Let’s just talk about this story

https://twitter.com/i/events/1483255084750282753

Somewhere in Ukraine, a city is getting decimated by relentless artillery fire from land and sea. The Russian army surrounds everything and never stops firing indiscriminately against military and civilian targets alike.

People lived here. The people fighting grew up here. Went to school here. Made their lives here.

The flagship of the Russian offensive, The Black Sea Fleet’s “Moskva” has been imposing supreme dominance in an assault that is never ending, relentless artillery fire. Thousands of people are dead.

Somewhere, in a command center, two Ukrainian soldiers are using cutting edge, precision, technology, provided by the only fighting force in the world that can actually oppose their adversary.

They launch an attack that the Russian army thinks is impossible, but their flagship is struck two times by powerful missiles that deal “serious damage” to the ship.

Somewhere, Russian soldiers taking orders to fire on Ukrainian civilians are blown to pieces on and below deck of the most powerful and impressive ship in the Russian fleet. They are killed by a modern weapon with extremely lethal capabilities launched by their adversaries.

On both sides soldiers are being killed and saved, and good and evil things are happening.

This is happening in real time

I’m looking for information about this all the time.

The fact is these guys are fighting right now. Every day battles like this are being waged all across Ukraine. There are heroic and horrific things happening on both sides of the battlefield and the entire situation is so full of hopeless tragedy.

There is an overwhelming and, for all intents and purposes, an undefeatable enemy on one side of it. Russia can literally just keep doing this forever. The “Moskva” still sails.

And as this is happening, the entire world is changing before our eyes. Superpowers around the world are redrawing battle lines and thinking about the next 100 years of war while watching with anticipation.

Ukraine is a single, defiant, courageous, and to much of the world, a heroic figure standing in the face of overwhelming adversity and shouting “we’re doing this for our freedom”.

Ukraine is fighting so that they may run their country the way they want. Not the way Russia wants.

And somewhere in Russia, there are millions of people who think Ukraine belongs to Russia anyway. “You traitors are fighting a civil war.”

While the whole world watches and does very little.

The oil still flows. Russia can fire those missiles forever.

Starlightsun

United States1405 Posts

April 14 2022 03:25 GMT

I wouldn't say that the world is doing very little, especially when compared to other horrific campaigns throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Also I don't think Russia is undefeatable or capable of sustaining literal endless war. They can only wage war as long as they have an economy to fuel it, and it remains to be seen if sanctions and trade cutoffs will hamstring their economy enough to seriously hinder their war efforts. There's another fragility to the offensive too in that it seems to be mostly the vision and the will of one man... if something happens to him I wonder if whoever steps into the power vacuum would really want to keep chasing pyrrhic victory in Ukraine.

AmericanUmlaut

Germany2576 Posts

April 14 2022 10:41 GMT

The “Moskva” still sails.

About that.

Even notwithstanding the destruction of Russia's flagship, it's not true that the world isn't doing much, nor that Russia can just keep fighting this war indefinitely. They've lost a very large number of troops, and the reinforcements they're sending are less well-trained for the roles they're filling, and will suffer even greater casualties as a result. There's evidence they're running out of missiles, as well, and they can't restock easily because they don't manufacture all the parts themselves. The Russian economy has meanwhile been crippled by international sanctions on a scope we've never seen before. There's more that can and should be done - I'm particularly looking at my own country of residence here; Germany's refusal to cut off Russian oil imports and eat the costs of their own foolishness in making themselves so dependant on a hostile power is a terrible moral failure - but the actions that have already been taken and continue to be taken give me hope that Russia is going to leave this war terribly damaged and Ukraine will ultimately be victorious in defending their right to lead themselves.

MrBitter

United States2940 Posts

April 15 2022 20:43 GMT

On April 14 2022 12:25 Starlightsun wrote:
I wouldn't say that the world is doing very little, especially when compared to other horrific campaigns throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Also I don't think Russia is undefeatable or capable of sustaining literal endless war. They can only wage war as long as they have an economy to fuel it, and it remains to be seen if sanctions and trade cutoffs will hamstring their economy enough to seriously hinder their war efforts. There's another fragility to the offensive too in that it seems to be mostly the vision and the will of one man... if something happens to him I wonder if whoever steps into the power vacuum would really want to keep chasing pyrrhic victory in Ukraine.

So yes, the world is definitely acting and in many cases, taking great strides, but I think it's very true that the world could do much more and the fact that we're not taking the bigger steps is tragic and sad.

On Russia being undefeatable - of course you're right. The combined strength of NATO could certainly deal with Russia. From the perspective of can Russia be stopped with no further intervention from the rest of the world? I think as long as they're selling billions a day in oil, they'll be able to sustain an extremely prolonged offensive on Ukraine.

On April 14 2022 19:41 AmericanUmlaut wrote:

Show nested quote +

Ironically, since posting this, the Moskva has sunk. Economic sanctions have done a lot to limit Russia's ability to operate in the way they have, but we're talking about a big and powerful place that, like I said above, still sells tons of oil and also controls essential rare metals that the world is going to keep buying. If we really wanted to cripple the Russian economy, we would stop all trade and stop doing business with anyone else who engaged in trade with Russia.

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