Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

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I'm sure there's always been a few tankies and useful idiots around before my generation who loved the USSR and their "Worker's Paradise!! ! !" (Whatever that really means. ).

Well there was Pierre Elliott Trudeau, PM of Canada, who had a hard on for Fidel Castro.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/respect-and-affection-tie-the-trudeau-family-quebec-and-fidel-castro/article33065701/

Yeah I remember reading about that.

Ironic isnt it? Canada claims to be more lgbtq-friendly than their southern neighbors and yet many of them praise a cigar-chomping homophobic dictator who locked homosexuals up in concentration camps to be tortured and sometimes killed.

But hey? He was an enemy of the US at least. I'm sure that's all that really mattered in the end.

Cuba was the first independent nation in the Caribbean, the first communist state, the fourth country in North America, the eighth in Latin America, and the 32nd in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

I'm glad that they have improved gay rights in Cuba so I'll give them that.

My country has at least tried to do the same, and even when homosexuals and transgender people were treated as second class citizens at least they were never put in concentration camps.

But now we have idiots and psychos in the GOP (like Marjorie Taylor Greene) trying to strip us of all our rights and punish us for existing again. So... yeah. We can't win for losing. 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards as they say.

Makes you wonder , who or what kind of people are supporting his political campaigns ..???

That would be a genious move on the Part of the Russians to build dissent in the country , irony is, that our country recruited so many people in Southern Hemisphere Countries .To sow dissent in those countries, making them ripe for revolution ... So our more secret orgs. in the USA , can pop up a political candidate that would either be more inclined
to US interests, or a Outright Puppet dictatorship... ( It is how the game seems to be Played) as part of our dear modern world ..? Maybe an assasination here or there? by hired spy/ Mercanaries. Potential Good Leaders disappear.
In favour of their revolutionary puppet dictator. And perhaps it is farther reaching that just the Southern Hemisphere?

The changing language used by the Ukrainian military in 72 hours of daily updates tells the story: “Ongoing defensive fighting.” “Significantly worsened.” Russian “tactical success.”

You rarely ever hear Kyiv’s top brass sounding downbeat, but their steep southerly trajectory reflects the grave place Ukraine finds itself in. Russia is not just advancing slowly in one place; it appears to be advancing in four, across the frontline.

Moscow knows it is on the clock: in about a month, the $61billion of US military aid will start to translate into Ukraine having the weapons it has been begging for. So, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be throwing whatever he can at it, knowing the fight will likely only get tougher for his forces in the summer ahead.

First, and most acutely troubling, is the northern border near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. Russian forces have crossed the border in multiple locations and claim to have seized nine villages. Their move 3 to 4.5 miles (5 to 7 kilometers) into Ukraine, in the border area above Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, is arguably their fastest advance since the first days of the war. Russia has thrown five battalions at the border town of Vovchansk, Ukrainian officials said, which has been hit hard by airstrikes over the weekend.

The town of Lyptsi is at risk, say some military bloggers, and from there Russian forces could hit Kharkiv with artillery. This is a nightmare for Kyiv for two reasons: firstly, they liberated this land from Russian forces 18 months ago, yet failed, clearly, to fortify the area enough to prevent Moscow sweeping back with the ease with which they were swept out.

Moscow knows it is on the clock: in about a month, the $61billion of US military aid will start to translate into Ukraine having the weapons it has been begging for. So, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be throwing whatever he can at it, knowing the fight will likely only get tougher for his forces in the summer ahead.

First, and most acutely troubling, is the northern border near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. Russian forces have crossed the border in multiple locations and claim to have seized nine villages. Their move 3 to 4.5 miles (5 to 7 kilometers) into Ukraine, in the border area above Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, is arguably their fastest advance since the first days of the war. Russia has thrown five battalions at the border town of Vovchansk, Ukrainian officials said, which has been hit hard by airstrikes over the weekend.

The town of Lyptsi is at risk, say some military bloggers, and from there Russian forces could hit Kharkiv with artillery. This is a nightmare for Kyiv for two reasons: firstly, they liberated this land from Russian forces 18 months ago, yet failed, clearly, to fortify the area enough to prevent Moscow sweeping back with the ease with which they were swept out.

Then there is the rest of the front, where progress in Kharkiv region has been mirrored by old, exhausting fights suddenly seeing new Russian success. This should be the greatest cause for concern to Kyiv, as it suggests a coordinated bid to push in all directions and leave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with ugly choices about where to send limited resources, and where ultimately to sacrifice.

Moving slowly south from Kharkiv, closer to Bakhmut, the town of Chasiv Yar has been under intense pressure – a valuable height above two key Ukrainian military towns, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which could prove an exhaustive pressure point over the summer on Kyiv’s supply lines. Netailove and Krasnohorivka slightly further south show Russian forces making further gains to the west of Avdiivka, and threatening another key hub – Pokrovsk. If Ukraine begins to fall back further here, its grip on the remnants of Donetsk region could be at risk.

And then overnight, Deep State Map, a Ukrainian military analysis group, said the southern village of Verbove was under greater threat – one of the minimal gains from Kyiv’s stymied summer counteroffensive last year. All across the board, the news is bad: it is a growing calamity.

Ukraine’s rhetorical response has been telling. Its leaders have, for once, openly said how bad it is. They appear to be shuffling commanders around – which is not something you do in the heat of battle without desperate reason. There is vocal criticism of the failure to prepare and fortify the northern border regions over the past year. Indeed, along much of the front line where there is not active fighting, and in the near-rear to active frontlines, fortifications seem wanting, if not entirely absent. It may be that Kyiv believed so much in its counteroffensive last summer, that it failed to entertain the idea of bad news this summer.

Kyiv’s larger problem is global attention. Trenchant statements from European ministers, and even visits from senior Biden administration officials, cannot cut through the fatigue or the notion that helping Ukraine win is something governments see they strategically must do, rather than something their publics actively demand. It is becoming a war the world wishes would go away – side-lined by the horrors of the Middle East – exactly when its outcome is most perilous and vital for European security.

Putin used the weekend to reshuffle some of his cabinet – moving Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to a more procedural role as National Security Council head, and perhaps further away from the wartime cookie jar. An accountant, Andrey Belousov, will take his place. But this is not necessarily a sign of retribution for failure, or a reset: the same old boys still get nice jobs. It smacks more of Moscow economizing, integrating the war more fully into the economy, and settling in for the longer haul.

Putin used the weekend to reshuffle some of his cabinet – moving Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to a more procedural role as National Security Council head, and perhaps further away from the wartime cookie jar. An accountant, Andrey Belousov, will take his place. But this is not necessarily a sign of retribution for failure, or a reset: the same old boys still get nice jobs. It smacks more of Moscow economizing, integrating the war more fully into the economy, and settling in for the longer haul.

The news is not just bad, it is worsening daily. The ground on the front lines is drying out, bringing us into the season to attack. Russia has momentum unlike anything seen since March 2022.

Russia's new offensive gained momentum Wednesday around Ukraine's second-largest city, the latest gut punch for Kyiv as it struggles to contain this new front in the war following delays in crucial military aid from the United States.

Even as Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country to reassure it of allied support and announced a new $2 billion arms deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy canceled all upcoming foreign trips — a signal of how seriously the country is taking the advancing Russian military.

Ukraine's army said it had withdrawn some of its forces from more areas around the crucial northeastern city of Kharkiv, while local officials said Russian troops had taken up positions inside the key front-line town of Vovchansk.

It’s part of a new, armored assault launched by Russia last week, which risks stretching Ukraine's army to breaking point. And Kyiv fears Moscow may also be massing troops for new border incursions elsewhere.

The delay in new U.S. support has offered the Kremlin a window for a summer offensive that was threatening to make crucial gains on the battlefield while its forces bombarded Kharkiv from the air.

Ukraine has sent reinforcements to defend the area along its northern border, from which thousands of residents have been evacuated since the assault began last Friday.

But late Tuesday, it said that some troops had to withdraw.

The Russian forces attacking Ukraine have swelled to more than 500,000, a significant numerical advantage over their neighbors, according to Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

It was unclear whether the new northeastern thrust was Russia’s main effort or an attempt to draw Ukraine’s beleaguered forces away from other flashpoint areas in the south and east.

“Russia’s aim is not to achieve a grand breakthrough, but rather to convince Ukraine that it can keep up an inexorable advance, kilometer by kilometer, along the front,” Watling said in an email.

In Vovchansk, 3 miles from the Russian border, the city’s police chief, Oleksii Kharkivskyy, posted a video in which heavy fighting could be heard nearby. “The situation is extremely difficult,” he said. “The enemy is taking positions on the streets.”

Later, Ukraine's military said its soldiers had "partially pushed" Russian troops from the town.

More than 7,500 people from nearby border areas of the Kharkiv region had been evacuated, local officials said.

It might not stop there.

Ukrainian officials are also expecting Russia to make a "hard push" further west in the Sumy region, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told The New York Times.

While fighting raged in the northeast, back in the capital, Kyiv, Blinken was attempting to reassure his hosts.

“We know this is a challenging time,” he said Tuesday after meeting with Zelenskyy.

While in town, Blinken, a keen guitarist, joined a Ukrainian band on stage to play Neil Young’s rock classic, “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Despite the American aid being approved, and Blinken's promises that the supplies had either arrived or were imminent, Zelenskyy said that more needs to be done, especially on air defense.

"The time gap between the announcement of packages and the actual appearance of weapons on the front line is too large," he said in an evening address.

In a sign of just how seriously Ukraine is taking the renewed Russian push, Zelenskyy canceled a planned trip to Spain and Portugal this week, where he was expected to sign a bilateral defense agreement.

The view from Moscow is that Blinken's surprise visit is another sign that Kyiv and Washington are rattled.