5 ms·

War in Ukraine: Marshall Mud is winning again

121 points by mrzool 5y ago

egberts1 5y ago
so, Putin pulled a “Waterloo”. Napoleon would have been proud.
netsharc 5y ago
I thought Putin wanted to attack in the depths of winter, when German/W. European leaders would be afraid to take action for fear of losing the Russian gas and freezing their constituents' butts in the cold (although still in the comfort of their apartments), but maybe he got stuck with this late February date after with Xi Jinping demanded he not upstage the Winter Olympics[1], and not wanting to wait until next winter. Hah, losing a war because of scheduling conflicts. On the topic of freezing, I wonder if EU countries can send firefighting planes to drop water on top of these Russian soldiers, under the pretense of "We got reports from the Ukrainian government that there were forest fires!". [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/us/politics/russia-ukraine-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/us/politics/russia-ukrain...
- awb 5y ago
  The airspace is not safe, especially for large, slow planes from foreign nations.
  - officehero 5y ago
    It's a joke
- rdtsc 5y ago
  They could have asked their friend Vlad to stop the invasion and not kill civilians, but instead they were worried about their Olympics. And not only that, the Chinese were all too happy to turn around and tell Putin what the Americans where sharing with them: > After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials received intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord and that China would not try to impede Russian plans, American officials said. I guess it's not surprising. China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. Money, technology, spare parts, electronics, etc. flowing into Russia will probably go through China. If Russia loses, they win. If Russia wins and NATO looks weak, they win too. Well played.
  - emerongi 5y ago
    > I guess it's not surprising. China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. Money, technology, spare parts, electronics, etc. flowing into Russia will probably go through China. If Russia loses, they win. If Russia wins and NATO looks weak, they win too. Well played. On the other hand, the EU is realizing it needs to become more self-sufficient, sooner. This weakens the power that China and Russia have - all for a pretty meaningless war, in a time when EU has the capability to start relying less on these countries. It seems like such a terrible move by Russia, not just for their own economy, but by motivating others to start investing more in themselves.
  - ukoki 5y ago
    > China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. If Russia loses, then a West-supported democractic underdog took on an authoritarian superpower and won. That's gotta make CCP leadership uncomfortable with regards to Taiwan.
aaron695 5y ago
t_mann 5y ago
Unfortunately, unlike Napoleon, Putin has sufficient air power to bomb Ukranian settlements to rubble regardless of how cold the boots on the ground have become, and it looks increasingly like that's what he's doing.
- quiet_cool 5y ago
  - anonygler 5y ago
    Who cares? Not everyone needs to be in 100% agreement with you on all things at all times. Stop trying to police everyone else’s opinions. And $1m isn’t even that much money. Why should he be in a hurry to give away his savings?
    - quiet_cool 5y ago
      parasite
- credit_guy 5y ago
  But he's not using his air power right now. And if it turns out he can't use it for whatever reasons, then his position is not that different than Napoleon's.
  - tguvot 5y ago
    there were found multiple unexploded FAB 500 in past day in residential areas. Did they fly there by themselves ?
  - danuker 5y ago
    An old Romanian MiG aircraft crashed recently (during a demo completely unrelated to the war). Then the helicopter trying to look for survivors also crashed, and there were a lot of deaths. The cause suspected so far is ice buildup. Flying is dangerous in such cold weather. https://www.dw.com/en/romania-military-personnel-killed-in-aircraft-crashes/a-60997669 https://www.dw.com/en/romania-military-personnel-killed-in-a...
nikolay 5y ago
We don't know what really the goal of that 40-milne convoy is. One of the grave mistakes is to underestimate your enemy.
- merpkz 5y ago
  I don't get the obsession with that convoy either. What if they just got close enough to Kiev and now are just waiting for more troops from down south to fully enclose on the city and that's just that?
  - muzika 5y ago
    That is exactly it, unfortunately.

121 points by mrzool 5y ago

so, Putin pulled a “Waterloo”. Napoleon would have been proud.

I thought Putin wanted to attack in the depths of winter, when German/W. European leaders would be afraid to take action for fear of losing the Russian gas and freezing their constituents' butts in the cold (although still in the comfort of their apartments), but maybe he got stuck with this late February date after with Xi Jinping demanded he not upstage the Winter Olympics[1], and not wanting to wait until next winter. Hah, losing a war because of scheduling conflicts. On the topic of freezing, I wonder if EU countries can send firefighting planes to drop water on top of these Russian soldiers, under the pretense of "We got reports from the Ukrainian government that there were forest fires!". [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/us/politics/russia-ukraine-china.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/us/politics/russia-ukrain...

awb 5y ago
The airspace is not safe, especially for large, slow planes from foreign nations.
- officehero 5y ago
  It's a joke
rdtsc 5y ago
They could have asked their friend Vlad to stop the invasion and not kill civilians, but instead they were worried about their Olympics. And not only that, the Chinese were all too happy to turn around and tell Putin what the Americans where sharing with them: > After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials received intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord and that China would not try to impede Russian plans, American officials said. I guess it's not surprising. China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. Money, technology, spare parts, electronics, etc. flowing into Russia will probably go through China. If Russia loses, they win. If Russia wins and NATO looks weak, they win too. Well played.
- emerongi 5y ago
  > I guess it's not surprising. China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. Money, technology, spare parts, electronics, etc. flowing into Russia will probably go through China. If Russia loses, they win. If Russia wins and NATO looks weak, they win too. Well played. On the other hand, the EU is realizing it needs to become more self-sufficient, sooner. This weakens the power that China and Russia have - all for a pretty meaningless war, in a time when EU has the capability to start relying less on these countries. It seems like such a terrible move by Russia, not just for their own economy, but by motivating others to start investing more in themselves.
- ukoki 5y ago
  > China stands to benefit even from the sanctions imposed on Russia. If Russia loses, then a West-supported democractic underdog took on an authoritarian superpower and won. That's gotta make CCP leadership uncomfortable with regards to Taiwan.

aaron695 5y ago

t_mann 5y ago

Unfortunately, unlike Napoleon, Putin has sufficient air power to bomb Ukranian settlements to rubble regardless of how cold the boots on the ground have become, and it looks increasingly like that's what he's doing.

quiet_cool 5y ago
- anonygler 5y ago
  Who cares? Not everyone needs to be in 100% agreement with you on all things at all times. Stop trying to police everyone else’s opinions. And $1m isn’t even that much money. Why should he be in a hurry to give away his savings?
  - quiet_cool 5y ago
    parasite
credit_guy 5y ago
But he's not using his air power right now. And if it turns out he can't use it for whatever reasons, then his position is not that different than Napoleon's.
- tguvot 5y ago
  there were found multiple unexploded FAB 500 in past day in residential areas. Did they fly there by themselves ?
- danuker 5y ago
  An old Romanian MiG aircraft crashed recently (during a demo completely unrelated to the war). Then the helicopter trying to look for survivors also crashed, and there were a lot of deaths. The cause suspected so far is ice buildup. Flying is dangerous in such cold weather. https://www.dw.com/en/romania-military-personnel-killed-in-aircraft-crashes/a-60997669 https://www.dw.com/en/romania-military-personnel-killed-in-a...

nikolay 5y ago

We don't know what really the goal of that 40-milne convoy is. One of the grave mistakes is to underestimate your enemy.

merpkz 5y ago
I don't get the obsession with that convoy either. What if they just got close enough to Kiev and now are just waiting for more troops from down south to fully enclose on the city and that's just that?
- muzika 5y ago
  That is exactly it, unfortunately.