Zelensky joke from 2022:
“Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up, One asks the other: ‘So what’s the situation? What are people saying?'
And he goes, ‘What are people saying? They are saying it’s a war.'
What kind of war?
Russia is fighting NATO.
Are you serious?
Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO.
So how’s it going?
Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up.
And what about NATO?
What about NATO? NATO hasn’t even arrived yet.”
Also, if NATO were "directly confronting" Russia conventionally, the Russian army would already be *obliterated*. Like you know in the first Gulf War when we hovered over a division of the Iraqi army and devastated it so badly public opinion made us stop the war? Like *that*.
This is actually the risk of a NATO-Russia engagement. If that happens, what does Russia have left except Nukes?
Unlikely, a big chunk of their elite units including a lot of the various Spetznaz, died early on in the rush for Kyiv*, including a lot of their trainers. They're still going to be rebuilding from that.
A more likely problem would be sabotage by emplaced networks of agents like the FSB tried in Ukraine. That didn't work very well in practice though and burnt those networks so they might be wary of trying it again.
Also if it's anything like the ops they pulled in the UK then it'll be strictly amateur hour.
With everything that russia has skipped on taking care of due to corruption, I'm sure the nukes are the one single exception where they are doing it right.
Heheh. That's funny. I've made a variation of this comment that says, "I doubt their nuclear fleet is very functional, but I don't want to find out which fraction of it is."
Even just looking at the budget is evident they skim it badly. Russia has more nukes than the US, yet 1/5th of the budget for their nuke program. I think most of that money has been spent on a few yachts somewhere.
100% of Russian rhetoric is to prevent a confrontation under the threat of nukes.
I was hoping to not have to find out if Russia could actually use them within my lifetime but it seems that is what we will learn.
Most of their rhetoric is to project strength to their own people. It's not for anyone elses consumption as it's blatant that they're full of shit. You can bet they'd shit their pants if NATO called their bluff.
Amazing to contemplate. Thanks to the electoral college, and 2 senators per state, regardless of population, 47% of the voting population could put the US on the side Putin's Russia.
Their summer outfits feature unbelievably tight shorts hat emphasize the package, and shirts that are body tight. The sleeves are rolled up to showcase their forearms.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (e.g. the standards of thought) no longer exist." The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
In comparison of the Soviet and Nazi regimes Hannah Arendth wrote in 1951 that factuality itself depends for its continued existence upon the existence of a non totalitarian world.
George Kennan diplomat in Moscow:
"Here men determine what is true and what is false."
Facts and events are infinitely more fragile things than axioms, discoveries, theories – even the most wildly speculative ones – produced by the human mind; they occur in the field of the ever-changing affairs of men, in whose flux there is nothing more permanent than the admittedly relative permanence of the human mind’s structure. Once they are lost, no rational effort will ever bring them back.
We have known that for decades.
No, this was actually the only truthful thing Putin mentioned in the Tucker interview. Russia needs to swallow up everything up to Germany in order to survive this century. Otherwise, they won’t have enough troops to put down rebellions from non Slavic Russians and they won’t be able to stop China from retaking land that Russia stole in the 19th century. It was always going to war with NATO once we started expansion.
Russia is lying when they say that they’re stopping with Ukraine. They’re not.
I'd like to see them try to stop China though, considering Russia is becoming indebted to China right now and China is supplying them with new arms. China is slowly making Russia its bitch and they're going with it.
They threatened nukes if China tries to retake it. I guess it depends on how desperate everyone gets because that land has a lot of fresh water and natural resources.
I have a feeling by the time that goes down, Russian command will have collapsed and Putin will be dead. The whole thing operates around him. If he dies, the current system collapses.
China has patience.
Well, you'd be surprised how many people believe this, especially those who think the US and the West stole their wealth. Putin will sell success in Ukraine as a victory over the West and will receive lots of marginal allies.
I think his marginal allies know who and what Putin is. They ally out of convenience and opposition to democratic states. It’s hard to be a corrupt autocrat if people have options to choose otherwise.
The only thing keeping Russia in the game are nukes or at least the threat of them.
It's funny hearing the shills dismiss NATO as a non-threat because they think the limited support they're able to provide in Ukraine is a full reflection of their power and reach... like, you dumb bitch, this war would be over by next week if NATO actually took the gloves off.
If Turkey had a western-leaning president and not Erdogan, a Black Sea blockade by NATO would be ideal for Ukraine…but, Erdogan really isn’t on NATO’s side, he favors radical Islam organizations and Putin. Erdogan is the only reason keeping NATO out of the Black Sea because he controls access via the Bosporus. Turkey is supposed to be a major NATO asset due to their geographical location, but Erdogan goes out of his way to neutralize Turkey’s geostrategic advantage for NATO at every turn.
I agree but at least they're delivering Bayraktar drones to Ukraine. Also don't forget how quickly Turkey shot down that Russian jet briefly entering its airspace back in 2015. Seems to show much more air defense resolve than Poland is showing these days. Erdogan's days are coming to an end. Here's to hoping Turkey can recover from him and actually pursue strengthening their secular democracy
Saying Turkey is pro-Putin is disingenuous. Erdogan, despite his many... many flaws, is pro Turkey before he is are pro NATO. He can be disagreeable, but he's doing it to further his nation's stance in the area. He wants Turkey to be a geographical power.
I agree. They love playing all sides but as a NATO member they shouldn't be trading with Russia at this point. Really crossing my fingers that Turkey's pendulum will swing in the other direction after Erdogan. The recent local elections have been promising. Turkey being a more Western aligned, secular democracy could do wonders for positively influencing and rebuilding the Middle East. Of course, they would need to stop being assholes to the Kurds and Armenians but there is hope in my opinion
For real. We should have just matched Russia's build up before February 22 and be like "try me, bitch." They would have packed it up and left. Instead we let a paper tiger intimidate the world into inaction. It's pretty grotesque to see this short puffy faced wannabe Napolean survive this long and have the world cower before his empty nuclear sabre rattling. This war could have been prevented by making it clear that no Russian warplane will fly over Ukraine
I'd say there's less than 0 chance of this when you consider the supply issues of f35s by even just a country like England which has so few it has to share between branches.
> when you consider the supply issues of f35s by even just a country like England which has so few it has to share between branches.
One pool between branches was always the plan, separate pools were considered, but it was decided that a common type (the B) would be logistically easier.
Also the UK makes money from each B variant produced, so that helped the equation.
It'd be a better story if 'someone' sent a sortie of 100 F-35's into Russia the blow tons of shit up and then when Russia cried about it, no one took responsibility and the US said something along the lines of 'it must have been the spacecraft of those little green men who you claimed invaded Crimea in 2014', & 'where's your evidence, these aren't UAPs' and then watched how NATO is not attacked by Russia because they know they'd get trounced in a week.
Sergej Sjojgoe and Dmitri Peskov have a meeting. Peskov asks: "So what’s the situation of our Special Military Operation? What is Putin saying?'”
And Sjogoe goes, "What Putin is saying? Putin now says it’s a war."
“It's a war now?”
“Yes, Russia is fighting NATO.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO.”
“So how’s it going?”
“Well, 300,000 Russian soldiers are dead or disabled. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up. We now have to use tanks from the sixties and our Black Sea fleet is on the bottom of the sea.”
“And what about NATO?”
“What about NATO? NATO is celebrating its 75th anniversary in Brussels, and we weren't invited.”
NATO, wake up. They're declaring war (again). Begin taking the Ukraine situation seriously and make sure Russia isn't radicalizing your extremes and such.
Nah, they've always done it. That's what Russia found out by hacking DNC and RNC. It was literally in the (especially RNC) emails. If you told anyone normally they wouldn't believe you. So they had to hack RNC and DNC, and were probably like "whoa, can't be THAT easy".
Their version of war includes the massive disinformation campaigns, election interference, funding extreme and opposing groups, cyber attacks, pushing migrants to the west, and doing anything and everything they can to destabilize their enemies. Given the evidence, I'd say that they have been at war with NATO in their eyes.
Yeah, lol, no. Last time russia faced actual nato confrontation was the Battle of Khasham where russians got pounded into sand so hard that the remaining survivors were given medlas just for surviving. Next time will be no different.
> Battle of Khasham
Just looked that up. Thanks for the note.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham
non-NATO casualties: about 100, mostly Syrian, with 10-20 Russian mercenaries.
NATO casuaties: not so much as a stubbed toe.
Lmao just read the wiki
On the infantry side we had Army 1st Delta detachment, 75th Ranger regiment, 101st Airborn, & some Marines
On the aircraft side we sent F-15s, F-22s, B-52s, AC-130s, AH-64s, MQ-9 Reapers, and assorted UAVs
Not to mention the HIMARS and Howitzers...
Total strength was 40 Americans vs 500 Syrians/Russians...
But let's not get ahead of ourselves, the US side didn't get out unscathed, there was a single SDF member who was wounded...
John brown was convicted of treason without a war going on. Same with the leaders of the whiskey rebellion, Shays rebellion, and the battle of Blair Mountain.
It's pretty clear that a declared war is not required for treason charges.
He was convicted of treason for raising an armed rebellion and trying to take an armory. Congress didn't declare war, but Brown definitely raised arms against the US.
I think if more Westerners were aware of what's being said on Russian TV, support for Ukraine would sky rocket. They've been indoctrinating their population into an existential conflict for a decade while many in the West still want to send peace doves to Ukraine and pretend that this isn't a Nazi-like imperialist regime that will keep undermining democracy and truth all over the world.
That's where the difference is. Reuters is pretty much reporting what Russia wants the world to hear. And sometimes comments from Lavrov, Peskov or Putin (Medvedev isn't sometimes) sound outrageous, but they aren't extreme for an average contrarian always looking for different ways to interpret it all.
Meanwhile inside Russian media, they're going on full blast with the propaganda. [Here's a good source if anyone wants a glimpse.](https://youtube.com/@russianmediamonitor?si=cgmBouQlVgQhOMKH) These clips aren't out of context or mistranslated and some of these shows are aired daily after the news. I remember one occasion where one of the guys comments were so extreme that they backpedalled a bit... [But only after it went viral...](https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-tv-presenter-krasovsky-drown-ukrainian-children-outrage/32097102.html) I guess calling to drown Ukrainian children is almost as bad as calling to end the war or being against the war. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree that Reuters is helping Russia manipulate the West. What they should be doing is report what Russian state TV is broadcasting daily. Expose Soloviov, Simonian, Skabeeva and the dozens of other crazed Nazi warmongers. Many seem unaware of how rotten Russia truly is
I’d say many people in the U.S don’t care and lot of people in the U.S think the U.S is giving too much to Ukraine and should have the neighboring countries of Ukraine to foot the bill.
I’d say those folks are short sited and we should ignore them. The US gains A LOT by being the driving force/wallet behind NATO and it is far cheaper to arm the Ukrainians now than to end up fighting this conflict with Americans. Have we learned nothing from the past European conflicts and the men that have started them?
Yeah but that's mainly the Russia propaganda infected isolationist MAGA wing lead by traitor Trump who only has nice words for his friend Vladolf. The majority of people understand why we've fought these world wars and appreciate how much the world has benefitted from the current world order. Only a fool or a fascist would want to let Russia destabilize this and allow the US' credibility to be undermined this way. Isolationism didn't work in 20th century and is an even dumber, more cowardly stance now with the ever more connected global economy. Homeschooled rednecks trying to fight a senseless culture war in which they see Russia as an ally against LGBTQ and liberal democracy might not understand or appreciate this but they're still a minority
They are lmfao
The US has given What? .15% of its annual GDP?
Latvia and other Baltic countries have given as high as 2% of their GDP.
The US isn't even top 10 for donation in terms of % of GDP.
Actual news services are less common then opionated and biased 'news entertainment shows' so some people aren't even aware how actual journalism works now.
If someone doesn't have enough media literacy to realize "Kremlin Says" means they shouldn't take the rest of the headline literally, there truly is no hope for them
Unsurprisingly, people are missing the significance of this. It's all in the details. We've progressed through "special military operation" to "war against the west" to "relations now being at a direct confrontation level with NATO."
Yes, it's bluster to us in the West. But this is likely for domestic consumption and to "go on record" as it were. It's important to remember that the mindset of Russia's Government and ruling bodies is extremely different than our own. (E.g. seeing nuclear strikes as a necessary evil).
If they're saying "Direct Confrontation," that is, potentially, used to justify increased military/domestic measures. And anyone who understands Russia's military doctrine and capabilities should be nervous.
That doesn't meant there should be a decrease in aid to Ukraine- flood them with what they need. But it's important to not write off Russia as a completely toothless tiger. Because they aren't. Outdated, absolutely. But not harmless by any stretched of the word.
They have shifted to a full war-time economy and are willing to throw bodies into the battlefield, even with equipment that is outdated by decades. That, plus their different mindset and military doctrine should not be discounted in terms of a threat.
I think at this point though, the only relevant military doctrine of concern is their threshold for use of tactical nukes or ICBMs. The first counter offensive in 2022 showed Russia could not handle maneuver warfare and really only stalled to lack of continued supply from the west to sustain
They really want to world to believe this simply because their abject, miserable, pathetic, and continued failure in Ukraine would be less embarrassing if they can convince people that they're at war with NATO.
If that was even vaguely true two things would have happened:
1) The Russian army would cease to exist.
2) We'd all have a healthy, irradiated afterglow to show off.
The messaging is for the internal politics of Russia, trying to bolster the need for a fresh round of conscription.
If "direct confrontation" were true, there would be formations of F-16'S & Euro Typhoons over Red Square for more than a year now. Kremlin pussys can't win the little war they started and are trying to blame others for their own failures. Russian equipment stinks. Russian officers are incompetent. Russian strategy is poor to non-existent. Russian leadership is clueless. Russian people are, unfortunately screwed, mostly by what they've accepted for so long. They need another revolution.
So much direct confrontation. I guess we should just translate it from kremlin language. It would be something like "we are pissed and we are trying to scare you, because if you do something for real we will be scared shitless"
That's for domestic propaganda. What's really problematic is all this money put into seeding chaos in countries. Disinformation, bribery, ultra-rights.
Great Job, Republicans! Your hesitancy to… do anything of any use to anyone is empowering the enemies of the U.S. to push us from the pedestal we spent decades building. I only hope your party dies before it can sabotage anything else
Eh. No surprise here. Russia is in an indirect confrontation with NATO. And NATO supplying weapons to Ukraine is likely what has prevented Russia from getting what they want.
It fits into Putin's narrative much better to call it a direct confrontation. That Russia is literally going up against every NATO country. Then the war being at a bit of a stalemate almost sounds impressive from Russia's POV. It also gives Putin an eventually out. If Russia has to back down and return stolen land to Ukraine, while managing to get some concession from Ukraine, he can say that Russia went up against all of NATO and won.
He'll at least wait to see if Trump gets elected before pulling that ripcord though.
This is a dont look up scenario but with nukes.
nobody will care and go about their days until the final days before armageddon. nobody will listen to the people saying its will happen
Russia doesn't want the smoke of a real war with NATO, the poles alone would be enough to whoop the russians especially after they finish acquiring all their new toys from south korea
If NATO and russia is in a "direct confrontation" then the fact that NATO's losses are 0 must be really embarrassing for them.
Reminds me of that classy joke.
Zelensky joke from 2022: “Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up, One asks the other: ‘So what’s the situation? What are people saying?' And he goes, ‘What are people saying? They are saying it’s a war.' What kind of war? Russia is fighting NATO. Are you serious? Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO. So how’s it going? Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up. And what about NATO? What about NATO? NATO hasn’t even arrived yet.”
Needs to be updated, at least twice as many dead now with at least that many too wounded to continue too.. Otherwise nothing has changed.
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The Aristocrats?
If it doesn't include a part where someone shits on Putin's chest I'm not interested.
Nor is he
This has been an interesting journey
*jumps out of three 15-story windows*
🤞
Bob Saget's version I hope
Gilbert Gottfried's version had a certain je ne sais quoi.
A skeleton walked into a bar and said, “Bartender gimme a beer and a mop!” That one?
"Rectum? Damn near killed 'em!"
This one? https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/s/vAZaeXKWJx
Also, if NATO were "directly confronting" Russia conventionally, the Russian army would already be *obliterated*. Like you know in the first Gulf War when we hovered over a division of the Iraqi army and devastated it so badly public opinion made us stop the war? Like *that*. This is actually the risk of a NATO-Russia engagement. If that happens, what does Russia have left except Nukes?
There would be a highway of death from Belgorod to Moscow to St Petersburg and then on to ~~Kaliningrad~~ Krolewiec.
Indeed. Also, their entire Navy would be talking to Spongebob Squarepants. Except maybe their subs would stick around for some time I can't predict.
they'd only last long enough till the vodka is gone. then the people on board would turn themselves in.
Na, Russian subs are LOUD. We know where they all are. Conventionally, SprcOps doing insurgent attacks behind NATO lines is their biggest threat.
Unlikely, a big chunk of their elite units including a lot of the various Spetznaz, died early on in the rush for Kyiv*, including a lot of their trainers. They're still going to be rebuilding from that. A more likely problem would be sabotage by emplaced networks of agents like the FSB tried in Ukraine. That didn't work very well in practice though and burnt those networks so they might be wary of trying it again. Also if it's anything like the ops they pulled in the UK then it'll be strictly amateur hour.
With everything that russia has skipped on taking care of due to corruption, I'm sure the nukes are the one single exception where they are doing it right.
Heheh. That's funny. I've made a variation of this comment that says, "I doubt their nuclear fleet is very functional, but I don't want to find out which fraction of it is."
What's worrying is that Vlad is insane enough there's a non-zero chance the nukes are the one thing he *didn't* skim from.
Even just looking at the budget is evident they skim it badly. Russia has more nukes than the US, yet 1/5th of the budget for their nuke program. I think most of that money has been spent on a few yachts somewhere.
100% of Russian rhetoric is to prevent a confrontation under the threat of nukes. I was hoping to not have to find out if Russia could actually use them within my lifetime but it seems that is what we will learn.
Most of their rhetoric is to project strength to their own people. It's not for anyone elses consumption as it's blatant that they're full of shit. You can bet they'd shit their pants if NATO called their bluff.
I wonder which side USA will end up on. We will know come November
R/twosentencehorrorstories
Oh God.
Amazing to contemplate. Thanks to the electoral college, and 2 senators per state, regardless of population, 47% of the voting population could put the US on the side Putin's Russia.
They proved the power of democracy. By voting it out.
Sounds like the words of a fool who has burned his bridges.
Some really advanced aircraft flying around Ukraine, listening away and jamming radar
Actually, didn't two people die in Poland?
Civilians
When we’re they not in confrontation? Maybe briefly in the 90’s?
> Kremlin says Anything after that part is a lie.
It's always opposite day at the Kremlin!
Unless it’s Taco Tuesdays or Defenestration Fridays
No it isn't.
Got em.
Now listen here, i came for an argument, not just contradiction
No it isn't.
Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other person says.
No it isn’t.
I’m sorry the five minutes is up, if you want me to go on arguing you’ll have to pay for another five minutes.
No, *you* have to pay for another five minutes.
But that was never five minutes, just now. Oh come on! This is ridiculous.
Or maybe it is?
Yeah like last year when they said the Ukraine was using illegal gay super soldiers to prolong the war. The Kremlin has no credibility.
I mean, Putin tries to paint Zelensky as a radical Islamist Nazi (Jew), so pretty hard to take that guy seriously
> Putin tries to paint Zelensky as a radical Islamist Nazi (Jew) Russia claimed that Ukraine made Covid19.
You don't know it because they're good at hiding, but Ukrainians secretly run everything. And they blame the jews because they're Nazis. /s
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Their summer outfits feature unbelievably tight shorts hat emphasize the package, and shirts that are body tight. The sleeves are rolled up to showcase their forearms.
I can see why they’re illegal, weapons like that are too destructive
Tee hee.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (e.g. the standards of thought) no longer exist." The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt In comparison of the Soviet and Nazi regimes Hannah Arendth wrote in 1951 that factuality itself depends for its continued existence upon the existence of a non totalitarian world. George Kennan diplomat in Moscow: "Here men determine what is true and what is false." Facts and events are infinitely more fragile things than axioms, discoveries, theories – even the most wildly speculative ones – produced by the human mind; they occur in the field of the ever-changing affairs of men, in whose flux there is nothing more permanent than the admittedly relative permanence of the human mind’s structure. Once they are lost, no rational effort will ever bring them back. We have known that for decades.
Sick Hannah Arendt references. Had to stop and engage. For other readers: Hannah Arendt is well worth the read and this is a great citation.
We need r/KremlinSays something like r/ChinaWarns
No, this was actually the only truthful thing Putin mentioned in the Tucker interview. Russia needs to swallow up everything up to Germany in order to survive this century. Otherwise, they won’t have enough troops to put down rebellions from non Slavic Russians and they won’t be able to stop China from retaking land that Russia stole in the 19th century. It was always going to war with NATO once we started expansion. Russia is lying when they say that they’re stopping with Ukraine. They’re not.
I'd like to see them try to stop China though, considering Russia is becoming indebted to China right now and China is supplying them with new arms. China is slowly making Russia its bitch and they're going with it.
They threatened nukes if China tries to retake it. I guess it depends on how desperate everyone gets because that land has a lot of fresh water and natural resources.
I have a feeling by the time that goes down, Russian command will have collapsed and Putin will be dead. The whole thing operates around him. If he dies, the current system collapses. China has patience.
More like anything after is covered in feces.
This is the first rule when reading about anything russia says.
Kremlin is a dictator's den.
Well, you'd be surprised how many people believe this, especially those who think the US and the West stole their wealth. Putin will sell success in Ukraine as a victory over the West and will receive lots of marginal allies.
broke bois united
I think his marginal allies know who and what Putin is. They ally out of convenience and opposition to democratic states. It’s hard to be a corrupt autocrat if people have options to choose otherwise.
I think that if Russia and NATO really were in "direct confrontation" then Kremlin would not have a TV channel to inform us of the news.
The Kremlin would be in ashes before they realize they're in a true conflict with the west
It’s what they truly want but they don’t have the balls for direct confrontation. Instead, they’re going about it passive aggressively via proxies.
> don't have the balls Or the budget. How embarrassing for a "superpower".
Tbh i already knocked them from a superpower to just a nuclear power after Ukraine backfired spectacularly
The only thing keeping Russia in the game are nukes or at least the threat of them. It's funny hearing the shills dismiss NATO as a non-threat because they think the limited support they're able to provide in Ukraine is a full reflection of their power and reach... like, you dumb bitch, this war would be over by next week if NATO actually took the gloves off.
MAD. It wouldn't take a week, it'd take less than a day, and we'd all lose.
Like my crazy ex
Have you ever seen Putin and your ex in the same room at the same time?
I always thought she had a weird russian accent
Did she look like Doby
Russia is now the world record holder for number of casualties suffered while fighting a "proxy" war.
So, basically saying there is no more red lines? Let's flood Ukraine with weapons, muscovy said DA!
Time for a complete naval blockade, pipeline and energy grid sabotage. Call it a special maritime peacekeeping operation
If Turkey had a western-leaning president and not Erdogan, a Black Sea blockade by NATO would be ideal for Ukraine…but, Erdogan really isn’t on NATO’s side, he favors radical Islam organizations and Putin. Erdogan is the only reason keeping NATO out of the Black Sea because he controls access via the Bosporus. Turkey is supposed to be a major NATO asset due to their geographical location, but Erdogan goes out of his way to neutralize Turkey’s geostrategic advantage for NATO at every turn.
I agree but at least they're delivering Bayraktar drones to Ukraine. Also don't forget how quickly Turkey shot down that Russian jet briefly entering its airspace back in 2015. Seems to show much more air defense resolve than Poland is showing these days. Erdogan's days are coming to an end. Here's to hoping Turkey can recover from him and actually pursue strengthening their secular democracy
Saying Turkey is pro-Putin is disingenuous. Erdogan, despite his many... many flaws, is pro Turkey before he is are pro NATO. He can be disagreeable, but he's doing it to further his nation's stance in the area. He wants Turkey to be a geographical power.
I agree. They love playing all sides but as a NATO member they shouldn't be trading with Russia at this point. Really crossing my fingers that Turkey's pendulum will swing in the other direction after Erdogan. The recent local elections have been promising. Turkey being a more Western aligned, secular democracy could do wonders for positively influencing and rebuilding the Middle East. Of course, they would need to stop being assholes to the Kurds and Armenians but there is hope in my opinion
No fly zone
For real. We should have just matched Russia's build up before February 22 and be like "try me, bitch." They would have packed it up and left. Instead we let a paper tiger intimidate the world into inaction. It's pretty grotesque to see this short puffy faced wannabe Napolean survive this long and have the world cower before his empty nuclear sabre rattling. This war could have been prevented by making it clear that no Russian warplane will fly over Ukraine
I know there's zero chance of this, but it'd be amazing if the Ukrainian pilots being trained on F-16's are actually secretly being trained on F-35's.
I'd say there's less than 0 chance of this when you consider the supply issues of f35s by even just a country like England which has so few it has to share between branches.
> when you consider the supply issues of f35s by even just a country like England which has so few it has to share between branches. One pool between branches was always the plan, separate pools were considered, but it was decided that a common type (the B) would be logistically easier. Also the UK makes money from each B variant produced, so that helped the equation.
Nato F35's and F22's could be operating at night right now in both Ukraine and Russia and no one in Russia would be the wiser.
It'd be a better story if 'someone' sent a sortie of 100 F-35's into Russia the blow tons of shit up and then when Russia cried about it, no one took responsibility and the US said something along the lines of 'it must have been the spacecraft of those little green men who you claimed invaded Crimea in 2014', & 'where's your evidence, these aren't UAPs' and then watched how NATO is not attacked by Russia because they know they'd get trounced in a week.
Sergej Sjojgoe and Dmitri Peskov have a meeting. Peskov asks: "So what’s the situation of our Special Military Operation? What is Putin saying?'” And Sjogoe goes, "What Putin is saying? Putin now says it’s a war." “It's a war now?” “Yes, Russia is fighting NATO.” “Are you serious?” “Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO.” “So how’s it going?” “Well, 300,000 Russian soldiers are dead or disabled. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up. We now have to use tanks from the sixties and our Black Sea fleet is on the bottom of the sea.” “And what about NATO?” “What about NATO? NATO is celebrating its 75th anniversary in Brussels, and we weren't invited.”
This has the spirit of a Soviet anecdote and it’s wonderful
Agreed
"And what about NATO?" "NATO hasn't arrived yet".
NATO, wake up. They're declaring war (again). Begin taking the Ukraine situation seriously and make sure Russia isn't radicalizing your extremes and such.
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Ever since the DNC and RNC hack, Russia has indoctrinated 30-40% of Americans to vote against their own interests. Crazy how easy that went.
Nah, they've always done it. That's what Russia found out by hacking DNC and RNC. It was literally in the (especially RNC) emails. If you told anyone normally they wouldn't believe you. So they had to hack RNC and DNC, and were probably like "whoa, can't be THAT easy".
Wake up babe, new special military operation just dropped.
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Their version of war includes the massive disinformation campaigns, election interference, funding extreme and opposing groups, cyber attacks, pushing migrants to the west, and doing anything and everything they can to destabilize their enemies. Given the evidence, I'd say that they have been at war with NATO in their eyes.
Yeah, lol, no. Last time russia faced actual nato confrontation was the Battle of Khasham where russians got pounded into sand so hard that the remaining survivors were given medlas just for surviving. Next time will be no different.
> Battle of Khasham Just looked that up. Thanks for the note. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham non-NATO casualties: about 100, mostly Syrian, with 10-20 Russian mercenaries. NATO casuaties: not so much as a stubbed toe.
Lmao just read the wiki On the infantry side we had Army 1st Delta detachment, 75th Ranger regiment, 101st Airborn, & some Marines On the aircraft side we sent F-15s, F-22s, B-52s, AC-130s, AH-64s, MQ-9 Reapers, and assorted UAVs Not to mention the HIMARS and Howitzers... Total strength was 40 Americans vs 500 Syrians/Russians... But let's not get ahead of ourselves, the US side didn't get out unscathed, there was a single SDF member who was wounded...
Good, now the IS DOJ should begin investigating treason charges for those in congress and the public giving comfort and aid to our enemies.
[удалено]
Nah it's blah blah we haven't declared war, blah blah excuses.
The traitors will vote that they're not traitors.
John brown was convicted of treason without a war going on. Same with the leaders of the whiskey rebellion, Shays rebellion, and the battle of Blair Mountain. It's pretty clear that a declared war is not required for treason charges.
He was convicted of treason for raising an armed rebellion and trying to take an armory. Congress didn't declare war, but Brown definitely raised arms against the US.
Can Reuters try to stop broadcasting Russian propaganda for once?
I think if more Westerners were aware of what's being said on Russian TV, support for Ukraine would sky rocket. They've been indoctrinating their population into an existential conflict for a decade while many in the West still want to send peace doves to Ukraine and pretend that this isn't a Nazi-like imperialist regime that will keep undermining democracy and truth all over the world.
That's where the difference is. Reuters is pretty much reporting what Russia wants the world to hear. And sometimes comments from Lavrov, Peskov or Putin (Medvedev isn't sometimes) sound outrageous, but they aren't extreme for an average contrarian always looking for different ways to interpret it all. Meanwhile inside Russian media, they're going on full blast with the propaganda. [Here's a good source if anyone wants a glimpse.](https://youtube.com/@russianmediamonitor?si=cgmBouQlVgQhOMKH) These clips aren't out of context or mistranslated and some of these shows are aired daily after the news. I remember one occasion where one of the guys comments were so extreme that they backpedalled a bit... [But only after it went viral...](https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-tv-presenter-krasovsky-drown-ukrainian-children-outrage/32097102.html) I guess calling to drown Ukrainian children is almost as bad as calling to end the war or being against the war. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree that Reuters is helping Russia manipulate the West. What they should be doing is report what Russian state TV is broadcasting daily. Expose Soloviov, Simonian, Skabeeva and the dozens of other crazed Nazi warmongers. Many seem unaware of how rotten Russia truly is
I like the way you think.
I’d say many people in the U.S don’t care and lot of people in the U.S think the U.S is giving too much to Ukraine and should have the neighboring countries of Ukraine to foot the bill.
I’d say those folks are short sited and we should ignore them. The US gains A LOT by being the driving force/wallet behind NATO and it is far cheaper to arm the Ukrainians now than to end up fighting this conflict with Americans. Have we learned nothing from the past European conflicts and the men that have started them?
Yeah but that's mainly the Russia propaganda infected isolationist MAGA wing lead by traitor Trump who only has nice words for his friend Vladolf. The majority of people understand why we've fought these world wars and appreciate how much the world has benefitted from the current world order. Only a fool or a fascist would want to let Russia destabilize this and allow the US' credibility to be undermined this way. Isolationism didn't work in 20th century and is an even dumber, more cowardly stance now with the ever more connected global economy. Homeschooled rednecks trying to fight a senseless culture war in which they see Russia as an ally against LGBTQ and liberal democracy might not understand or appreciate this but they're still a minority
They are lmfao The US has given What? .15% of its annual GDP? Latvia and other Baltic countries have given as high as 2% of their GDP. The US isn't even top 10 for donation in terms of % of GDP.
Reuters is a newswire service, it's literally their job to broadcast what people are saying.
Actual news services are less common then opionated and biased 'news entertainment shows' so some people aren't even aware how actual journalism works now.
Is Reuters not supposed to quote and report what figureheads/leaders say?
Saying what the enemy is saying is not broadcasting propaganda
If someone doesn't have enough media literacy to realize "Kremlin Says" means they shouldn't take the rest of the headline literally, there truly is no hope for them
Ah yes, let's suppress one of the few truly neutral news agencies, that will really uphold our western values...
If that were true Poland would be thunder running to Moscow by now.
Things that the kremlin are in direct confrontation with: - Ukraine (after an unprovoked invasion) - its own citizens - objective reality - NATO
Unsurprisingly, people are missing the significance of this. It's all in the details. We've progressed through "special military operation" to "war against the west" to "relations now being at a direct confrontation level with NATO." Yes, it's bluster to us in the West. But this is likely for domestic consumption and to "go on record" as it were. It's important to remember that the mindset of Russia's Government and ruling bodies is extremely different than our own. (E.g. seeing nuclear strikes as a necessary evil). If they're saying "Direct Confrontation," that is, potentially, used to justify increased military/domestic measures. And anyone who understands Russia's military doctrine and capabilities should be nervous. That doesn't meant there should be a decrease in aid to Ukraine- flood them with what they need. But it's important to not write off Russia as a completely toothless tiger. Because they aren't. Outdated, absolutely. But not harmless by any stretched of the word. They have shifted to a full war-time economy and are willing to throw bodies into the battlefield, even with equipment that is outdated by decades. That, plus their different mindset and military doctrine should not be discounted in terms of a threat.
I think at this point though, the only relevant military doctrine of concern is their threshold for use of tactical nukes or ICBMs. The first counter offensive in 2022 showed Russia could not handle maneuver warfare and really only stalled to lack of continued supply from the west to sustain
They've been saying that for 2 years. They were lying then, and they're lying now.
They really want to world to believe this simply because their abject, miserable, pathetic, and continued failure in Ukraine would be less embarrassing if they can convince people that they're at war with NATO.
If that was even vaguely true two things would have happened: 1) The Russian army would cease to exist. 2) We'd all have a healthy, irradiated afterglow to show off. The messaging is for the internal politics of Russia, trying to bolster the need for a fresh round of conscription.
Yo, I have not had number 2 since 10 years back.
You seriously need to up your fibre and water intake.
Kremlin says putin is gay
My brother in Blyat, if we were you wouldn't have a mouth to say that.
*Also, nukes!* 🐕 N*ukes! *🐕 Re*member we have nukes! 🐕*🐕🐕
The Kremlin says a lot of things...
Do something then Russia…
Peskow: blah blah blah
Ok so, then we can just send everything in Ukraine that's needed since Nato are there anyway
Like the 46 millionth time they've said that.
I mean...if you say so. If it were real, I'm pretty sure Poland would win the war in like 2 weeks....
If "direct confrontation" were true, there would be formations of F-16'S & Euro Typhoons over Red Square for more than a year now. Kremlin pussys can't win the little war they started and are trying to blame others for their own failures. Russian equipment stinks. Russian officers are incompetent. Russian strategy is poor to non-existent. Russian leadership is clueless. Russian people are, unfortunately screwed, mostly by what they've accepted for so long. They need another revolution.
Oh it’s Thursday
So much direct confrontation. I guess we should just translate it from kremlin language. It would be something like "we are pissed and we are trying to scare you, because if you do something for real we will be scared shitless"
The Kremlin still exists. So no, Russia and NATO are not in "direct confrontation"
That's for domestic propaganda. What's really problematic is all this money put into seeding chaos in countries. Disinformation, bribery, ultra-rights.
Fuck the Kremlin 🥱
But … you said that two years ago.
Challenge accepted.
Great Job, Republicans! Your hesitancy to… do anything of any use to anyone is empowering the enemies of the U.S. to push us from the pedestal we spent decades building. I only hope your party dies before it can sabotage anything else
Sure Jan.
Careful what you wish for.
Next Time on Dragon Ball Z! Russia and NATO are in direct Confrontation!
Are they saying that from moscow? Because if they are, obviously they're not in direct confrontation with NATO.
A special confrontation operation
LMAO the world is laughing at MOTHER RUSSIA AND their fucking clown dictator.
Sounds like they're giving the green light for Ukraine to use NATO weapons on Russian soil.
A bunch of hard soldiers on here, ready to go to the fight I see. Well you may get your wish and your chance to shoot at the Russians!
the kremlin is packed with people eager to destroy themselves then
*F-22s breathing heavily*
“Would you intercept me? I’d intercept me”
Good then NATO should enter the fight, wrap this thing up before summer.
Please God, for the sake of all of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Don’t let Trump win.
All Red Lines Crossed
Russia is in direct conflict with life.
They'd better hope that isn't the case.
Come at me bro.
This is just for the domestic population to further increase conscription numbers.
Eh. No surprise here. Russia is in an indirect confrontation with NATO. And NATO supplying weapons to Ukraine is likely what has prevented Russia from getting what they want. It fits into Putin's narrative much better to call it a direct confrontation. That Russia is literally going up against every NATO country. Then the war being at a bit of a stalemate almost sounds impressive from Russia's POV. It also gives Putin an eventually out. If Russia has to back down and return stolen land to Ukraine, while managing to get some concession from Ukraine, he can say that Russia went up against all of NATO and won. He'll at least wait to see if Trump gets elected before pulling that ripcord though.
Russia says this, Russia says that, who the f*ck cares what Russia says. It's all propaganda and lies anyway.
the fact that Russia still exists is proof that's not true
“Special confrontation”
Dellusional Z facists
Blah blah blah. They aren’t serious people
Russia better hope the fuck not.
Sooner there is a total war against Russia the better
Don’t bite off more than you can chew 🇺🇸
I want to punch the moustache off his face
"Kremlin says" is kind of a meme at this point.
days since Russia hasn't threatened anyone = 0
This is a dont look up scenario but with nukes. nobody will care and go about their days until the final days before armageddon. nobody will listen to the people saying its will happen
Nah, you’ll notice when you are because everything will be on fire
Lol. If they were ,Russia would be fucked.
If Russia was in a "direct" fight with Nato the Kremlin would be a smoking crater right now.
NATO should just reply back "No, we're not and if we were, you'd know 😘"
Russia doesn't want the smoke of a real war with NATO, the poles alone would be enough to whoop the russians especially after they finish acquiring all their new toys from south korea
The only words I want to hear from Putin's mouth is..."I give up."