Beneath all the shitposting and memes about the war, the most moment i've felt about this was when i was in Cuba earlier this year. I had a conversation with an older russian man, and he showed me pictures on his phone. Pictures of his youth, hanging out with friends, drinking, partying, etc. But, he also showed me pictures of his unit. A ragtag mix of russians and ukrainians. All under the red banner. He showed me a picture of him at a cafe with those same people many years later. 2021. He doesn't know if he'll ever see them again.

Zelensky Grabs Whatever Office Supplies He Can Get Hands On In Capitol, Saying He Needs It For War

People got really mad on twitter over this one lmao

[Poland/Ukraine]

Poland stopped sending weapons to Ukraine over the dispute over the Ukrainian state forcing the lifting of the agricultural import ban for Eastern European countries. Transit of goods will still be maintained, but the weapons are set to be used for domestic buildup purposes from now.

It's currently election season in Poland and Slovakia, and the local agrarian petty/bourgeois doesn't exactly want competition.

Is this the Ukrainian government's most foolish mistake since the start of the war? Pissing off their staunchest supporters?

pentagon defense procurement paper from last year

conclusions:

• no commercial application for missiles makes them unprofitable
• china makes everything
• nobody wants to invest in domestic manufacturing
• nobody wants to work in manufacturing, much less for the DoD

NYT: Evidence Suggests Ukrainian Missile Caused Market Tragedy

From their original article:

A Russian missile strike in Kostyantynivka that killed at least 17 and injured more than 30 others was one of the deadliest in months.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/us-military-unequipped-high-intensity-combat-206817 (archived, is anyone else having trouble with archive.is / archive.ph? they seem to just not load at all for me)

The U.S. Military is Unequipped for High-Intensity Combat

The U.S. military’s system was for uncontested logistics, with the ability to conduct depot-level maintenance after evacuating vehicles from the front lines and heavy reliance on a contractor workforce for highly technical repairs. It also relies upon air superiority on the battlefield, which is not a given in combat against a peer competitor.

Former Commandant Gen. David Berger stated that in a great power war in the Pacific, “It’s just fuel and bullets, that’s what I’m going to resupply. The rest you’re going to have to forage.” These logistical limitations will be acute when repairing damaged military equipment. Absent repairs, it may be impossible for Marines to get back into the fight.

Besides the astronomical costs of many of America’s boutique and exquisite systems, the trade-off between the price of these systems and the systems that can kill them is becoming unsustainable

U.S. adversaries will not allow it to build up the proverbial iron mountain of logistics, nor will it be easy to evacuate vehicles or bring forward parts via “just in time” (JIT) delivery by ship or aircraft.

One of the reasons that the Afghan air force collapsed was the withdrawal of U.S. contractors. With the air force collapsing, ground units also gave up as they were no longer assured of resupply, medevac, or close air support. The U.S. military made the situation worse by having the Afghans move away from Soviet-era helicopters such as the Mi-17 and transition to the more technical and maintenance-heavy U.S. airframes. The U.S. military may face its own issues in high-intensity conflict, as defense contractors have withheld the intellectual property behind some of the newest systems, such as the F-35, effectively turning them into black boxes that only the contractors themselves can fully understand. American farmers can tell horror stories of the problems encountered with high-tech tractors and their fights with manufacturers such as John Deere over the “right to repair.”

that bit about the Afghan Air Force was something I hadn't heard before, absolutely amazing imagine having all of your military equipment be dependent on maintenance by foreign private contractors

guys this is not funny anymore. Which one of you took my f-35?

> I storm into the room, flinging the doors open

> "The Poles! They've stopped sending weapons to Ukraine because of their stupid little trade war over grain; the cracks are forming, the united coalition is splintering! How long can this last? Once the spigot dries up, how fast will Ukraine fold? What new horrors will be wrought in this new multipolar world?"

> my gf turns to me," what the fuck are you talking about, go make some tea"

> I go stare at a screen for eight hours pretending to care about "action items" as I mutter on about Lviv/Lwów

> Work Slack Channel: "Has anybody heard about this really old documentary called 'Tiger King'?"

Pondering the orb of global misery with y'all is fine but god damn do I sometimes feel insane.

Communists and conservatives coincidentally not supporting Ukraine (nominally for the latter): proof that communism and fascism are the same

Liberals and conservatives systemically and deliberately supporting and funding every war, invasion, and occupation by domestic forces: mature, bipartisan, proof that democracy works

NATO pulling a color revolution in Armenia only to leave them to their fate to be invaded by another NATO vassal is just evil.

They would definitely have overlooked the Armenian genocide if Turkey was in NATO at the time.

I’m from New York and I’ve just received a letter (draft) demanding me to fight for The Ukraine.

What the fuck is going on

Georgia’s security service accuses Ukrainian official of plotting coup

The deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence is planning an overthrow of Georgia’s government, its security service says.

On Monday, the SSG said Giorgi Lortkipanidze, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence who used to be Georgia’s deputy interior minister, was plotting “destabilisation aimed at a violent overthrow of the government”.

The SSG said antigovernment protests “are being planned for October and December, when the European Commission is set to publish its decision on Georgia’s EU membership application”. It said the plot “is being carried out with the coordination and funding from a foreign country”.

👀

So it's confirmed that the "WW2 Ukrainian freedom fighter" that got a standing ovation in Canadian parlaiment yesterday was in fact part of the 14th Division of the Waffen-SS (aka 1st Galician Division). Who do I need to talk to to get the Canadian Polish and Jewish communities on the cuck rankings?

Reddit is probably the worst place to see how a foreign population feels about particular geopolitical issues. I've visited some Central American subs and most of them are huge America worshippers who still talk about Ukraine and how they need to support it. They also endlessly find ways to blame or hate Russia while excusing everything wrong that the US does.

This is not reflective at all from what I've experienced since the war took off. Nobody's really talking about Ukraine and local elections are taking most of the attention. Opinions on Russia are generally pretty good, much better than China.

Canadian Parliament gives a standing ovation to a literal nazi soldier

I hate losers so much, there's huge ass thread on republicans holding up pentagon funding (why are they actually able to damage/slow down the US war machine more than the US left y'all this is so fucking embarrasing...) and the comments saying that's a good thing are downvoted to the bottom of the thread. Blue maga never changes I guess

During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Colombian President Gustavo Petro questioned the differential treatment that the international community gives to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine.

Gustavo Petro: "I propose to end the war to defend life from the climate crisis."

Only by ending the conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine simultaneously would "hypocrisy as a political practice end," Petro stressed.

During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro questioned the differential treatment that the international community gives to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine.

"I propose to end the war to have time to save us. As soon as possible, the United Nations should sponsor two peace conferences: one on Ukraine and the other on Palestine," he said.

Petro then pointed out that these peace conferences would teach the international community "to make peace in all regions of the planet" because only by ending the conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine simultaneously would "hypocrisy as a political practice end."

"They have called us to war. Latin America was asked to deliver war machines and men for the combat fields," the Colombian president said, alluding to U.S. requests for support to the Ukrainian side.

"They forgot that our countries were invaded several times by the same people who now talk about fighting invasions," he added.

"I propose to end the war so as to defend life from the mother of all crises: climate change," stressed Petro, who also denounced that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) "will not be achieved" in 2030.

"Gentlemen, you sowed injustice. The worst of all is to condemn humanity to war. That is why the current balance of social justice in the world is so bad... I propose to make up for lost time by doing two simple things: ending war and reforming the international financial system," the Colombian president said."

Joe Biden urges world leaders to stop Ukraine from being ‘carved up’

US president Joe Biden called on world leaders to oppose early peace talks that would lead to the break-up of Ukraine, arguing that standing firm against Russia’s goal of winning a big chunk of land would deter future invasions of independent nations. Biden made the appeal in his annual speech to the UN’s General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the audience.

Biden warned that Russia was betting the world was growing “weary” of the conflict and would let Moscow “brutalise Ukraine without consequence”. While the US supported a diplomatic resolution to the war, Russia’s “price for peace” was “Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory and Ukraine’s children”, Biden said.

Perhaps this could have been avoided if you went with Russia's terms in April 2022? Hell, if you tried to talk with them to avoid the conflict altogether?

“I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?” Biden asked. “The answer is no. We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”

The United States doesn't give the slightest fuck about the core principles of the UN Charter!

Brazilian Pres. Lula, a former lathe operator, and former Volkswagen assembly line worker/Labor Minister Luiz Marinho met with UAW leaders in New York yesterday, with a delegation of Brazilian union leaders. There, they announced solidarity actions with striking US autoworkers.

Good morning everyone from Beirut, Lebanon. I'm taking a car to Damascus today, straight to the land of the Lion. I was coincidentally in Burj Hammoud with my cousin last night, which is an Armenian neighbourhood in the eastern edge of Beirut. Tensions are very high for sure, two older Armenian dudes got into a fist fight in a street cafe while arguing about Pashinyan. Which reminds me, you're probably getting a cuck n chad ranking next Monday, with Pashinyan and the Armenian diaspora in America competing hard for the cuck spots.

On another note, this whole counter-offensive thing really sucked. Progress is so damn slow that I haven't even learned new names of random villages in Zaporozhye for weeks now. 100 days in and we're still talking about Kamianske, Robotyne and Verbove

China’s healthcare tycoons lose US$17 billion as crackdown spreads

The combined fortune of the top 15 Chinese healthcare billionaires has fallen 17 per cent to US$84.1 billion from US$101.4 billion at the end of last year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The drop comes as the country’s top regulators started a sweeping anti-corruption campaign across the nation’s healthcare sector about two months ago. It has resulted in hundreds of hospital chiefs and pharmaceutical executives being probed, sparking a sectorwide share slump as investors chose to sell instead of guessing which companies will be hit by the clampdown.

$84 billion left to go

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/mMjLr

Orthodox deacon captured by Ukrainian abwehr for assisting Ukrainian civilians escape from being apprehend by Zelenskyy regime thugs for forced conscription.

Ex-deacon accused of disguising men as missionaries to avoid conscription in Ukraine I,nvestigators say at least six individuals escaped to EU countries after deacon allegedly took bribes* by Lorenzo Tondo and Shaun Walker.

A former deacon in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa has been detained on allegations that he took bribes to help men evade conscription by disguising them as church missionaries so they could leave the country.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said last week that the former deacon belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox church, one of two main branches of Orthodoxy in the country and until recently linked to the Moscow patriarchy. Investigators say the former deacon – who has not been named – successfully facilitated the escape of at least six individuals to several EU countries.

“The suspect had compiled lists of missionaries who were intended to travel abroad on behalf of the diocese’s leader and the religious community, with the aim of becoming priests,” the SBU said.

Oh look more news about post soviet countries murdering each other when they were once comrades in the most powerful country in the world

Mold, raw sewage, brown tap water found in US barracks

Government investigators found mold, gas leaks, brown tap water, and broken sewage pipes in U.S. military barracks despite record-high Pentagon spending, according to a major report released by the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday.

“We found that living conditions in some military barracks may pose potentially serious risks to the physical and mental health of service members, as well as their safety,” the GAO reported, noting that the conditions also impact troop readiness.

The independent investigation paints a shocking picture of the conditions at U.S. military barracks, which all enlisted service members must live in at the start of their military careers. As GAO notes, the problem is far from new. The watchdog issued several reports in the early 2000s that found widespread safety issues in barracks across the world, and conditions appear to have gotten worse in the intervening years.

The scathing report linked the poor conditions in barracks to the military’s ongoing issues with recruitment. “Thousands of service members come through this base for training every year and live in these barracks,” an anonymous enlisted officer told the GAO. “They go home and tell their friends and family not to join the military because of living conditions.”

GAO wrote that, as of last year, there was a $137 billion backlog of deferred maintenance costs for Pentagon facilities. Barracks and other “lower-priority facilities” are “chronically neglected and experience increased deterioration,” the report notes. The impressive sum represents a fraction of current military spending, which is set to reach $886 billion next year.

...

According to GAO, soldiers at several different barracks were held responsible for removing any hazardous materials from their rooms, including mold or sewage. One service member told investigators that he had developed chronic wheezing due to frequent exposure to harsh chemicals used to clean mold. “There is a leak and black mold in the shower and maintenance still won’t fix it, no matter how often it is reported,” an anonymous soldier told GAO.

...

Broken windows and “insufficient security” have helped create conditions for crime in the barracks as well. Investigators found one site in which an unknown person had started squatting in a vacant room after climbing through a broken window, and in another case a soldier’s ex-spouse broke in and assaulted the service member in their room.

Haven't seen many people talking about the new Hersh article, he has some interesting claims:

Major portions of the Ukrainian army have stopped going on the offensive at all

The CIA is becoming very skeptical of the possibility of a Ukrainian victory, and a significant rift between intelligence agencies is forming

Quote from an intelligence official: “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going. The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House.”

https://archive.is/2023.09.21-111210/https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/zelenskys-bad-moment

Anyone have a link to the article a month ago when zelensky warned europe what would happen if they lose, basically that the neo nazis would be let loose on them?

omg,.. this Poland ukraine Diva fight has extrem potential .. both nations have the same national victimhood psychosis and they are now locked into an escalation spiral their national psychosis prevents them from getting out from..

poland apperently will Deny all benefits to Ukraine refugees from 2024 onward..

literally the land next to you , at war , at full mobilization .. and you try to use those under your protection as a kollectiv Punshball because what ... Ukraine has sued you in a non functioning court.. ? ...

What if a Chinese spy balloon hijacked the F35?

No Maverick appeal: Air Force misses recruitment goal for first time since 1999

Despite hopes that movies like “Top Gun: Maverick” would recapture the imagination of youth and open their minds to the possibility of high-flying military service, the U.S. Air Force has missed its recruitment goals for the first time since 1999.

This is part of a service-wide trend (Army and Navy included) that has so far only spared the Marines, which at 33,000 has much lower target numbers than the Army, for example, which missed its goal of 65,000 new recruits in May. It was the second year in a row the Army fell short.

But the active duty Air Force's failure to meet its goals is the first time in nearly a quarter century, presaging hard times to come. According to this report the active duty component fell just shy (90 percent) of its 26,877 goal, while its reserve and Air Guard fared worse, with 30 percent shortfalls in each.

Unlike the pre-9/11 days in 1999, which, despite small overseas operations against lesser rivals like Saddam Hussein, was considered peace time, military officials are worried about what these shortfalls mean for their ability to meet the current twin security challenges consistently identified by official Washington: Russia and China.

“The geopolitical landscape was so much different” in 1999, Air Force Recruiting Service boss Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein told reporters Wednesday. “Missing this year is kind of at a critical point.”

Is there one reason for the slip in recruitment? The short answer is no. As we’ve said in these pages before, the theories are moving targets, sometimes partisan, and varied. Some observers point out that young people have more economic and educational opportunities today. Others have noted that the pool of eligible recruits is shrinking — young people are more obese, have been on therapeutic drugs (disqualifying), are in poor shape, and have histories of using recreational drugs/alcohol and bad behavior.

On the left, critics say the military continues to be racially biased and misogynistic (particularly at the leadership level; the percentage of women across the military has actually increased to over 17 percent, while the level of minorities is close to 40 percent of the total military population).

On the right, critics say the military has become too “woke,” overtaken by the civilian world’s culture and identity politics, and focused more on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” than preparing men and women for future wars.

But another theory transcends partisan politics. As the trust levels in government institutions (including the military) has eroded society-wide, so has the number of men and women willing to put their lives in the hands of Uncle Sam. After 20 years of failed war policies, a citizenry that feels lied to, swindled, and misled at every turn is less inclined to believe that their children won’t be used as toy soldiers in some future Washington political gambit overseas.

I'm sure the West will be quick to denounce this brutal invasion and send weapons to Artsakh, right?

Ukraine’s worst enemies are those who demand Russia’s strategic defeat

The article covers the counteroffensive and why it failed, which we largely already know about. There's an interesting section on Ukrainian mobilization that I actually wasn't aware of, in the spoiler tags below.

But the main point is here:

Ukraine’s situation has become so dire that former British Army Colonel Richard Kemp—previously one of Ukraine’s most vociferous boosters—recently authored an op-ed in The Telegraph in which he warned that the West “must prepare for humiliation.”

With all due respect to Mr. Kemp, this is not the time for Western leaders to worry about humiliation. Ukrainian solders are dying on an industrial scale. We must do all we can to stop the killing. Western leaders can massage their bruised egos later.

At this stage, the humane and rational thing to do is to oppose the escalation of this war, and to advocate for reasonable, mutual compromises to achieve a lasting peace. This is a war that Ukraine cannot win in any meaningful sense of the word. The best that Ukraine can hope for is a bloody, horrific stalemate that will gradually sap the state’s remaining lifeblood.

With each passing minute, more Ukrainians become permanently disabled. More become displaced. More Ukrainian children become fatherless. More Ukrainian infrastructure is destroyed. More landmines, other unexploded munitions and long-lasting contaminants proliferate among Ukraine’s rich agricultural lands, and more towns and cities become uninhabitable.

The hole out of which Ukraine must eventually dig itself is becoming only deeper. At some point, that hole will become so deep that Ukraine will never come out of it. We are rapidly approaching that point, if we have not passed it already.

By insisting upon Russia’s strategic defeat and excluding any possibility of meaningful compromise with Russia, we doom Ukraine to destruction. To save Ukraine, we must stop this war.

F-35 fighter jets can only fly 55% of time, US watchdog says

The fleet’s mission-capable rate — or the percentage of time a plane can perform one of its assigned missions — was 55 per cent as of March 2023, far below the Pentagon’s goal of 85 per cent to 90 per cent, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday.

...

The F-35’s share of the US’s overall tactical aviation fleet is expected to keep growing, providing a boon to its manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Each of the fighter jets costs the government about $160mn.

There are 450 F-35s in the US military’s arsenal — variants are used by the air force, navy and Marine Corps — and the Pentagon plans to buy roughly 2,000 more by the mid-2040s, costing $1.7tn over the programme’s life cycle, including $1.3tn for maintaining the aircraft.

...

The Pentagon is years behind in establishing enough maintenance depot capacity, resulting in repair delays and a 10 per cent reduction in the jet’s mission-capable rate. Part of the challenges stem from a heavy reliance on contractors for maintenance that limits the Pentagon’s ability to control depot maintenance decisions. Delays also arise from spare parts shortages, inadequate maintenance training, insufficient support equipment, and a lack of technical data needed to make repairs.

Financial Times: Billions of dollars in western profits trapped in Russia

Western companies that have continued to operate in Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have generated billions of dollars in profits, but the Kremlin has blocked them from accessing the cash in an effort to turn the screw on “unfriendly” nations.

Groups from such countries accounted for $18bn of the $20bn in Russian profits that overseas companies reported for 2022 alone, according to figures compiled by the Kyiv School of Economics, and $199bn of their $217bn in Russian gross revenue.

...

Many foreign businesses have been trying to sell their Russian subsidiaries but any deal requires Moscow’s approval and is subject to steep price discounts. In recent days British American Tobacco and Swedish truckmaker Volvo have announced agreements to transfer their assets in the country to local owners.

...

The inaccessible funds add to the costs international businesses face from the fallout of Russia’s assault on Ukraine. The Financial Times reported last month that European companies had reported writedowns and losses worth at least €100bn from their operations in Russia since last year’s full-scale invasion.

...

The Russian ministry of finance last month eased the dividend rules but also formalised a framework of “good” and “naughty” companies, as the Kremlin calls those that want to part ways with the country. “Allowing dividends to be distributed has long become a kind of encouragement for ‘good behaviour’, which includes making it clear that you want to stay in Russia,” said a person involved in exit deals.

Ukraine could have avoided conflict – Trump

The loss of Ukrainian territory to Russia is “something that could have been negotiated,” Trump told NBC host Kristen Welker, adding that “a lot of people expected” Kiev to abandon its claims to “Crimea and other parts of the country” in exchange for peace.

“So they could have made a deal where there’s less territory [lost] than Russia has already taken,” Trump continued. “They could have made a deal where nobody was killed…they would have had a Ukrainian country. Now nobody even knows if Ukraine is going to be totally taken over.”

ww3 starts and quickly ends as everyone realizes their equipment has been reverse-engineered... but how?!