Jump to content

Ukraine War 6: what the hell are the Russians thinking?


Ser Scot A Ellison

Recommended Posts

@Fez - Apropos of our discussion yesterday on the dearth of information on arms being sent to Ukraine, the Biden administration is clearly trying to be tight lipped about it, even refusing to reaffirm specific measures that were already confirmed:

Quote

The anti-aircraft Stingers were delivered for the first time to Ukraine this week, with 200 of them arriving on Monday alone. It’s thus a matter of public record, and reporting, that the U.S. sent such weapons to help Kyiv fight off Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN’s forces.

But you can’t get any other U.S. official to repeat what Lewis and Karlin disclosed publicly. The State Department pointed us to a February announcement by Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN authorizing an extra $350 million in security assistance to Ukraine, increasing the total to $1.4 billion since 2021.

On Thursday, a senior defense official would “only say that we continue to provide Ukraine the systems that they need to defend themselves, and that includes best systems and weapons that they can use to deal with threats on the ground, as well as airborne threats, and that is as far as I'm going to go.”

The White House wouldn’t even talk to us on background about the Stingers. It’s all so very out there and yet hush-hush — why?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, DMC said:

@Fez - Apropos of our discussion yesterday on the dearth of information on arms being sent to Ukraine, the Biden administration is clearly trying to be tight lipped about it, even refusing to reaffirm specific measures that were already confirmed:

 

And on that note too actually:

Article itself is paywalled though; and I subscribe to WaPo, not NYT (sidenote, I suspect there's some sort of analysis to be done of the differences between people who subscribe to one, or the other, or both papers)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Fez said:

I subscribe to WaPo, not NYT (sidenote, I suspect there's some sort of analysis to be done of the differences between people who subscribe to one, or the other, or both papers)

Heh, nice tangent.  Me too - I've always preferred WaPo to NYT my entire adult life and I do think there are interesting differences there to be explored.  Of course, it may have helped that stacks of WaPo were freely available in the lobbies of my dorms at AU when I was 18-20.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, DMC said:

Heh, nice tangent.  Me too - I've always preferred WaPo to NYT my entire adult life and I do think there are interesting differences there to be explored.  Of course, it may have helped that stacks of WaPo were freely available in the lobbies of my dorms at AU when I was 18-20.

I subscribe to both -- and more than too many others too -- but the NYT is my hometown paper so I've always preferred it.  These days I'm more than happy to have both, and by golly do they both have their, um, negatives, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, sologdin said:

the post strikes me as more obviously propagandistic than the times and thus less dangerous. both are reliable cheerleaders of the US empire, however, and accordingly will present russia in the most cynical light.

You'll never get invited to the nicer Georgetown cocktail parties with that attitude; have to mix with the hoi polloi over on U Street instead (which, to be fair, does sound more fun; but less likely to lead to a sole source government contract)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

bloody Scott Bakula. 

First he killed Star Trek for TV, then he joined one of those awful NCIS: Who gives a toss franchises, now he's leaped into Putin.

I am genuinely not sure, for which part he needs to get kicked in the nuts most.

Russia is pretty far from there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Zorral said:

I subscribe to both -- and more than too many others too -- but the NYT is my hometown paper so I've always preferred it.  These days I'm more than happy to have both, and by golly do they both have their, um, negatives, though.

While this isn't one of the main reasons I prefer WaPo, referring back to my formative time again, there also was the coverage of the Iraq War and its lead up.  WaPo certainly had plenty to answer to there as well, but Friedman's hawkishness was quite disappointing, let alone Judy Miller.

3 minutes ago, Fez said:

U Street instead (which, to be fair, does sound more fun

MUCH more fun! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt it.

 

 

edit: but honestly, anyone's guess is as good as mine. many are better. like, over the last week feels as if the world has written itself anew, a bit more, every day

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, JEORDHl said:

I doubt it.

 

 

edit: but honestly, anyone's guess is as good as mine. many are better. like, over the last week feels as if the world has written itself anew, a bit more, every day

That’s putting it mildly.  I imagine this is what it was like for my Grandparents in 1939.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lotta reports that Ukraine launched some sort of counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region a few hours ago. No word yet on how it's going, and I suspect there probably won't be much news reported until morning there anyway; at the earliest. Hopefully it can alleviate some of the pressure on the city. Some of the tweets are saying it's a full combined arms assault, with Ukraine mechanized forces and artillery participating, not just spec ops or infantry.

Also, starting to see more tweets, including by Rubio again, suggesting that Russian forces face some kind of massive supply crunch, even more than what we've seen so far, sometime in the next 72 hours. Not sure what that might mean, or its implications, if true though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Fez said:

Lotta reports that Ukraine launched some sort of counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region a few hours ago. No word yet on how it's going, and I suspect there probably won't be much news reported until morning there anyway; at the earliest. Hopefully it can alleviate some of the pressure on the city. Some of the tweets are saying it's a full combined arms assault, with Ukraine mechanized forces and artillery participating, not just spec ops or infantry.

Also, starting to see more tweets, including by Rubio again, suggesting that Russian forces face some kind of massive supply crunch, even more than what we've seen so far, sometime in the next 72 hours. Not sure what that might mean, or its implications, if true though.

Mmn. Twitter is an odd resource to try to aggregate. Feels like Russia is heading into a crunch if not there already. Estimates put their force commitment somewhere in the range of 90 to 92% of deployable, and they're running low on everything. Read that Ukraine has recaptured Hostomel airport. Great if true. The Russian column approaching Kyiv has been hit by Ukrainian air force and harassed by Bayraktar fire. All that, and much else, now coupled with the social and generational contraction back in Moscow and Russia proper. 

Now is not the time to let up, at all. Maybe easy on new sanctions, mind, but no rest no relief. Russia could be exhausted in several days. 

Then political calculus will get more... intense. Horrible word choice given the context, but. 

 

 

edit: there are dozens, maybe hundreds of threads like this floating out there, and they're all fascinating.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it not yet appropriate to criticize President Zelensky for his lack of Foresight concerning preparation for the invasion? (Armed as we are with out perfect hindsight?)

There are quite a few things to point out that could have been done better. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...