Russia v Ukraine

[M_B]

12 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

 

I know. I'm not sure how it's going to help him though tbh. Even vague talk of Americans losing lives for Ukraine futher down the line could backfire, he's got the goodwill of most of the people on his side, reckless talk could see it evaporate.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying give me the weapons to defeat Russia so that NATO doesn't have to.

[Red Phoenix]

From NYT :

 

Quote

The steep price tag of the war has prompted Congress to issue a battery of oversight requirements for information about how the money has been spent. Some of those details have been provided to lawmakers, but few have reached the public.

The accelerating spending and dearth of detailed information have fueled the resolve of several naysayers, who doubled down this week on a campaign to cast the Ukraine assistance program as a failed boondoggle, with the apparent tacit blessing of party leaders.

“You cannot testify that we have complied with the end-use monitoring requirements at all times during this conflict, can you?” insisted Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, accusing Mr. Storch of dodging.

Democrats, too, voiced concerns on Tuesday, pleading with Pentagon leaders to be straight with them about how much more money lawmakers could expect to be asked to approve for Ukraine.

“How many more times do you think Congress needs to provide aid?” Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, asked Colin H. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, during his appearance before the Armed Services panel. “What do you think, at the end, is the end game?”

The questioning was mirrored by some Democrats on the House Appropriations panel that oversees military spending posed similar questions to Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

“How much bigger would the bill be?” asked Representative Ed Case, Democrat of Hawaii, expressing concern about the administration’s successive requests for more aid. “We have to at least anticipate that possibility that we would see a higher bill next year.”

 

Pentagon leaders were reluctant to commit to either a figure or a timeline upon which they would be seeking additional funds, saying that the vagaries of the war made it impossible to commit to a schedule.

“I don’t have a sense of whether it would be higher or reduced; I just know that we are planning for the kind of effective deterrent force that Ukraine will need,” Ms. Wallander said.

Mr. Kahl suggested that the demands of some lawmakers to step up military assistance to Ukraine could further complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to keep the war effort supplied.

In the past week, the bipartisan group of House members calling on President Biden to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets has more than tripled. On Tuesday, Representative Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of Pennsylvania, a member of the group and a former Air Force officer, implored Mr. Kahl to explain why programs to train Ukrainian pilots to operate the systems had not commenced.

Mr. Kahl insisted that doing so would not save time, estimating that it would take about 18 months to train Ukrainian pilots to use the F-16 jets, which was also the Pentagon’s shortest projected time frame for sending them.

“It doesn’t make sense to start training them on a system they may never get,” he said, noting that while F-16s were a priority for Ukraine, “it’s not one of their top three priorities.”

He also said that even sending older models of F-16s would be costly, totaling $2 billion to $3 billion for about 36 planes, which would fall short of the 50 to 80 that the Pentagon estimates Ukraine would need to update its existing air force.

“That would consume a huge portion of the remaining security assistance that we have for this fiscal year,” Mr. Kahl noted, ticking through the numbers. “These are the trade-offs we are making in real time.”

 

Lawmakers Question Pentagon on Ukraine Funds, Signaling Fresh Concerns

[TheHowieLama]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 in New Delhi, according to a State Department official traveling with Blinken.

The meeting comes as tensions remain high over Ukraine as well as Russia’s suspension of the New START nuclear weapons treaty.

Blinken and Lavrov spoke for roughly 10 minutes, the same official said.

The source also said that this meeting was unplanned and that Secretary Blinken was the one to approach Lavrov on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Taylor Greene is such a horrible lying cunt.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-cpac-zelensky-b2293717.html 

[SasaS]

Little news on Bakhmut on Ukrainian side, OPSEC usually means bad news.

Tom thinks the 93rd is still in the town's center (they were the guys that held the Donetsk airport for months).  Judging by the high ranking brass visiting the town recently, glum faces and lack of tactical improvements, Ukrainians are pulling out.

https://medium.com/@x_TomCooper_x/ukraine-war-4-march-2023-a375041a94e3

[M_B]

They've been withdrawing slowly for a few days now. 

[TheHowieLama]

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov – a close ally of Vladimir Putin – is reported to be seriously ill with kidney problems amid fears of ‘poisoning’.

The fanatical pro-war zealot who has advocated using nuclear weapons against Ukraine is rumoured to have summoned a leading doctor from the United Arab Emirates because he ‘does not trust’ Moscow doctors.

[Red Phoenix]

Update on the idea that Bakhmut isn't important :

 

Quote

Russian troops will have “open road” to capture key cities in eastern Ukraine if they seize control of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN, as he defended his decision to keep Ukrainian forces in the besieged city.

 

“This is tactical for us,” Zelensky said, insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in prolonging its defense of the city after weeks of Russian attacks left it on the cusp of falling to Moscow’s troops.

 

“We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview from Kyiv. “That’s why our guys are standing there.”

 

Exclusive: Zelensky warns of ‘open road’ through Ukraine’s east if Russia captures Bakhmut, as he resists calls to retreat

[Rico1304]

8 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

Update on the idea that Bakhmut isn't important :

 

 

Exclusive: Zelensky warns of ‘open road’ through Ukraine’s east if Russia captures Bakhmut, as he resists calls to retreat

Nothing on the execution of the soldier, or the missing children?  
 

‘I just want peace’.  Worra cunt. 

[Red Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Rico1304 said:

Nothing on the execution of the soldier, or the missing children?  
 

‘I just want peace’.  Worra cunt. 

 

Yeah I do want peace, sorry you can't hack it.

[M_B]

11 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

Update on the idea that Bakhmut isn't important :

 

 

Exclusive: Zelensky warns of ‘open road’ through Ukraine’s east if Russia captures Bakhmut, as he resists calls to retreat

 

They've done a great job of defending it. It still hasn't fallen and Russian advances have come at an enormous cost.

 

And it's almost Spring.........

[AngryOfTuebrook]

1 hour ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

Yeah I do want peace, sorry you can't hack it.

There's no peace without justice and there's no justice until the Russian Army fuck off home.

[Red Phoenix]

19 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

There's no peace without justice and there's no justice until the Russian Army fuck off home.

 

I mean peace as in not a major war going on that risks escalating into something far worse. I'm sure there's plenty of Syrians that don't feel like there's justice with the US and Turkey both occupying parts of the country, it seems kind of accepted that they're not moving anywhere though.

 

I'm not a fan of Assad but it doesn't mean I don't think Syrians should have all of their country back, same for Zelensky and Ukrainians. I don't know how those problems are going to be solved though and I'd still prefer peace in both countries.

[SasaS]

13 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

Update on the idea that Bakhmut isn't important :

 

 

Exclusive: Zelensky warns of ‘open road’ through Ukraine’s east if Russia captures Bakhmut, as he resists calls to retreat

 

If there is an open road if Russia captures Bakhmut, the prez should sack his army commanders.

[SasaS]

2 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

I mean peace as in not a major war going on that risks escalating into something far worse. I'm sure there's plenty of Syrians that don't feel like there's justice with the US and Turkey both occupying parts of the country, it seems kind of accepted that they're not moving anywhere though.

 

I'm not a fan of Assad but it doesn't mean I don't think Syrians should have all of their country back, same for Zelensky and Ukrainians. I don't know how those problems are going to be solved though and I'd still prefer peace in both countries.

 

What parts of Syria are the US occupying?

[Red Phoenix]

5 minutes ago, SasaS said:

What parts of Syria are the US occupying?

 

From Al-Jazeera :

 

Quote

Some US forces are still located in the SDF-controlled areas of northeastern Syria, such as Hassakeh and Raqqa provinces.

 

Since 2016, the US has also controlled al-Tanf base, in a remote area of Syria, near where the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq meet. The US presence in the base was agreed upon with Russia, and is part of a 55km (34 miles) “deconfliction zone”, which US and allied forces patrol. Russia has since called on the US to withdraw from al-Tanf.

 

There are still approximately 900 US soldiers in Syria.

 

Why does the US still have forces in Syria?

 

I wasn't trying to say it was comparable with what Russia are doing in Ukraine, they're still there against the will of most Syrians and the gov though and I don't think anyone's really able to do much about it without risking some other shit starting up. There's also US sanctions on the country that haven't helped either, especially recently after the earthquake.

[SasaS]

10 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

From Al-Jazeera :

 

 

Why does the US still have forces in Syria?

 

I wasn't trying to say it was comparable with what Russia are doing in Ukraine, they're still there against the will of most Syrians and the gov though and I don't think anyone's really able to do much about it without risking some other shit starting up. There's also US sanctions on the country that haven't helped either, especially recently after the earthquake.

 

I think they only ever had special forces and intelligence on the ground in Syria, your article mentions some 900 personnel and a remote base near Iraqi border. It is not comparable with what Russia is/was doing in Syria, let alone what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And let us not mention Iranians plus I doubt various Iraqi and Lebanese militias are no longer there.

[Red Phoenix]

9 minutes ago, SasaS said:

I think they only ever had special forces and intelligence on the ground in Syria, your article mentions some 900 personnel and a remote base near Iraqi border. It is not comparable with what Russia is/was doing in Syria, let alone what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And let us not mention Iranians plus I doubt various Iraqi and Lebanese militias are no longer there.

 

Yeah I didn't say it was comparable I mentioned it as an example, if we're talking about people not having peace and justice though it's still the US and Turkey in another country and their gov isn't able to get them out. If there's no peace without justice there's also going to be other examples all over the place. So maybe there's no real peace or justice in a lot of parts of the world but at least there's not major wars going on like in Ukraine.

[Red Phoenix]

 

 

[M_B]

Georgia in choosing the EU above Putin shocka!

[SasaS]

No peace RP can find. Now has Georgia on his mind.

 

 

[M_B]

 

[M_B]

 

[TheHowieLama]

2 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

 

[Red Phoenix]

Yeah I'm sure what's happening in Georgia is all totally organic and nothing to do with any type of US-backed regime change plans.