Styxie

Orban is in my opinion very good at gaslighting both the EU and his domestic supporters. He talks shit about the EU at every possible opportunity, but then when he shows up for Council meetings in Brussels, he'll usually sign up for whatever he's asked that month. Then he goes back to Hungary and immediately tells voters that he gave the EU leadership hell and that he got a great deal for Hungary. This is mostly my opinion, but I think everyone in the EU expects this conduct from Orban, and they just go along with it for the sake of progress.

His voters on the other hand genuinely think that he's a national hero for standing up to the no good, despicable, very bad EU leftist bureaucrats who also just happen to subsidise their economy. I kind of admire his batshit approach to politics, but disagree with everything he says. Basically, he's all bark and no bite. Just ignore whatever mad shit he's spouting and assume he's saying it for the benefit of his deranged supporters and won't follow through on it.

He should probably stop trying to take Avdiivka then. At this rate, there's only going to be 15% of his army left by the end of the winter.

Happy birthday Romania! An amazing culture and beautiful country.

Did the Ukrainians switch on the explosive ammo cheat or something? Holy fuck.

It's going to take a lot of brave people and a lot of money to demine Ukraine. Luckily, Ukrainians are very brave and they have some extremely rich friends.

From the Russian point of view, Russian speaking Ukrainians are their fellow citizens. The Russians claim Ukraine is mistreating them and invade to protect "Russians" in DPR/LPR. It's total bullshit, but it fits Russian's desire to be seen as both victims and heroes in their own psychodrama about the war.

What a great deal. Ukrainian's democratic and human rites are being taken away by Russians in exchange for some bird food.

So all of those assurances from Western leaders about supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes were completely disingenuous.

I doubt that distinction makes any difference to the Ukrainians who are defending their country from genocidal murderers.

I love it when fascists murder each other!

People and the media keep disparaging Russian tactics in places like Avdiivka and Bakhmut. But it has worked for them in the past, and I'm starting to think Avdiivka might get surrounded. Avdiivka is described as being 'like a fortress' which is exactly what they said about Bakhmut a year ago, and that fell to the same strategy. They'll just keep throwing more and more men into the meat grinder for as long as it takes, chipping away at Ukraine's defences every day, and eventually after a few months potentially take the town.

It reminds me of how Napoleon used to brag about how he could reliably recruit 15,000 men a week, which gave him confidence that he could keep waging war because France could sustain the losses. I wonder if something similar is being played out in Putin's calculations. Just keep recruiting and throwing away lives, and eventually you'll eek out a victory. It's fucking horrifying. Everyone expects Russia to run out of men and equipment at some point, but they never do. They seem to have an infinite supply of BMPs, men, and Kalashnikovs.

Since cluster munitions were used, a wide area would have been peppered with shrapnel. I'd argue that anything that wasn't destroyed is badly damaged enough that they're no longer fit for operations without repairs and maintenance.