Russia-Ukraine War - News and Developments

[Wergeland]

The current “strenght” of the ruble is a facade. Its Russia manipulating the market and manufacturing demands for a currency nobody wants. Putin is taking an enormous risk using its biggest revenue, which is gas, as a bargaining chip to uphold this bridge for the ruble. If he insist that gas is payed in ruble, it will lead to renegotiation of contracts, and that will definitely lead to drastic reductions of the amount of gas being exported to the west - and possibly a total collaps of the the ruble and the russian economy.

Why would Russia keep accepting USD and EUR when those funds are confiscated?

Would you accept a payment for a product you sell, where the buyer then keeps the money?

Interesting point. Sounds like Russia would bring down the global economy If/when Russia goes down.

It will accelerate western de-indistrialization.

 

[WotTen]

I remember even as late as early 1990s there was a big hoopla in American media about Japan's trade practices and that Japan was a 'totalitarian' society blah blah. The Japanese officials had responded by calling Americans 'lazy'.

There was hysteria that Japanese were buying up American businesses and American property. Turns out the biggest foreign buyers were Brits and Swedes.

 

[jhungary]

You are right.

Then the question is what was the rationale behind the core objectives. Were they achieved?

Example:
Iraq War Won because core objective of Saddam government removal was achieved.

If the rationale was to further US interest and make America stronger. Did the result really play out the way it was anticipated.

The next question is: Should it matter?



Well the pipe is singing other tunes rather quickly. What happened?

That is a moot point.

These war were not extension of Policy, these war ARE policy.

You are asking what is the rationale behind those policy. Short answer is National Interest, long answer is, you need to ask Bush about it.

Why would Russia keep accepting USD and EUR when those funds are confiscated?

Would you accept a payment for a product you sell, where the buyer then keeps the money?



It will accelerate western de-indistrialization.

Those money were not confiscated, the Russian asset in Western Bank are confiscated. Company can still pay USD or EURO to Russian bank but there are no way Russia can convert them.

Russia need USD and EURO to pay for the interest of their national debt, debtor do not accept Rouble for payment, you either pay in USD or EURO or default. Which mean when they do business in USD with private company, those money are then used to pay off the interest to avoid being default.

 

[Wergeland]

That is a moot point.

These war were not extension of Policy, these war ARE policy.

You are asking what is the rationale behind those policy. Short answer is National Interest, long answer is, you need to ask Bush about it.

I know its not related to the millitary objectives, as i already pointed out.
There is a reason the US Army still is World No1.

The rationale as you said is a political question thus the answer rests on policymakers. Still i ask the question because shouldnt it matter if a millitary victory is helpful or not? Pondering those questions could help make policymakers use hard power more selectively in the future.

 

[Ali_Baba]

Suspicious fire breaks out at Russian aerospace institute that develops fighter jets

Suspicious fire breaks out at Russian aerospace institute

The fire began at a power substation supplying the institute, 43 miles southeast of Moscow, which has been crucial to the development of aircraft such as the Su-27, MiG-29, and MiG-31 fighters.

www.dailymail.co.uk

March: In an unconfirmed date in March, five recruitment centers in Moscow were set on fire in the Voronezh, Sverdlovsk and Ivanovo regions

April 21: Russian officials said 17 people died in an Air-Space Defense Research Institute in Tver, 180km NW of Moscow, developing S-400 AD system and Kalibr Missile

April 21: Dmitrievsky chemical plant in the city of Kineshma explodes, 950km from Ukraine

April 22: As many as five Russian military enlistment offices have been set on fire in Ivanovo

April 22: The Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia is filmed on fire in Russia

April 23: A hydroelectric complex collapses, Kuban

April 25: Bryansk Oil depot, a Rosneft production site, is set alight

April 25: Ussuriysk military air force base is reported as on fire

April 28: A fire is filmed within a construction site in Minsk, Belarus

April 28: Cars marked with the nationalist Russian symbol 'Z' were filed on fire in Moscow

April 29: Multiple buildings burn in Russia after a fire raged at a shopping centre in Ishim

April 30: A GRES-2 120-megawatt coal-fired power plant was reportedly sabotaged in Sakhalin

May 1: videos documented fuel-oil tanks burning in Mytishchi, a fuel depot only thirty minutes from the Kremlin

May 1: Photos suggested a railway bridge in Russia’s Kursk region was destroyed due to sabotage

May 2: Film showed a fire at a munitions factory facility in Perm, near the Ural Mountains

May 3: A fire at a four-floor pro-Kremlin publishing warehouse broke out in the Bogorodsk urban district of the Moscow region

May 4: Footage emerged of a large fire in the Dzerzhinsky industrial zone in the Nizhny Novgorod region

May 4: A Russian military enlistment office in Nizhnevartovsk was hit by multiple Molotov cocktails

May 8: A warehouse catches fire in Novoaltaysk

May 8: The Aviation College sets on fire in Perm

May 11: The Great Patriotic War memorial was filmed on fire in Peledui, Yakutsia

May 13: The military registration and enlistment office in Omsk was hit with Molotov cocktails

May 13: A large fire broke out in the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Sverdlovsk Region

May 13: A fire was recorded next to the Theatre for Young Spectators in Irkutsk Russia

May 15: A fire occurred in the production building of the Gloria Jeans company in the city of Shakhty

May 16: The DM Tower Business Centre in Moscow is filmed on fire

May 17: A blaze engulfed a chemical plant that makes plastic in Berdsk, central Russia

May 20: A transformer substation caught fire on the territory of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Zhukovsky

 

[Wergeland]

Those money were not confiscated, the Russian asset in Western Bank are confiscated. Company can still pay USD or EURO to Russian bank but there are no way Russia can convert them.

Russia need USD and EURO to pay for the interest of their national debt, debtor do not accept Rouble for payment, you either pay in USD or EURO or default. Which mean when they do business in USD with private company, those money are then used to pay off the interest to avoid being default.

Come on man. Why would Russia accept such conditions. Its not a Venezuela or Iran.

 

[LeGenD]

You are right.

Then the question is what was the rationale behind the core objectives. Were they achieved?

Example:
Iraq War Won because core objective of Saddam government removal was achieved.

If the rationale was to further US interest and make America stronger. Did the result really play out the way it was anticipated.

The next question is: Should it matter?

This is interesting question, and food for thought as well.

-----

Americans were of the view that Saddam regime was unpopular and could be toppled without much blowback. They did not realize that Saddam regime had a crucial role in deflating centuries old Shia - Sunni tensions and politics of the region - it was ruthless for this factor alone.

When Saddam regime was toppled, substantial cascading effects followed in the form of emergence of ruthless militant networks and Iraqi Civil War which claimed many lives and pulled Iran and Syria into the chaos as well. US-led forces had no choice but to substitute 'Saddam regime' for addressing these developments through the years.

I do admit that greater war in Iraq is one of the longest and one of the most destructive to be fought in modern times (1991 - 2020). Iraq turned out to be a hard an explosive nut to crack in short.

Some are of the view that the greater war in Iraq turned into a quagmire given its duration and scale of violence. But Americans were able to control its fallout in the end. Key lesson is that persistance can make difference in prolonged conflicts.

American battles in Vietnam were indecisive in the (1965 - 1967) period but American troops began to win in later years. They defeated Vietcong in Tet Offensive in 1968 and routed Vietcong from A Sau valley in 1969 (Operation Apache Snow). But then orders for withdrawal came and all the hard work of American troops was down the drain. There was a lack of persistance for the Vietnam War.

-----

In regards to American interests in the Middle East:

1. Saddam regime was hostile to American allies in the region. This threat is removed.

2. Now Iran is hostile to American allies in the region. Both Iran and KSA compete for influence in the Middle East as well. But Iran is open to negotiations (e.g. JCPOA), and Americans might be reluctant to give too much power to KSA in the region by neutralizing Iran for KSA. There is more to this theme as well.

American interests are not limited to securing allies but regional fueds provide opportunities to sell arms and make profits.

This is a long game and there is no rush in how to play it from American standpoint.

 

[F-22Raptor]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527963825445785601

 

[wahhab0202]

Well the pipe is singing other tunes rather quickly. What happened?

Zelensky might want to prevent further loss I think. With the current development, a landlock Ukraine is quite possible but could be worse.
Diplomacy is the only way for Ukraine to have some access to the black sea.

 

[Hassan Al-Somal]

The current “strenght” of the ruble is a facade. Its Russia manipulating the market and manufacturing demands for a currency nobody wants. Putin is taking an enormous risk using its biggest revenue, which is gas, as a bargaining chip to uphold this bridge for the ruble. If he insist that gas is payed in ruble, it will lead to renegotiation of contracts, and that will definitely lead to drastic reductions of the amount of gas being exported to the west - and possibly a total collaps of the the ruble and the russian economy.

With respect to renegotiation of contracts, those contracts are null and void since the West has frozen all Russians assets in its their financial institutions. You don't buy something from someone and then demand that you aren't gonna pay them the money; you would instead hold the money and then declare those funds "frozen". The West was doing far too long to other countries, but this time they found their match.

The EU also doesn't have another supplier that can replace the Russian gas. They don't have a much choice. Qatari and Algerian gas won't be sufficient enough to replace the Russian gas. Russia is a solid supplier of natural resources that everybody wants. And they're using these resources to fight the Western sanctions, while rejecting any trade transactions based on the US Dollar and Euro.

Zelensky might want to prevent further loss I think. With the current development, a landlock Ukraine is quite possible but could be worse.
Diplomacy is the only way for Ukraine to have some access to the black sea.

He is desperate to get a ceasefire. You can see him declaring "doplomacy" is the only answer. The Russian forces are encircling his forces in the Donbas, and the fate of Mariaupol awaits those forces that try to wage urban battles.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527991870571352064

 

[Trango Towers]

For all these arab and other Russian sympathizers please go to Russia next time you have a war or issue, don’t come to Europe and the US. Obviously most of you support Russia so go live there and see what Russia is lol.

Just imagine a world Russia or China rules…

All countries US defeated in Ww2 are today successful, wealthy and developed countries. How about Russia? Most are still playing catchup 30 years later lol.

China? Yeah nooo …

What a dick.
Wealth is debt.

A man with 1 cent and no debt is richer that USA. Think it through. You are all owned by israel and the jewish thugs

 

[Vergennes]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1528015173524631554

 

[Hassan Al-Somal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527966304086499330

https://twitter.com/x/status/1528015173524631554

I guess so much "winning" for Ukraine that they now banned their people from leaving the country!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527988312157437959

Uh, looks like fighting for Victoria Nuland, Robert Kagan, Frederick Kagan, and Kimberly Kagan is causing Ukrainian reserves to being decimated in the Donbas. What a disaster!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1528011308704071681

 

[The SC]

You are right.

Then the question is what was the rationale behind the core objectives. Were they achieved?

Example:
Iraq War Won because core objective of Saddam government removal was achieved.

If the rationale was to further US interest and make America stronger. Did the result really play out the way it was anticipated.

The next question is: Should it matter?

The Rationale in the case of the Korean war was stopping communism from spreading in Asia..and for Iraq..it was preventing Saddam from controlling 25% of world OiL by adding the Kuwaiti reserves to the Iraqi ones..

 

[kingQamaR]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527966304086499330

I guess so much "winning" for Ukraine that they now banned their people from leaving the country!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1527988312157437959

View attachment 846177


Uh, looks like fighting for Victoria Nuland, Robert Kagan, Frederick Kagan, and Kimberly Kagan is causing Ukrainian reserves to being decimated in the Donbas. What a disaster!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1528011308704071681

Being a citizen brings certain responsibilities. Helping to defend the country from attack is one in Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with making your able bodied males fight in a defensive war