Topic: Will Russia Emerge As The Next Dominant Superpower - page 15. (Read 8955 times)

I was reading on DW News that there is additional burden of Billion of EUROS on people living in Germany due to current conflict of ukarine and Russia.
German govt has announced new rates of energy surcharge due to expected shortage of energy in coming days. 2.5 cents per kilowatt hours will be new energy surcharge.
Its now very clear that EU is heavily dependent on Russian gas and Russia testing EU by threatening them to cut down gas supply.  While EU saying they will impose more sanctions on Russia if gas supply was affected.
Clearly EU is in more trouble then Russia.

News source DW News

Linking to Wikipedia is a weak argument. Strictly speaking, war is not considered declared until the corresponding note is delivered through the diplomatic line. And the war ends with the signing of a peace treaty. And in this aspect, Russia is not at war with Ukraine, just as Ukraine is not at war with Russia (and Russia is at war with Japan). Naftogaz recently successfully accepted another payment from Gazprom for gas transit - what kind of war is this if the parties to the conflict conduct commercial activities among themselves?

Russia is conducting a special operation in Ukraine. Type of anti-terrorist, only in an expanded composition, with the support of the army and navy. Ukrainian nationalists actively use terrorist methods in their practice, and Nazism is deeply rooted in Ukrainian society. Therefore, a sufficiently large-scale purge was needed to protect ourselves and save Europe from the resurgent neo-Nazi contagion.

The problem with anonymous telegram channels is that they all lie.

I quoted BBC News Russian and Mediazona, two sources with a clear anti-Russian bias. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have released casualty numbers from the war so far. However recently the Ukrainian officials (Oleksiy Arestovich, Mykhailo Podolyak.etc) have claimed that they are suffering around 100-200 deaths per day. The war is in to its 6th month, and therefore we can assume the Ukrainian deaths at a minimum of 20,000 to 40,000 (Russia is claiming much more). Now compared to this, the casualty numbers on the Russian side looks much lower.

Media propaganda is important part of Fifth-generation warfare (5GW), in media propaganda you have to portray your mistake as success and enemy success as your victory. Big media House like BBC, cnn, fox news are in hands of usa and west so that broadcast the real news of this conflict rather what suits usa and west.
I still wonder what Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his country get from this conflict? They are the one who provoked Russia for this war.

@be.open. Do you think that the key difference between a war and a special operation is that Russia conducts this operation with a peacetime army, without mass mobilization. We open Wikipedia and read: "War is a conflict between political entities (states, tribes, political groups, and so on), occurring on the basis of various claims, in the form of armed confrontation, military (combat) actions between their armed forces."
As you can see, humanity considers any hostilities between the armed forces of different countries to be a war. In Russia, there may be a dissenting opinion about the name of the military seizure of the territory of another state, but this does not change anything for other states.

Are you saying that in Russia they perfectly understand what denazification is?
The Russian anonymous Telegram channel "General SVR" reported that on Monday, August 15, very unpleasant data was put on the table for the dictator of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. We are talking about the results of a sociological survey of Russians about the situation in the country. Thus, among Russians, only 16% "are sure they understand" ... the goals and objectives of the "special operation" (SVO). 41% support the implementation of SVO, 48% do not support it, the remaining 11% do not have a clear opinion. 37% positively assess the president's actions regarding the "special operation",

Your problem is thinking only things coming out of Russia are propaganda and anything the other side says is god's honest truth. There is a war going on and both sides are filling the media with a lot of propaganda ever second of every day.

Russian official statistics and its propaganda are false through and through, as well as its current domestic and foreign policy. First of all, this concerns the course of the war and losses in manpower and equipment. Even the word "war" is banned there. On February 24, eight Russian armies with all armored vehicles invaded Ukraine from three sides at once and have been conducting a “special operation” for the sixth month already. It turns out that Russia is not at all waging war in Ukraine. Therefore, losses in the "special operation" should be small. What kind of special operation is this if there are tens of thousands of dead and wounded? Therefore, they do not want to take the dead from the battlefield, the corpses are brought to Russia secretly and in small batches, they are also given to relatives in small batches, they are not allowed to bury the military compactly in one place so as not to attract attention. But you can't hide an awl in a bag anyway. The truth in Russia about the losses will be announced later and not by the Putin regime. Internal staff reports of Russian losses are recorded in a timely manner, but they are classified to the public.

^^^ LOL.. 120,000 killed and wounded. OK.. even if we take this wild claim, assuming that there is a 1:4 ratio for dead:wounded, we will arrive at around 24,000 deaths. Number of Russian deaths reported by BBC News Russian and Mediazona amount to 5,507. DPR/LPR deaths amount to ~4,000. Another 1,000 or so deaths can be attributed to PMC Wagner and other non-formal organizations. After taking in to account all the undercount, the most liberal estimate may be around 15,000 and out of which 1/3rd maybe Ukrainian citizens from DPR/LPR.

Russia is now very exhausted from the war in Ukraine and from the economic sanctions imposed against it. According to various estimates, Russia has already lost from 70,000 to 120,000 killed and wounded, 1,876 tanks, 4,141 armored vehicles, 233 aircraft, 195 helicopters, 985 artillery systems, 261 MLRS, 136 air defense systems, 3,044 automotive support equipment, 787 UAVs, 15 ships and boats and other military equipment. Now Putin is already looking for weapons in other countries: he is exporting and using the arsenal of Belarus, asking for weapons from China, it seems that he has already agreed on the supply of Iranian drones. All this will need to be restored over time. More and more material resources are being spent on the war. This should also include the very high promised salary to those who agree to fight in Ukraine under a contract. And these are not only additional contract soldiers from all over Russia, but also about 13,000 Belarusian contract soldiers, mercenaries from Syria and other regions. And also very large payments to the wounded and relatives of the killed servicemen.

 But very much now Russia is beginning to suffer from the imposed sanctions, the effect of which will only intensify over time. The sanctions will set Russia back in economic development by several decades. Which one is a superpower? It will still be good for her if the Russian Federation remains within its former borders, since in the oppressed regions they have already felt the weakness of the central government and soon there will be a mass separation of many republics. Russia, after all, in words for the free expression of the will of individual nationalities and regions? Chechnya has already tried twice to secede from Russia and intends to continue to defend its independence. There are dozens of such applicants. And the tanks in Russia are already running out ...

Just because Russia has started war against Ukraine, Russian can become a dominant superpower? If we imagine, that Russian wins in this war and add Ukraine territory to its, it will turn Russia into dominant superpower? Ukraine is not the bigger country on the globe. Victory or defeat in this war wont change world powers balance. To become a superpower, one country must control the major part of the globe. But the bigger country is, the harder it is to control and counter every flash of aggression on your land. Imho, Russia dont have enough resources to react on every attack on their current territory. Russia is only able to become as a country that is involved into endless war.

From the point of view of Ukraine, this is a war. From Russia's point of view, this is a special military operation. The key difference is that Russia is conducting this operation with a peacetime army, without mass mobilization. Simply put, Ukraine has deployed 100% of its military potential and attracted significant Western military assistance in this conflict, while Russia has deployed a maximum of 15% of its military potential.

Russia is using barrage-of-fire tactics to break into the fortified areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that Ukraine has built in Donbas during its eight years of aggression against the Russian-speaking population. There have been no civilians in Avdiivka for a long time, so only soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffer from massive shelling. Where there are civilians, Russia uses precision-guided strikes.

In Russia, we are well aware of what denazification is, and no, this does not mean the destruction of Ukraine as a nation. It's just that next year in January in Kyiv there will be no traditional torchlight procession in honor of Bandera - that's what denazification is. And before the end of the summer, a tribunal will begin in the Donbas against the militants of Azov with swastikas on tattoos - this is also denazification. Denazification is not directed against the Ukrainian nation, but against the ultra-right Ukrainian nationalists, who turned out to be so widespread in Ukraine that the national battalions are part of the cadre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Yep. Russia has a flexible strategy, in general, the special operation is going according to plan. Putin is a great strategist, he made even the weather and time work for him. Ukraine did not have and does not have a single chance in this confrontation, and the prolongation of the conflict only worsens the position of Ukraine. The enemy of Ukraine now is not Putin, but Zelensky - because of his stupid persistence in the delusion that Ukraine can defeat Russia. This drug addict clown came to power on promises to end the war in Donbas, and he dragged the whole country into the war and brought it to default. Although it was possible simply not to sabotage the Minsk agreements.

Kremlin is tumbling under pressure. Russian economy is in its weakest phase after cold war and people seem not in a good mood to let Putin continue. I see we might see a big change in Russia in future, who knows Russia might take democratic way in future. Let's hope for best and lest hope war ends

Sometimes people confuse analyzing an ongoing situation with a different view compared to what the propaganda media is telling you with supporting Russia. The truth is that any aggression against another sovereign nation is the same but that doesn't change the fact about the reasons for this invasion.

I'm certain that 90% of those who are condemning this war and this war alone can not show me another post of theirs that have condemned other wars that US, EU and specifically Ukraine have been involved in as the aggressor. Like invasion and destruction of Iraq where Ukraine supplied the third most number of troops and some of you still claim it was a "peace keeping mission"!!!

@be.open. You say that the goal of Russia's "special operation" in Ukraine in February was the protection and liberation of Donbass, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. I wonder how, in your understanding, a special operation in this case differs from a war, if you use this term?

Protecting the population of Donbass must first of all include physical protection. What we observed in the Donbass can hardly be called protection. Not being able to break through the defenses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian invaders chose the traditional tactics of a barrage of fire. This is when a certain territory is shelled with artillery and other various types of weapons, after which the Russians go almost to scorched earth. The percentage of civilians in Donbass with such tactics of "liberation" remains very small. In this case, the Russians do not conquer cities and other settlements, but practically only ruins, mostly destroying its civilians. I understand that this is what you call the protection and liberation of the inhabitants of Donbass.

If the term "demilitarization" can mean the destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then what does "denazification" mean in your understanding? Even in Russia itself, this is still not understood. Should this be understood as the destruction of Ukraine as a nation?
But if we look at how the events unfolded, then from February 24, the Russians wanted to quickly seize the entire territory of Ukraine from three sides at once. Having lost a huge number of troops and equipment, they were forced to leave the northern and central parts of Ukraine in order to avoid complete defeat. And then the plans of the invaders changed: realizing that they could not capture the whole of Ukraine, they focused only on the capture of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and southern Ukraine. And how, the "special operation" has been going according to plan for the sixth month already? The next gesture of "goodwill" will most likely be the retreat from the right bank of the Ukraine from the Dnieper of that approximately 20,000-strong grouping, which actually fell into an encirclement. It is still possible for the Russians to escape on foot across the dilapidated bridges. Next, you just have to swim.

This is not true, the goals of the special operation have remained unchanged since February 2022 - the protection and liberation of Donbas, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. The geography of the operation has slightly changed, since the authorities in Kyiv turned out to be incapable of negotiating and refuse to negotiate, the original terms of the peace agreement are now irrelevant. This is Putin's usual way of negotiating - his first offer is the best, and then the conditions get worse. Now Ukraine will at least lose the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as Kharkov, Nikolaev and Odessa.

I think soon IAEA inspectors and UN commissioners will arrive at the nuclear power plant and determine who is shelling it. So far, Russia has strengthened the air defense system and managed to intercept all of today's shells that continue to fly to the nuclear power plant from the territory of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv.

Absolutely right. In Russia, the goals and reasons for the attack on Ukraine are periodically changed, and this testifies to the constant and continuous lies that now permeate the entire domestic and foreign policy of this state. Russia needs Ukraine, its territory, its hardworking and intelligent people, it needs its history to appropriate it for itself, but it does not need an independent state itself and does not need a freedom-loving nation next to this authoritarian country.
Ukraine posed no threat to Russia, whether it was in NATO or not. But Ukraine in NATO would be inaccessible to Russian attack, and therefore they rushed to try to capture it. Thus, Russia made a fatal mistake for itself.

The people who are in full support of Russia and Putin will always come out and say "Ukraine war wouldn't happen if USA and EU didn't cause it" because in their mind it means "Ukraine would have been in under Russian control" and nothing more. They are basically saying that Ukraine should have been left powerless to start a war or defend one.

We all know that the first action was taken by Russia, Ukraine did nothing but just responded them and that’s it, there is nothing that Ukraine started, if Russia leaves all Ukrainian lands tomorrow, Ukraine won't attack them. Hence, it shows that Russia only wants west to get out in order to take whole of Ukraine and nothing more.

I can answer your question about the situation around the Zaporozhye NPP.

Putin and his entourage have already understood that the war in Ukraine is lost for them and are trying to blackmail the inhabitants of the planet with the nuclear threat they themselves created. They need this in order to quickly end the unsuccessfully launched war on more or less acceptable terms for themselves. Having seized the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, they interfere in the technological processes, placed artillery and multiple launch rocket systems on its territory and fire them at other settlements in Ukraine, hoping that they will not be fired at in response. Recently, they have mined the nuclear power plant and spread the word that if they have to withdraw, they will blow it up. In this case, the scale of the accident will exceed the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by about ten times. In addition, they themselves began to fire at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and say that the Ukrainians are doing it. Why do they need it?

Now, on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the most combat-ready units of the two Russian armies, totaling approximately 20,000 people, are practically surrounded. Four bridges, through which the Russians could supply these troops with equipment and ammunition, are now damaged by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and it is no longer possible to transport anything over them. In addition, these bridges are under the full fire control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are capable of striking them at any time. Russia can no longer do anything about this, since Russia already has problems with "live meat", and every day the Armed Forces of Ukraine methodically deliver precision strikes against ammunition depots, command posts and concentrations of Russian troops. Under such conditions, Putin's entourage is looking for ways to end the war, or at least withdraw troops from the region without looking like a defeat. So they create tension around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in order to explain the need to demilitarize this territory and explain the reason for the withdrawal of their troops from it. Although it will be very difficult to withdraw. Russian troops pressed against the Dnieper will have to abandon their unfinished military equipment and cross the wide Dnieper by swimming or using improvised means. In the near future we will see how further events will unfold.

These two statements are contradictory.

If you're wasting your resources in a war, then you are running out of money and have to borrow more from other countries, which means you lose your superpower status .

And wasting resources in wars is exactly what America did for the last two decades. The only reason why they are still a superpower is because the dollar is the world reserve currency. Take that away and what do you have? Everything crumbles away to a third country, perhaps China.

We don't really have the truth with us since all of them have propaganda to spread. But you just have to analyze the truth for yourself like the shelling of nuclear power plant. Why Russia would try to destroy the nuclear power plant is likely untrue as they have controlled the region itself, and there is no need for them to bomb the surrounding of the nuclear powerplant.

Like many dead civilians, I guess Russians are shooting where they are. But the propaganda as well is that Ukrainians are storing weapons in kindergartens buildings or Civilian buildings. Things like these happen in every war zone.