I'm not following you in the least. I don't want to strawman your position. But what in the world do you mean by "selfishly forcing people to do what we want, is not loving them"? I don't want to force the Russians into doing anything. I have nothing against their Russians. They are good providers of gas. They have some contributions to the space program. Their hockey team is good. But I'm just against them invading other countries.
It is to the Russian economy and the young conscripts that were tossed into an attempted external military coup through broad show of force turn into muddled attempt at forcing regime change with the Russian military.
Ukraine consists of Slavs. The Russian people would never support mass scale murder of their own people.
Look at the map. Russia had Crimea before the war, and even if it didn't, it still would have other ports in the black sea. So what you're saying is utter bullshit. On the other hand, Russia in this war is clearly attempting to take the entire Ukrainian coastline from sea of Azov to Odessa (although the latter plan may have been delayed or abandoned due to Ukrainian resistance), thereby blocking Ukraine's access to the black sea.
Very true. However, clearly Putin's goals of 1) denazifying Ukraine (killing its leaders); 2) de-arming Ukrainians; and 3) separating Ukraine from the west has failed.
When have economic sanctions ever worked against dictatorships? Putin's propaganda is already saying that the war was a pretext, and that the west was going to impose sanctions anyway. Soon the sanctions will become status quo and Russia will find ways to work around them, just like Iraq, Iran, or Cuba.
Elixir, excuse me for being rude now, but you have no fucking idea what you are talking about.It would be fair to say that if Germany had not made the mistake of overestimating their ability to prevail over the Russian winter, the outcome would likely have been much different. The Russian people were offered up as cannon fodder, as usual.
These sanctions have been particularly impacting, especially access to Swift being sliced. Private corporations have pulled out and Russia is seeing a particularly fast impact of the sanctions occurring. An Oligarch has to sell his football team in England. That isn't a small thing.
Carbon monoxide poisoning and for CO2, Hypercapnia We can breathe 1% CO2 without noticing it, but we will die in a few minutes after breathing the same concentration of CO.
No worries. Plenty of people have more detailed knowledge of the WWII European theatre than I do.
… all of a piece.
Okay, that’s a lot more accurate than what I said. Not that Russian lives had any currency beyond their immediate utility.
Only in the sense that they were more tossed out there like speed bumps. The Soviet Union did not have the capacity to produce what was needed to arm its own people. 27 million dead. The RussiansElixir, excuse me for being rude now, but you have no fucking idea what you are talking about.It would be fair to say that if Germany had not made the mistake of overestimating their ability to prevail over the Russian winter, the outcome would likely have been much different. The Russian people were offered up as cannon fodder, as usual.
Firstly, no preparations for a Russian winter were made because Hitler was convinced that the war would be done and dusted well before then. He famously told his generals that all it takes to bring the Russians down is to kick in the door. The rest of the rotten shack will just collapse as a result of it. That is why no plans were made to winterise military hardware, nor were there any plans to provide the soldiers with winter gear. As a result panzers wouldn't start, come October, because the Diesel in their tanks was frozen solid and German soldiers died of frostbite by the thousands because they had no woollen socks or thick overcoats.
Secondly, the Russian people were not offered up as cannon fodder.
The movie "Enemy at the Gates" had a scene pointing that out. They were handing out weapons to every other person. When they rushed the enemy, they ones without rifles were supposed to pick one up from a fallen comrade.
By the time it became obvious that the Wehrmacht was about to be stuck in the snow it was way too late to equip it for the freezing temperatures. The distance from the Ruhr Valley, where most of the hardware was manufactured, to the front was 1,800 to 2,000 kilometres. Most of the roads were muddy quagmires and the railway tracks kept getting torn up by partisans. Estimations by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht in Berlin irrelevant, By October it was totally preoccupied with damage control.
Yes, initially they were, and not just the infantry. Entire tank divisions were destroyed because the Soviets only managed to knock off one German tank for each six they lost. Gains were only made with superior numbers making up for inferior specifications. By January 1943 the table began to turn. Stalingrad was a close-run thing, but in the end the axis lost somewhere between 750 to 870 thousand men at the cost of 480 thousand Russians killed and 650 thousand wounded or sick. German soldiers were reduced to eating horse flesh to stay alive and freeze to death for lack of logistics, while T34 model tanks knocked off one Mark IV Panzer after another. Beginning with the brutal tank battle of Kursk five months later the slaughter of German soldiers started ramping up. Eventually, fighting retreats turned into routs. Attacks came out of the blue. More German soldiers died on the eastern front in the last months of the war than in the previous four years.Only in the sense that they were more tossed out there like speed bumps. The Soviet Union did not have the capacity to produce what was needed to arm its own people. 27 million dead. The RussiansElixir, excuse me for being rude now, but you have no fucking idea what you are talking about.It would be fair to say that if Germany had not made the mistake of overestimating their ability to prevail over the Russian winter, the outcome would likely have been much different. The Russian people were offered up as cannon fodder, as usual.
Firstly, no preparations for a Russian winter were made because Hitler was convinced that the war would be done and dusted well before then. He famously told his generals that all it takes to bring the Russians down is to kick in the door. The rest of the rotten shack will just collapse as a result of it. That is why no plans were made to winterise military hardware, nor were there any plans to provide the soldiers with winter gear. As a result panzers wouldn't start, come October, because the Diesel in their tanks was frozen solid and German soldiers died of frostbite by the thousands because they had no woollen socks or thick overcoats.
Secondly, the Russian people were not offered up as cannon fodder.wonsurvived via desperate attrition and starvation.
The problem is Russia. The west is mostly giving defensive arms to Ukraine (NLaws, stingers, javelins and etc.). It will take offensive weapons to retake areas where the Russians are digging in. However, offensive weapons (tanks, artilerilly) are mostly coming from the Russians. Some of these captured tanks are damaged and take time to retool for the front lines.
Not good to see. But certainly understandable.
