflects an increase in Russian losses.
On the other hand, there were You Tube rumours that Ukrainians destroyed scores of Russian war planes. Yet, Ukrainform never mentioned this. The number of destroyed plane that they reports haven't changed since the last Ice Age or something.
Three KAB glide bombs on Kharkiv's didtrict.
This is only three out of dozen dropped every day. Ukrinform usually reports only those falling on civilian targets.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said:
I’d like to address Volodymyr Zelensky - from here, on your behalf – and tell him: we know that he is fighting for us and will prevail. And we will enter Europe together.
link
It's very unlikely that Georgia will join the EU at the same time as Ukraine, or that they will ever do.
The point is that Georgia is a strong ally of Ukraine in this war and share common issues.
The new French foreign minister visited the front line in Ukraine. Support for Ukraine is going to last.
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Feanor said:
The longer Ukraine waits the bigger the chance that it will be a capitulation.
I don;t understand the logic of this sentence: The sooner the capitulation, the lesser the chance of capitulation?????
Feanor said:
The sooner they do it the more credibility they have to threaten continued resistance.
That makes more sens. Talks with Putin will probably result in continued Ukrainian resistance.
Feanor said:
One of the few things Ukraine can offer Russia is a cheaper way to achieve Russia's goals.
Sure they could. Like one of the few things Israel can offer to Iran and Hamas is to dismantle the state of Israel. LOL.
Feanor said:
I certainly don't think the overall level of military aid is dosed carefully. Look at the mountains of surplus armored vehicles and artillery from all over Europe that Ukraine got in '22-'23.
I was talking about long range strike capanilities.
But even armoured vehicles were dose carefully at the beginning. For half a year in 2022, delivering tanks was considered a dangerous red line.
Feanor said:
The real problem of course is not the strategy of the West in Ukraine but the strategy of Ukraine in Ukraine. How do they hope to win and what outcome constitutes a realistic victory under present conditions?
And what would you suggest? Giving in into Putin's demands? That's even less realistic than retaking the Donbas and Crimea because Putin's demands are infinite. You can;t give infinity.
Poeple said:
I don't think this is true for the Donbas or for Crimea.
If you ask Ukrainian living west of the front line "would you like to live in Russia so that the war will stop", most of them will answer yes, regardless their ethnic affiliation.
If you ask Russians living east of the front line the same question: "would you like to live in Ukraine so that the war will stop", they will also answer yes.
For people there, the most important is that the war stops.
Many in Ukraine and in Russia support the war effort only as long as it's not them who are going to die on the battlefield and it's not their home that is being reduced to rubbles.
The only difference is that population east of the front line suffers much less form the war than those in the west of it.
Feanor said:
Except he's not a glitch. He's part of a political movement that exists in many European countries. It is not inconceivable that someone like him could end up running other European countries.
Fico. LOL.
Yes there is such a movement in most of western countries. Maybe more in western Europe than in eastern Europe.
I don;t think that Orban's position toward Putin is shared by the majority of Hungarians. But he was elected for other reasons.
The same with Le Pen in France. She is not elected (or almost elected) because she is a friend of Putin. But because she is, lots of people in the far right think that the invasion was somewhat justified, that the West is
also responsible and that Zelensky is a crook.
There is also a very active Russian propagande in Europe spreading these ideas.
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SinisterMinister said:
Did US advisors have a plan for how he would win? Or were they just cynically backing him in order to drain Russian resources for as long as possible?
Why is it cynical?
What is cynical is that they didn't react when Putin was massing troops at their border despite the Budapest Memorandum which should protect Ukraine against the use of force.
What is cynical is that China is helping Russia because they can buy cheap oil and gold.
What is cynical is when countries pretend to be
neutral while allowing Russia to evade sanctions.
Had China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and other Emirates and most of the other major countries in the world applied sanctions, the war would be over by now.
Draining Russian resources is the only thing that can help Ukraine win this war, or mitigate losses at the end of it.
And this is working very effectively.
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Korean troops
Musashi_kenshin said:
A better question is what does NATO do if North Korea is sending significant numbers of troops to Ukraine.
Nothing. North Korea is already under sanctions to the bone and is sanctioning herself by applying a communist economy.
There is nothing to do in this respect.
Beyond that, we don't care about North Korea. If it was China or another serious country, it would be another story.
One interesting fact: The Koreans are going to fight in the Yakut Battalion so that they can pass for Russians from Yakutia who look like Asians. Problem is that Koreans don't look like Yakutians, yet they hope that white people won't notice the difference.
It means that they don't want to show that Korean soldiers take an active role despite that everybody knows that they are there.
(IMO That's why they don't speak Korean in the video.)
