Ukraine vs Russia IV - The Betrayal

I don't like this. Yes energy in ukraine is in dire straits. But hitting oil refineries hurts Russia a lot. Well I guess is a compromise.

 

Holy crap. Per NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Russia was losing 1,000 soldiers a day in December. That isn't total casualties, that is killed. Rutte noted that in 10 years in Afghanistan, Russia had 20k KIA total and that caused Russia to withdraw from Afghanistan, but now they are losing 30k a day and aren't even blinking.

https://bsky.app/profile/kevinrothrock.me/post/3md22gy2bsk2i

 

1000 soldiers dead a day - Russia is reaching the figures of the First World War here.

 

The thing is, even with a 5-1 kill ratio, they probably can outlast Ukraine. At least in terms of raw numbers; invaders are more likely to have people revolt against their government than the invaded.

But holy ******** if that’s true, Russia is eating its future. The price of mail order Russian brides is gonna plummet.

 

Yes, I think there is.

Much grimmer, depending on who the people are.

I cannot think of anything a horse could do deliberately that I'd want to see it killed for. (example) Defending its offspring violently in a way that ended in a human's death would probably see it put down, but it wouldn't deserve to die.

 

Russia is eating its future in many ways. They are expending their limited oil wealth on the war. Every large organization is saddled with impossible-to-pay off debt. Health care of all kinds has been drastically reduced. The birth rate has fallen off a cliff. Even if the war stopped the economy isn't going to recover any time soon.

 

Yesterday Ukraine hit the Taman oil port, hitting the place where the pipes and pumps connect to the ships docked. They also hit the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, setting on fire tanks full of oil and pipelines. There is a pumping station for the the pipeline there, but it doesn't seem damaged from early civilian satellite images.

 

You forgot the VIH incidence there. It is enough to make several african countries blush.

 

Russia's future was already eaten. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has failed to invest in its future and a lot of their people have left Russia. What is left is a dying husk that is already past the point of pulling out of the tailspin.

 

The first day of the tri-lateral peace conference in the UAE happened today. Per sources, the discussion was "productive", but as with other ceasefire proposals, the major hold up is over the Donbas. The Russians are attempting to impose an "Anchorage formula" that Putin agreed to with Trump at their meeting in Anchorage. As part of the "forumula, Russia would be given control over all of the Donbas in exchange for withdrawing from Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts and freezing the rest of the front at the point of contact. Ukraine, on the other hand, is unwilling to withdraw its forces from the regions of the Donbas it controls and also doesn't want to give Russia full control of the Donbas. Other proposals on the table are to turn the Donbas into a join Russian/Ukrainian economic zone, turning it into a DMZ that neither country technically controls, etc.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/01...ine-talks-begin-in-abu-dhabi/#google_vignette

 

Iirc correctly…Putin all but admitted this issue was one of the reasons for attempting to annex Ukraine. I believe he talked about population loss when he commented in a speech that (paraphrased) the breakup of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical disaster in history. He spoke specifically of the population loss of the former republics

 

How many of those are actually Russian and how many are imported soldiers from Africa/South Asia/North Korea/etc? It makes a huge difference.

 

It's a small percent, but growing (at least the Africa segment). From what I can tell (which isn't much), there are still some North Korean troops, but only a tiny amount for specialized purposes. There are lots of North Korean workers, however. The North Koreans troops were only used in number against the Ukrainian forces that were in Russia proper. Don't know why, maybe it was a defection thing.

From some Telegram rumors it sounds like Russia is getting more desperate to get Russian to sign. Beating and trickery on the upswing.

 

As a sign of how decrepit Russia is, the Murmansk powerplant went down for unknown reasons, sending large parts of the 350,000 person city into darkness and cold. Very cold. This also powered Severomorsk, where the Russian Northern Fleet is located.

But Russia has their priorities straight - they sent a massive wave of drones against Ukraine's power system last night.

 

The cause was the high power cables collecting ice and the half-century old structures supporting them couldn't carry the weight and five of them collapsed. It's going to take a while to fix. Maintenance of all kinds has never been a strongsuit of Russians, but it's been cut to nearly nothing in the last couple years.

All naval ships are on their own power now, as they can't get power from shore.

 

The Slavyansk refinery in Krasnodor krai was hit by a drone attack and the main processing tower was damaged.

 

Well, the EU finally gave final approval to ban all Russian natural gas imports into the EU. The agreement bans LNG imports by the end of 2026 and pipeline NG by September 30, 2027. Hungary and Slovakia both voted against the agreement and both have threatened to file lawsuits to prevent the ban from impacting them.

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-agrees-on-complete-ban-of-russian-gas-imports-by-2027/a-75660043

 

They are free to rejoin the Soviet Union.

 

Russian warblogger FighterBomber had a hilarious post today. In answer to the many citizens of Belgorod who complain about constantly being bombed by Russian forces (as Russian fighters release glide bombs over the city and because of the slapdash construction they sometimes fail and just fall down) he basically said "suck it up - it's just accidental" as this will continue until the front moves forward enough so that city isn't a useful waypoint any more.

 

It's only been 4 years! It's only a matter of time before that happens!

 

Don't know much about this Budanov guy but apparently he's a badass that the Russkies fear





https://bsky.app/profile/florafella.bsky.social/post/3mdf3umtbm22h

 

COMECON.

 

I would dread the day Mr Budanov set his anger at me. I think he was better at HUR's office, but Head of Office of the president is not too shabby either.

Also HUR's logo is so badass.

 

whatever.

This guy gets it.