r/worldnews
•
u/UnlikelyRabbit4648
•
Jan 25 '23
•
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
Russia fumes NATO 'trying to inflict defeat on us' after tanks sent to Ukraine Russia/Ukraine
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/russia-fumes-nato-trying-to-inflict-defeat-on-us-after-tanks-sent-to-ukraine/ar-AA16IGIw18.4k
u/ClassBShareHolder
Jan 25 '23
•
“Inflict defeat”
Playing the victim while being the aggressor.
“Stop hitting back, you’re hurting me!”
4.4k
u/ShadedPsyche Jan 25 '23
Calling for sympathy because your arm hurts on account of stabbing someone fifty times.
→ More replies1.1k
u/Howhighwefly Jan 25 '23
Your back hurt my hand while I was stabbing you in the back.
→ More replies331
1.6k
u/niberungvalesti Jan 25 '23
Typical bullying narcissist behavior to flip the morality of the situation back at the victims.
"Stop hurting me! I'm only hurting you because I
love youwant to install a puppet government and steal your valuable lands and resources!"1.7k
594
→ More replies769
u/TheApathyParty3 Jan 25 '23
It's more sinister than being a bullying narcissist. Since Soviet times, Russia and the KGB's strategy has always been to befuddle the truth and skew any information that people get. They've been doing it for over a century.
Putin's an old KGB agent and he's using the old playbook, but I honestly think he's so old and geriatric that he doesn't understand that the world doesn't work in that same way in the modern information age. Maybe in Russia where he controls practically everything, but this sort of thing just sounds comical to the rest of us. The guy is still living in the USSR c. 1975.
325
u/BackOld3468 Jan 25 '23
Putin's an old KGB agent and he's using the old playbook, but I honestly think he's so old and geriatric that he doesn't understand that the world doesn't work in that same way in the modern information age.
Completely agree on this one. Planning their invasion for several days just proves this. This guy definitely needs an updated OS. Unfortunately, this will never happen since his KGB school just "seals" everything he knows not leaving a chance for the update. Sad though.
→ More replies→ More replies224
u/guyincognito121 Jan 25 '23
Unfortunately, we do actually have Americans (and people in other countries with free access to information) walking around who actually get taken in by this stuff--and not just a few nuts here and there. So I'm not sure that he's really as out of touch as you say.
→ More replies810
u/ukie7 Jan 25 '23 •
The problem is ruzzia is so stuck ideologically in the past that for them Ukraine is theirs, and anyone going against them is in the wrong and the aggressor.
They actually believe what they are spewing. Their regime and most of their people.
→ More replies110
→ More replies79
10.8k
u/FOXHOUND9000
Jan 25 '23
•
Yes. That's the point. You fucking idiots.
1.3k
u/Cy41995 Jan 25 '23
It's only been 30 years, did they already forget how the Cold War worked?
274
u/Fordiman Jan 25 '23
Can't wait for Swan Lake 2.0.
→ More replies236
u/OnlyRoke Jan 25 '23
The digital age really surprised us all with how Cold War 2 is going.
How long until the eBay of Pigs?
→ More replies→ More replies2.0k
u/Dealan79 Jan 25 '23 •
I think Cold War 2.0 really has surprised them. Just a few years ago they had a US President, a number of his staff, and several Senators and Congressmen in their back pocket. They also had a former German Chancellor literally on the payroll, an oligarch's son nominated for a position in the English House of Lords, allies in growing far-right parties throughout Europe, and what they thought was a reliable puppet government in Hungary that could block any NATO action even in the worst case scenario everything else failed. Europe was heavily dependent on Russian oil. They probably thought that they had enough diplomatic, clandestine, and financial leverage to march in unopposed, and once that didn't happen it triggered shocked Pikachu faces.
985
u/BloodshotPizzaBox Jan 25 '23
Just a few years ago they had a US President, a number of his staff, and several Senators and Congressmen in their back pocket.
Also at least one highly-placed counterintelligence agent in the FBI, from the looks of things. Allegedly.
→ More replies330
u/JesusSavesForHalf Jan 25 '23
Again. FFS.
158
u/Risley Jan 25 '23
Yeah but look at our intelligence so far on this war. It looks like we’ve got quite a few paid informants as well. Such is life in the spy world.
→ More replies221
u/andrewnormous Jan 25 '23
The scariest part is some of what you said is still true or can become true again very easily.
→ More replies28
u/Neville_Lynwood Jan 25 '23
Gonna be at least a little harder in the future. This failure in Ukraine is being very effectively recorded by countless methods and stored in great detail on the internet. So much of Russia's failure is so clearly on display.
It's much harder for people to genuinely push for supporting Russia in light of all that.
→ More replies31
u/Januarywednesday Jan 25 '23
Which German Chancellor?
→ More replies91
u/Dealan79 Jan 25 '23
Gerhard Schröder, at least until May 2022.
→ More replies76
u/Atomic-Decay Jan 25 '23
Unbelievable that he stayed on the board until May. Three months of war crimes and he couldn’t give a flying Fuck. Only left because he had no choice. Disgusting
→ More replies→ More replies165
u/Bay1Bri Jan 25 '23
You forgot that they helped where the UK leaving the EU. That might be their single biggest success.
→ More replies254
u/alpacafox Jan 25 '23
Actually Lloyd Austin said it best: We need to make sure Russia won't be able to do something like this again.
→ More replies→ More replies1.7k
Jan 25 '23
[deleted]
1.6k
u/Kenaston Jan 25 '23
I want Russia to lose.
846
203
u/UglyInThMorning Jan 25 '23
Yeah, like if they just leave they will 100 percent try to do it again. Shatter their military and it’ll at least take longer before they get all invade-y again. And it makes a good example to other countries that may want to start shit.
→ More replies49
u/JarlVarl Jan 25 '23
tbh the best scenario would be that russia just leaves ukraine and moldova (I wish Georgia as well, but they're so far away for most of us I don't see it happening), they join nato and eu, meaning russia can't do shit even if they rebuild their army, which will take them decades (their economy won't be the same to spend on all that equipment and even if they build them they would have to start from scrath for some parts because they can't be imported due to the restrictions (which we hopefully will keep).
→ More replies→ More replies298
u/DoubleSolid2522 Jan 25 '23
Russia has already lost. The us and Europe will support ukraine indefinitely. Russia will crack in time and go back to the dark ages.
→ More replies115
u/Alex6891 Jan 25 '23
Russia is cracked for a few centuries mate, and it was never really out of the dark ages except for a few larger towns.
→ More replies64
218
Jan 25 '23
I want Russia to face an utter defeat, simply withdrawing from Ukraine is not enough. They have to be so weakened that they cannot invade another country again. They must also return the hundreds of thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children. Ukraine can be rebuilt without Russia paying reparations but the most precious and invaluable thing of all is the the Ukrainian children.
→ More replies112
u/Mixels Jan 25 '23
I suspect the Pentagon is all sorts of interested in costing them as much as possible on their way out. US military has long seen Russia as an enemy, and I can't imagine they'd miss an opportunity to beat them to a pulp by proxy.
→ More replies221
u/DoomGoober Jan 25 '23
Destroying billions of dollars of Russian field equipment: check.
Destroying large portions of Russia's air force: Check.
Killing Russian military commanders: Check.
Killing Wagner group mercenaries and getting their commanders to commit war crimes so Wagner group can be sanctioned: Check.
Killing lots of Russians of fighting age that have not fled: Check.
Possibly making it so Putin won't win his fiftieth term in office: Check.
No active duty American soldiers coming home in body bags: Check.
Cynical but a military accountant would say that America is getting a pretty good deal.
152
u/ITaggie Jan 25 '23
Cynical but a military accountant would say that America is getting a pretty good deal.
This is what a lot of people online don't get. We aren't just funding Ukraine to help a country defend their sovereignty, but to absolutely devastate the Russian military while testing out the equipment we designed specifically to counter Russia, all without costing NATO lives (which might make it politically untenable). This is a fantastic opportunity for NATO.
80
Jan 25 '23
We get to do both which is awesome. This is one of those rare times where moral high ground coincides with smiting your enemy. Doesn't happen often. Glad we are helping. I hated amassing all that seemingly superfluous military hardware. Now happy as a clam to see it being used for its index purpose.
Just wish the poor Ukrainians and even the poor dumb Russian conscripts didn't have to die en masse for one guys delusions.
→ More replies56
u/Infernalism Jan 25 '23
There's a clip from Babylon 5, a great sci-fi show btw, where one of the politicians there says something in regards to rallying alien races to the defense of Earth: "Politics and morality on the same side? That doesn't happen every day!"
→ More replies48
u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Jan 25 '23
And what we're "spending" in all this is the existing equipment that was bought a long time ago for the express purpose of being used against Russia and their sphere.
→ More replies→ More replies43
u/Mothringer Jan 25 '23
It's also a really effective advertisement to drive demand for American weapon systems among the countries we are willing to sell to.
→ More replies76
u/joepjah Jan 25 '23
You can add: 'fighting awar by proxy so we can safely "fieldtest" our equipment against Russian equipment as well.' This is a field day for the Western military industrial complex.
→ More replies96
u/notb665 Jan 25 '23
To be frank, the West surely wants Russia to lose. And not only that, we want them to lose slowly. It’s boiling the Frog. Hit them too early too hard they may have pulled their leg back and tried it again some ten years later. But now those legs get slowly crushed to the point of Russia not being able to fight another war in this century.
→ More replies→ More replies114
u/TigersNeedKings Jan 25 '23
And pay back for all the damage caused to Ukraine/mental health services for everyone in the country
51
u/InnocentiusLacrimosa Jan 25 '23
The frozen foreign reserves should be used a down payment for those damages.
→ More replies→ More replies91
u/oily76 Jan 25 '23
Yes that would be great, but if they just fucked off now maybe we could just spend all the money we save on fighting on rebuilding stuff. War is so wasteful, besides all the fucking misery.
→ More replies
23.6k
u/Lofteed
Jan 25 '23
•
Nothing escapes the keen inquiring minds at the Kremlin
2.5k
u/RobertJ93 Jan 25 '23
It took them months to come up with this assessment too.
→ More replies818
u/DarthNihilus_501st Jan 25 '23
I can't wait for them to publish their research paper and thesis on this matter as well.
310
→ More replies112
4.7k
u/budakat Jan 25 '23 •
Russia: Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.
→ More replies1.9k
u/m4inbrain Jan 25 '23 •
I, too, am extraordinarily humble.
→ More replies721
u/MindlessFail Jan 25 '23
Do not EVER call me a thesaurus!
→ More replies505
u/N1CET1M Jan 25 '23
I’ve mastered the ability of standing so incredibly still that I become invisible to the eye.
→ More replies336
u/Nixplosion Jan 25 '23 •
I have Famously huge turds!
→ More replies164
429
u/SchighSchagh Jan 25 '23
And are they admitting NATO would absolutely stomp them in a direct war if mere NATO tanks are an existential threat?
166
→ More replies92
u/Ippus_21 Jan 25 '23
They might as well. It's not like everyone knows it now or anything, after their main advance got stomped by some under-equipped Ukrainians in the early days of the invasion.
→ More replies86
u/nightwing2000 Jan 25 '23
They couldn't even take Kharkiv, 20 miles from the Russian border.
Plus their brilliant planning and smart officers - "What's the problem with us digging trenches and raising dust around Chernobyl? Everything seems fine, nice and quiet."
→ More replies32
1.1k
u/CriticalPolitical Jan 25 '23
Putin: “What?! The Ukrainians are fighting back?! They are trying to make us lose on purpose!”
Yes man: “Insightful observation, sir.”
→ More replies360
u/jaxonya Jan 25 '23
"Abusive alcoholic boyfriend cries when her bigger, older brothers show up to beat the shit out of him. More news at 8"
→ More replies444
u/wrosecrans Jan 25 '23 •
The brothers aren't even showing up. We are just saying that they can borrow a baseball bat and have $20.
→ More replies161
793
u/herberstank Jan 25 '23
Intellectually speaking they've gotta be scraping the bottom of the vodka barrel at this point. Anyone with multiple functioning neurons has bailed out long ago.
369
u/BisquickNinja Jan 25 '23
Or they have been ousted, sent to the gulag or taken care of....
→ More replies225
u/spitfish Jan 25 '23
or taken care of....
Funny way of saying "showing the nearest window"
→ More replies106
→ More replies141
u/Aceticon Jan 25 '23
Or keep their mouths shut and go along with whatever the "great leader" says as that's the only intelligent way to keep their snout in that specific trough and not end up defenestrated or suicided with two bullets to the back of the head.
→ More replies72
u/TheDocJ Jan 25 '23
That is itself a very risky strategy - Great Leaders are seldom prepared to accept responsibility when their dumb ideas get the predictable results. "Comrade, you said that this was a great idea, and look how it hs turned out. You are the weakest link, goodbye."
→ More replies37
u/Aceticon Jan 25 '23
I reckon they use the very same "shit only flows downwards" method as the "great leader" and blame their own underlings for the flawed implementations of all those otherwise masterful plans...
→ More replies263
→ More replies69
9.5k
u/Kewenfu
Jan 25 '23
•
Russia can still CHOOSE to leave Ukraine and avoid defeat.
4.2k
u/PretendsHesPissed Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
Nah. They were defeated when they failed to hold their precious airport, failed to capture Kyiv, and poisoned themselves in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
russia is the new "This is what winning looks like."
2.1k
u/Ferris_Wheel_Skippy Jan 25 '23
russia is the new "This is what winning looks like."
honestly, as someone who has studied Russian history...this has kind of always been how they promote themselves lol
it's a huge reason why Victory Day (the end of WW2) is a BIG deal. Probably the biggest holiday after New Year's. They need to tell everyone around them who cares that they were the "ultimate winners" in World war 2
if you look at their military record, it's really an ongoing clusterfuck of hilariously pathetic military botch-ups: Crimean War, Russo-Japanese War, early parts of WW1, the Invasion of Afghanistan, the first Cechen War. They obviously had some level of success since they were a world power for a while, but holy fuck have they had some major screw-ups.
1.3k
u/pulzeguy Jan 25 '23
The good ol Baltic fleet journey to Japan is still my favorite Russian military misadventure
→ More replies458
u/HoneyBadgeSwag Jan 25 '23
Go on…
1.2k
u/Lynthelia Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23 •
They sailed their fleet from the Baltic to Vladivostok to fight the Japanese. On the way they shot at a British fishing boat because they "thought it Japanese" (in the Baltic???) which got them banned from using the Suez.
In the end, they sailed halfway around the world just to get absolutely fucking stomped by Japan in quite possibly the most one-sided naval battle ever, then had to crawl several thousand miles back home in utter defeat.
(E: As several have mentioned, there's hilarious parts I didn't recount and parts I got a little wrong just reciting the basics from memory. Look it up, the Battle of Tsushima. It's a pretty crazy moment in history.)
539
u/jdeo1997 Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
It was the Baltic (no casualties) and the North Sea (2 british fishermen were killed and an unnarmed fishing boat sunk at the cost of a russian orthodox priest and at least one russian sailer also being killed by friendly fire), with the latter costing them access from the Suez
543
u/thingamajig1987 Jan 25 '23
So their k/d was 2/2 against an unarmed opponent? Damn lol
240
u/cgn-38 Jan 25 '23
The whole voyage is odd. If they made a movie out of it. No one would believe it.
→ More replies120
72
u/SnooRecipes4434 Jan 25 '23
They were very lucky that that Britain did not declare war and sink them as they were allied with Japan at the time. It was a close run thing as well.
From the wiki, The Royal Navy prepared for war, with 28 battleships of the Home Fleet being ordered to raise steam and prepare for action, while British cruiser squadrons shadowed the Russian fleet as it made its way through the Bay of Biscay and down the coast of Portugal.
→ More replies→ More replies29
u/THElaytox Jan 25 '23
My favorite part of the wiki: "greater loss of life was avoided only because the Russian gunnery was highly inaccurate"
→ More replies→ More replies29
u/JustASFDCGuy Jan 25 '23
That "mistake" sounds suspiciously like, "I'm all hopped up on Mountain Dew and I just want to shoot something."
316
Jan 25 '23
The best part imo is that they shot up a number of civilian ships en route to Japan because "what if they're Japanese" but when they reached Japan they immediately revealed themselves to a Japanese patrol boat because "what if it's not Japanese" and then got annihilated as a result.
55
u/MINIMAN10001 Jan 25 '23
Honestly this whole story was such peak stupidity every single step of the way wondering "I guess that's what happens if you send out one of your dumbest on a long mission" who knows maybe they became delirious during their journey due to malnutrition and became unable to mentally function?
→ More replies418
u/pwnedbyscope Jan 25 '23
You left out the best part, the Russians were scared shirtless as you said of Japanese torpedo boats so they shot at two fishing trawlers who were sent to deliver a message to the admiral of the fleet, before the even left the Baltic. Then they shot at small group british fishing vessels off the coast of Britain actually managing to sink one, while also damaging two of thier own.
Anyway, the best part after sailing around Africa having a few more incidents of opening fire on random fishing vessels along the way the fleet approached japan. Finally they came across an actual Japanese ship, who they promptly determined to be Russian. Completely revealing themselves to and then they were stomped by Japanese navy.
Also forgot to mention since they were kinda upset about having to sail around Africa they decided it would be a good idea to try and brighten their spirits, by stopping at Madagascar and bringing aboard a bunch of random animals including a fucking crocodile, and a venomous snake who bit a senior officer. And that's not even all the crazy shit that happened on this dumb voyage
→ More replies143
u/THElaytox Jan 25 '23
Good Lord, this definitely deserves to have a movie made and it needs to be slapstick comedy along the lines of Death of Stalin
85
u/czPsweIxbYk4U9N36TSE Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
Wow, you greatly undersold just how fucking hilariously incompetent they were
Some highlights: They fought a "battle" against some British fishing boats, mistaking them for Japanese torpedo boats.... on the other side of the world from the war... and they lost that battle... and that's about the most competent they were in their entire voyage.
→ More replies→ More replies36
u/tsrich Jan 25 '23
They ended up shooting at their own ships as part of the fishing vessel battle, and did some damage.
248
u/olhonestjim Jan 25 '23
→ More replies56
u/bewarethesloth Jan 25 '23
Hahaha loved that, thanks for posting
59
u/AikiYun Jan 25 '23
For an indepth 2 part version, check out Drachinifel's Voyage of the Damned video.
→ More replies→ More replies211
u/Redd575 Jan 25 '23
The Japanese fleet destroyed Russia's entire Pacific fleet and lost something silly like 3 people (people, not vessels). My exact stats may be off but it is considered one of if not the most one sided major naval engagement.
418
u/GenerikDavis Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
You're a bit hyperbolic, but the actual Japanese losses are so minimal that the difference between 3 dead and the real damage is like a rounding error when comparing to the Russians.
117 dead, torpedo boats sunk for the Japanese. That's 255 tonnage in ships sunk.
5,045 dead, 26 ships sunk or captured including 11 battleships of various classes for the Russians. 143,232 tonnage in ships sunk.
43 times the casualties and 560+ times the tonnage lost. And I can't stress enough how devastating losing battleships was in those days. A battleship was a huge investment at the time. Not quite on the magnitude of if the US lost an aircraft carrier today, but maybe like 1/3 that.
This is arguably in the top 5 most decisive naval battles of all time, and yeah, very possibly the most lopsided. It was also the first major defeat of a major European power by a non-European power in modern history.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
E: Typo
→ More replies73
u/dragonatorul Jan 25 '23
The only similarly lopsided battles I can think of are the early Rome-Carthage naval battles.
→ More replies73
u/palmtwee Jan 25 '23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_Bay
One American sailor died… of illness…
→ More replies126
u/spinfip Jan 25 '23
You're skipping straight to the battle. The journey of the Baltic Fleet to its eventual resting place off Korea is an incredible story.
→ More replies58
u/vonindyatwork Jan 25 '23
Yup. Nearly lost a battle to unarmed fisherman off the coast of Britain barely a few days into the trip..
45
u/spinfip Jan 25 '23
And that was before they got into the morphine and put crocodiles on the ship!
→ More replies68
u/berubem Jan 25 '23
A lot of the Russian fleet blew up on their own underwater mines, right? Including the ship with the only map of sais mine field, if I remember correctly. Pretty big screw up.
→ More replies→ More replies43
u/whoami_whereami Jan 25 '23
Japan lost 3 torpedo boats and 116 men at the Battle of Tsushima. Russia lost 8 battleships (and a whole bunch of smaller vessels) and 5000 men.
Although aside from this one engagement the whole war wasn't quite as lopsided. Over all Japan actually lost slightly more men than Russia did, and they lost two battleships as well.
TBF though, back then noone in the west thought that Japan would win this war (and probably not even Japan itself given that they offered a favorable peace deal to Russia early on). Russia had the fourth largest navy in the world at the time, after the UK, France and Germany. While Japan had only fought its first modern war a few years prior against Qing dynasty China which had failed in its attempts to modernize its military in the wake of the Opium Wars (where they had been completely subjugated by Britain and France).
164
u/KnucklesMcGee Jan 25 '23
Russia is pretty butt hurt when someone else gets a lifeline of "Lend Lease" supplies.
→ More replies101
u/Robert_Pawney_Junior Jan 25 '23
I'd say Germany could be kinda called the big loser of WWII, and we are better of than Russia. Strange how that works.
→ More replies211
u/Ferris_Wheel_Skippy Jan 25 '23
Japan literally got nukes dropped on them TWICE and had their entire government and way of life totally flipped upside-down, and they are also way better off than Russia lmao
It's definitely a credit to both Germany and Japan though that they came out that way, and speaks volumes to how much the Soviet Union quite frankly just stagnated
→ More replies142
u/TurkusGyrational Jan 25 '23
Also credit to programs like The Marshall Plan and any reconstruction efforts by the victors of WWII to ensure that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan never happened again. The problem was that you couldn't do the same thing for the victors, hence why there are Nazis in the US and fascism in Russia.
→ More replies→ More replies162
u/Jeynarl Jan 25 '23
Don’t forget their late flagship of the black sea fleet, the Moskva
170
u/pulzeguy Jan 25 '23
which was willingly sent out with almost all of its missile defense systems down, as well as the radar switched off due to being unable to use it while using communications.
Those 18-20 year old conscripts in the lower deck didn’t even know they were being attacked until their quarters were on fire and flooding.
Death to Putin.
→ More replies83
u/TimeZarg Jan 25 '23
Lazerpig did a nice video summarizing just how fucked the Moskva was from a performance standpoint. Engines couldn't run at full, insufficient firefighting equipment, the missile defense and radar problems you mentioned, on and on. It's amazing the thing wasn't sunk earlier, TBH.
→ More replies→ More replies107
u/pm-me-ur-fav-undies Jan 25 '23
Moskva got told to fuck off by some dudes guarding an island, and she proceeded to sink while supposedly carrying a piece of the true cross onboard, all while fighting a country that scuttled it's only sizable ship at the beginning of the invasion.
I think Moskva's story is a good encapsulation of how this war has been going.
→ More replies146
u/Grokent Jan 25 '23
Russia is currently losing a naval war to a country that has no navy.
→ More replies63
u/shorey66 Jan 25 '23
A country that built Russia's navy for them and also has no navy of their own.
→ More replies→ More replies80
u/MostJudgment3212 Jan 25 '23
That would count as defeat for Putin, he wouldn’t survive it. Russia is a ruthless country. He will sacrifice millions and will never give up.
→ More replies
2.0k
u/davew111 Jan 25 '23
Putin said Russian weapons are "decades ahead" of anything NATO has, so why are they fussed about a few dozen tanks?
→ More replies560
u/iiSamJ Jan 25 '23
Because in reality they are using cold war weapons just to get by and the Kremlin knows they don't stand a chance in a real boots on ground style war.
→ More replies438
u/Astyanax1 Jan 25 '23
until they invaded Ukraine, the west was fearful of their army. now, the west laughs. hell, the Canadian Army could likely tell Moscow within a week at this point
→ More replies219
u/kevInquisition Jan 25 '23
Don't fuck with the Canadians. They might seem nice on the surface but give them a hockey stick and it's game over for you
→ More replies134
u/crathis Jan 25 '23
If you want to learn some fun info, look up Canadian troops reputations in WW2
→ More replies
2.9k
u/Wigu90 Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
Hey, you can always get the fuck out and call it a tie, you know?
It'll still be embarrassing as shit, but probably better than what's coming.
→ More replies639
u/TopFloorApartment Jan 25 '23
They could even have a big victory speech on their aircraft carrier with a Mission Accomplished banner and call it a win. It's not like their domestic media would report anything different.
→ More replies165
1.4k
u/smilesandlaughter
Jan 25 '23
•
A badly paraphrased joke from Zelenksy himself!
"2 russian friend meet at a bar after a year apart. One of them, a priest has been away on a religious mission the last year.
He asks his friend who remained in Russia, what on earth is going on, I hear there is a war?
His friend replies, yes, we're at war with NATO! We've lost thousands of tanks, tens of thousands of soldiers and our economy is tanking!
Oh shit exclaims the priest and what about NATO?
"They haven't showed up yet"
236
u/iwellyess Jan 25 '23
That is a damned good joke
→ More replies125
u/SomeoneStoleMyBacon Jan 25 '23
wasn't he a comedian before becoming a politician?
→ More replies41
u/logi Jan 25 '23
He was and here is a great podcast episode from well before the war about his background
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/04/784746019/whose-ukraine-is-it-anyway
They did a repeat with context more recently, but I'm not finding it right now. "Please comment below".
Also, the TV series that made him president in a weird recursive life imitation of art is on Netflix. I've only watched one episode but it was good.
→ More replies→ More replies135
901
u/Novel_Ad927
Jan 25 '23
•
If they had kept their shabby, rapist, looting, civilian killing army at home there would have been no sanctions, no dead soldiers. And they could still threaten and bluster, but not now that we see what a shit show they are..
→ More replies147
1.4k
u/rldogamusprime Jan 25 '23
Russia for the last ten years - "We're at war with the West!!!"
Russia now - "Stop trying to defeat us!!"
→ More replies272
u/ObjectivelyAOK Jan 25 '23
This is key. Putin has made it absolutely clear - for more than a decade - he views NATO as a strategic challenge and wanted to overturn the US dominated world order. More recently, the Russian government has framed the war as being against NATO and barely acknowledged Ukraine as an adversary with its own national and strategic interests. Now they feign shock that NATO aims to defeat them by supporting Ukraine. Welcome to the Russian world. A crumbling former imperial with an economy the size of Spain seeking to dictate Ukraine‘s political future and redimension the world order to suit their purpose.
→ More replies
733
u/Greedy-Knowledge6043 Jan 25 '23
Arming Ukraine with back room weaponry has been probably the cheapest way for NATO and “the west” to effectively cut the Russian military at their knees. And they’re doing so without sending a single soldier or firing a single round.
→ More replies326
u/Killerderp Jan 25 '23
And a lot of that gear is stuff they consider "old" from my understanding. That's the wild thing to me.
→ More replies279
u/Nightsong Jan 25 '23
The Leopard and Abrams tanks are from the 70s and 80s while HIMARS are from the 90s. Even the Patriot missile defense system is from the 80s. Mind you, all of that tech has been upgraded over the years but the original foundations are decades old.
→ More replies123
u/PvtPill Jan 25 '23
The Leopard 2A6 they are sending now is from around 2000 though
→ More replies91
388
u/xavia91 Jan 25 '23
"hurr durr the west sending tanks won't change anything, we will still destroy Ukraine"
"Wait why did you send them tanks? thats not fair!!!"
→ More replies43
u/Incompatibert Jan 25 '23
"We have already destroyed 200 of the 100 tanks the West has sent into Ukraine that are unfairly beating the shit out of us."
1.0k
Jan 25 '23
This statement from Russia is dumb even by Russian standards. Like, what did they think the world was doing? Secretly supporting Russia by sending weapons to Ukraine????
It’s almost like they put out the first thing that comes to their minds becuase they’ve run out of anything important to say and just want to post to stay relevant.
88
u/smmstv Jan 25 '23
The intended audience isn't us, it's their own people. Kinda gives you a glimpse into what the propaganda is telling them.
→ More replies→ More replies257
u/TheMindfulnessShaman Jan 25 '23
It's just them calling the 'complaint center' and airing a list of grievances that are entirely self-inflicted and anachronistically barbaric.
"We just wanted to invade as far west as we could and make it like us!"
"Why are you soo Russophobic?!"
→ More replies98
445
236
u/Furitaurus Jan 25 '23
They do realise that even if nato as an organisation didn’t exist we would all still be helping Ukraine as we have currently been? Nothing we have done has been under the banner of NATO, it’s either been as individual nations or as the eu.
→ More replies44
90
u/Hayes77519 Jan 25 '23
"It's almost like you don't want us to kill these innocent people? I mean, JEEZ."
255
u/DeeHawk Jan 25 '23
What else would be the point of sending weapons? It's not like there is another incentive. Stating the obvious, but I guess it beats the obvious lies.
On Monday, Moscow's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Russia and the West are no longer in a "hybrid war" but almost a "real one".
Yeah that must be real scary for them, considering it wasn't supposed to be war.
Drooling idiots.
88
u/dalerian Jan 25 '23
Russia has shown it can’t beat Ukraine. Why does it think it has a chance against Ukraine + NATO at the same time?
→ More replies→ More replies123
u/maybehelp244 Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
As the joke goes in this "real war".
Two Russian men are standing at the bus stop when the first says to the other, "Have you heard?! We are at war with NATO! We've already lost 120,000 men!"
The second responds, "Oh my God, that's awful! How many has NATO lost?!"
The first says, "They haven't showed up yet."
→ More replies
565
6.6k
Jan 25 '23
edited Jan 25 '23
•
This was apparent from the first dollar of aid we sent.
Edit: I did not expect this comment to blow up so much. I just like making snarky remarks about adversarial nations like Russia.
Edit2: Thank you, kind Leprechaun!
2.9k
u/UnlikelyRabbit4648 Jan 25 '23
Honestly, this wasn't some big secret...nearly every country in the world has committed to saying "Russia cannot be allowed to win".
The writing was literally written on the wall and projected into the sky using a bat signal.
681
→ More replies260
u/kyel566 Jan 25 '23
To Russia’s defense they lie so much they assume others do to
→ More replies29
u/SkyNetIsNow Jan 25 '23
Also, they got off easy when they invaded and annexed territory in 2014. They expected a similar response when they launched the full invasion last year.
→ More replies805
u/Calavar Jan 25 '23
It's all about the messaging at home. The war is a complete and utter humiliation of the Russian military by a country with 1/5 the population and 1/10 the military budget, but if you squint hard enough and reframe it as Russia just barely holding on against the full weight of NATO, all the sudden it doesn't look nearly as bad.
510
u/nav17 Jan 25 '23
Which is still baffling because Russia and its shills have been saying they can crush NATO in weeks. Yet with every setback they blame NATO and cry about how they're losing because of NATO. To the autocratic mind I guess two realities are possible.
777
u/ConditionOne Jan 25 '23 •
Nah, they know exactly what they're doing. "The enemy is both weak and strong" is one of the pillars of propaganda these days. I mean, look at the rhetoric used toward illegal immigrants. They're so hardworking that they're stealing your jobs but are also somehow lazy freeloaders who provide no benefit to the system.
182
u/robodrew Jan 25 '23
"The enemy is both weak and strong" is one of the pillars of propaganda these days.
Been that way for a long time. It's exactly the rhetoric that Hitler used.
→ More replies76
→ More replies387
u/FallacyAwarenessBot Jan 25 '23 •
Not to mention Schrodinger's Leftists in America - simultaneously weak, pathetic snowflake millenials who wilt at the first sign of strife and need safe spaces for their fee-fees, and somehow also violent, criminal Antifa thugs who are very, very scary.
→ More replies113
u/GourangaPlusPlus Jan 25 '23 •
To the autocratic mind I guess two realities are possible.
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them" - George Orwell, 1984
→ More replies48
u/GarrettGSF Jan 25 '23
Well, just a couple of days ago, Putin‘s favourite „journalist“ said that Russia should occupy Berlin once more and Paris as well for sending aid to Ukraine. And to never leave there again. Oh, and also to re-occupy (parts of) Finland to keep them and Sweden in check. And to oust all American troops from Europe.
Yes, they are completely delusional.
→ More replies→ More replies30
u/IglooDweller Jan 25 '23
The equation is even worse than that. Remember that for all the equipment we sent, none of the Ukrainian soldier has the level of training with them that the NATO soldier would have. So if Russia is barely managing to hold against people with good weapon but without training, think about what would happen is the soldier are proefficient with the weapon they use and have had more than a crash course with them…
→ More replies→ More replies31
u/venomandvaccine Jan 25 '23
But he's not the full weight of NATO, NATO is just breathing and tickling them.
→ More replies32
u/Evoluxman Jan 25 '23
Of course, but Russian propaganda frames it as a war against all of NATO to make their defeats "less humiliating"
If nukes weren't at play Russia would have already been Serbia'd and forced to surrender, NATO forces are overwhelmingly stronger than Russia and they have depleted their border forces to shove them into the Ukrainian meatgrinder.
→ More replies
68
u/koshgeo Jan 25 '23
Day 335 of the 3-day special military operation
Dear diary:
I think western countries may be trying to inflict defeat on us.
Also, I'm getting suspicious that the Ukrainian people may not want to become part of Russia.
→ More replies
59
u/RedLion40 Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
Are these people literally insane? That's like a bully saying "They're fighting back! They're not supposed to do that!"
→ More replies
159
u/Ok_Breadfruit_5933 Jan 25 '23
That's literally what my 5-year old nephew said last week, while playing the dumbest game of cards I've ever seen. 'But you're not letting me wiiin.'
→ More replies
56
u/Verypoorman Jan 25 '23
The thing is, Russia is defeated. They just haven’t come to grips with it yet. They can’t rid them of the delusion that they can come out on top of this.
→ More replies
47
u/noxii3101 Jan 25 '23
Russia chose to invade Ukraine for no reason other than territorial expansion. The world looked away the myriad of other times Russia has needlessly invaded former soviet states to shore up obedience to the Kremlin. Not this time.
Russia can leave Ukraine any time it wants to. They are the ones prolonging this war. The UN charter is pretty clear - you just don't get to claim another countries land because you think you have historical right to it.
→ More replies
116
u/BaronVonStrad317 Jan 25 '23
They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory the moment they tried to take more than Crimea.
→ More replies75
u/rugbyj Jan 25 '23
As of 2020...
- EU undermined and dependent on Russian oil
- US in internal turmoil
- Torn apart by Brexit
- Ex-soviet states in quietly subservient to Russian influence
- Ukraine was Trumps blackmail buddy led by a hapless actor
As of 2023...
- EU focusing on arms manufacture against a common enemy, survived Winter whilst weening off Russian gas with Summer to look forward to
- US regime happily feeding their MIC new orders whilst shipping their old stuff East
- UK as ever a thorn in someone's side
- Ex-soviet states in various states of civil war and flat out mutiny
- Ukraine armed to the teeth and rallying around their war chief
→ More replies
67
34
57
u/Nerevarine91 Jan 25 '23
I mean… yes. I thought everyone was already being pretty clear about that. What did they think the sanctions and all the other aid to Ukraine were about?
26
3.4k
u/luketwo1 Jan 25 '23
West: *sends weapons to defeat russia*
Russia: YOU'RE SENDING WEAPONS TO DEFEAT US!
West: Yes?