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2022-03-01 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian convoy stretching 40 MILES reaches the outskirts of Ukrainian capital: US officials warn of ugly urban warfare in Kyiv and predict a second wave of troops will overwhelm resistance in the country as missile targets government building in Kharkiv
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Posted by Skidmark 2022-03-01 06:07|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ]  Top

#1 They'll just martyr the citizens of Kyiv and dig a bigger hole in trying to reestablish pre-invasion relationships. I'm sure Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea will welcome them to the club.
Posted by Procopius2k 2022-03-01 10:34||   2022-03-01 10:34|| Front Page Top

#2 It seems clear to me that Pootie waned a semi=soft overthrow by intimidation of the Ukraine government and miscalculated badly. The West has flooded the media with heroic and laudable stories of Ukrainian heroics, but Pootie is now all-in and the carnage goes industrial-scale. The CTH article is frighteningly convincing about what triggered this. If accurate, we have monsters to deal with.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/28/former-russian-ambassador-and-current-cia-director-bill-burns-knew-exactly-what-would-trigger-vladimir-putin-to-enter-ukraine/
Posted by NoMoreBS 2022-03-01 11:30||   2022-03-01 11:30|| Front Page Top

#3 Target rich environment.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-03-01 12:32||   2022-03-01 12:32|| Front Page Top

#4 Worth the read:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/28/former-russian-ambassador-and-current-cia-director-bill-burns-knew-exactly-what-would-trigger-vladimir-putin-to-enter-ukraine/
Posted by Skidmark 2022-03-01 12:51||   2022-03-01 12:51|| Front Page Top

#5 ^ Worth the read, Skidmark. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-03-01 14:54||   2022-03-01 14:54|| Front Page Top

#6 From everything I read I gather there are two main theories about Ukraine:

First - Putin is an unstable megalomaniac who will stop at nothing in his bid to restore the Soviet Union to all of its former glory.

Second - Biden provoked Putin into invading Ukraine by threatening to bring Ukraine into NATO. Then he offered only token sanctions to deter Putin from invading. Biden may have done this for dastardly ulterior motives, miscalculation or out of sheer incompetence. Maybe all three.

It's hard to know at this point what to believe, especially when it's impossible to believe anything that either Biden or Putin says.

If I was Putin I'd forget the Soviet Union and concentrate on getting Russia's economy on a footing that is a bit more competitive with the likes of the EU, China or America. I would choose economic growth over territorial expansion which can only ruin the economy. I always thought Putin was a smart guy but lately I'm beginning to wonder. Taking Biden's bait doesn't look very smart at this point.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-03-01 15:17||   2022-03-01 15:17|| Front Page Top

#7 Putin will resort to using a tactical nuke inside Ukraine, if this current southbound armor column is blocked or defeated! I have not heard anything from NATO or the US if that happens.
Posted by Sneater Uninemp5840 2022-03-01 15:28||   2022-03-01 15:28|| Front Page Top

#8 but will it have a proper N95 mask?
Posted by Glolulet Speanter7690 2022-03-01 15:31||   2022-03-01 15:31|| Front Page Top

#9 Too bad all that military aid to Ukraine over the years didn't include a squadron of A-10's.
Posted by Mercutio 2022-03-01 15:35||   2022-03-01 15:35|| Front Page Top

#10 Re #6; W/R/T Biden's actions. "Never ascribe to malice what can be perfectly well explained by stupidity."
Posted by Mercutio 2022-03-01 15:37||   2022-03-01 15:37|| Front Page Top

#11 Kesselschlacht time like in '43
Posted by Spike Darling of the Pixies3924 2022-03-01 16:04||   2022-03-01 16:04|| Front Page Top

#12 Putin invaded because an American knew his buttons?

Once more: he's a big boy. He's capable of controlling his emotions and making his own decisions. Not every event in the world is caused by Americans, not even the bad Americans.

Posted by Rob Crawford 2022-03-01 16:30||   2022-03-01 16:30|| Front Page Top

#13 Any theory that involves Biden (or anyone on his team) playing 3D chess is suspect.
Posted by Angstrom 2022-03-01 16:41||   2022-03-01 16:41|| Front Page Top

#14 Would you believe - the deep state? From Skid's #4:

On the question of extending NATO membership to Ukraine, Burns’ warnings about the breadth of Russian opposition are even more emphatic. “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin),” he wrote in a 2008 memo to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.”

And they've been pushing his buttons for 20-30 years.
Posted by Bobby 2022-03-01 18:25||   2022-03-01 18:25|| Front Page Top

#15 "They're just a few minutes by air
From Smolensk and Kharkov and Tver!
With missals those Poles
Could pop out of their holes...
And they say I'm a paranoid bear?"
Posted by Cleling Panda1816 2022-03-01 18:34||   2022-03-01 18:34|| Front Page Top

#16 Smolensk, even.
Posted by Cleling Panda1816 2022-03-01 18:36||   2022-03-01 18:36|| Front Page Top

#17 Pincer movement now. More bullshit in US press - groundless, clueless speculation without a shred of evidence that Putin "adapted" his strategy after "miscalculating"

More like this Phase II was always part of the original strategy which was to first probe toward Kyiv and Kharkiv while seizing the land bridge to Crimea in the south, and after that was done, to create the cauldrons around Kyiv and Kharkiv
Posted by Muggsy Whinegum5503 2022-03-01 20:47||   2022-03-01 20:47|| Front Page Top

#18 ^ I believe #17 to be one of the more insightful comments I've seen today on the military side of things.

My entry for the Bullshit in US Press category is the lady on NPR drive-time who foresaw Putin exploding a tac nuke over the Baltic just to scare people. Because he is mean like that.
Posted by SteveS 2022-03-01 21:46||   2022-03-01 21:46|| Front Page Top

#19 Yep, #17 spot on. Stopping to redistribute ammo, gas up, get some chow, await the barrage that flattens everything.
Posted by Besoeker 2022-03-01 21:51||   2022-03-01 21:51|| Front Page Top

#20 #17 repeats what people like Aleksandr Dugin are saying on Telegram (see AGDChan for Dugin).

Maybe we should stop listening to cheerleader propaganda and actually listen to some Russian and Chinese analysts

Like this guy does
https://mobile.twitter.com/davidpgoldman
Posted by Chuckles McCoy5082 2022-03-01 21:59||   2022-03-01 21:59|| Front Page Top

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