Interesting interview here, a couple of quotes from the interview are below..

"Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded US forces in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, in a CNN interview says big-city battles require you to take every building and clear every room, and then you have to leave forces behind in each building or else the enemy will come back behind you and reoccupy them.
So, it's incredibly soldier-intensive, the rule of thumb for urban warfare is that it requires at least five attackers to every defender. In this case, I'd argue it may be more than that because the Ukrainians are so resourceful.
The Russians have nowhere near enough soldiers to do that even for Kyiv, much less all of the other cities.

On the other hand the Russians' willingness to continue to heap destruction and innocent civilian casualties on a city that's resisting but is surrounded to try to break the resolve of the defenders.

Regarding Ovsiannikova
She got fine 30k rubbles (280 usd) for her performance in "live stream" while 16 years old russian teenager got 5 or 6 years in prison for joke in Minecraft
I have no more comments

I don't see the point in calling Russia's army disorganized, wasteful of resources, dumb, etc. All they need is to be slightly better than the Ukranians to reach their objective. Of course, it's worrisome. But I don't see the point in calling an idiot an idiot because if the idiot perseveres enough, even the idiot get things done.

no one actually knows what russias strategy or goals are. if you listen to Russian MOD they are still pushing the line that they are attempting to demilitarise the country. and on that basis they seem to be doing a pretty good job of destroying military targets, despite the 'news' of sensationalist Ukranian victories and Russian incompetence.

lol at pewpewpew and ouchboy and the personal messages. you guys really seem to dislike anyone who doesn't parrot the narrative. maybe should stick to reddit!

Maybe you should stop being a russian and homophobe apologist.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Of course, flattening the buildings means that you don't need to clear and occupy them. Russia destroyed Grozny, shelling it for months.

The strong resistance from Ukraine may mean similar tactics being employed: just lay seige and use rockets and artillery from a safe distance until there's no resistance left.

This would be a humanitarian disaster and heap even more condemnation on Russia, but at this point, I don't think it will dissaude them.

Huge costs and pain for both sides as this conflict drags on. Hopefully it ends sooner rather than later.

I do. She may be rearrested at any time. This happens. From The Times, citing Tass, the Russian state news agency.

Perhaps this will happen while foreign eyes are distracted.

This from someone who has been parroting putin's propaganda, like a propaganda puppet.

She still has the risk of prosecution and a 15 year jasil sentence over hanging her

what the problem with "да, ето так" post nick at basel ?
the message
of course explains everything

Amazing how ruthless Putin is. Even with his own people. 6'000 Russians killed. More than what the US lost in Iraq over 20 years. Which was crazy enough!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine...toll-invasion/

Never underestimate your enemy...

In the message you will have received telling you your post had been deleted, you'll have seen the reason: Foreign language without English translation

OK. Let me explain. This is "The English Forum". Posts are to be made in English. If you post in a foreign language you are supposed to also give a translation in English. If you don't do this, your post may be deleted.

And it has.

The purpose of this rule is twofold. 1. so everyone can understand and 2. so that foreign rudeness can't be hidden.

Please define foreign language.

1. Anything other than an English Language varient. (ie British, American, Canadian, Australian, S. African, etc.)?
2. Anything foreign to Switzerland (German, Swiss-German, French, Italian, Romansch) and an English varient.

I’ve often been bewildered by posts with German/Swiss-German text.

Surely this cannot be a serious question unless you really are a sandwich short of a picnic.

It should be anything not in English or German...

But really I think it's 1.

Anything not Yorkshire...
Any German/Swiss-German should properly have a translation provided. Unless someone is asking for a translation of course!

i think russian propaganda is more about restoring the "glory" to the russian empire and "liberating" the Ukranian people. i would argue i have been parroting a more reality propaganda. it may seem like its favouring the russians simply because it counters the western narrative that Ukranians are achieving sensationalist victories and repelling the invaders... despite most evidence suggesting the opposite.

At this stage what the Russian or more precisely Putin's objectives were they are now dead. The new object is to find an exit strategy while avoiding the total embarrassment of seen their army walk home, abandoning equipment, as we saw in both WW1 & WW2 that is why were are suddenly hearing positive noises from the negotiations.