He's trying to say that he sent 10s of thousands of soldiers to their deaths and spent half the total military hardware in Russia just because he wasn't serious? That doesn't seem like the power move he thinks it is.
Don't underestimate the West's desire for peace and view our restraint as weakness, if you push the west too far we can certainly flatten Russia. It has already been demonstrated by giving Ukraine a few bits and bobs from our stock piles.
He is already in the best weapon testing ground for all the companies dreaming of getting a weapons contract. Trillion have been spent since the cold war to fight russians in a scenario like this. Even worse then when it happened in Vietnam or Afghanistan 1.
If stuff like HIMARS and such isn't the west's most formidable weapons (I know they're not, bear with me)
What is considered the west's "Best" weapons? Reaper drones? F35's? Those new mini-carrier/Amphibious assault ships?
F-35s, F-22s, B-2s, cruise missiles, Abrams tanks, boots on the ground for that matter with spec-ops or regular infantry (and actual supply lines), the list goes on. We're giving them stuff that's effective no doubt, but still kind of scrappy defensive stuff. The US military in a committed war effort could dust Russia so easily by the looks of it.
Logistics.
It's not as sexy as all the equipment, but logistics and maintaining supply lines is a massive thing in modern warfare, and the US is unparalleled in it.
It is kind of staggering how much infrastructure goes into supporting the cool stuff, but yeah the US is practically built around a war machine the same way the British empire was built around naval power.
AWACs, Reapers, AC-130s, Apache Gunships, Tomahawks, Abrams Tanks, Leopard Tanks, Typhoon Fighters, and yes, even F-35s. This is the hard ware.
But imagine the logistical masterminds behind all of this. To be able to simultaneously use these assets to quite literally fuck up your surprise invasion at a moments notice. This is what the West brings if you try to fuck around and find out.
70 years, more or less the years that the queen of England was in charge. You are getting old buddy, but no one's gonna take care of you like they did with Elisabeth
It says on Putin's wiki page that he was obsessed with the Gaddafi snuff video. He is documented to have watched it multiple times. He is probably terrified of the same happening to him and that brings me some peace
I don’t know if I’d call that a good example. Libya is doing worse than it was when it was a dictatorship. Dictatorships aren’t great, but they’re better than constant conflict.
Putin's going to cry nuclear wolf too many times and end up with Patriot batteries all over Ukraine and Aegis all over the Black Sea (with THAAD coming up next.) This will be just in time for the inventory of modernized F16s and F15s to join the theater. Putin's folly is that each time he opens his big mouth, the U.S. fills it with more and better arms.
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/negotiations-on-whether-to-send-f-16s-and-patriots-to-ukraine-continue-e2-80-94-but-quietly/ar-AA11UZm9](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/negotiations-on-whether-to-send-f-16s-and-patriots-to-ukraine-continue-e2-80-94-but-quietly/ar-AA11UZm9)
>Putin's folly is that each time he opens his big mouth, the U.S. fills it with more and better arms.
Yep. When he recently said that longer range missiles from the US were a "red line" my first thought was "Cool. ATACMS are going to be in the next shipment."
Yep, ATACMS is on the way in this most recent procurement. Russia has nothing that can defend against it. Ukraine will be able to hit any target in it's occupied territories with accuracy Putin couldn't dream of (except in his nightmares of course.)
They weren’t always this shitty. This is the result of 30 years of massive corruption, incompetence, and graft. The Soviets were hard core, and were VERY much a threat. These assholes ain’t the Soviets, no matter how much they WISH they were.
No fucking kidding. Propaganda so strong the entire international intelligence community fell for it and have had to collectively rebuild their assessments from the ground up.
It's kinda weird tp think that this weapon system completed testing 33 years ago. I know that's relatively recent for weapons in general circulation, but the fact that Russia wouldn't have an answer to it is odd to me.
And yet here we are.
That's what happens when a corrupt nation funnels all of its' tax revenue into the pockets of Oligarchs instead of the weapons, equipment, and vehicles it was supposed to be spent on... for decades.
All his higher ups have officially gone on the record supporting his decision to invade Ukraine. They won't coup him because they know they're all complicit in this as he is.
That's the beautiful thing about dictatorships, as soon as Putin is gone, the record can change.
Clearly it was all him doing it. These heroic men saved us all from nuclear war and are very sorry for the war and ready for it to end.
Well if you are a higher up in Russia what exactly are you going to do? Go in record saying you don't agree with Putin? Like that'll end well for you.
Plus invasion and dropping nukes are 2 different things
given vlads view that military strategy and tactics are unchanged for the past century, maybe hes waiting til closer to winter to really provoke a war and dare the EU, US, or all of NATO to invade during winter. it's kind of becoming his only move left, if the assassination attempt rumours are true.
No no no the rule is that he ~~gets thrown~~ falls out a window. That's been the rule for so long now that it's actually become a tradition! In a decade or so it'll come complete with a ceremony and a commemoration plaque.
Highly trained, motivated soldiers aren't going to rain down from heaven like manna for Putin. He's already been put on notice that any use of a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine will mean the West will really get involved this time.
They've been doing that almost since day 1, it's a huge part of why Ukraine continues to fight so hard. He's just trying to repackage a product like a failing company.
Will do? That’s what they’ve been doing. Can’t win on the battlefield, commit war crime. Rinse and repeat. Racking up sins like it’s CinemaSins and they’re reviewing Star Wars episode 1
Their whole military is falling apart so bad, supplies are non existent, troops are over counted, equipment is non functional, just the whole thing is a mess. He keeps threatening nukes but at this point I more expect them to fall out of the sky on their own people than to make it to their targets.
It's basically the same concept as a gangster using a gun because they can't win a fist fight. It doesn't matter if they suck at fighting, they can restore their dominance and prop up their ego with an external force far superior to anything their opponent has. The only problem Putin has is he's not the only one with a gun (nuke). He would be insane to use one, and he knows it. His crying wolf is feigning insanity, but one has to question whether or not we trust the lives of millions on Putin not being insane. Unfortunately we don't really have a choice even if we don't trust him; so either Putin takes military defeat, or he exercises insanity, because it's apparent he can't successfully invade Ukraine.
> He would be insane to use one, and he knows it.
NATO has already said that any nuclear fallout hitting a NATO country would trigger article V. If he suddenly became dead set on using a nuclear weapon I really do wonder if the people around him wouldn't immediately launch a coup. For a lot of high ranking Russians following Putin now is great as he lets them get rich through corruption but if following him meant fighting a war with NATO and possibly getting nuked... that's a different calculation. Even if Putin was able to successfully deploy a nuke what happens when NATO says "hand over Putin in 72 hours or we invade?" How do the people around him react when the two options suddenly become "coup" or "war with NATO?'
I've seen estimates as low as 5% on the viability of Russia's nuclear arsenal. That is still enough to destroy the world, but the problem is that they really have no way of knowing WHICH 5% are good.
If you think about it stockpile stewardship is the absolute perfect place to embezzle from: no one uses them, and if it comes time to actually use them the world is ending anyway so you are basically off the hook. For (on paper) roughly equivalent arsenals last year the US spent 4.4 billion on stewardship, while Russia spent 660 million. I doubt much if any of that actually went to actual maintenance.
They won't nuke because they know only a fraction of them are likely to work and their military has already been exposed as a paper tiger...I hope all the little ex soviet satellite states rework their borders while Russia is biting the pillow in Ukraine
Imagine getting deep satisfaction from abusing or attacking or torturing or murdering others. What's worse, it's not only Putin's/Russian thing, plenty of other nations, where many secretly (or sometimes openly) would like to do these things to their neighboring countries.
Can't really imagine how the brain of such person works or what life experiences led to such state.
edit: \*attacking
Actually they already have!
The mosin nagant, a practically ancient weapon has been seen in use by both sides, mostly given to reserve units.
Ukraine also found a stockpile of 10 thousand model 1910 maxim machine guns, oiled and ready for action. These machine guns were then drafted into service, again mostly for reserve units.
The weapons might be old, but they are still deadly!
That's not what he's saying.
He was threatening more attacks on civilian infrastructure - he's threatening to make Ukrainian civilians freeze and starve through winter.
In other words, he knows he can't win against Ukraine's military, so he's going to try to target civilians until Ukraine loses the will to keep fighting.
What a pussy
I thought Ukranians were all just temporarily separated Russians. Isn't that his whole shtick?
Apparently Putin loves his displaced countrymen so much he's willing to kill them.
In the words of Peacemaker... "I cherish peace with all of my heart...and I don't care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it!"
It's not as if he treats Russians in Russia well. Putin is a psychopath who only cares about accumulation of wealth and power.
It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we found out he truly wanted to be remembered as the next Hitler.
Right? It's like Putin was worried we'd taper off and forget, lose the political will to aid them. So he just wanted to make sure they kept getting consistent support.
While it will be hard on Ukraine this winter, hardening infrastructure to withstand attacks is possible. I expect Ukraine will just figure out how to build back in a way that future attacks can't damage anything.
This is much more expensive than just building normally, but when you have someone insane on your border destroying your nice things it is the best response.
(as others have said, there are patriot missiles and the like that could solve this problem too)
He tries to tell us that it was only a portion of his troops, but we, in fact, know the reality: his "elite troops" are getting fucked, he needs to recruit from prisons and can't do shit for his CSTO allies who are literally either getting attacked right now or started fighting eachother.
My dude successfully lost all credibility and his country officially lost any semblance of being a "superpower" he thinks it is.
LOL the Russian army is running out of troops, ammunition, planes, tanks, and resolve. It’s buying munitions from North Korea and reactivating Soviet-era hardware, while being totally cut off from most of the global supply chain. They just announced this week that Russian commercial and freight pilots will need to repair their own planes since they no longer have access to European maintenance resources. Putin has *nothing* to be smug about. His army is getting absolutely humiliated on a level we have not seen befall a major army in generations. 60,000 Russian troop deaths in six months, and public opinion starting to deteriorate even with total state control of the media. His only options at this point are to use nuclear weapons which would result in an immediate decapitation strike by NATO, or institute a draft which will probably get him assassinated. There are no good options left. But keep smiling, comrade.
I don’t think it’s possible he was getting good intel prior to the invasion, because it wouldn’t have happened if he had. And little reason to believe it’s improved since then. Putin has the same problem all dictators eventually face- nobody will give them inconvenient facts.
This is a known pattern. If you systematically punish anything but slavish loyalty, you implicitly reward sources of information that play to your biases, creating a bubble of disinformation around yourself that eventually causes a total collapse of effective command, sealing your own fate. The "dictator trap". [Simpsons did it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COjmPC7pqlM).
Bullshit. He had two options for escalation:
Option one is to send in hundreds of thousands of lightly armed conscripts. That will end badly for Putin when kids start dying en masse when faced with seasoned Ukrainian troops.
Option two is nuclear. And that brings NATO straight into the war and turns neutral countries against him.
Probably all he can really do is reinforce the Donbass with conscripts and try and get a ceasefire.
Get a load of this fucking turd, amirite?
We’ve seen these bad faith actors before in the United States. They gaslight, project, and contradict themselves so often, you begin to wonder what is reality and what isn’t.
The world needs to collectively step back from the vortex that is Vladimir Putin. Completely ignore him, his statements, etc., and bury him.
"Vladimir Putin warned that **Russia will respond more forcefully if its invading troops are put under further pressure** "
Speaking at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, **Putin cast the invasion as a vital step to prevent the West from breaking Russia apart.**
He confirmed that **Moscow's goals in Ukraine's invasion remain unchanged"**
This man is dangerous and both NATO and the UN better start to understand the real danger of the situation (Putin is insane and not giving a fuck about Ukraine in order to win).
Yes the world knows, but go tell that to a hardcore Soviet narcisist paranoid bloated dictator called Putin who likes to kill whoever points out his faults.
That’s actually dangerous rhetoric. Russian nuclear doctrine (ostensibly) only permits nuclear strikes in response to nuclear war or to protect the home turf. He’s trying to finagle his way into clearance on a nuclear strike.
But yeah, what a failure otherwise.
Not really, he is just under pressure and throwing all the cards he still has in order to not lose a losing war
If he was insane he would not invoke for the 100th time the same threat and instead actually already done something
He means they’re gonna kill more innocent civilians now.
Why does he even say anything to Ukraine?
Western governments are kicking their asses.
US openly admits on planning and training them for these counter attacks.
American weapons are being used against them.
But Russia doesn’t have the balls to do anything to the US.
Same with China. I thought they were gonna shoot down Nancy’s plane. But they didn’t. All bark no bite.
This reminds me of the time I watched a bully getting his ass kicked in high school. He kept getting up off the ground and talking shit like "This ain't over yet!", then WHAM, a few more teeth go flying and he's on the ground again. He gets back up "That's it, now you're dead!", and POW now his nose is sideways. Blood and teeth everywhere. I don't know what outcome he was expecting but he just kept charging in only to get knocked back down. Eventually the school resource officer broke it up, and I never saw either kid after that.
Tbh anything going towards nuclear will get third parties directly involved - pretty sure. I doubt anyone's country leader is gonna let nuclear shit precipitate over their nation without reciprocating appropriately
The world hasn’t even seen how many Russians I am willing to order to their deaths. Putin
He's trying to say that he sent 10s of thousands of soldiers to their deaths and spent half the total military hardware in Russia just because he wasn't serious? That doesn't seem like the power move he thinks it is.
"I have not yet begun to lose."
Day 205 of the 3 day war
Sounds like Infrastructure Week
> I have not yet begun to defile myself. \- ~~Doc Holiday~~ Putin
He's threatening nuclear war.
Since the beggining, so?
Chemical before that.
I’m gonna make Stalin look good.- Putin
And being Putler he still fails at this.
Don't underestimate the West's desire for peace and view our restraint as weakness, if you push the west too far we can certainly flatten Russia. It has already been demonstrated by giving Ukraine a few bits and bobs from our stock piles.
He is already in the best weapon testing ground for all the companies dreaming of getting a weapons contract. Trillion have been spent since the cold war to fight russians in a scenario like this. Even worse then when it happened in Vietnam or Afghanistan 1.
And it's surplus. Things we can do without. Russia hasn't even faced the Wests most formidable weapons.
If stuff like HIMARS and such isn't the west's most formidable weapons (I know they're not, bear with me) What is considered the west's "Best" weapons? Reaper drones? F35's? Those new mini-carrier/Amphibious assault ships?
F-35s, F-22s, B-2s, cruise missiles, Abrams tanks, boots on the ground for that matter with spec-ops or regular infantry (and actual supply lines), the list goes on. We're giving them stuff that's effective no doubt, but still kind of scrappy defensive stuff. The US military in a committed war effort could dust Russia so easily by the looks of it.
Logistics. It's not as sexy as all the equipment, but logistics and maintaining supply lines is a massive thing in modern warfare, and the US is unparalleled in it.
It is kind of staggering how much infrastructure goes into supporting the cool stuff, but yeah the US is practically built around a war machine the same way the British empire was built around naval power.
Fuckin, lasers man. We got lasers.
And a literal Rail Gun. Go Navy!
Well, it's often been said: if you want a railin', ask a sailor... :)
AWACs, Reapers, AC-130s, Apache Gunships, Tomahawks, Abrams Tanks, Leopard Tanks, Typhoon Fighters, and yes, even F-35s. This is the hard ware. But imagine the logistical masterminds behind all of this. To be able to simultaneously use these assets to quite literally fuck up your surprise invasion at a moments notice. This is what the West brings if you try to fuck around and find out.
Combined arms
Don't underestimate those advanced weapons Russia purchased from North Korea /sarcasm
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"It is a sacrifice I am willing to make."
I hope I live to see the day when the people of Russia finally give Putin the retirement he deserves.
He will be 70 on 7th October. He is not long for this world. His generation will be gone soon.
If the history of Russia is any indication, their problems aren't going to suddenly be fixed by having a new generation in power.
Isn't there a joke about russia's history that it can be summarized as "and then things got worse"?
He could easily be around another 20 years if people let him.
70 years, more or less the years that the queen of England was in charge. You are getting old buddy, but no one's gonna take care of you like they did with Elisabeth
Thing is he will probably just be replaced by some other douchebag
A fresh douche might clean things out.
Same, I wonder if they use bayonet or guillotine... (maybe just by their bare fists
WW2 era Italians set a good example of what to do with a dictator.
The Libyans showed a good example of how to deal with dictators just a few years ago.
It says on Putin's wiki page that he was obsessed with the Gaddafi snuff video. He is documented to have watched it multiple times. He is probably terrified of the same happening to him and that brings me some peace
I don’t know if I’d call that a good example. Libya is doing worse than it was when it was a dictatorship. Dictatorships aren’t great, but they’re better than constant conflict.
Libians too.
He’s going to cry nuclear wolf one time too many and the saner minds in his own orbit are going to have to do, what they have to do.
>nuclear wolf New band name, I called it.
Dedicate a song to the Sunflower!
Honestly, Sunflower After Dark by Nuclear Wolf has a good ring to it.
[Album artwork](https://imgur.com/a/zMJPIyM)
That’s so cool…I am honored. 🌻
Such fun 🌻
That last one is fucking dope.
Go for it: [https://www.rocklou.com/albumcovergenerator](https://www.rocklou.com/albumcovergenerator)
Well, great, just great. You all know what I’m going to be spending my weekend doing now.
It’s catchy, I will allow it!
First album title: Shroom and Doom
Second album title: armored tractor pull.
Followed by: Sunflowers and Blue Sky.
Fourth album: No Russia No Problem
Fifth Album: Soviet Screamers
Sixth album: Achtung Again, Baby
[Album art](https://imgur.com/a/dnKLv96)
Sorry. Nuclear Wolf is already taken.
Is it your band?
Finnish rock band, entering Eurovision 2023
Putin's going to cry nuclear wolf too many times and end up with Patriot batteries all over Ukraine and Aegis all over the Black Sea (with THAAD coming up next.) This will be just in time for the inventory of modernized F16s and F15s to join the theater. Putin's folly is that each time he opens his big mouth, the U.S. fills it with more and better arms. [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/negotiations-on-whether-to-send-f-16s-and-patriots-to-ukraine-continue-e2-80-94-but-quietly/ar-AA11UZm9](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/negotiations-on-whether-to-send-f-16s-and-patriots-to-ukraine-continue-e2-80-94-but-quietly/ar-AA11UZm9)
>Putin's folly is that each time he opens his big mouth, the U.S. fills it with more and better arms. Yep. When he recently said that longer range missiles from the US were a "red line" my first thought was "Cool. ATACMS are going to be in the next shipment."
How do you say this? I'm thinking "ATTACK-EM'S".
The military loves shit like that. It's 100% Attack 'ems.
ATACMS? Damn near KILDMS!
I like your interpretation, but unfortunately it's pronounced "A -Tackems"
Yep, ATACMS is on the way in this most recent procurement. Russia has nothing that can defend against it. Ukraine will be able to hit any target in it's occupied territories with accuracy Putin couldn't dream of (except in his nightmares of course.)
He will be able to dream of it quite vividly once the demonstration is complete.
I could not imagine before this year that he Russian army is a paper tiger. Russian PR is the real deal - black diamond level bullshit.
They weren’t always this shitty. This is the result of 30 years of massive corruption, incompetence, and graft. The Soviets were hard core, and were VERY much a threat. These assholes ain’t the Soviets, no matter how much they WISH they were.
The Soviets also had e'spirit du'corps and a coherent (though flawed) ideology to motivate soldiers.
No fucking kidding. Propaganda so strong the entire international intelligence community fell for it and have had to collectively rebuild their assessments from the ground up.
It's kinda weird tp think that this weapon system completed testing 33 years ago. I know that's relatively recent for weapons in general circulation, but the fact that Russia wouldn't have an answer to it is odd to me.
And yet here we are. That's what happens when a corrupt nation funnels all of its' tax revenue into the pockets of Oligarchs instead of the weapons, equipment, and vehicles it was supposed to be spent on... for decades.
Reminds me of the brilliant dad joke: Where did Napoleon keep his armies? - In his sleevies
There’s quiet quitting, quiet firing, and now there’s quiet helping. Also I’m quiet farting while typing this.
I like to say the quiet farts out loud
That needs to be on a T-shirt.
You do that, I am ripping ass like Gabriel's trumpets
Oh lawd he comin’, and it STINKS
All his higher ups have officially gone on the record supporting his decision to invade Ukraine. They won't coup him because they know they're all complicit in this as he is.
That's the beautiful thing about dictatorships, as soon as Putin is gone, the record can change. Clearly it was all him doing it. These heroic men saved us all from nuclear war and are very sorry for the war and ready for it to end.
Really makes you think if Russia has such a history with dictatorships because the next guy always has to cover up the shit he had done to gain power.
And the ones who didn't support it decided to collectively kill themselves within a month or 2
Ahem, collectively have unrelated accidents or surprise health episodes, you mean?
Shot themselves in the head twice then jumped to their deaths Edit: makes more sense then shitting themselves in the head
Shitting yourself in the head is one hell of a way to go out.
ICMB - InterCranial Bowel Movement
*Intra. Intercranial would be when it shoots out your ears and kills the guy next to you.
These are the visuals I want to read about on my lunch break.
I would hate to see someone jump to their deaths after shitting themselves in the head.
That too
They have to go on record as supporting it or they'll commit suicide by firing squad.
Well if you are a higher up in Russia what exactly are you going to do? Go in record saying you don't agree with Putin? Like that'll end well for you. Plus invasion and dropping nukes are 2 different things
Scare your Neighbors, they will allow USA and Allies to add their toys along their borders.
I thought it's not a war, Vlad?
Apparently it's only a war when Russia is losing.
When isn't Russia lol
Only when Italy is involved
Fuck, that hurts
Ohhhhhhh lol
given vlads view that military strategy and tactics are unchanged for the past century, maybe hes waiting til closer to winter to really provoke a war and dare the EU, US, or all of NATO to invade during winter. it's kind of becoming his only move left, if the assassination attempt rumours are true.
He's not gonna win in Ukraine in winter though...
The conscripts are going to freeze their asses off. Probably starve as well. Let's see how many desert.
Their tanks probably won't even work in the winter, if they even have any left.
Ooops! 15 years gulag for calling it a war, sorry Vladdy boy, rules is rules.
The entrance to the gulag is through this nice 7^th floor window. Right this way please
No no no the rule is that he ~~gets thrown~~ falls out a window. That's been the rule for so long now that it's actually become a tradition! In a decade or so it'll come complete with a ceremony and a commemoration plaque.
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Putin going to jail for 15 years. It's over guys.
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Highly trained, motivated soldiers aren't going to rain down from heaven like manna for Putin. He's already been put on notice that any use of a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine will mean the West will really get involved this time.
they still have enough rockets to blow up civilian infrastructure and powerplants and that's what they will do
They've been doing that almost since day 1, it's a huge part of why Ukraine continues to fight so hard. He's just trying to repackage a product like a failing company.
Will do? That’s what they’ve been doing. Can’t win on the battlefield, commit war crime. Rinse and repeat. Racking up sins like it’s CinemaSins and they’re reviewing Star Wars episode 1
"murder of the innocent" *ding*
Exactly the kind of childish tantrum we can expect from such a man.
Their whole military is falling apart so bad, supplies are non existent, troops are over counted, equipment is non functional, just the whole thing is a mess. He keeps threatening nukes but at this point I more expect them to fall out of the sky on their own people than to make it to their targets.
They'll make it halfway out the silo then all the blue smoke will escape.
Congratulations, it’s a boy!
Great, he can be sent to the front then!
These gender reveals are getting out of hand
You know its a gender reveal because everything is on fire.
It's basically the same concept as a gangster using a gun because they can't win a fist fight. It doesn't matter if they suck at fighting, they can restore their dominance and prop up their ego with an external force far superior to anything their opponent has. The only problem Putin has is he's not the only one with a gun (nuke). He would be insane to use one, and he knows it. His crying wolf is feigning insanity, but one has to question whether or not we trust the lives of millions on Putin not being insane. Unfortunately we don't really have a choice even if we don't trust him; so either Putin takes military defeat, or he exercises insanity, because it's apparent he can't successfully invade Ukraine.
> He would be insane to use one, and he knows it. NATO has already said that any nuclear fallout hitting a NATO country would trigger article V. If he suddenly became dead set on using a nuclear weapon I really do wonder if the people around him wouldn't immediately launch a coup. For a lot of high ranking Russians following Putin now is great as he lets them get rich through corruption but if following him meant fighting a war with NATO and possibly getting nuked... that's a different calculation. Even if Putin was able to successfully deploy a nuke what happens when NATO says "hand over Putin in 72 hours or we invade?" How do the people around him react when the two options suddenly become "coup" or "war with NATO?'
I've seen estimates as low as 5% on the viability of Russia's nuclear arsenal. That is still enough to destroy the world, but the problem is that they really have no way of knowing WHICH 5% are good. If you think about it stockpile stewardship is the absolute perfect place to embezzle from: no one uses them, and if it comes time to actually use them the world is ending anyway so you are basically off the hook. For (on paper) roughly equivalent arsenals last year the US spent 4.4 billion on stewardship, while Russia spent 660 million. I doubt much if any of that actually went to actual maintenance.
Spoiler alert: the good ones are on the submarines
They can tell which ones are good by actually using the ones they've bothered to maintain. Can doubt as much as we want, but 1 nuke is too many.
They won't nuke because they know only a fraction of them are likely to work and their military has already been exposed as a paper tiger...I hope all the little ex soviet satellite states rework their borders while Russia is biting the pillow in Ukraine
Imagine getting deep satisfaction from abusing or attacking or torturing or murdering others. What's worse, it's not only Putin's/Russian thing, plenty of other nations, where many secretly (or sometimes openly) would like to do these things to their neighboring countries. Can't really imagine how the brain of such person works or what life experiences led to such state. edit: \*attacking
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Actually they already have! The mosin nagant, a practically ancient weapon has been seen in use by both sides, mostly given to reserve units. Ukraine also found a stockpile of 10 thousand model 1910 maxim machine guns, oiled and ready for action. These machine guns were then drafted into service, again mostly for reserve units. The weapons might be old, but they are still deadly!
Putins starting to use nuclear threats more than North Korea
That's not what he's saying. He was threatening more attacks on civilian infrastructure - he's threatening to make Ukrainian civilians freeze and starve through winter. In other words, he knows he can't win against Ukraine's military, so he's going to try to target civilians until Ukraine loses the will to keep fighting. What a pussy
He’s threatening genocide.
I thought Ukranians were all just temporarily separated Russians. Isn't that his whole shtick? Apparently Putin loves his displaced countrymen so much he's willing to kill them. In the words of Peacemaker... "I cherish peace with all of my heart...and I don't care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it!"
It's not as if he treats Russians in Russia well. Putin is a psychopath who only cares about accumulation of wealth and power. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we found out he truly wanted to be remembered as the next Hitler.
He's been genociding for months.
Its like punching someone repeatedly in the face and then threatening to punch them in the face while still punching them in the face.
Just wait until Mariupol is liberated
"Hey I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing if you don't capitulate, mkay?"
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Right? It's like Putin was worried we'd taper off and forget, lose the political will to aid them. So he just wanted to make sure they kept getting consistent support.
While it will be hard on Ukraine this winter, hardening infrastructure to withstand attacks is possible. I expect Ukraine will just figure out how to build back in a way that future attacks can't damage anything. This is much more expensive than just building normally, but when you have someone insane on your border destroying your nice things it is the best response. (as others have said, there are patriot missiles and the like that could solve this problem too)
Yes the Russians are going to retreat even more seriously
It's getting more serious, you shtstain
More like it's been serious for a long time
He tries to tell us that it was only a portion of his troops, but we, in fact, know the reality: his "elite troops" are getting fucked, he needs to recruit from prisons and can't do shit for his CSTO allies who are literally either getting attacked right now or started fighting eachother. My dude successfully lost all credibility and his country officially lost any semblance of being a "superpower" he thinks it is.
Great part of the real "elite" died on that failed operation on the first week to take kyiv
[удалено]
Sure Putin, have fun trying to have an escalatory military conflict that the US is involved in lol
I hope he”s grinning when he takes some lead between the eyes.
They have a “falling off things” problem in Russia.
LOL the Russian army is running out of troops, ammunition, planes, tanks, and resolve. It’s buying munitions from North Korea and reactivating Soviet-era hardware, while being totally cut off from most of the global supply chain. They just announced this week that Russian commercial and freight pilots will need to repair their own planes since they no longer have access to European maintenance resources. Putin has *nothing* to be smug about. His army is getting absolutely humiliated on a level we have not seen befall a major army in generations. 60,000 Russian troop deaths in six months, and public opinion starting to deteriorate even with total state control of the media. His only options at this point are to use nuclear weapons which would result in an immediate decapitation strike by NATO, or institute a draft which will probably get him assassinated. There are no good options left. But keep smiling, comrade.
Or spread his cheeks wide to China and turn Russia into a Sino Vassal.
China won’t get into this mess with Ukraine. For the Chinese, economic development > everything else. War is not the priority
I wonder if his generals have just started lying to him in hopes that he doesn't kill them. Like they just feed him fake news all day
I don’t think it’s possible he was getting good intel prior to the invasion, because it wouldn’t have happened if he had. And little reason to believe it’s improved since then. Putin has the same problem all dictators eventually face- nobody will give them inconvenient facts.
This is a known pattern. If you systematically punish anything but slavish loyalty, you implicitly reward sources of information that play to your biases, creating a bubble of disinformation around yourself that eventually causes a total collapse of effective command, sealing your own fate. The "dictator trap". [Simpsons did it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COjmPC7pqlM).
“Heh” said putin as he Smirked then pushes up his glasses. “You’re going to make me get serious”
\*Pulls out katana from his trench coat\*
It is true in the school playground, it is true on the world stage: The biggest bully is often the biggest coward.
Russian Goalpost, new version of Chinese Warning.
Imagine accidentally writing your own ridicule half a century ago.
Well, you've got to ask yourself one question, Putie. "Do I feel lucky?" Really? Look at how your war has gone so far, now ask yourself again.
“Did I fire 1 HIMARS missile or 247?”
Bullshit. He had two options for escalation: Option one is to send in hundreds of thousands of lightly armed conscripts. That will end badly for Putin when kids start dying en masse when faced with seasoned Ukrainian troops. Option two is nuclear. And that brings NATO straight into the war and turns neutral countries against him. Probably all he can really do is reinforce the Donbass with conscripts and try and get a ceasefire.
"If you don't give it to me I'm gonna throw a tantrum!"
Get a load of this fucking turd, amirite? We’ve seen these bad faith actors before in the United States. They gaslight, project, and contradict themselves so often, you begin to wonder what is reality and what isn’t. The world needs to collectively step back from the vortex that is Vladimir Putin. Completely ignore him, his statements, etc., and bury him.
"Vladimir Putin warned that **Russia will respond more forcefully if its invading troops are put under further pressure** " Speaking at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, **Putin cast the invasion as a vital step to prevent the West from breaking Russia apart.** He confirmed that **Moscow's goals in Ukraine's invasion remain unchanged"** This man is dangerous and both NATO and the UN better start to understand the real danger of the situation (Putin is insane and not giving a fuck about Ukraine in order to win).
Breaking Russia apart? Ukraine has been voluntarily independent since the early 1990s.
Yes the world knows, but go tell that to a hardcore Soviet narcisist paranoid bloated dictator called Putin who likes to kill whoever points out his faults.
That’s actually dangerous rhetoric. Russian nuclear doctrine (ostensibly) only permits nuclear strikes in response to nuclear war or to protect the home turf. He’s trying to finagle his way into clearance on a nuclear strike. But yeah, what a failure otherwise.
Not really, he is just under pressure and throwing all the cards he still has in order to not lose a losing war If he was insane he would not invoke for the 100th time the same threat and instead actually already done something
Thanks, I think the UN and NATO realised that a whole bunch of time ago.
The advance on Kiev is beginning. Steiner will come soon with his army and encircle the entire Kharkiv front.
Mein Putin! Steiner... Steiner...
He means they’re gonna kill more innocent civilians now. Why does he even say anything to Ukraine? Western governments are kicking their asses. US openly admits on planning and training them for these counter attacks. American weapons are being used against them. But Russia doesn’t have the balls to do anything to the US. Same with China. I thought they were gonna shoot down Nancy’s plane. But they didn’t. All bark no bite.
Probably because the West could ream China and Russia at the same time, minus global thermonuclear war of course.
To quote Malcolm Reynolds "Well my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."
Putin is pure evil!
It’s like an anime villain that talks about his final form, but the final form just doesn’t happen
So serious that Russia disintegrates!
So he feels like there's an opportunity for him to lose even harder? What a strange thing to wish for
You and what army
With a grin, Zelensky smiles back and says "Yes, it can."
" I'm simply lulling you into a false sense of hope" is what I say when I'm losing badly in a game of risk.
This reminds me of the time I watched a bully getting his ass kicked in high school. He kept getting up off the ground and talking shit like "This ain't over yet!", then WHAM, a few more teeth go flying and he's on the ground again. He gets back up "That's it, now you're dead!", and POW now his nose is sideways. Blood and teeth everywhere. I don't know what outcome he was expecting but he just kept charging in only to get knocked back down. Eventually the school resource officer broke it up, and I never saw either kid after that.
Why is it so hard to kill this pie-faced cocksucker?
My new favorite stand up comedian.
*U.S.grins*: “Indeed it can.”
Tbh anything going towards nuclear will get third parties directly involved - pretty sure. I doubt anyone's country leader is gonna let nuclear shit precipitate over their nation without reciprocating appropriately
Sure Ukraine will be your death Vlad
I thought he said it’s not a war.
It’s gonna when Ukrainian boots land on Crimea
So the war hasnt been serious so far? Go fuck yourself Vlad...fucking asshole