They successfully broke a stalemate at Donbas AND forced the Russians back via two separate offenses.
All this from the "22nd strongest" military in the world, or so the experts tell us. Its obvious the scouters failed to detect Ukraine's true power level.
Honestly at the very beginning I did think it would be "two weeks". Russian propaganda was kinda effective. But then that propaganda collided with reality.
I don't think it was just russian propaganda, more like it was everyone's propaganda. Modern media created this weird illusion of world were everything is decided by some elusive big daddy's in dim cabinets. Low iq driven conspiracy bullshit that denies subjectivity to everyone but the loudest. Reality though, turned out to be what it's been since dawn of humanity - in the end, it's only the man with a stick, be it pointy or shooty, who decides the fate of the world.
Analysts tend to underestimate the power of small countries, namely their ability to frick up best-laid plans.
I don't think anyone could account for just how shit the Russians would perform. On Paper they had all the equipment and manpower, even if they performed poorly they had the ability to win.
You can't plan on your enemy being awful, so they are hyped up as being a very strong opponent and that it would take a lot to beat them. Turns out, all the memes and rumours about the state of modern Russia were true, the country has been looted top to bottom and corruption is so rampant that the military doesn't work, it couldn't sustain a large, long running peer conflict
Again and again, it has to be emphasised that a country with an airforce the size of Russia should have complete control of the skies over a country that has a much smaller one.
This war was over when 1. Russians didn't establish SEAD, 2. didn't take Kiev quickly. Once both of these failed, the war was already decided. Things looked rough for Ukraine in the early summer, but there was never any doubt the country would still survive the war, it's primary objective from the outset.
If Putin backs out now, Russia can still keep Crimea and possibly parts of the Donbass that legitimately want to be part of Russia. It might also get concessions in the form of Ukraine promising not to join NATO, lifting of the crippling sanctions too. Continuing will just end in him losing everything.
>parts of the Donbass that legitimately want to be part of Russia
Yeah, they want to be a part of Russia so badly that the referendum (held after Russian occupation) had a voter turnout higher than 100%
There are definitely sections of those meme "republics" that genuinely want to go to Russia. It might end up being prudent to let them go so they don't continue the violence. I'm not saying they should be given the whole of the region, of course.
If there were a significant population of Mexicans in Texas who wanted to join Mexico, would that be reasonable in your opinion?
>implying they don't just hop over the border with US govt help and make it their own already while getting free gibs
/k/ will forever be the most bluepilled board
>There are definitely sections of those meme "republics" that genuinely want to go to Russia. It might end up being prudent to let them go so they don't continue the violence. I'm not saying they should be given the whole of the region, of course.
A better alternative would be to expel the separatists into Russia and keep the land. Or just maintain martial law administered by Azov Battalion and hang traitors until the problem sorts itself out.
Deport them instead. They can frick off, but not an inch of Ukrainian soil should go to the Muscovy Khanate.
It seems they're self-deporting themselves anyway
Believe me, they won't want to be part of Russia once the war is over. Not if they ever want running water again.
>lifting of the crippling sanctions too. Continuing will just end in him losing everything.
Why, so they can try again in 10-15 years? Ruskies have demonstrated time and again their pathological need to one-up the west. They aren't going to let go of the past, and no amount of trade or time or cultural exchange and diplomatic goodwill is going to change this. The only language they understand, or seem to have any interest in understanding, is violence, so all we can do is be ready for them to try this again. All this tragic war has proven is that Russia is an unreliable partner: they don't see trade agreements as partnerships, they seem them as a form of leverage to use against an adversary.
>Ukraine promising not to join NATO
Why? Not joining NATO just means being a target when Russia chimps out again.
Even after it became apparent that they won't be taking Kyiv in 2 weeks(especially after the routing of the VDV), I thought Russia would use overwhelming power and get their shit together and take over the country in a couple of months. Boy was I wrong....
I significantly underestimated the Ukrainians and marginally overestimated the Russians. I had thought the Russians were moronic subhuman hasbeens before the war, but they’re somehow even worse than I expected.
The entire US government thought Ukraine would get steam rolled
They invested billions in Ukrop forces from 2014-2022 and Biden administration restarted hostilities in Ukraine soon after coming into power, they where ready for the war.
>billions
homie they spend total of somthing like 80 bil including this year. Russian just yearly military budget was 60, ukes fricking crushing russia for 1/4 price.
Same, I bought into the Russian propaganda of their new equipment and shit. However yeah once they got pushed out of Kyiv and videos of conscripts wearing cardboard body armour I knew it was ogre for them. However this war has shown that if your people have the wheel to fight you can take back your nation using Cold War surplus.
I wonder why western pundits and the audience, which includes us, bought into the kool-aid of Russian military might. Was it truly that no one bothered to dig for the rot beneath the shiny surface? Or were the military analysts inflating their analyses of Russia so that their pay cheque would be secure?
Same reason some of us still buy in Chinese milatary might.
The risks associated with underestimating them were bigger than the risks associated with overestimating them. People also don’t understand that the US is supposed to have a 2 war military, so the risk assessments are made on the assumption we are already fighting a major war, and can’t concentrate force.
Russian state TV is good at pointing out tech and how it is supposed to work. OK paper Russia is a giant with high tech gear stockpiled munitions on a massive scale. But that's just on paper and all mos t of us had to work with until we saw it in action.
I never believed for a second, even back to 2014 that Russia would ever be able to win in Ukraine.
They've been a critically underrated military, economy, and arms developer for at least the last decade.
No, I didn't, and I'm do damn glad to have been proven wrong.
It's not just propaganda. On paper, of course, but also in physical reality Russia did have an advantage.
I can't imagine ever forgetting the valour UAs have shown in their battle against the goliath. And even then I'll be considering it to be in no small way a miracle. It's not a foregone conclusion that a people would be willing to fight for their right to exist, or that they be successful if they do.
Its the USSR hangover for some of us I think. I grew up hearing about borders crossed in days and armoured divisions rolled over in hours. For the west our vision of the cold war turning hot was that even in conventional conflict it would be desperate stuff with armies going to their deaths just to slow the onslaught.
Arguably it is this that is Putin's worst mistake. Turns out Russia is nothing special. Not nothing, I wouldn't want to overdo it, but they got decades of enhanced influence out of people not reassessing the situation closely enough and trading on old reputations.
I figured it was gonna be like the Winter War part 2, a very technical win for Russia but an abject humiliation for their military in the end with their list of demands far far shortened to accommodate the poor performance.
Then after the Kyiv and Sumy fronts fell apart I think that's when I was starting to think they could pull off a win.
>did you ever imagine Ukraine will make it THIS far?
Absolutely not. I thought it would be over in a week, like Crimea invasion but larger. I am surprised and impressed by the Ukrainians, and equally shocked at the poor performance of the Russians. Not sure how much is Russian incompetence vs Ukrainian skill/dedication since I live very far away. But it does feel like we've been lied to about the scale of the Russian threat since 1945.
Pretty much this, I was completely wrong in my predictions this time. It's been obvious for years that the 'modern' Russian military had serious issues, and I never really considered them a serious threat against the Euros or US. But I did assume they could handle Ukraine without significant issues. Obviously I underestimated Ukraine's rearmament and training post-2014.
>been lied to about the scale of the Russian threat since 1945
You can't really say it was a lie back then because it existed under the circumstances of considerably narrower technology gap and also included those same ukrainians (and many more) who now on the other side of barricade.
>Russian threat since 1945
There were a million red army soldiers in Eastern Germany during the cold war. The threat then was very real.
>1945
1991
>But it does feel like we've been lied to about the scale of the Russian threat since 1945.
Except the Soviets and their satellites were a very real threat for the civilized world. They posessed sheer raw power that could've ramshackled the rest of Europe.
However, the Soviets weren't utterly insane, unlike Russia with Putin's regime. Even though Russia is a joke, it's still best to not underestimate whatever their demented chain of command can come up with.
>Except the Soviets and their satellites
the "satellites" were the actual brains and muscle.
I thought it will end within a month and we will settle for a Soviet Afghanistan style of war
Boy I was wrong, Russia couldn't even take the capital
We should shore up the Ukrainian Logistics and Medical systems, and also supply the Ukrainians with various emergency generators and such.
The Russians are going to resort to more and more desperate barbarism against the Ukrainian people.
I'm pretty sure germany is already doing that
if I remember correctly one thing germany sent was an entire field hospital and multiple diesel generators
sure, one is not enough but there's probably more where that came from
Kyiv regime supporters are just meat in this conflict, it's US money and gear that is fighting this war and return/dollar invested is pretty bad like with all proxy wars since big chunk of it gets stolen on its way to the battlefield.
Gibs mean nothing if the person you're giving gibs to doesn't have the will and drive to fight and use them. The Ukrainians want to fight and are willing to fight the Russians, the western gear and the training just multiples it.
>Just meat
Says the Russians who throw barely trained, barely equipped conscripts into battle.
>big chunk of it gets stolen on its way to the battlefield.
>the CIA who behind everything suddenly become very bad at information warfare because it's the only way to support my theory
>NUUUHHHHH RUSSIA WOULD'VE WON THIS WAR IF THE REST OF THE WORLD IGNORED THEIR OWN STRATEGIC WORLDS.
Listen, if you defense is "If reality itself collapsed before this conflict", you don't really have a fricking argument. The US and Europe were *always* going to pump Ukraine full of money and guns if they didn't fold immediately because as dumb as our establishment is they still don't tolerate being clowned on like that.
No country exists in a vacuum, and there will be competing strategic goals from different countries for every country. If a country tries to achieve their own to the detriment of another country, the other country will try to block or subvert their efforts.
>After reading this text you have finally gain the geopolitical insight of a 6 year old
>gear
What gear? 20 himars and 200 m777s? Ukraine has captured 20x more gear from Russians than they received from US.
Pretty sure we gave them some M113s at some point
The good old M113, the eternal battle box.
The Gavins are clearly what really turned the tide.
>Ukraine has captured 20x more gear from Russians
And Ruskies that actually captured territory and warehouses/military installations in Ukraine got nothing?
We did see some russoids use ukrainian gear but well, only once it was destroyed or abandoned again
Wonder if there's a tank that's been passed around like a hot potato several times by now.
What exactly does that change about what I said you illiterate fricking moron?
They did capture a Humvee, and we all know a Humvee is worth 100 russian tanks.
gib back the washing machines and microwaves, Black folk
Whole world is paying for this war with money it doesn't really have yet gains are really minimal.
Are you saying that economies with trillions in GDP don't have a couple billion? Not every country is as poor as Russia yk.
Yes I am. That's what inflation is. Spending money that you don't have.
First, that's not what inflation is, second they have the money you moron. The whole west is spending less than 90 billion in total aid, which means financial aid, humanitarian and military aid. Again, the west isn't a shithole like Russia, they can afford a couple billion.
even chinks are making fun of us/eu inflation
Isn't China having a massive housing crisis rn? Like "we need trillions" massive?
>Isn't China having a massive housing crisis
Maybe on CNN
Nah, Weibo actually. They've probably done their normal tactic of jamming their head in the ground and humming loudly to make the problem go away whilst adding certain words to the naughty list; but look up Rotten-Tail ( 烂尾 ) Buildings and the local banking crisis where they have to ration money because they don't have enough, or their newest trick of just bankrupting rural banks and stealing everyone's money. Of course, since infrastructure and banking was the lifeblood of the districts, they are all beginning to default on their debts and the whole system is starting to stall and fall over.
Of course, if you only look at the macro-economy everything seems fine, since as a whole, China is still doing well despite the fact it keeps shutting down its industrial heartland every other week because someone "may" have the kung-flu and every foreign company that can is bugging out because of this. However, when the foundation of the macro-economy has the same structural integrity as the average Tofu-Dreg Project (Another thing you should check out by the way, 豆腐渣) then when it does go, and it will, the entire thing will collapse at a frightening speed.
an actually good insight,thank you bro
Reminder that only 2% of all Chinese citizens pay any taxes.
Reminder that China completely finances itself via debt
Reminder that it shoves those debts behind "private" (so still nationalized) banks to hide them
China is built on pillars of sand. The entire economy is essentially a massive ponzi-scheme. Whatever economical data the CCP reports is not to be taken serious. It will collapse at some point, quite spectacularly. The question is: when? It could be tomorrow, it could be in 20 years. But at some point the jig will be up.
E.g. because nobody pays any taxes, the government can't control inflation rates via adjusting taxes. You are not gonna pay more if taxes are lower if you already pay zero taxes and if the products you buy also have zero taxes applied to them... or buying less if taxes are increased to kind of "soft ration" certain goods which have become rare.
No amount of shitposting can change statistical facts.
No amount of propaganda can change the fact that any information from chinese sources can't be trusted.
this is outdated as frick, inflation in EU is now over 10% kek. chink should make new meme graph.
>can't have inflation if people can't leave their homes to buy anything
China has a gorillion fricking problems on top of being a shithole with soulless bug people, Zhang. I'd still rather live in the EU with all its problems.
Xi is a fricking moron who thinks he's a genius.
idk, looks pretty based to me, always does the right thing.
1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre
Unironically probably the greatest leader of our time.
At the end of the day, every autocrat is.
Xi has taken a country that was on a path of economic prosperity and liberalization and normalization and has driven it into the fricking ground for his own damn ego.
Now everyone despises China, the economy is in ruin, and people are literally starving to death in their homes. Hu Jintao is under house arrest. Xi is now a lifelong dictator. Everything beneath the Heavens is in utter chaos; the situation is perfect.
>OH NO INFLASHIUNNNN
who cares though, I can still afford everything
With the EU and the US being China's largest export markets, i cant imagine China somehow is happy with high inflation in those regions.
Nationalism makes you dumb unfortunately. I remember when this kicked off, Indians were laughing that Europe wouldn't get enough grain or fuel. It is true that prices rose and Europe faces some inflation but this is because Europeans had to enter the market and outbid Indians for grain and fuel. They don't seem so amused about shortages now.
Chinks get to make fun of no one right now, what with their housing market time bomb
How's Evergrande, still solvent Chang? Hope you didn't invest like the rest of your country...
For all the problem we have in Europe (French here), I would rather live here than in China where you can get jailed for the slightest comment on the internet.
Hell, you get publicly shamed if you walk out of the passageway on the streets.
And above all, I like the freedom to say that Xi looks like Winnie the Poo, cause he looks like that fricking bear.
>chinks
>true statistics
pick one and only one
Yet all those Chinese billionaires are fleeing their wealth to the US. If you wanna gauge the true health of an economy, just look at what their smart money is doing.
Wars aren't won in 2 weeks anon
No matter the context, I MUST respond to that vatnik image with this.
weak comeback, also there are areas in US with no drinkable water so it should not be on the map.
> well it doesn't count because in 0.01% of the US you shouldn't!
When you think about countries that have got their shit together, Chile usually doesn't come to mind. Good for them.
>The world's most relevant and prosperous regions that have produced majority of techonological advancement, world culture, heritage, history and progress form the backbone of the international community
Why is this a surprise to alt-right and alt-left incels?
This literally is every relevant country economically and politically. The rest may as well be terra incognita to be colonized. Actually, it should be.
Post skin
God this image is so fricking perfect. The countries on this map are at least 40x more valuable than everything that's left out.
What about Korea?
post drinkable tap water and firearms
Apparently chuds that created this map are politically and geographically illiterate. There are quite a few countries missing from the picture that both support Ukraine against vatniks and are part of EU or NATO or aligned with "the West".
Do ruskies really think South Americans like them?
>this war and return/dollar invested is pretty bad
US would spend more in a single day of a head on conflict with Russia than they've spent so far on this one.
> implying the US would need a whole day
Lmao I do hope it's a bait, because otherwise you should really be embarrassed of such catastrophically low iq takes (you should be embarrassed about it anyway)
ironic shitposting is still shitposting
Kremlin regime supporters are just meat in this conflict, it's Russian money and gear that is fighting this war and return/ruble invested is pretty bad like with all proxy wars since big chunk of it gets stolen on its way to the battlefield.
>return/dollar invested is pretty bad
From a cost/benefit perspective this is the cheapest war the USA has ever been involved in
>this is the cheapest war the USA has ever been involved
No recent US war bought inflation to 8.5%. It's probably because this is first war in long time with no direct loot. There's no oil and no gold to steal.
Inflation is far more related to Biden's domestic spending and energy policies than the war.
It's more that it is a perfect storm.
The pandemic, followed by the supply crisis followed by the war. Each of these crises would have happened independent from one another (the Supply crisis had a TON of hints in the prior year, the pandemic was just the final spark that set it off), each crisis making the next one worse. The economy was already buckling at the end of 2019 every economist was like "hold on to your horses we will see a recession soon". So a recession would have happened ANYWAYS now.
Printing a lot of money doesn't automatically lead to inflation if there still is a good amount of products and the shelves are well stocked. But add a lack of supplies to that and you now have a lot of money competing for fewer products. The German hyperinflation after all was not just Germany printing shittons of money, but it's industrial core being occupied by the French and under a General Strike. So their industrial heartland no longer produced a single thing.
The fact that we "only" have ~10% of inflation in this perfect storm does show how solid Western economies are though. I mean it's still dire for low income families. But the fact that we consider 10% a disaster when there is countries right now experiencing anywhere between 50-1000% inflation rates...
Trump’s fiscal recklessness as well. We’ve been printing a trillion dollars per year to cover our spending since 2019.
Come on now. Economically, the US survived the pandemic better than everyone else under Trump's policies.
I must have missed all the gold and oil we took from Afghanistan over the last 20 years.
>Ukraine is the cause of global inflation triggered two years before the first day of the Special Military Floperation
Does it hurt? Being so God damn stupid?
US spent 20 years trying to build a puppet regime in Afghanistan which fell within 2 weeks.
Now these homies mean to tell me that Ukraine is being magically propped up by the US and that America alone is responsible for this? Just admit it Vlad, Ukrainians saw the difference between going EU vs going Russia and they decided the EU is better
>just meat
lol, this war is proving that all the planes, ships, and artillery in the world doesn't mean shit if your meat isn't up to the task
So what you're saying is STRONK RUSSIA is having the shit beat out of them by the small percentage of left over equipment that didn't get "stolen"?
You stupid Black person this makes you look worse.
Why can we u.s tax payers vote to give aid to military countries instead of our politicians or president doing? I don’t give a frick about Ukraine.
Ah a fellow comrade from Kentucky oblast.
I’m from California and yes I don’t follow gun laws here
every vatnik hand ive seen has belonged to a lard ass.
>vatnik
I’m not a vatnik I just don’t care what happens in Eastern Europe. It’s not our problem and I’m just tired of the u.s starting shit all over the world. Remember how liberals were so against the Iraq and afghan war but are so blood lust for the Ukrainian/Russian war? Hypocrites if you ask me
>Remember how liberals were so against the Iraq and afghan war but are so blood lust for the Ukrainian/Russian war?
Because liberals actually care about whites.
>. It’s not our problem and I’m just tired of the u.s starting shit all over the world.
Pleeeeeaaaaseee you would be spending that money on historically black colleges anyway
>I’m not a vatnik I just don’t care what happens in Eastern Europe.
And yet you find yourself in a thread specifically about a conflict in Eastern Europe.
Idiot who wants the Soviet Union back so vatnik or extra-gullible contrarian white trash detected.
Those who didn't live through the early Cold War are like infants to me. They're easy to manipulate because like most humans they're stupid which ensures they prefer ignorance and feelings (how womanly...) to knowledge.
>It’s not our problem and I’m just tired of the u.s starting shit all over the world.
Also Russia started this war, I know that may not be the case in your meth fueled Q circle jerks but we live in the real world. Even then when talking about the US starting shit, what exactly have they started? They're literally selling their unused weaponry to damage a nation that seems them as the enemy anyway.
>Remember how liberals were so against the Iraq and afghan war but are so blood lust for the Ukrainian/Russian war? Hypocrites if you ask me
They were against both wars because the US was being the aggressor in them. They are supporting Ukraine because Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the defender. That is morally consistent, it is the opposite of hypocrisy, you fricking moron.
>against war in iraq and Afghanistan
Pointless conflicts that didn’t do anything for the US position globally and were barely justified in the case of Iraq.
>Why against Russia
Russian aggression against smaller neighboring states threatens NATO, regional stability and the global economy. Russia needs to lose this war and lose it in a humiliating fashion complete with demilitarization and denuclearization. I am pretty fricking liberal for /k/ and I wouldn’t bat an eye at a counter force strike on Russia if we had to do it.
>It’s not our problem
Not yet, perhaps, but you should have learned from the second world war that appeasement isn't going to work. If Putin thinks he's going to get away with it, then he's going to do it again and again, and next thing you know the Russian government will be launching a special military operation to denazify the rightful Russian territory of the United States of America.
Ahem. Alaska.
That's a thick thumb, please don't tell me you're obese lol.
I’m 6’3 218
>we
>representatives
>represent
>as in, represent you on your behalf
>AHURURHDDURUR WHY CANT WE JUST VOTE EVERY DAY ON WHAT OUR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO HYUCK
I hear that argument a lot from several small government conservatives that I know. They're American, so their English is written better than yandex translate, but there are Americans that think that taxes should be directly voted on instead of Congress deciding it. Because that's what the Constitution got wrong, or because Americans have the time and desire to learn about how trillions should be distributed, even though they don't have enough time and desire to learn about candidates outside of what their favorite news channel says.
Representative democracy only works if the representatives are actually trying to represent their constituency and their interests. But as we all know, that's not the case, if it ever was. They represent only the highest bidder, same as in Russia. But their corruption seems to be on a different level, down to the street level. You can't bribe a cop in the US, but you can bribe a governor.
That's anti-semetic
>Kyiv regime supporters are just meat
meanwhile Russia is having officers shot because of conscription of citizens for an already unpopular war
ukraine only acts on orders of nato and british generals with full access to nato intelligence networks and systems.
ukraine is not even involved in this conflict aside from being a meat grinder for poor unsuspecting young men.
this
I honestly thought russians were competent before this war. It's most likely because back in the army they actually painted a dangerous picture of Russians and our simulated enemy was always closer to USA or something. Not a third world shit hole.
>They successfully broke a stalemate
Only stalemate Ukraine broke is on reddit, it's taking heavy losses on twitter fronts after half of it pajeet internet shill forces got cut off by Musk.
> pajeet internet shill forces got cut off by Musk.
The poos were Russian stans. Some still are, but others have dropped out since Modi scolded Puttikins.
It's more then just the poos. We have Africans too.
>Africans
Too poor and uneducated to properly understand the situation.
>The Juice
I don't even have to explain this one, do i?
>Too poor and uneducated to properly understand the situation.
More like too black, anon.
Hell even joos. Seems as if the whole brown world has aligned itself against Ukraine and by proxy "le evil colonial west".
Something like 10% of Israelis have Russian dual citizenship. It might even be higher.
isn't it 20%?
It is a shitload of them anyways.
Indians have no idea what the frick they want to be or whose side they want to be on other than "frick those bloody b***h bastard muslims sir"
nice gaslighting third, but everyone knows the browns on twatter shill for russia
Even antifa does. I'm amazed that /misc/ is able to block shit like this out mentally but then again it is nu-/pol/, there are unironic communists defending Stalin on that trash board now.
>Admit it /k/, did you ever imagine Ukraine will make it THIS far?
Yes, any country with this amount of funding from the US that isn't an Arabic shit hole I fully expect to kick the shit out of any nation they are fighting
I knew Russia wouldn't win, but I didn't expect such a collapse.
Its humbling to see a poor and corrupt nation like ukraine get their shit together and fight back against the odds.
Compared to my nation that would have far-right and left 5th columists gleefully helping until they realize theyre facing a wall and rapeugees seeing an invasion as an opportunity.
I gave them 6 weeks tops
Russia would have destroyed Ukraine on its own, but Ukraine got a massive glowjob from nato which changed everything up. I’m not making excuses, I should have guessed the West wouldn’t have let Russia do it’s own thing.
>I’m not making excuses
You are. Russia lost this war 2 weeks into the conflict.
>I should have guessed the West wouldn’t have let Russia do it’s own thing.
Why should it? Allowing an invasion go unpunished would lead to a very dark, unpredictable world. You wouldn't like it, even if it would epically own the libruls and a fascist dictatorship was installed in Washington.
What?
>Russia would have destroyed Ukraine on its own
2014 Russia would've had a decent chance vs 2014 Ukraine if Putin reinstated Serdyukov and found at least 1 competent field general. 2022 Russia was doomed to failure from the start.
> I should have guessed the West wouldn’t have let Russia do it’s own thing.
Well the russians probably thought they would. Extensive sanctions, volumteers from foreign nations and the ongoing aid are not things they banked on, nor the initial problems they had.
Wow puccia could have destroyed a nation with pre-war GDP same as hungary? wow wow wow impressive. Then again, not so long ago they had massive issues with tiny tiny chechnya so I guess there is progress? Or rather there would be progress as they lost most of their military
Before this full-scale invasion started, I really thought that the average Russian soldier is better trained and equipped than the average Ukrainian soldier. Now it sounds just ridiculous.
- Ukrainian anon
At the start of the invasion, I was just hoping that they'd give Russia a bloody nose and then collapse. But after I saw the repeated (failed) Russian VDV-drops and the miles-long traffic jammed clown-car convoys, I started to suspect that this will turn in Ukraines favour.
At the beginning, I expected Russia to occupy Ukraine within weeks and then get bogged down Afghanistan style.
Then the tractor videos came out.
At some point (prior to to the "Kiev convoy") it seemed quite certain that Russia lacked the military capability to achieve its operational goals.
For me it was probably when, a few days in, Kyiv wasn't captured yet and that video came out of the BMPs getting lit up a city square somewhere with the associated infantry being pinned down. That and the video of the borderline moronic TDF soldier who shot an NLAW (how the frick did he get an NLAW???) within minimum range at a tank.
Got me when the Russians started digging trenches in the Chernobyl red forest well... That's when I realised Russia is just absurdly bad.
It didn't click for me until after the Kiev Gesture of Good Will.
Even with the many phone vids of people driving by burned out supply trucks, that first Bucha vid of the road filled with mangled and burned Russian armor, the first kino ambush on a tank column. that one VDV video where they didn't even have time to dismount from their BMD before being perforated.....even with all that I thought that things were not going in Ukraine's favor. I thought Russian aviation would do something.
I really hate globohomosexual and the US
But holy frick vatniks are pissing me off the Russian army has been an absolute embarrassment from start to finish, but they keep making excuses.
You can't win with these people if Ukraine takes Moscow they'll say it was NATO fighting.
urban warefare kherson has begun
>urban warfare
>russians
Ah yes, the russians showed how they perform in urban warfare in Irpin, Mariupol and Rubizhne.
>how they perform
They won
Yes they won by taking horrific amounts of casualties and equipment losses. The meme republic forces were completely ground down and nearly annihilated during Mariupol
Seperatists have a talent for ending up in the worst battles: Mariupol, Severodonetsk, the Kharkiv Offensive, Lyman, etc.
Awfully nice of them to insist on taking the blunt of it every time
Seperatists are pathetic idiots.
>"We want to secede from a nation destined to rise to join a shithole!"
Putin has ironically purged Ukraine of all traitors, lol.
grozny, aleppo, damascus
>Ah yes, the russians showed how they perform in urban warfare in Irpin, Mariupol and Rubizhne
They won?
I honestly thought that Kiev will fall in 72 hours and I dont favour Russia at all. Scary times. Ukrainians have poven themselves.
I expected Ukraine to surrender within the month. The Russians started out incredibly strong: DDos attack on Kyiv, missile attacks on strategic targets across the country, VDV attack on Hostomel, Russian attack on Kyiv from Belarus, Chernihiv and Sumy alongside attacks on Kharkiv, Melitopol and Donbass. Ukraine was getting pushed back on every front and Zelensky was promising not to leave the capital and thousands were fleeing to Poland... everyone was watching the live footage across Kyiv half expecting Russian tanks to start rolling in, but then videos of the Russian convoys getting annihilated and the tractors capturing abandoned equipment and VDV helicopters getting slaughtered started to surface and its at this moment where I think Russia dropped the ball, they overestimated their own capacity to wage a high intensity war and simply couldn't keep up.
Russia never planned on a high intensity war for more than a few days. They clearly thought they could pull a Crimea 2.0 and take vast swaths of the country unopposed, after dealing with a few initial days of token resistance. It's the only explanation for their disasterous over extension.
I was definitely pretty demoralized and just assumed that any regime the west supported would collapse like a house of cards the instant it was subjected to any pressure. Major credit to the Ukrainians for having the balls and backbone to defend themselves. It's nice to have an ally willing and able to fight; they have earned our help.
I thought most of eastern Ukraine would fall then western Ukraine would be a slow burn and after a while it would devolve into some Afghanistan, rogue Ukrainian nationalists and some surviving elements of the military doing terrorist shit as Russia tries to install a new government.
i didn't think they would do it in 3 days or 2 weeks i found that offensively naive.
but i have to admit i thought 1 or 2 months Russia would have rolled all he major resistance and go into occupation phase and then get stuck in several years of resistance suppresion
No. I thought the two weeks thing was bullshit, but I assumed Russia would have won by June/July
The most successful thing they did was whine for gear. I don't respect idiots that learned to operate gear, I only respect the people that invented and made the gear. There's no such thing as pressing a button heroically.
It would have been over soon if Zelensky left the country. But he and his administration stayed, kept morale high, and got assistance from the international community. Ukraine could have easily fallen apart like Afghanistan as soon as he left.
He passed his test of character.
Everyone said "Kyiv will fall in 72 hours" and he stayed.
>international community
The high HDI community.
>china government official
bugbros did we get too wienery?
Isn't that those guy.
International != global. Like the International Space Station being rather exclusive.
And the 'International Community' are the only countries capable of meaningfully working together on problems, including transnational problems. Everyone else issues press releases and begs for (Western) money.
Yes, the international community.
>Afghanistan
kek
I'm sure they haven't forgotten that Russia attempted to annex them too
At least the Americans didn't kill 9% of their population and displace another third or so
A lot of the current Taliban leadership were either kids or young men when the Soviets came to visit. They remember the Other Great Satan.
>China abstained
lol, lmao even
Trust not in the man of Cathay.
SERBBROS?!
There's nothing wrong with your pic, you shitskin bugman, you dont matter
I'm a /misc/ack , and as much as we screech about "muh juice", I respect the guy for not abandoning his nation at the first available opportunity.
I knew it was ogre when I saw the clown cars in the first day of the offensive
samegayging here: The pic is from peski in september-october and that reflection of light caught my eye.
>ISR flights
>donated stockpiles form Nato nations
>APCs from Turkey, US, Australian Bushmasters, Hmmv, Patriot SPG's, TOW's, Javelins, Mountains of foreign small arms.
They successfully broke a stalemate at Donbas AND forced the Russians back via two separate offenses.
All this from the "22nd strongest" military in the world, or so the experts tell us. Its obvious the scouters failed to detect Ukraine's true power level.
>Admit it /k/, did you ever imagine Ukraine will make it THIS far?
With NATO proxy army and Russian Military frick ups pretty sure Strelkov had the right idea. I just got comfy with how this new "forever war" was brewing.
>Go to Ukraine in 2021 on vacation
>Fired guns, slept in Chernobyl, had a threesome with two 9/10 bi girls, saw a military parade and got to see Zelensky speaking before he got famous
>Little pissed by Soviet mentality (line-jumping) but liked how raw it all felt and how patriotic everyone was
>Tell friends in January there was 0% chance Putin would be so moronic because it would be a Stalingrad for every city
>Invasion happens
>Fall into depression, message people I met there to see if all were okay
>Was 100% convinced Kyiv would be rubble with Russian boots on top of it, I'd be reading wiki entries about how Vlad Klichko died in a shoot out in the tunnels of Kyiv, that the new iron curtain would be on the Hungarian/Romanian border, that while Russia would be finished from the inevitable guerilla war they'd wipe the floor with Ukraine conventionally
>Actually feel proud to be in the West for the first time in memory when the sanctions begin and they dwarf expectation
>Start hearing about gypsies stealing tanks, columns for miles, dishevelled conscripts
>Realise about a week in that the maths mean there's 0 chance a resisting Ukraine will succumb
>By one month I'm certain Donbas would eventually be Ukrainian again
>Now certain Crimea will be Ukrainian again
Wild ride.
how do you talk to girls without fumbling and looking like a moron?
you only talk to esl girls
Lucky bastard
I was planning a trip to Ukraine with my gramps this year.
Hopefully this war will end sooner rather than later, I wanna get a pic of me and him at chernobyl while I've still got the chance
I remember thinking that Russia would inevitably win, but they would get stuck fighting a forever war against insurgents that would drain their resources for decades. Now I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Ukrainian flag flying over the Kremlin by New Year's. This war has been a fricking fever dream, a black comedy come to life. I don't think anyone will take Russians seriously for next hundred years at least. Absolute clown show of a country.
I never cared
Russian intervention in Syria vindicated their theories. Everything worked, even their white paper on carrier operations made sense, so after the second or third day of the war, when they didnt rain massed artillery along the front, I started thinking the Russians really didnt have enough manpower. Also I dont think this will end soon or at all, the war can drag on for years.
> Ukrainian High School zoomers form 2nd DOTA battalion.
War has changed
>scouters failed to detect Ukraine's true power level.
I fricking hate you homosexuals for shit like this
Guess what you fricking ape ass double Black person: I hate you too
Well you got me there
shut the frick up you dumb israelite.
>Oh man my favorite Ukies are just like Goku!
do you see how fricking dumb you sound?
You are really fricking mad and I am laughing
>reeeee kiiiikeeees!
>I fricking hate anime references on an anime imageboard
Yeah
I was thinking few days for Kiev to fall.
Then i saw battles of Hostomel, Bucha, Irpin.
That blow me literally, mad respect for Ukies, they will remove every russian for sure.
From the moment their numbers were known I never expected them to fully win, or even take big cities like Kiev or Kharkiv. On the other hand, especially after they managed to take Lyshansk I expected them to advance to Pavlohrad or even Dnipro over the course of few months. Me dumb
on the 24th/25th of february I saw such acts of pure bravery from the ukie homeguard militias I knew they will not simply roll over. David vs Goliath tier biblical shit.
>acts of pure bravery
It is not bravery. Its anger and a desire to remove vodka from premises.
Link to video
Its somewhere on YouTube. It was by the NYT.
>NYT
Frick, I mean it was by the Telegraph. The Bong news outlet.
that clip was fricking kino, the guys were SO angry
>REMOVE vodka remove vodka you are worst slav. you are the vatnik stink you are the vatnig smell... ahahaha belarus we will never forgeve you. 2pac alive in Kyiv
cant find the video on telegraphs youtube channel, source?
Honestly I thought that Russia would get stalled at the Dnieper and eventually it would all result in a similar situation to the Crimea annexation. Where nobody really recognizes Russia's annexation but de facto, half of Ukraine would be Russia.
Ukrainians are doing far better than I expected though. The Kharkiv/Luhansk counter offensive was seriously impressive. I truly did not believe Ukraine had the capabilities to mount a rapid, mechanized breakthrough and retake a sizable portion of their land.
>Admit it /k/, did you ever imagine Ukraine will make it THIS far?
Nothing impressive about begging for superior weapons and losing a fifth of your territory.
If ISIS had the same support from the West it would be in London and Washington by now.
You realize Germany lost World War 1 while buried deep in Northern France, right?
This image sums everything up pretty nicely. I have zero fait that that Germans, Italians, or the French would fight as ferociously if they were the ones being invaded.
>Casually breaking international law in first pic
Lol
I hope the Joe Biden starts giving nuclear warheads to Zelensky so he can completely destroy Russia
ALL OF IT
As soon as Russia demonstrated they can't plan out logistics or defend their supply routes, it was over.
that’s just NATO’s power level which I never doubted. Ukraine on their own got btfo early and constantly begged for more support, which they eventually got
This cope makes vatniks sound like a kid that tried to kick your ass on the playground but your bigger brother was standing right next to you and pushed the little fricker into the dirt.
He should have included the bigger brother into his calculation. Now he's lying in on the ground covered with dogshit and sand, crying about how unfair that was.
In Ukraine's case the bigger brother didn't even have to step in.
Let's not forget that Russia claims itself to be comparable to the US. After this war we need to do a revaluation of 2nd military, and even 3rd military, of the world.
I didn't. But at the same time, I knew Russian army is overrated bunch of homosexuals and would struggle to make any significant gains. I didn't even except them to go ahead with the attack, since they're so shit.
we will see us again....
Afghanistan beat both the Soviets and the Americans, so yeah. I’m so sick of all this hullabaloo, I wish you gays would frick off or the jannies would do their fricking job. If they don’t improve performance, I’m gonna cut their pay.
Yes, and I'm currently imagining Ukrainians holding a victory parade in liberated Moscow while crypto-israelite Putin and and his mixed mongrel mutt Shoigu dangle at the end of nooses and Ukrainian sappers demolish Lenin's mausoleum.
Unironically yes, I thought Russia would've spent at least a week or two to bomb the Ukrainian air defense, C3 areas, etc, but the moment they immediately started pouring in I went "Oh shit this is going to be such a fricking blood bath"
Honestly not, and the majority who says otherwise is probably lying. Hell even foreign governments didn't think Ukraine would be able to organize and consolidate their forces that well after the initial Russian offensive. Matter of fact foreign aid and armaments only began rolling in after Ukraine managed to hold on by its' own, before that they were kinda kickin' the can down the road to see how the situation would develop.
I still believe that without foreign aid for Ukraine Russia would've performed markedly better, still a shit show on their part don't get me wrong but not as bad as what we've seen
I expected that it wouldn't go as easy as Russia wanted since a lot of the current logistic issues were already visible in the Georgian adventure but frick i thought they would take/Grozny Kharkiv and possibly Odessa even in the best scenarios for Ukraine
I expected 2 weeks honestly. Even a month, maybe 2 I was thinking Russia might be able to pull through, but it seems basically impossible for them to win at this point.
>All this from the "22nd strongest" military in the world, or so the experts tell us. Its obvious the scouters failed to detect Ukraine's true power level.
Seemed more like a case of failing to detect how low Russia's power level was.
I'm still convinced russia will turn this around. They ALWAYS do. It's their national ethos. Everything is shit at first and they get their shit together and FRICK
>I'm still convinced russia will turn this around. They ALWAYS do. It's their national ethos. Everything is shit at first and they get their shit together and FRICK
2 more weeks you say?
When Napoleon marched into Moscow, he was totally out of steam.
When Wehrmacht got to within 100km of Moscow, they were out of steam.
But currently weapon deliveries into Ukraine is still ramping up. Deliveries of new weapons and ammunition are getting bigger with each passing month.
This time around, Russia is facing around 50 countries constantly pumping fresh materiel into the war.
>When Napoleon marched into Moscow, he was totally out of steam.
Moron, the french didn’t have steam engines in Napoleon’s time. Maybe a few british ones in mines (even that is doubtfull, considering they were at war all the time since the french revolution) but certainly not in their journey to Moscow.
OMG, you’re so stupid, it hurts.
Putin jinxed himself by annexing those lands. Now he’s the invader on Russian lands and he will be humiliated and destroyed.
>They ALWAYS do.
not against Japan or in WW1
I haven't been this stressed out for months on end because I thought it would be easy. So I guess, no I didn't. And I have been following this war since 2014.
Russia tried to pull a Czechia/Hungary invasion on Kiev. They almost had it, but Ukrops were ready for this, though.
Realistically, 2014 was the last timr Russia had a shot at the rest of Ukraine.
this image sums up my feelings
+Anti-Fascists, Commies, LARPers, corrupt dipshits, Elon Musk, traitorous politicians, straight-up child molesters like Scott Ritter, and a bunch of other losers have been BTFO
+Got to watch a bunch of Oligarchs lose their Yachts
+Russia-Stronk memes at permanent all-time low.
+VDV memes.
+Finland and Sweden into NATO
+EU finally getting their shit 1/2 together and funding new military procurement.
+Russia loses all worldwide credibility politically and economically
+Lifetime supply of videos of 3rd world leaders raging on Putin and making him wait in the lobby, hat-in-hand.
+Russian whataboutism getting no traction.
+Iran in full scale revolt.
+Russia goes full Fascist but can only afford 1/2 a crooked swastika. Those "Z" photos, cringe videos, songs, etc.. will forever be on the internet and Russians will never be able to live it down.
It has been a great couple of months for everyone but the poor Ukrainians. They deserve more gibs.
I figured in the lead up to the Russian invasion with shit like Bayraktar TB2s, Stingers, Javelins, and NLAWs being supplied by the loads to Ukraine, they'd be able to halt the Russian advance for a decent amount before getting fricked by attrition and retreating into more of a guerrilla war. I was fairly aware too that Ukraine had a lot of people with some military and/or combat experience and that they had improved their capabilities pretty well since 2014. I was aware (mostly from Nagorno Karabakh and Syria) that Russian doctrine and weaponry wasn't really doing super well adapting to new threats like U(C)AVs and the newest gen ATGMs and MANPADS, and they'd also shown to punch below their weight when fighting soldiers trained on NATO doctrine (like in Georgia '08).
but I was fairly certain that Russia, putting its foot down and going for attrition, would be able to push to at least the Dniepr river, and possibly even all the way to Transnistria. Ukraine's territory is just too predisposed to the large, conventional armies that Russia fields. I was pretty optimistic before the war though that a Ukrainian guerrilla movement with Western support could probably displace Russia from most of its gains over time.
but I was incredibly surprised by the resilience and craftiness of the Ukrainians, even considering all of the Western weaponry and support they've received. the Ukrainians did SEAD better than the Russians ever did in this war, and their creativity with UAVs and light reconnaissance vehicles has been really fun to watch and has shown some great results on the battlefield.
I doubt even Ukies themselves thought things could turn around so dramatically. This is beating an old drum but HIMARS and HARM really fricked Putin way harder than anyone could think possible.
I legit believed they'd lose the war quickly when it all started. Oh sure, they'd probably give the Russkies a bloody nose here and there, and a hell of an insurgency after, but they'd lose.
I ain't too proud to not admit that I was completely fricking wrong, both about the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.
I believed the russians would roll over ukraine even if losses and incompetence could be expected, they had months to plan the invasion and their adversary was crippled by a civil war. If anything I am more surprised not by the ukrainians, but by the sheer scale of incompetence and lack of effort the russians showed that it even surpassed my expectations, its honestly disappointing.
Absolutely not, I was expecting them to last 2 or 3 days, but Russia just kept fricking up and fricking up and fricking up, and all the while the Ukrainians were fighting spectacularly well
I still don't think Ukraine will win, or at least get a return to the 2014 borders, but damn they're beating the shit out of Russia so far
No. I thought they were fricked.
What western influence does to a mf
I have always known that Russia exaggerates their military capabilities and knew that they would have a Hell of a time in Ukraine. Still, I am absolutely blown away by how well the Ukrainian military is doing.
The moment I saw the Mystery Machine, I knew Ukraine had a chance
The moment I saw the massive Russian convoy into Kyiv and uploads of Ukrainian troops searching burnt husks of Russian APCs, I realized Russia was going to lose.
Armies always are tougher fighting on their own soil.
The West is, always has been and always will be the centre of civilization. Anything that follows it's ideas will be better than that which doesn't. A bunch of Communist dinosaurs shitting out Marxist drivel to the contrary in Universities won't change that.
I thought they would have been forced to concede a buffer zone by now
I admit I was wrong
The troop buildup they had seemed too small by my estimation so I didn't think they'd actually go through with an invasion, or at least they would just press donbass to tie up the loose end and call it a day.
I don't see how or why people think this war is just Ukraine vs Russia. In the next breath they will talk about the compatibility of the billions of dollars worth of weaponry sent from the US and elsewhere, and the intelligence network of NATO.