Can we skip to the good part? Ahhh, ahh ah ah.
Maybe tiktok or Instagram would be a better place for this comment.
Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
301–310 of 1001 posts
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
There should always be plenty of doubt in your mind if you're saying that the US will use nukes in any situation short of someone else using them first.
The US is the only country that used nukes.
Among other things, those experimental first bombs were a totally different class of weapons from today's nuclear arsenal. There were conventional bombings in WWII that killed more people than the nuclear bombings.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
The whole thing is very puzzling. Russia will take Ukraine but Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. There is no way that Russia can conquer all of Europe. The West will not attack because Russia has nukes. The sanctions will eventually wear Russia down. What is the end game? Is he that confident that the West will just forgive and forget?
It reads to me as different goals. You know those slightly asymmetric board games where different players have different objectives? I think Putin has already amassed effectively infinite money and power, so his new goal is immortality, which I think means establishing a greater legacy by restoring as much of the the Soviet Union's old borders as it can. This is probably not actually in Russia's interests, but the go…
This explanation seems rather plausible to me, but is getting downvotes. What am I not seeing?
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#304I can't really tell what's going on here. Is the EU and America supposed to be helping out but it's all promises without real counter attacks? Is this just the calm before the storm as russia places their troops in the right spots while everyone looks on? Anyone who's smarter than me who could enlighten me?
The whole thing is very puzzling. Russia will take Ukraine but Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe. There is no way that Russia can conquer all of Europe. The West will not attack because Russia has nukes. The sanctions will eventually wear Russia down. What is the end game? Is he that confident that the West will just forgive and forget?
Yes. And we probably will.
He wants a warm water port.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
Watch those again. He never pronounced the word nuclear . It was just a (more or less empty) threat in the poker game he is playing to keep cowardly politicians from helping an independent nation being invaded. Looks like it worked. I wonder what else are people willing to give up at the mere hint of a nuclear threat: their houses? Their freedom? Their friends? Their spouses? Their children?
People are already giving up their freedom, friends, spouses and children. They're called Ukrainian. Also, he did say it, according to that _transcription_. I don't speak Russian, so i wouldn't know beyond that. Regardless don't play dumb, you and everyone else knew what he meant. Whether or not he'll follow through is the question - but what he meant was obvious. He knew what he was implying.
Again, please point out the word nuclear in that transcript.
It was an empty threat. And, sadly, the West fell for it and now the Ukrainians are paying the price.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers: the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents." It is a bit unfair to blame it on US, France and UK only, when russia signed the document, too - and was the actual party to violate it by attacking ukraine already in 2014. (russia's position is, that since…
It is not just "a bit unfair", it is part of the nonsensical "all bad things are the fault of 'the west'" attitude which has gained so much popularity in the last decades. May I suggest the time has come (or, rather, has been here a long time) to stop (self-) flagellating and to start looking at the things which that much maligned "west" actually does right, things which are - gasp - worth defending?
"May I suggest the time has come (or, rather, has been here a long time)"
Well, I agree that this attitude "all bad things are the fault of 'the west'" is quite stupid.
But the US is the hegemonial power and wants to maintain it. So it is natural that those in charge get the flak for things going wrong.
And about things going wrong: how about the whole war on terror?
Was it really a surprise, that you can't make the world a safer place, if you attack countries(against international law in one case), to punish some individuals?
And Guantanamo is still open.
So yes, the west has some democratic and liberal values worth defending against dictators and co. And some only understand the language of raw power. But maybe that would still work better, if we would stick to those principles all the time and not just, when it suits us.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Russian forces seem to be trying to encircle or assault Kyiv. Yes, but although Putin is a bloody bastard, he's not stupid. His plan isn't to take entire control of Ukraine militarily but to swap the legit government with a puppet one he would control at will. Once he succeed, which is a matter of a few days, he'll gradually withdraw most of the forces, things will slowly return to normal and in a few years Ukr…
Holy crap, Europe needs to get off natural gas yesterday.
Shutting down atomic power in Germany was such a brilliant move.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In fact, the US has had to tread very carefully simply to place missiles that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads in Poland, which is a neighbor of Ukraine. according to Putin that treading is a major motivation for his current actions.
That's correct. You don't put missiles in range of a nuclear superpower's population centers and expect them to ignore it. But I feel that the timing of this is more related to Putin's political situation at home.
I keep seeing this being repeated, but the state of nuclear deterrence is very different than during the Cuban missile crisis. The US, UK, France, and Russia all have enough nuclear-armed subs sitting just outside of enemy waters to destroy every major target on both sides. The US doesn’t have nuclear weapons in Poland, nor does it need them. Russia cannot stop thousands of ICBMs and hundreds of sub-launched closer range nukes, and neither can the US.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
America will do nothing except 'strongly condemn' what's happening, just like the rest of the world. The simple fact is that there is no real upside to risking actual war with Russia - that the Russians will dominate the Ukraine while walking away with a bloody nose (in the form of minor troop losses of its own) is a foregone conclusion. Without more, that's a localised conflict that Russia rather hilariously can try…
> China invading Taiwan at some point in the future And that's the perspective this should be viewed from. The US may not have a firm interest in Ukraine. The US has a fairly firm interest in Taiwan. The US has a serious interest in Korea, Japan, and the countries bordering the South China Sea. You have to strongly and unconditionally support international order re: Ukraine, so that Xi takes away the right message.
I think the stronger message is that the US is trying to move chip manufacturing to the US so it will not care about Taiwan.
Re: Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces
#310This development is a tactical prerequisite for besieging or attacking Kyiv. The exclusion zone covers the shortest route to the city from Belarus - the shortest route available to Russian forces. It’s also perhaps a strategic coup for Russia in two ways - but it could also be a boon to Ukraine. The coming days will elucidate which party most profits - probably Russia. Russia’s first strategic gain is simply one of p…
I don't understand your infowar reasoning at all. Pripyat and its immediate vicinity is just an unpopulated area with a decomissioned nuclear power station in it.
Is the subtext that Putin plans to blow it up, or what? I'm pretty sure that attacking central Europe with a dirty bomb would make it very difficult for NATO to avoid invoking Article 5.