WhY dOnT yOu WaNt PeAcE?

Russia: Medvedev Urged to Prepare for the Complete Seizure of Ukraine After Signing Peace with Kyiv

"Even after signing the papers and accepting defeat, the remaining part of the radicals [in Ukraine], after regrouping their forces, will sooner or later return to power, inspired by Russia's Western enemies. And then it will be time to finally crush the reptile," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

According to him, at this moment, Russia will have to "drive a long steel nail into the coffin of the Bandera quasi-state," as well as "destroy the remnants of its bloody legacy and return the remaining lands to the bosom of the Russian land."

"But the enemies of Russia will not go anywhere after that. They will accumulate strength and wait for a new convenient reason to destroy our country. We must be ready for future battles to defend the Fatherland," Medvedev stressed.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he was ready to end the war with Ukraine and sign a peace treaty if Kyiv withdraws troops from the territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions not occupied by the Russian army, and also refuses to join NATO.

Natalia Vertinskaya recorded a video in which she called herself the niece of Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. She addressed her uncle against the backdrop of the recent events related to the shelling of hospitals in Kyiv, calling on him to stop and "not to send Russians to certain death".

In her appeal, she said that 10 years ago she lived in Kyiv and regularly visited the Okhmatdet children's hospital with her disabled child. According to Natalia, Belousov's cousin still lives in Kyiv, and his grandmother, grandfather and aunt are buried there.

"I just urge you, Uncle Andrei, think about what you are doing and stop, please stop," Vertinskaya asks.

- I have always known you as a kind, decent man. I want you to think, rethink everything and stop. Uncle Andrei, please pray, think about what you are doing. This can't go on any longer."

Telegram: Contact @astrapress

Nice try but I'm sorry to say your uncle is fucking scum like every other Russian official.

“We have probably made some bad assumptions because over the last 20 years we were launching precision weapons against people that could not do anything about it,” said retired Lt. Gen. a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. “Now we are doing it against a peer opponent, and Russia and China do have these capabilities.”

Western military doctrine has long relied on a belief that precision can defeat mass—meaning that well-targeted strikes can cripple a more numerous enemy, reducing the need for massive expenditure on troops, tanks and artillery.

That proposition, however, had not been tested in a major war until Ukraine. The introduction of Western weapons there showed that what may have worked against Saddam Hussein's army, the Taliban or Islamic State guerrillas won't necessarily perform against a modern military like Russia's or China's.

One of the lessons learned in Ukraine is about the continuing importance of old-school unguided artillery shells, the manufacturing of which is only now beginning to pick up in the U.S. and Europe after decades of decline, said Lt. Gen. Esa Pulkkinen, the permanent secretary of Finland's defense ministry. "They are immune to any type of jamming, and they will go to target regardless of what type of electronic warfare capability there may be," he said.

For Ukraine, time is an essential factor—and the carefully limited and gradual introduction of many Western systems has provided Russia with the ability to minimize their impact. "Warfare is about the speed of adaptation," said retired Air Marshal Edward Stringer, a former head of operations at the British Ministry of Defense. "If you drip-feed an antibiotic weekly, you'll actually train the pathogen—and we have trained the pathogen….We didn't need to give them that time, but we did."

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Another reason why slowness, escalation management and drip-feeding weapons has been awful policy.

Maybe we'll lift the ban on long-range missiles when Russia has learnt how to intercept and jam them with high results, so that when we finally lift the ban, it'll be fucking useless, well done West, so smart. Must be agony for people with actual military knowledge to be so hamstrung by idiot escalation management politicians.

Zelenskyi also warned that if the US leaves NATO, the world could lose Poland, the Baltics, and other countries due to leaders like Putin.

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Europe will fight the Nazis once again and America will sit back until some nutjob decides to attack them and drag them into the war.

He estimated that Russia would be able to maintain its war economy for three to four more years. The official added that "it will be some time" before Ukraine has amassed the munitions and personnel it needs to mount new large-scale offensive operations itself.

The missiles must “obviously to be used in accordance with international humanitarian law as you would expect,” the premier added, stating his position that Storm Shadows were to be used “for defensive purposes.”

“But it is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes,” he said. Storm Shadows are precision-guided cruise missiles with a firing range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles).

“Keir Starmer has given President Zelenskiy a shot in the arm,” Jamie Shea, a former NATO official and now associate fellow at Chatham House, told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. The Ukrainians “have to be able to strike back against those significant Russian military targets — but obviously not Russian civilian targets. I think Keir Starmer and other NATO leaders will draw a red line on that, the strikes have to be against the genuine military targets.”

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I'm jaded, this feels open to interpretation to me, what is "defensive purposes" exactly? Can they lob a Storm Shadow at jets just sitting in a runway doing nothing? I'll say what I said last time, I'll believe them when I see a Storm Shadow missile actually in Russia and/or fragments of one, I've yet to see that, maybe Storm Shadow is better suited for buildings and large ships? Maybe they don't want to use one Storm Shadow for one jet? I don't know, but I've been burnt too many times by the West's careful language.

This is single voter issue brain-rot on full display.

"IMMIGRATION! IMMIGRATION! IMMIGRATION!"

"Wow that Nigel Farage guy speaks a lot of sense and he's charismatic!"

Also 51% of Reform Voters have a favourable view on Zelenskyy, despite the fact that Nigel Farage would throw him under the bus, more than 60% of Reform voters have a favourable view on NATO, despite the fact that Farage would shit all over it, just over 10% have a favourable view on Andrew Tate, despite Farage praising him, I'm even surprised just over 40% of Reform voters have a favourable view on the United Nations.

Holy shit what did Scholz do? Lmao. Man is annoying but not that bad...Wonder if it's just racism against Germans.

Putin in the fucking bin, but even as little as just over 10% of Reform Voters have a favourable view on him.

56% favourable view on Trump is both high and low, low because as Reform voters, I expected more, as Farage likes to pretend like they're fucking best friends and is basically the British Trump but at the same time looks high because of their rock bottom view on Putin and just over half split on Zelenskyy...Do Reform Voters even know the people they're backing? This poll suggests not.

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Nigel Farage faced a backlash for seeming to suggest the West provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine - so what are Reform UK voters' views on the subject?

Who do you want to win?
Ukraine: 67%
Russia: 12%

Level of support to Ukraine
Increase: 9%
Maintain: 40%
Reduce: 40%

View of Putin
Favourable: 11%
Unfavourable: 86%

View of Zelenskyy
Favourable: 51%
Unfavourable: 35%

View of NATO
Favourable: 63%
Unfavourable: 26%

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This shit is fucking baffling...These Reform Voters are all over the place.