• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

The War in Ukraine

open.substack.com

From the Kyiv Jellyfish Museum

A sense of relative normalcy belies deeper problems.
open.substack.com open.substack.com

In the face of all this death, there is only one natural reaction: How do we get peace?
A sure-fire way to cut through the frustration in Ukraine is to ask about the prospect of peace negotiations. It's sure to elicit a laugh.
Armchair experts in the West, who are loath to listen to any actual Ukrainians so long as they can stay misinformed by a steady stream of OSINT Twitter accounts and talking heads, have devised all kinds of equitable peace deals in their heads. Maybe if Ukraine gives up Crimea and swears off NATO, then all this killing will end, they think. Maybe if he just let eastern Ukraine choose its own destiny, Russia will be happy.
Satisfied with their own cleverness, they ask this strawman: Why won't Zelensky support these reasonable measures?
The problem is, Kyiv tried all this. Before the war began, Zelensky and his team agreed to a plan to hold elections in the Donbas — when it faced a setback, after the Rada rejected the plan in 2020, Russia simply blew up the negotiations altogether.
After the war began, talks in Istanbul saw Zelensky offer the very things that Putin said he wanted: A neutral Ukraine and a vow to never join NATO. Zelensky offered to freeze the question of Crimea, essentially accepting Russian occupation. Even after the images of the atrocities in Bucha came to light, Ukrainian negotiators continued trying to make a deal.1
But, ultimately, it became clear that Putin doesn’t want a deal. He wants to conquer. The fact that so many on the political left, an ideology defined by anti-imperialism, seem incapable of grasping that idea is extremely depressing.
Last year, Zelensky unveiled a 10-point peace plan, which calls for a complete end to the hostilities and prosecution for Russian war crimes.
Russia has largely ignored the plan, until earlier this month.
Dmitry Medvedev, a long-suffering Putin stooge, responded with a 10-point plan of his own. He proposed that peace would come from “unconditional surrender,” “forced de-Nazification,” “the impossibility of any of [Ukraine’s] legal successors joining military alliances without the consent of Russia,” “payments to the relatives of the dead citizens of our country", “official recognition by the interim parliament of ‘Ukraine’ that its entire territory is the territory of the Russian Federation,” and a raft of other absurd proposals.
The proposal was played off as a joke. But it is deadly serious. For Russia, peace will only come from victory.
Click to expand...
 
Battling memes - or What do you bring to a knife fight?

Russian meme



Ukrainian response?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1772631125279556078


In the Russian video there is a segment with a girl twirling her swords in front of a bar while her co-workers cower behind it. They apparently don't share her confidence.

--



I have no Russian or Ukrainian but it sounds to me like the same tune.

Verified - The tune is Kazachka.
 
Last edited:
I would guess that the modern equivalent would be AK's from dirt bikes vs towed targets or drones
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

George Wallace
SEP 2024 - Kiel Institute Report - "Fit for war in decades: Europe's and Germany's slow rearmament vis-a-vis Russia"
2
Replies
25
Views
903
brihard
B
Blackadder1916
    • Like
    • Insightful
What will medicine on the battlefield look like?
Replies
9
Views
730
KevinB
KevinB
Kirkhill
    • Insightful
Short War Illusion
Replies
0
Views
258
Kirkhill
Kirkhill
Bruce Monkhouse
    • Like
    • Wow
Looking For Ukraine-Superthread?
Replies
17
Views
7K
Maxman1
Maxman1
H
How much of Christmas break do we get? I wanted to plan a vacation to go see Christmas in UK during leave.
Replies
5
Views
725
hb-AH1Z
H
Back
Top