9 Comments

Russia waited until warm weather arrived so as to not cause undue suffering in the civilian population of Ukraine.

BUT- I think it is Russia's intent to turn the electricity off completely at some point in the coming weeks.

They want the population of the cities to leave.

This greatly simplifies their takeover of Ukraine.

Russia understands it must take complete control of Ukraine to completely end western meddling & terrorism against Russia.

With Ukraine gone the west loses its plausible deniability.

If they continue to harass, meddle and launch terror attacks from EU territory- there can be no ambiguity.

Russia will respond appropriately.

I would be willing to bet that in Russian factories new transformers and switch gear are being manufactured right now so that Russia can get the grid in Ukraine back up before next winter arrives.

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BIDEN has lost his war in Israel & in Ukraine

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/496926/Battlefield-failures-cost-Netanyahu-s-coalition-dear

Having lost its war in Gaza, Netanyahu will be their first casualty

Credible reports that IRAN has said they will not attack Israel, if they put Netanyahu in Prison

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> Both sets of media seemed to see ordinary people as targets – which they definitely weren't.

Indirectly they are targets, Julian. Making the cities unliveable is collateral damage.

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Good points. However the Russian strikes are not making the cities "unlivable" . They have sufficient power of nuclear power stations to provide for the public – they just don't have extra power available for military and industrial activities AND for the public! My bad! I guess I wasn't very clear about that!

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By which I mean to say: if you lived in Kharkov you would feel differently. I think that's important to appreciate.

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You're quite right. If I lived in Kharkov I would feel differently. But it would depend on whether I was Ukrainian or Russian. If I were Russian, I might see it has light at the end of the tunnel-- the end of the Nazi regime, ethnic brutalization. Conscription etc. if I were "Ukrainian" -- it would be something else.

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"Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine" said Joe Biden.

Well you have to admit that the expected effect of Sweden and Finland joining NATO to constrain Russian aggression has not panned out. (Sarcasm!)

"Boom! Boom! Out go the lights!" is hardly the song lyrics for a successful reelection campaign.

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> Russia, he said, had refrained from carrying out such attacks in winter "out of humanitarian considerations.

And they did refrain from finishing the energy system last year, too.

This lets me assume they are serious about to finish their SMO this year. More precisely, until this summer or early autumn. Which gives them enough time to take care the remaining population is not starving and freezing to death.

I think we are in for a very bumpy ride here in the West.

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In the winter energy usage rises proportionately. Right now Ukrainians have enough power from nuclear power plants to meet public needs. They would have much more if their attacks did not keep the ZNPP off-line.

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