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Ukraine destroyed columns of waiting Russian troops as soon as it was allowed to strike across the border, commander says (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 4 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Ukraine destroyed columns of waiting Russian soldiers with HIMARS, a Ukrainian commander said.
He said Ukraine targeted them as soon as it got permission to use allied weapons across the border.
Military experts say Ukraine's ability to use Western-supplied weapons in Russia is aiding its fightback.

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[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 60 points 4 months ago

It makes me so depressed thinking about how many thousands of Ukrainian lives could’ve been saved by just giving Ukraine full and enthusiastic support immediately instead of dragging it out this long.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 47 points 4 months ago

This was done on purpose so the crisis didn't escalate. There's no world police to prevent Russia from nuking everyone. It's better for outside actors to focus on de-escalation anyway.

Also, Putin is not doing this because of Ukraine. I mean that's part of it, but he is doing it for domestic appeal. He wants to appear tough to Russian citizens. Two situations allow that: beating Ukraine easily, and losing to NATO forces. He knows NATO will not risk invading Russia, so he's in no real danger from the second one.

NATO is intentionally not intervening because it makes Putin look weak domestically. Russia has created their own problem and the war will not end until the people of Russia demand it.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago

The only thing that modern diplomacy teaches nation states today is that they need to get nukes as quickly as possible

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 0 points 4 months ago

Nukes are good, but in fact full arsenal, from home-produced small mortars to MRBMs, and a standing military. Actually, if possible, all the means of power projection the big guys have. Including even proxy militants. Because the big guys back up their words with the blood of the small guys anyway.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You're speaking about the means of which to project military power on the ground with direct action, I'm talking about the nature of nuclear weapons as a deterrent and how that changes the way soft and hard power is applied.

Nukes make it so that no direct combat need ever take place, look at NK or the inverse where we are applying sanctions against Iran for a current parallel.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It requires very rigid discipline to threaten your enemy with MAD. The more tasks you can solve without testing your own faction's discipline, the better. If every parking place argument gets to threats of nuking the opponent, because you can't threaten anything else, either eventually you'll have to use MAD for such a small cause, or you'll step back on that and then there'll be something a bit more important over which you'll threaten MAD.

And so on, until MAD is in practice useless for you.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

The language you are using reads like you're discussing an RTS.

There's no requirement for any rigid posture except maintaining control over said nuclear arms. Most of NK saber rattling is done to aquire aid and material. Merely having Nuclear arms and demonstrating that control and willingness to use them as a defensive measure is all that's needed. Other countries and powers on the global stage will modify or attenuate their position based on the demonstration of said control

I suggest reading these to better understand my position.

https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-347

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA585975.pdf

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 0 points 4 months ago

And it's fine when there are states behaving with the responsibility of an RTS player. Will read, thx

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee -2 points 4 months ago

No it doesn't. The US especially has spent a ton of money building up countries it has defeated in war.

The prime minister decides that their only course of action is to declare war on the United States. Expecting a quick and total defeat (since their standing army is tiny and equipped with bows and arrows), the country confidently expects to rebuild itself through the largesse that the United States bestows on all its vanquished enemies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes it does, in direct reply to what you said

There’s no world police to prevent Russia from nuking everyone.

The only reason we're slow rolling Ukraine is because Russia has nukes. Here's a great study on it. https://assets.cambridge.org/97811071/06949/frontmatter/9781107106949_frontmatter.pdf

[-] azimir@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 months ago

Except the Duchy won the war against the US and brought back a hydrogen bomb. They then used that threat to make the league of micro nations. The bomb didn't work, but the threat of it allowed a tiny nation to gain leverage on the geopolitical stage.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

After killing the people in charge and destroying the country.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024

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