Your assertion about what you can "the eastern front" is just wishful thinking. A couple of villages do not make for "a front", but glad to see that you are re-calibrating your expectations. I do agree that the west should be throwing much more help to deter Adolf Putin from continuing the war.
The degree of your detachment from reality impresses me. It is unlikely that we are talking about a couple of villages, Zolotoe is taken, Gorskoye is being cleared,
the flag of the LPR is over the administration building in Gorskoye (the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not even last two days in the boiler, heavy losses and many prisoners). Severodonetsk has been cleared completely, the fighting is now going on in Lisichansk. After the capture and cleansing of Lisichansk, the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic will be 100% completely liberated.
Again, congrats for moderating your expectations. From "we are going to change the government, take Ukraine, remove their military" to... Great news my friends! Our army of psychos has managed to flatten yet another settlement!
Where is the RF picture flag in Severo? Are you trying to jump over a city?Deteached for reality.. that is so funny. "the army of Ukraine did not last two days"... it has taken a month for the RF psychos to move the front a few kilometres at the cost of many RF soldiers becoming worm beds and an increased pressure from EU and increased support from the US (have you not heard?
another 400M in aid).
Your "glorious" army is "gloriously" slow my "deteached" friend and each day your Tyrant Adolf Putin has to foot another bill, Ukraine gets more and more aid and the RF will get more and more sanctions. You cannot afford this war at this pace.
BTW, with a recession coming soon in most of the world and lower crude prices, the Ministry of Kleptocracy and Creative Financing will eventually have to explain to Adolf Putin that he may not have enough to pay for his deplorable attempt of being a page in history books.
Severodonetsk was taken more than a week ago,
with the exception of the Azot plant.
The Russian flag at the entrance to Severodonetsk was installed on June 16.
Thus, not taken until recently, after weeks of fighting. Again, Adolf Putin needs to export oil and have a price above 80 USD per barrel to keep the push. If it falls below 40 USD per barrel or if the sanctions bit hard enough, he may even risk being removed from power, not to mention that Ukraine may even push back.
This is an expensive and risky bet.
Not a completely fair comment in my view.
I didn't mean it to be rude, I just don't do "nice" well
No, I agree, they're trying to do their best given the circumstances, I don't have a problem with that. Just hoping it's irreversible and they won't build gas pipelines from Russia 20 years from now, like Germany did.
Actually, its time to finally drive americans out of EU and start to be independent. It would be tough, though, as through operation Gladio
USA installed former nazi terrorist cells in all EU countries, to prevent that from happening
Former nazis must be like 100+ years old by now.
No worries, "nice" is overrated.
I think that having oil & gas pipelines with the RF is not really a problem. This should have brought RF and EU's interest close together and Adolf Putin could have chosen to be a civilised nation with a positive influence in the world. I guess a former KGB mediocre bureaucrat cannot avoid being what he is.
In my view the problem is the excessive dependency of Europe of a single source of energy and is a mistake that I would not expect from Germany (well, Gerhard Schröder
had good "reasons", you know...)
Soon after stepping down as chancellor, Schröder accepted Gazprom's nomination for the post of the head of the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream AG, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
So you can be at the end of the several pipelines that link Siberia with central Europe, but you should always have alternatives. Some short of "bear-proof" electrified fence in the form of pipelines connecting with Italy to have the option of the Argelian gas, or liquefaction facilities to have the opportunity of swapping to US or Qatari gas, or better connections with Norway - major exporter and a more diversified energy base. None of those are a cheap as RF gas, but it provides a safeguard against the Psychos of RF "junta".
On the other side, I cannot help but think that the US is actually happy with the RF taking a chunk of the Donbas. Firstly, it provides some statelets that buffer the contact of the future NATO with the RF belly. Secondly, deprives the EU from incorporating a new member with significant gas and oil reserves that could be developed and make Ukraine an economically developed country in a win-win situation with the economic core of the EU.
This situation, in which Europe, mostly the EU, gets a new level of energy independence, creates a wider alliance and gets a extensive new area to invest and develop with the guarantee of having large proven reserves of oil and gas - even if Crimea is not recovered - may not be to the taste of Democrats in US, and it is certainly not to the taste of the Republican Party, currently kidnapped by Donald Grump.
The lessons from Europe are obvious - the EU cannot depend on the RF for energy needs and from the US when a military support is required. The Eurofighter programme, the creation of the NLAW and other joint technological efforts could be the blueprints for the future EU army technology.