https://archive.li/Z0m5m

The Russian commander of the “Vostok” Battalion fighting in southern Ukraine said on Thursday that Ukraine will not be defeated and suggested that Russia freeze the war along current frontlines.

Alexander Khodakovsky made the candid concession yesterday on his Telegram channel after Russian forces, including his own troops, were devastatingly defeated by Ukrainian marines earlier this week at Urozhaine in the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk regional border area.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Khodakovsky, a former official of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, said yesterday.

“When I talk to myself about our destiny in this war, I mean that we will not crawl forward, like the [Ukrainians], turning everything into [destroyed] Bakhmuts in our path. And, I do not foresee the easy occupation of cities,” he said.

  • Tester@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I think many people are forgetting that the larger army, vastly outnumbering Ukrainian resources in numbers, has not won a victory since the beginning of the invasion. And only presents a problem because the 2 countries cannot reliably use air power to overcome 1st WW trench warfare. Russia has defenses, but no ability to move forward. They are just trying to hold on to what they took in those first few months and are very slowly failing at that. If Ukraine can keep going, supported by the West, Russia will lose. I do not think Russia will use nukes – any use of a nuke is basically on Russia’s own land – according to them – and will affect them as much as Ukraine. But the question of ending the war is an interesting one. Do we see Russia continuing the war if they lose most of their ill-gotten territorial gains? What happens to those insecure areas? Are people going to rebuild, i.e. invest scarce resources in unstable areas? Or will they just become dead zones, DMZ borders?

    • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Ukraine can keep going, supported by the West, Russia will lose.

      You have a whole entire counteroffensive that shows the exact opposite.

      Also

      has not won a victory since the beginning of the invasion.

      Have you taken a look at a map of the current situation? That’s just straight up bullshit

        • ThomasMuentzner [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          nationalism is like leprosy … a state once infected is left with his territories severed from it, its youth withered away into the now foreign grounds and its spirits broken under the Mad screams of the unrelentlessly uneffected …

        • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          And they call me propagandized. Of course since you’re Ukrainian you experience this war totally different than I, but nothing on the ground suggests that even a slither of what you’ve just said is true.

          • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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            Damn, I thought your rules preclude you from making such a racist remark against a nationality. You can go join Trump with calling places “shitholes”.

            I find this weird support for Russia fascinating. They are clearly not free from nationalists and extremists sentiments themselves. Their own state media is calling for pre-emptive nuking of cities, Ireland being an acceptable collateral when nuking the UK, and their own former prime minister Medveded is yelling on twitter about achieving “Greater Russia”. Here’s someone who was awarded “Hero of the Russian Federation” by Putin himself.. It’s almost as if Russia doesn’t actually care, and they are just using it for their propaganda.

            Also lol, they’re saying they’re not going to execute them because they aren’t barbarians and giving them time to retreat, and then you take offense to that? That’s such an odd stance. I personally applaud when someone says they want to avoid unnecesairy deaths, but you do you.

            • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              “You can’t call our neo-Nazis trash and our state that celebrates Nazi collaborators a shithole! That’s, uh, uh, that’s racist!”

              America is a shithole, too, if you were wondering.

              • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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                America is a shithole, too, if you were wondering.

                I agree it has its problems, but I’m not an American so it’s easier to not get deluded by what they call “the American dream”. Helps that even in my English classes growing up we dealt with topics such as the rampant poverty issues Americans face, and how many children live in poverty in the US. Though context matters; America is currently not being invaded. If it was a minor country on the world stage I would also not call it a “shithole”. Same reason I can detect issues in certain African countries without ever calling them by that name, like one of their presidents did.

                If you are from America, calling a country that’s been suffering your world hegemony for so long a ‘shithole’, I can only say you are part of the reason that’s the situation, and so you have no rights to call any country a shithole.

                “You can’t call our neo-Nazis trash and our state that celebrates Nazi collaborators a shithole! That’s, uh, uh, that’s racist!”

                Not every Ukrainian is a Nazi. But sure, let your hate cloud your sense of decency, if that makes you feel better. I’m sure the mothers I’ve spoken to will be happy their children died because they were Nazis, besides I’m sure their elderly people just had it coming… /s

                Unlike you I don’t see them as “acceptable collateral”.

                • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Not every Ukrainian is a Nazi.

                  Neither myself nor the person you were replying to claimed this. They were talking about “Azov, Banderites, and all the other assorted [fascist] trash.”

                  • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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                    I never said the original poster made a general statement about the people, just the country being called a shithole, you came in and added the “can’t call neo-nazi’s trash anymore”, a ridiculous statement I never made. In the context of my response being about how he refers to the country of Ukraine, how can your sarcastic complaint about me not be seen as referring to the the people? That’s why I said not every Ukrainian is a Nazi.

                    My comment was pretty particular about the “your shithole” part. I don’t care what negative thing he calls Banderites, and you’ll see from my previous comments elsewhere in this thread I have no love for those who adore him.

                    Also I find it ridiculous you all are very happy to point to problematic groups in one country, yet systematically ignore it in another. Double standards like this is why I have difficulties not seeing the bias at play in these discussions.

                  • yata
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                    That is a blatant lie. The commenter very clearly called all of Ukraine a shithole. Oops, you accidentally revealed your powerlevel.

                • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  Unlike you I don’t see them as “acceptable collateral”.

                  You should tell NATO that. They don’t listen to us but maybe they’ll listen to you and stop the killing.

              • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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                Please re-read my opening sentence before responding. I’m clearly talking about the ‘your shithole’ part. I don’t care if someone insults fascists. But it’s racist to call a place “shithole”, especially if the poster is from a ‘first world country’.

          • yata
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            1 year ago

            Ah your mask fell off, nazi.

            • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.net
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              OUN leaders Andriy Melnyk (code name Consul I) and Bandera (code name Consul II) both served as agents of the Nazi Germany military intelligence Abwehr Second Department. Their goal was to run diversion activities after Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. This information is part of the testimony that Abwehr Colonel Erwin Stolze gave on 25 December 1945 and submitted to the Nuremberg trials, with a request to be admitted as evidence.

              In the spring of 1941, Bandera held meetings with the heads of Germany’s intelligence, regarding the formation of “Nachtigall” and “Roland” Battalions. In the spring of that year, the OUN received 2.5 million marks for subversive activities inside the Soviet Union. Gestapo and Abwehr officials protected Bandera’s followers, as both organizations intended to use them for their own purposes.

              On June 23, 1941, one day after the German attack on the Soviet Union, Bandera sent a letter to Hitler arguing the case for an independent Ukraine. On 30 June 1941, with the arrival of Nazi troops in Ukraine, Bandera and the OUN-B unilaterally declared an independent Ukrainian state (“Act of Renewal of Ukrainian Statehood”). The proclamation pledged a cooperation of the new Ukrainian state with Nazi Germany under the leadership of Hitler with a closing note “Glory to the heroic German army and its Führer, Adolf Hitler”. The declaration was accompanied by violent pogroms.

              Is this your hero?

              • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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                Yeah anyone supporting Banderas really needs to pick up a book that goes through what he did in his life. Whatever good someone might think he did, has been destroyed by his abhorrent actions. I don’t applaud Hitler either for his progressive (at the time) animal rights… He’s a shit person, and deserved worse.

                • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  They know what Bandera did. That’s what they like about him. He was cleansing their blessed homeland of whatever the Ukrainian word for sub humans is. They are Nazis. They want to kill everyone who isn’t like them, and once they’re done they’ll start killing each other for being insufficient blond haired and blue eyed.

                  • Marzepansion@programming.dev
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                    I try not to assume too much about the person on the other end, depending on the age he might just be an edgy teenager lashing out (yeah I know that’s ironic with my previous statement). I know my upbringing glossed over certain “troubling” parts of my country’s history, and that left me with certain messed up beliefs as well that I had to move past (and I luckily did)

                    In the end I hope they’re someone who is just being edgy and ill-informed and my response at least plants a seed of doubt that is enough to prosper into acquiring the knowledge to move past their current beliefs

                    But you might be right, I might just be a tad overtly optimistic here. But for me Nazis are an existential threat, so I’d rather convert them early than deal with the repercussions if they ever get political power over people like myself again.

        • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Don’t be mean to them

          I know you’re being sarcastic but no, they don’t deserve being talked to nicely. All these bloodthirsty libs are happy to dance on the graves of thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians because of some vague notion of the west being ‘the good guys’, gladly ignoring history but being incredibly smug in their ignorance. We provide sources, walls of text to explain where we’re coming from, only for them to ignore all the work and effort we put in and go back to their fuckin bubble to complain about how we’re ‘tankies’ and pat each other on the back for being anti-amperialist NATO lovers, lacking either the knowledge or the ideological spine to see the absolute hypocrisy in what they’re doing. Or the smug reddit tier comment saying ‘I ain’t reading all that’ because they need spend a fucking minute reading the thoughts of someone better informed than them.

    • tuga [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      has not won a victory since the beginning of the invasion

      Gotta have a highly specific definition of “victory” to say something like this

      • Tester@lemm.ee
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        Well, let’s use the Russian definitions… Did they take Kiev within 3 days? No. Did they hold Kherson? No. Are they able to stop the Ukrainians? No. There has not been any significant ground taken by the Russians in the last few months. Were they able to defend against Ukrainian attacks on the Black Sea? No. After losing their Moskva flagship, they still are suffering attacks on infrastructure, warchips, and bridges. So I am happy to use the limited in context term of victory, while not being so pendantic that it loses meaning.

              • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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                It is Russian-speaking like OP specified, though, as well as Ukraine’s 4th largest city.

                If they only cared about Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk they had them and could have done nothing new, but they tried to take the whole country and so now here we are.

                • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  They never tried to take the whole country. That’s just fantasy and doesn’t make sense for a dozen reasons.

                  About two thirds of Dnipro speaks Russian at home, but ethnic Russians are only 25-30% of the population (see “Demographics”). I would imagine this is why the city is predominantly not separatists.

                  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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                    I mean, it used to be more pro Russian, but then Russia changed a lot of minds by actually showing up in 2014.

                    They never tried to take the whole country. That’s just fantasy and doesn’t make sense for a dozen reasons.

                    Riiight.

                  • yata
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                    They definitely did try to take the whole country, but had to change goals when that failec spectacularly. Then Putin concocted a new narrative and desperately wanted everyone to forget about the original one. Based on the copy paste comments from the hexbear brigade, it seems like you guys did in fact uncritically swallow all of Putns koolaid and forget very recent history in favour of the new fictional reality.

              • yata
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                1 year ago

                Russias referendum of annexation disagrees with your arbitrarily defined “separatist regions”.

        • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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          Well they won in Mariupol, that was a pretty big win. That’s their only major victory in the whole campaign though, for sure. They are losers in this war, though Ukrainians are hardly winning, either. Everybody loses except arms manufacturers, pretty much.

          • Tester@lemm.ee
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            In war, there are only losers. Agreed! And especially, in this completely senseless war.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          But that’s a relatively small number of people.

          . To be fair they did get bhakmut… Lol

      • Leate Woncelsace@lemm.ee
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        Russia’s first failure was being a Fascist state that relies on Nazis for their openly imperialist agenda.

        Your biggest failure is being a fascist that doesn’t even realize it.

          • yata
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            Again, you guys are basically doing nothing but projecting. One of you hexbear brigaders literally thought comparing the real world to video games made for a good example to back up your claims.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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      I think many people are forgetting that the larger army, vastly outnumbering Ukrainian resources in numbers, has spent the past 9 months creating multilayered defences that the Ukrainian army has been banging their head against for the past 10 weeks. Ukraine no longer has a functioning military industry of its own or even an economy to speak of. It’s entirely dependent on the west at this point.

      NATO scrounged up all they had for this offensive, and US even ran out of shells to give having to resort to cluster munitions. NATO also trained Ukrainian soldiers. Now all of this is being lost without any actual progress being made. Ukraine hasn’t even managed to reach the first defence line being mired in the security zone.

      What we will see is that once the offensive burns itself out, Russia will start an offensive of their own against a depleted and demoralized Ukrainian army. The west will not be able to send more ammunition and equipment because it doesn’t exist, and Ukraine will have lost majority of their trained and motivated soldiers who can’t be replaced.

      Even western sources are now admitting that Ukraine is suffering far higher losses than Russia, and that this is primarily an artillery battle where Russia vastly outnumbers Ukrainian artillery. 80% of casualties were being caused by Russian artillery.

      • Tester@lemm.ee
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        Yes, artillery is at the core of Russian military doctrine. But this only means the rest of its technology is not being used. Where is air superiority? Non-existent. Russia is afraid to put aircraft in Ukrainian sights. Where are the huge tank battles? Non-existent because the Western technology makes Swiss cheese out of even their heaviest armor. I am amazed that someone can still believe in the Russian military when despite overwhelming numbers, Russia has not been able to defend itself against its neighbor, 1/5th its size and certainly less prepared for war. You think it’s a sign of victory that Russia is now using WW2 era tanks they are pulling out of storage? If anything, that shows exactly who is running out of materiel to run the war. And NATO has plenty of munitions. I think you are confusing production and capacity. Are the production of artillery and war machines too low? Yes, and NATO is addressing those issues. However, NATO has huge reserves of munitions sitting in warehouses that it hasn’t even tapped yet. Most of the donations to Ukraine have not even been of NATO’s best stock. It just happened to be a way of clearing old munitions. In some cases, both the US and Germany were going to destroy or mothball equipment only to reroute it to Ukraine. NATO is not running out of stock, it is simply getting rid of old inventory and ramping up production on new munitions. This takes time, but they are not running out. Unlike Russia… What will Russia do next? Having their Cossacks go back to fighting on horseback when the WW2 tanks run out of parts?

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          Where is air superiority? Non-existent.

          Did you somehow miss all the videos of Russian aviation taking out tanks on daily basis, or the fact that Russia does massive air strike campaigns against entire Ukraine weekly for many months now? Meanwhile, Ukraine has no air force to speak of, and at this point doesn’t even have much of air defence. What you’re saying is demonstrably false.

          Where are the huge tank battles?

          There aren’t huge tank battles because Russia is letting Ukraine blow up all their tanks in minefields and hunts them down with lancets. The battles we’ve seen so far are Ukrainian columns following a single mine clearing vehicle that gets taken out by a helicopter or artillery. Then the column ends up being stuck because it’s in a minefield, and the rest of the vehicles are systematically destroyed. These were the first two weeks of the offensive after which Ukraine abandoned the fabled NATO tactics and went back to sending penny packets of troops to get ground down by artillery.

          I am amazed that someone can still believe in the Russian military when despite overwhelming numbers, Russia has not been able to defend itself against its neighbor, 1/5th its size and certainly less prepared for war.

          That’s because you have absolutely no clue regarding the subject you’re opining on. Here’s what an actual expert has to say https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/whats-ahead-war-ukraine

          You think it’s a sign of victory that Russia is now using WW2 era tanks they are pulling out of storage?

          What this actually shows is that Russia doesn’t even feel the need to pull out its modern equipment, they’re clearing out their old inventory the exact same way NATO is.

          NATO is not running out of stock, it is simply getting rid of old inventory and ramping up production on new munitions.

          Biden literally admitted that US ran out of high explosive shells to send. This is also admitted by mainstream media. Meanwhile, this is what the "dramatic increase in production actually looks like:

          Army Secretary Christine Wormuth separately told reporters that the U.S. will go from making 14,000 155mm shells each month to 20,000 by the spring and 40,000 by 2025.

          That’s what Russia uses on daily basis, and Russia produces over a million shells a year

          You really should spend a bit of time educating yourself instead of spreading misinformation here.

          • rusticus@lemm.ee
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            lol get out of here with your Russian propaganda. No one believes you. Go back to lemmy.grad or hexbear. Lmao.

            It’s a proxy war dude. No one wins until one side exhausts their resources. And it’s the west v Russia. Yes, Russia whose GDP is about the same as the Uk. lol.

            Edit: Hi hexbear/lemmy.grad shills! So bizarre to get significantly more upvotes than the brigaded comments from dear comrades.

            • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              He even gave you sources dickweed. It’s no use trying to burst your bubble, as it’s made of steel.

              • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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                A lot of people don’t really understand how limited NATO is, how badly designed a lot of NATO weapons are, and how long it’s been since NATO actually fought a proper war. NATO has this long standing, unearned veneer of invincibility. And now we’re seeing NATO equipment used without total, uncontested air support, which is the only thing NATO is really good at and which is the thing that two successive Russian government have been preparing to fight against for 70 years.

            • sammer510 [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              Nah lots of people believe him actually. You’re just very clearly stuck in a pro Western echo chamber, as all libs are. The longer this war goes on the more Ukraine loses lmao. So by all means, keep encouraging this to continue.

              • rusticus@lemm.ee
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                There’s nothing humane about the comrades at hexbear and lemmy.grad.

                • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  Hey man, we’re not the ones who decided to use Ukraine as disposable munitions to destabilize Russia in preparation for a resource grab. We’re just calling plays from the sidelines. If we had any say in this DC, the Kremlin, and the Rada would all be smoking pits in the ground.

                • MaeBorowski [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                  Yeah, nothing humane about the people who make up the instance where every user says that food, housing, and healthcare are human rights and should be made accessible to every human being, period. The one that loudly shouts the fact that trans rights are human rights and has provided one of the best safe spaces on the internet for trans people (as the large percentage of trans users that make up hexbear will themselves tell you). The one that frequently has mental health check-ins for their users and offers support to them. The one that uses its mutual aid comm to give real life material support to comrades in need. Nothing humane about them at all, no sirree.

                  Talking about hexbear here, but lemmygrad is almost as based.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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            I don’t think this person is worth arguing with. That last comment of theirs was such a comprehensively silly thing to say. “Where are the huge tank battles?” serious? This isn’t a movie. They’re chewing up the UA army with artillery. Assuming they’re not using tanks for indirect fire what would they use them for? It’s not like they need to g find the Ukrainians, they’re walking light infantry right in to prepared defenses.

            It’s also really funny that people think there’s much of a difference between a tank from 1945 and a tank from 2015 if they both die to one hit from an ATGM or modern kinetic penetrator. They’re both equally defended against machine guns, splinter, and maybe even auto cannons up to a certain point.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              Completely agree, a lot of western propaganda relies on the fact that most people have no clue on the subject. They expect wars to look like movies or games, but real life is very different.

          • whataboutshutup@discuss.online
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            What this actually shows is that Russia doesn’t even feel the need to pull out its modern equipment, they’re clearing out their old inventory the exact same way NATO is.

            Why? Do they enjoy dragging this conflict for more than a year? Is there some reason to why they don’t use some sci-fi orbital blaster?

            If you lived there, Ukraine or Russia, doesn’t matter, and have served, you’d knew how deeply you are wrong. Bet you didn’t, and I did. Post-soviet army culture is what makes me suspect they don’t have anything breathtaking you think they have in worthy quantities.

            Opposing western propaganda is one thing. Not taking a moment to understand you are high on russian one is another. Just take a glance at this quote of yours and say it’s not copium.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              Because Russia realizes that this proxy war can escalate into a real war with NATO, and they’re obviously going to save their best weapons for that.

              Meanwhile, the whole war was sold as a special military operation in Russia, meaning that Russia is not on a war footing and life for a typical person in Russia hasn’t actually changed all that much. This is basically equivalent to when US went to destroy Iraq, and most people in US didn’t really connect the war with their day to day lives.

              Russian economy is currently growing at 4.9% as even western publications admit, they’ve managed to reorient their trade towards the east. On the other hand, many western countries are entering recession now, and there’s massive political unrest all over Europe.

              You don’t have to be high on Russian propaganda to know this because all of this is freely admitted in western media. The fact that you don’t understand any of this shows just how ignorant you are regarding the topic you’re attempting to debate here.

          • bazookabill
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            Did you somehow miss all the videos of Russian aviation taking out tanks on daily basis

            These videos obviously exists from both sides, but neither side has aerial supremacy, if you know what that means.

            and Russia produces over a million shells a year

            Rheinmetall alone offers to produce up to 600,000 artillery rounds for Ukraine annually, and that’s just one company.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              No, those videos don’t exist from both sides. Ukraine doesn’t have a functioning air force that can attack Russian positions.

              Rheinmetall alone offers to produce up to 600,000 artillery rounds for Ukraine annually, and that’s just one company.

              [citation needed]

              we’re talking about 155 mm shells here specifically

              honestly, I don’t know why you keep trying to argue something that’s demonstrably false, even western media openly admits the problem https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/19/artillery-ammunition-ukraine-pentagon/

              • bazookabill
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                Rheinmetall alone offers to produce up to 600,000 artillery rounds for Ukraine annually, and that’s just one company.

                [citation needed]

                e.g. https://tass.com/world/1614189

                we’re talking about 155 mm shells here specifically

                Indeed.

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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                  I see you have poor reading comprehension, because the clearly says the plan to produce it. I plan to become a billionaire in the next couple of years. The reality is that it’s bullshit because here’s the actual reality of the situation:

                  Few people understand the remarkably protracted lead times necessary to increase arms production. Two or three years between commitment and delivery of even some basic munitions and materials is standard. Those NATO nations still accustomed to fight at all — meaning mostly the US, UK and France — have focused upon relatively small outputs. The factories do not exist to provide long runs of — for instance — conventional artillery ammunition any time soon.

                  You’re obviously not one of these few people. Furthermore, the article says the following:

                  Prices for raw materials used in arms production but not mined in EU countries have risen astronomically. The French government recently asked MBDA Missile Systems to increase its production of Mistral air-defense systems from 20 units per month, and has been offered only an increase to perhaps 40 monthly by 2025.

                  The German armed forces face an ammunition shortfall demanding €20 billion worth of new orders. At the current speed of contract placement, it will be 20 years before this is achieved. Susanne Wiegand, CEO of RENK Group, which makes drivetrains for tanks, said in February that only a trickle of new orders had come in.

                  Meanwhile, some manufacturers are obliged to struggle against the wider commercial difficulties of their owners. Britain’s Rolls-Royce has cut investment internationally following severe corporate difficulties. It owns the German-based mtu, which provides engines for tanks and armored vehicles. Yet mtu’s efforts to hire more staff and expand production are at odds with Rolls-Royce’s cutbacks elsewhere.

                  The IISS study concludes that belief in the permanence of America’s protective shield still causes Europe’s governments to shortchange defense. Despite all the fine words since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “no major recapitalization of armed forces or large-scale procurement to address capability has yet materialized” — even in Britain, which beats its chest loudest in defiance of Moscow.

                  Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the US too struggles to produce munitions in credible quantities for sustained combat. In World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill trumpeted the role of America as “the arsenal of democracy.” Today, Washington is struggling to make good on such a claim. Michael Brenes, a lecturer in history at Yale, has authored a new study that mirrors those of European critics of their own continent’s performance.

                  I do encourage you to try engaging with reality going forward.

      • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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        I do not think there is much evidence that the Ukrainian army is seriously demoralised or unable to make weaponry.

        Also source on the bit that Ukraine has suffered far higher losses than Russia? From what I’ve seen UK + US intelligence agencies are saying both sides have heavy losses but Russia has had higher ones overall (that is, since the start in 2022). Ukraine has probably suffered higher losses in the counteroffensive because modern warfare is defender-sided, but since February 2022? Hmm.

        • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          the ratio of artillery is essentially a proxy for the casualty rate because this is an artillery battle. I remember an interview with a foreign volunteer in Ukraine who claimed that most Ukrainians never even get to see a Russian soldier, and when they do, it’s the slightest glimpse before they retreat and start blasting them with artillery again.

          there’s a counterclaim that astshually it doesn’t matter that Ukraine is firing 10 times less artillery because they’re 10 times more accurate, but this is just a very strange claim; Russian artillery is superior to the West’s and any issues earlier on in the war with lots of misses have been largely solved by now

          at the end of the day, who is constantly doing counteroffensives? Ukraine, not Russia. who is constantly needing to do mobilizations? Ukraine, not Russia. who is needing to kidnap people off the streets to funnel them into the military? Ukraine, not Russia. whose country is overflowing with graveyards? Ukraine, not Russia. most of Russia’s September mobilization - the only one they’ve done - hasn’t been devoted to the battlefield yet because they’re being properly trained and nurtured for some future role, which would be impossible if Russians were dying in large numbers as Ukraine claims.

          one can be like “oh but Russia is just hiding all this stuff” but I think it’s a lot harder to hide that level of mass death than people think. if Ukraine could, I reckon they would, and they have the entire Western propaganda network at their backs.

          truthfully I don’t know exactly how many Russians and Ukrainians have died, but claims that more Russians have died than Ukrainians is genuinely comical, like “Oh, I know this person is a complete dipshit and I know to never listen to them on any take if they can be so completely moronic here,” it’s like the “100 million people died under communism” of Ukraine War talking points at this point. and I would genuinely be extremely surprised if the ratio was less than 1:2 in favor of Russia. Lukashenko thinks it’s 1:8, which is probably too high but like, he also probably has a better idea than me.

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            one can be like “oh but Russia is just hiding all this stuff” but I think it’s a lot harder to hide that level of mass death than people think.

            Spy satellites have the resolution to read stuff like license plates. If Russia was taking these huge losses we would have irrefutable proof of it, not stories or estimates.

          • anoncpc [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            BBC Russia and media zone make an independent project of counting Russian death, and they’re not Russian mouth piece, but ironically, their number is close to Russian MOD. lol

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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          unable to make weaponry.

          Didn’t Russia frag all their logistics a few months ago? I thought they finally took the gloves off and started destroying infrastructure a long time ago?

          • SeborrheicDermatitis [any]@hexbear.net
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            Not sure if they’re targeting it that effectively, not seen articles saying so yet but might be wrong. I think they’re targeting civilian infrastructure as much as strategic infrastructure (same mistakes the Nazis made in the Blitz!).

      • bazookabill
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        What we will see is that once the offensive burns itself out, Russia will start an offensive of their own against a depleted and demoralized Ukrainian army.

        In your dreams. Like your failed predictions of freezing Europeans running out of Russan gas and whatnot, lol, we gonna make this reality check later on, just to remind you.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          Yeah, we’re definitely going to get a reality check sooner than later and you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it. Meanwhile, last I checked Germany is now deindustrializing and all of Eurozone is in a recession, but hey I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Europe got cut off from cheap energy.

    • Annakah69 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      Ukraine will run out of material before they reach the Azov sea. You can calculate this yourself based on the verified losses and land gained. In addition manpower isn’t infinite for Ukraine.

      • Tester@lemm.ee
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        You are mentioning 2 different resources: 1. Materiel, 2. Manpower. After an initial bumpy start where Ukraine did indeed lose a few valuable pieces of equipment, you cannot point to any significant loses in the last month – except on the Russian side. And Russia does not have extensive resources thanks to the international sanctions. Russia is now moving troops from one point of attack to another, meaning they no longer have reserves to apply. They have already gone through the prison population, and the lasty conscription drive caused many people to move abroad. They are now conscripting people who have the least motivation to fight and giving them little training. These are death sentences. Meanehile, Ukraine continues to be supported by Western financials and technology. You are perhaps expecting a “blowout” scenario like in Kherkov last year. But placing a greater value on life, Ukraine has been going slow and carefully to minimize losses on thier side. The exact thing you see as a weakness is actually resource protection.

    • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I’m pretty sure once Ukraine has thrown away enough lives trying to get to the first line of defense, Russia is going to use their mobilized army to roll up the coast line all the way up to Transnistria.

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      And only presents a problem because the 2 countries cannot reliably use air power to overcome 1st WW trench warfare

      The US has just approved the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine. So that might change soon. IIRC, Ukraine has had a shortage of airplanes to use. Russia has been very reluctant to use the airplanes that they have because they keep getting shot down, and they simply can’t replace them at the speed necessary (especially since their economy has crashed, and China is the only country that can supply them with the circuitry that they need).

      A bigger problem is that Russia has air defenses and air bases inside Russia. NATO in general has been very reluctant to transfer offensive weapons to Ukraine that would make it possible to strike those–entirely legitimate–targets inside of Russia, because that would be an escalation. But to have air superiority, you need to ensure that those SAM batteries, RADAR installations, and forward air bases are not in the picture. So to break the stalemate, Ukraine has to be able to make strikes against Russia, in Russian territory. That’s potentially very dangerous.

      If it’s allowed to grind on, Russia wins eventually, because they have a population many times the size of Ukraine, and can keep throwing bodies at them. So Ukraine needs to win air superiority, which means striking targets inside of Russia.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        The US has just approved the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine. So that might change soon.

        I am so hyped to see how long an F-16 lasts against the S-500 network. Whether or not NATO SEAD systems can counter the S-500 system is going to be one of the deciding factors in the course of the 21st century. It’ll also be neat to see if NATO actually commits real weaponry or holds back the good stuff for fear of it failing and revealing that the Emperor has no clothes.

        • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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          I don’t think there is even need to deploy the S-500 which are pretty rare still since it entered service not long ago. Especially when older systems are enough for outdated planes like F-16, especially ones piloted by raw pilots from regularily trashed infrastructure.

      • catfish@lemmy.ml
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        Regarding the F16, Ukrainian pilots are going to start testing the Gripen as well, although that path is obviously far behind the F16s given the glacial pace of such developments…

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        “The ghost of Kiev is changing the game!” " HIMARS is going to be a game changer!" “Storm shadow is going to be a game changer!” “Leopards are going to be a game changer!” “Challengers are going to be a game changer!” “F-16s are going to be a game changer!”

        How many Ukrainians need to be sent into minefields for you libs to fuckin learn.

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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          Well, personally I’d support NATO troops directly opposing Russian aggression. If I had any skills worth a damn, I’d volunteer myself. Unfortunately, I’m nearly 50, and would be a greater liability to Ukrainian defenders than an asset.

          And make no mistake, this is Russian aggression. Russia is to blame for NATO’s existence, and for it’s expansion. Sweden and Finland were both quite opposed to NATO membership prior to Russia’s unwarranted invasion.

            • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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              Yes.

              Just as I would have supported the second world war, had I been alive.

              It is our moral duty to oppose evil, and what Putin is doing is unambiguously evil.

              • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                If I had any skills worth a damn, I’d volunteer myself. Unfortunately, I’m nearly 50, and would be a greater liability to Ukrainian defenders than an asset.

                This is what you had to say about why you’re not in a trench shitting your pants right now yourself, even though the war in Ukraine is such a crime that you’re willing to start world War 3 over it. Of course you want war. You’re bloodthirsty when it comes to the people the state has designated as the ‘bad country’. You know who’d die in that war of yours? At first, it’d be the millions of people I teach now. Young people. They don’t want to die over your ideals for which you’re not even willing to lift a fucking finger but bitch and moan about it on the internet. When the working class recruits of that generation are coming home in coffins or disfigured and traumatized, it’s my generations turn. And so on, so forth. In a war between two corrupt states where once again dumb fucks like you have managed to convince themselves AGAIN That THIS TIME, the state isn’t lying about a war! They did it with Vietnam, they did it with Iraq twice, they did it with Afghanistan, with Yemen, with lybia and Syria, BUT THIS TIME what you’re being fed is the unqmbiguous truth! THIS TIME you must be wanting the right things! Like a third world War!

                And all that would be a best case scenario, because in that case both NATO and Russia have managed to not destroy the entire world in some nuclear armageddon. You’re willing to sacrifice millions, if not billions, of people, for some fucking vague ideals you’re not willing to do anything for yourself, over a country that’s been embroiled in civil war for the past 8 years and you didn’t give a fuck about until someone else told you to.

                • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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                  I tried to join the military when I was 22, and was turned down. I was, and am, willing to fight and die when it’s necessary to stop evil.

                  As I said, and you clearly ignored, I would be a liability to Ukraine where I am right now. I am old and slow, and that would put younger, fitter people at greater risk of being killed than if I wasn’t there. What I can do is vote for politicians that will fund their military, donate money to specific units for things like buying drones or Hilux trucks to move fighters, and so on.

                  I’m aware that Ukraine has a corruption problem. That’s not actually material to Russia invading and killing civilians. Louisiana has a corruption problem; that doesn’t mean that Mexico should invade and bomb New Orleans’ French Quarter.

                  We’re not talking about Vietnam, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, or even Korea. I opposed our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, because I predicted–and quite rightly–that our invasion would cost tens of thousands of civilian lives. In Syria, we should have followed through with our commitment to the rebels when Assad used chemical weapons, and we didn’t; the result has been that Assad has been free to wage war against his own people, and hundreds of thousands of Syrians have died or been displaced. But none of those are Ukraine. In Ukraine, Russia is the one killing civilians, and attacking civilians targets; Russia is the one that invaded, without provocation. There was no military attack against Russia or the people of Russia by Ukraine; Russia had stolen Ukrainian territory in 2014, but that does not make the Crimean region Russian.

                  • Flaps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                    Surely you were pleading China and Russia to invaded Amerika and start world War 3 back when the US invaded any of the previously mentioned (and many, many more) countries.

                    Nah man most humane thing you ever did was getting rejected by the military

      • Tester@lemm.ee
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        The F-16s will need parts, logistics, and weapons, the pilots and ground crews will need extensive training… those jets will do nothing this year. Perhaps next year though. I agree that Ukraine is fighting with one arm tied due to NATO fears of nuclear retaliation. Is that a reasonable fear? I think so. Putin is not a sane or reasonable person. And Ukraine has shown the capability to hit Russian targets within Russian territory. If the Ukrainians were allowed to hit harder, deeper, more sensitive targets in Russia, the war would escalate – Russia would not want to be seen as beaten by its little neighbor. A shame, agree or disagree, but right now, those are the rules of war that Ukraine must abide by for continued support from NATO.

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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          Russia has been beaten by most of the smaller countries that it’s gone toe-to-toe against. The only particularly big win that Russia (or the USSR) has had in the past century was WWII, and that was because the USSR was getting an enormous amount of material assistance from… The US. source Russia’s aggressive actions against the Baltic countries are precisely why Estonia, Latvia, etc. joined NATO. And countries have to ask to join NATO. Without Russian aggression, there is no NATO.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Russia has defenses, but no ability to move forward.

      You don’t play RTS games, do you? The fun thing about a strong defensive line is that you can kill a whole lot of their guys for every one of your guys that they kill, and if you have enough guys they’re going to run out long before you do.

      What happens to those insecure areas?

      The Nazis probably genocide the Russian speaking Ukrainians that live there, either by driving them out using terror, or just killing them all. Probably a combination of both.

      • Tester@lemm.ee
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        It seems you do not play RTS games – ignoring the fact that those are exactly like modern warfare /s – you would know that certain systems are incredibly effective against certain other systems. Like StA missiles against Russian fighter jets and helicopters which is why you do not see them in the air much at all, and certainly not to a militarily significant degree. Perhaps you are suggesting that the Russian defenses are so powerful that Ukraine will die trying to take those hills? For every weapon, there’s a counter. The Russians have mined huge areas of the occupied lands and it is indeed slow going. Slow, but continuous for the Ukrainians. It’s sad that you see this war with real tragedy and absolute senselessness as a game.