While I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reality, we also both have literally no idea. Call it reddit brain but I do like to think there's at least a handful of good people in government, and him not fleeing and even appearing in public if only for photoshoots let's me give him the benefit of the doubt.
He's armed tens of thousands of citizens and convinced them that they have any chance at all against a professional military. Hundreds seem to have died in misidentification events already. If he negotiated with Russia it would save the lives of his people, but instead he's just postponing a truly inevitable defeat at the cost of unnecessary bloodshed. There's not really any good guys in this, other than maybe the Donbass separatists.
And really thinks that he will force Russia to come and negotiate with him.
If reports are to be believed, he had reached out to negotiate and russia stopped their advance. Then he announced he would never surrender and the russians resumed.
Ethiopia, ISIS, Vietnam, America, underdogs have and do win wars all the time. I mean if I'm doing odds I'd say 80/20 they lose, but it's not a sure thing. I don't know if they're better or worse off under Russian authority, and I'm a pacifist so I never approve of war or fighting, but it's also not my place to say others are wrong for wanting to fight to defend their country. And the sentiment of his country seems to be fight.
I will say the draft is bullshit. Saw a video of a dude on a bus almost out to Poland get pulled back in to fight.
They're handing guns out to people who have no history of gun use. Like, shot less than a magazine in their whole lives. These people are just cannon fodder, there's no way you get your hands on a gun for the first time on a Thursday and then Friday you're a trained guerrilla fighter.
I mean there's no time to train anyone, and their handing out guns to random civilians, not reservists or anything. I don't see how that ends in anything good.
I have seen a lot of videos of civilian militias capturing or killing Russians. It is effective, and IMO preferable to leaving them unarmed and helpless. It all sucks. War sucks. I don't want them killing Russians. But also they deserve the chance to defend themselves. When they fuck it up that will also suck. But I'm not God. I don't know what'st he right move and just criticizing them feels smug.
Also the hundreds seem to have died already, I'd love to see a source. Because I've seen a few cases here and there but nothing like hundreds. And I have literally been glued to the screen the last 72 hours. Like have barely slept, it's very unhealthy, glued to my screen
All of the firefights in urban Kiev before the Russians even moved past the suburbs were "volunteers" shooting at one another. Ukrainians who are devoted to this fight probably aren't recording their oopsies to share with the world. I mean, if I were in their situation, assumed a carload of people in camo with guns were enemies and shot them up and then realized oh shit this is a car full of my neighbors, I'm not whipping out my phone to take selfies.
See this is getting into what is propaganda and what isn't. I have no idea, but you also don't. But I've mostly read they were shooting at separatists or like infiltrators.
I just don't believe that separatists in sedans are running out ahead of the professional soldiers, it isn't a reasonable thing to do. It's video game tactics.
Again stressing, I don't know. But it could be forces friendly to Russia already in the city, attempting to set the stage, expecting Russian forces to be there sooner. People also just do dumb shit in war a lot.
I agree wholly with this sentiment, but I think the dumb shit people do in war is more driven by fear than doing solid snake missions. I think there's tens of thousands of (completely justifiably) frightened civilians holding guns for the first or second time in their lives who are shooting at any twitching leaf or face they don't recognize.
As far as I know the soldiers of the DPR and LPR have been fighting hard against the bulk of the Ukrainian armed forces that have been camped in their region for the past 8 years
Donbass has been conscripting military age men in the past few days, as far as I know. I'm no army mans but I'm still pretty convinced that driving into enemy territory in a Lada when Russian armor and artillery are headed there to take it is more of a movie or game strategy than what seasoned partisans or fresh conscripts would do.
While I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reality, we also both have literally no idea. Call it reddit brain but I do like to think there's at least a handful of good people in government, and him not fleeing and even appearing in public if only for photoshoots let's me give him the benefit of the doubt.
He's armed tens of thousands of citizens and convinced them that they have any chance at all against a professional military. Hundreds seem to have died in misidentification events already. If he negotiated with Russia it would save the lives of his people, but instead he's just postponing a truly inevitable defeat at the cost of unnecessary bloodshed. There's not really any good guys in this, other than maybe the Donbass separatists.
He is also forcing males to fight. And really thinks that he will force Russia to come and negotiate with him.
Although I understand his position, if he starts negotiations with Russia then he will get lynched by nationalists.
If reports are to be believed, he had reached out to negotiate and russia stopped their advance. Then he announced he would never surrender and the russians resumed.
Ethiopia, ISIS, Vietnam, America, underdogs have and do win wars all the time. I mean if I'm doing odds I'd say 80/20 they lose, but it's not a sure thing. I don't know if they're better or worse off under Russian authority, and I'm a pacifist so I never approve of war or fighting, but it's also not my place to say others are wrong for wanting to fight to defend their country. And the sentiment of his country seems to be fight.
I will say the draft is bullshit. Saw a video of a dude on a bus almost out to Poland get pulled back in to fight.
They're handing guns out to people who have no history of gun use. Like, shot less than a magazine in their whole lives. These people are just cannon fodder, there's no way you get your hands on a gun for the first time on a Thursday and then Friday you're a trained guerrilla fighter.
I mean there's no time to train anyone, and their handing out guns to random civilians, not reservists or anything. I don't see how that ends in anything good.
I have seen a lot of videos of civilian militias capturing or killing Russians. It is effective, and IMO preferable to leaving them unarmed and helpless. It all sucks. War sucks. I don't want them killing Russians. But also they deserve the chance to defend themselves. When they fuck it up that will also suck. But I'm not God. I don't know what'st he right move and just criticizing them feels smug.
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Also the hundreds seem to have died already, I'd love to see a source. Because I've seen a few cases here and there but nothing like hundreds. And I have literally been glued to the screen the last 72 hours. Like have barely slept, it's very unhealthy, glued to my screen
All of the firefights in urban Kiev before the Russians even moved past the suburbs were "volunteers" shooting at one another. Ukrainians who are devoted to this fight probably aren't recording their oopsies to share with the world. I mean, if I were in their situation, assumed a carload of people in camo with guns were enemies and shot them up and then realized oh shit this is a car full of my neighbors, I'm not whipping out my phone to take selfies.
See this is getting into what is propaganda and what isn't. I have no idea, but you also don't. But I've mostly read they were shooting at separatists or like infiltrators.
I just don't believe that separatists in sedans are running out ahead of the professional soldiers, it isn't a reasonable thing to do. It's video game tactics.
Again stressing, I don't know. But it could be forces friendly to Russia already in the city, attempting to set the stage, expecting Russian forces to be there sooner. People also just do dumb shit in war a lot.
I agree wholly with this sentiment, but I think the dumb shit people do in war is more driven by fear than doing solid snake missions. I think there's tens of thousands of (completely justifiably) frightened civilians holding guns for the first or second time in their lives who are shooting at any twitching leaf or face they don't recognize.
As far as I know the soldiers of the DPR and LPR have been fighting hard against the bulk of the Ukrainian armed forces that have been camped in their region for the past 8 years
Donbass has been conscripting military age men in the past few days, as far as I know. I'm no army mans but I'm still pretty convinced that driving into enemy territory in a Lada when Russian armor and artillery are headed there to take it is more of a movie or game strategy than what seasoned partisans or fresh conscripts would do.
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:downbear:
Isn't this the same guy who used white phosphorus on his own people?
From how I understand it, he did not. That video was actually America using it in Iraq circa 20004.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/20/dispatches-white-phosphorus-white-lies-or-what
Appreciate this correction