WORLD WAR Z

[justme]

The front continues to collapse at multiple points throughout The Donbas:

[glennkoks]

Putin's days are numbered

[justme]

Jeffery Sachs (Columbia University):

"It is not in the interests of the United States to be at war with Russia. Why should we be at war with Russia? Russia has told us absolutely clearly. And by Russia, I mean President Putin, and before him, President Yeltsin, and I was an adviser to the president under Yeltsin.

The Russian presidents have told us absolutely clearly: we can cooperate, we can have normal relations but do not crowd us with your military bases on our border. This is what the leaders of the United States must understand. We established this position 200 years ago in the Monroe Doctrine. And we have repeated it virtually every year since then. "Do not crowd us with your military in our area." That's all. That's all the Russians have said. We have absolutely refused to listen to it.

And now Russia keeps saying: we can negotiate, we can stop, we have problems. The United States, and especially Britain, have said: no, no, we will win, we will win. So Ukraine is losing 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers a day, killed and wounded. Yes. A day. It is a terrible, terrible onslaught. But no one is counting the dead, not in the Kiev leadership, not in Washington, not in London, not in Warsaw. And so it goes on because no one wants to take responsibility in the West for putting an end to it."

[justme]

This is from the British media:

But since Ukraine pulled elite units from Donbas for its incursion into Kursk, the Russia advance has accelerated."

“I’ve never seen such speed [in a Russian advance],” the commander of a Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit fighting in the area told The Telegraph this week.

“It is very rapid. And our problem is the same: we don’t have infantry, we don’t have enough artillery or shells. We don’t have enough drones.”

“The situation is very complicated, and not in our favour. The most critical thing for us now is the large number of soldiers of the Russian Federation. They outnumber us I reckon by at least five to one.”

The Centre for Defence Strategies (CDS), a Ukrainian think tank, said in an assessment on Thursday that the Russians will probably reach the city by mid-September.

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/31/master-stroke-or-folly-ukraine-could-pay-high-price-kursk/#comment


Ukrainian Telegram:

"Our source in the OP said that the Pentagon recommended Zelensky to complete the Kursk operation and transfer the military to the Pokrovsk direction to eliminate the collapse of the front. It is important for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to save reserves and hold the front; if Pokrovsk is occupied by the Russian military, then there will be no point in the West supporting Ukraine."

"Our source in the OP said that the Biden Administration refused to allocate an urgent package of military aid due to the situation in the Pokrovsky direction. In the West, they believe that we are losing too much equipment in the Kursk operation and there is no point in large arms deliveries.

[glennkoks]

Putin is running out of time as sanctions drain his economy in a long slow death.

[justme]

the United States wanted to free European allies from Russian energy dependency. However, current data show that the Putin regime was even able to expand its position as a European energy supplier.

www.welt.de/wirtschaft/plus253286746/Energieversorgung-Russland-liefert-wieder-mehr-als-Amerika-diese-Zahlen-zeigen-woher-Europas-Gas-wirklich-kommt.html

Mongolia says Russia-China gas pipeline will break ground in 2024

www.ft.com/content/f0080bf6-5e7d-44be-871f-a5d44dccf5c5

[glennkoks]

[justme]

6 top Ukrainian government officials have resigned in the last 24 hours. Several more were fired.

The front continues to crumble around The Donbas. Ukraine, Europe, and the United States are now pointing figures at each other and building competing narratives to explain why Russia will emerge victorious in this conflict.

Additionally, the west is slowly opening western business to Russia. This is evident through increased gas sales to Europe as well as the IMF resuming cooperation with Russia this month:

The IMF will become the first major international financial body to send its official mission to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

www.reuters.com/world/imf-conduct-first-mission-russia-since-covid-moscow-says-2024-09-03/

[glennkoks]

Putin smells of desperation

[justme]

Sept 4, 2024 20:02:50 GMT glennkoks said:

Putin smells of desperation

Ukraine is running out of men, equipment, and ultimately time. The incursion is evidence that the Ukrainian leadership understands this. The danger for Americans is how said leadership will react when this offensive fails to stop the Russian seizure of Pokrovsk. Facing a slow but sure grinding defeat, it seems entirely possible that the Ukrainians will make increasingly desperate efforts to draw the U.S. into the war, an outcome that American policymakers must work to avoid at all costs.

nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/kursk-gamble-demonstrates-ukraine-dire-straits%C2%A0%C2%A0-212578

[nonentropic]

I think it's fair to say that the Ukraine has been in dire straits for at least 3 years and arguably a thousand.

However winning the battle for Ukraine may be a lot less fun than you think. Occupying a country is tricky, my 94 year old mother can attest to some of the less than savory things she witnessed in western Europe as a child under the National Socialists.

One of the wonderful justification for the Russian absorption of the Ukraine is that they speak Russian in much of it. Looking around the world and using that as a filter for colonization is problematic, thinking about the UK or the US.

[walnut]

It's a long way from me and not my fight, but I the part I dislike is the prospect of another PanAsia Russian empire which absorbs regional nations and destroys their histories and culture is grim and dull.

[missouriboy]

Sept 5, 2024 12:58:26 GMT walnut said:

It's a long way from me and not my fight, but I the part I dislike is the prospect of another PanAsia Russian empire which absorbs regional nations and destroys their histories and culture is grim and dull.

Exactly.

[justme]

Yesterday, Russia regained control of greater than 10 percent of the area that Ukraine took in their entire Kursk operation. 

I did not believe any counter attack would happen for another month, or until the reduction of tree vegetation from fall.

Russia also continues to advance in the Donbas.

Ukrainian Telegram:

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot stop the Russian army's counterattack in the Kursk region, the battles for Obukhovka have already begun and are advancing towards Lyubimovka. Zelensky's Kursk adventure could turn into a strategic defeat when the front in the Pokrovsk direction collapses, and on Russian territory we will lose our best reserves and be forced to retreat."

"Our source in the General Staff said that a meeting will be held this week, where Syrsky is supposed to propose a new strategy for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk operation. The commander-in-chief believes that the Ukrainian army will not be able to hold this territory in the cold and will have to retreat, we are suffering heavy losses in the Pokrovsk direction and cannot withstand the pace imposed by the enemy."

"Our source in the General Staff said that the enemy in the Pokrovsk direction has concentrated strike forces on the southern flank, with the goal of taking Kurakhovo and Ugledar. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are forced to abandon Ukrainsk and retreat to other positions, which will force our military to urgently leave the semi-encirclement."

New York Times on Pokrovsk (Donbas):

"Russia is closing in on a key city in Ukraine’s East in one of the fastest advances for its military since the early days of the war. If Russia captures the city, Pokrovsk, it would gain a big strategic advantage in seizing the rest of the Donbas region."

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/11/world/europe/russia-pokrovsk-advance.html

Wall Street Journal:



www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-pressed-to-think-about-a-plan-b-for-war-with-russia-d65112fe?mod=mhp

CNN:



edition.cnn.com/2024/09/08/europe/ukraine-military-morale-desertion-intl-cmd/index.html

[glennkoks]

Ukrainian drones hit Russian missile storage depot causes a mushroom cloud that can be seen from space and causes a minor earthquake!