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// The US was winning the shooting war How would we know? I live in the US but speak fluent Russian and have lots of family from Ukraine, and yet I don't feel

// The US was winning the shooting war How would we know? I live in the US but speak fluent Russian and have lots of family from Ukraine, and yet I don't feel like having access to all these perspectives enables me to have a sense for where the truth is. I can say that what we see in the west is not the whole story - lots of victories, footage of droned Russians, and an occasional reference to a fallen Ukrainians hero. In more pro-russian sources, you get exactly the opposite idea and visuals - lots of blown up Ukrainian and destroyed equipment. If you don't see that on regular basis and what I described sounds surprising, you are getting a very filtered view of what's going on. I can't claim where the truth is but I know the picture most westerners get by default is very rosy vs reality.

philwelch 3y ago
Ukraine is still in the fight over eighteen months after an invasion that was planned to topple Kyiv in three days. I would say the Ukrainians probably deserve more credit than the United States for this outcome, but if you asked anyone in the winter of 2021/2022 to predict the outcome of a full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine is doing much better than one would have reasonably expected.
- chrisco255 3y ago
  It was never planned for 3 days. That's just another fake sound bite. The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. Here's the late Senator McCain 9 years ago in Kiev: https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd Here's him and Lindsey Graham again 8 years ago talking about arming and training Ukrainians: https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m
  - youngtilted 3y ago
    Here's a surprisingly nuanced perspective at the State Department in 2008: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTnBfi https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTn...
  - philwelch 3y ago
    > The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. The war arguably started in 2014. 2022 was when Russia went all in on regime change, a goal they have failed to achieve for over a year and a half now.

philwelch 3y ago

Ukraine is still in the fight over eighteen months after an invasion that was planned to topple Kyiv in three days. I would say the Ukrainians probably deserve more credit than the United States for this outcome, but if you asked anyone in the winter of 2021/2022 to predict the outcome of a full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine is doing much better than one would have reasonably expected.

chrisco255 3y ago
It was never planned for 3 days. That's just another fake sound bite. The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. Here's the late Senator McCain 9 years ago in Kiev: https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd https://youtu.be/93eyhO8VTdg?si=5oIEG-V3BXLhAywd Here's him and Lindsey Graham again 8 years ago talking about arming and training Ukrainians: https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m https://www.youtube.com/live/AnvF_EzYQ8Q?si=qRMch8mQR5AIPi6m
- youngtilted 3y ago
  Here's a surprisingly nuanced perspective at the State Department in 2008: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTnBfi https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html#efmBTn...
- philwelch 3y ago
  > The war was brewing since 2014 and everyone in U.S. government knew it and everyone in Russia knew it. The war arguably started in 2014. 2022 was when Russia went all in on regime change, a goal they have failed to achieve for over a year and a half now.