Posted on 03/12/2023 5:45:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
*snip*
Assimilation
There are other important ways in which Russia is putting its stamp on Mariupol.
For example, local residents are under pressure to obtain Russian passports.
Ivan, the Mariupol city councillor I spoke to (not his real name), said locals often formed "huge queues" trying to get Russian passports.
They were required if you want to find formal employment, especially with government agencies or in the public sector, he explained.
Also, they made it possible to travel to Russia without additional stringent checks known as "filtration", he added.
"So they have deliberately created a situation where you get problems if you have Ukrainian papers, you have to deal with red tape, you have to wait. On the other hand, if you get a Russian passport, that's where your problems end: 'You're one of us now'. Things get simpler if you receive a Russian passport," Ivan said.
Mariupol is also becoming part of Russia's financial system. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnya, has been phased out, and now the Russian rouble is the only currency accepted in shops.
Russia is channelling huge amounts of money into pension payments for residents of Mariupol, raising them in many cases compared with what they received from the Ukrainian authorities before the war. So residents of Mariupol are able to draw two pensions - one from Russia, another from Ukraine. Naturally, it is a situation many local pensioners are happy with.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I'm an amateur historian so don't take me at my word. But if I'm Zelensky, I would throw everything I have in my armies for an offensive to seize Crimea. I agree that retaking the Donbas is out of the picture but that's not really necessary. If Putin loses Crimea, there's no way he will be able to spin his way out of that one. Unless he decides to nuke the Ukies to save his @$$.
Has any historical offensive effort ever retaken Crimea?
(I’m thinking no…)
Even if by some miracle Zelenski was able to dislodge Putin from Crimea, there's nothing preventing him from returning. Maybe not next year or the following, but Putin isn't going to give up on Crimea, or the Donbas land bridge connecting it. He'll regroup, replenish, and return again.
The only way to prevent this would be a NATO "peacekeeping" force in the region, and such a force would be viewed by the local populace as a hostile foreign occupation and treated as such.
So the Russians are the only ones who e successfully done it?
Of course weapons change and alter strategy and results at times
Guess time will tell…
You cannot overstate the political and security power the far right nationalists have over Kiev and they do not suffer fools gladly
Or Russian ethnics
95% of Mariupol is happy with their new masters
The diaspora western Ukraine is an issue
Women and children mostly gone
Depopulated by half
Not sure what that means for the future of the Rump nation
Lancaster lives high risk buddy
Nope. It’s Ukraine and your Russian barbarian invaders need to be sent back to Russia or to Hell. Either one is fine by me.
Dead Russians
Frozen in the snow
Will rot in the Sun
They died in vain
Their lives forgotten
All for the vanity
Of a prideful man
Point to a time when anyone has ever “seized” Crimea from the Russians? Well, it took the original nazi Army of around 200k men, complete with hundreds of warplanes and the largest land artillery in human history an entire 10 months to just take Sevastopol.
And then there is the Crimean War. Light Brigade and all that. An attacking force of 675,000 staggered to a sort of “win” after two and a half years.....Basically a bloody disaster fought to a standstill after 2 and a half years.
And that was before the defenders had tactical nukes. Ukraine doesn’t have the ability that I can see.
Could you put the bong down long enough to explain that?
CC
“Lancaster lives high risk buddy”
Bawls of STEEL.
the monkey ( Ukraine)
for a snack ( usa aid )
reaches into a coconut
clenches the food
the fist is stuck
the coconut is tied to a tree
in a panic it won’t let go
caught
goes into the cooking pot
dinner
France / napolean
germany / hitler
Ukraine under the liberals
would be another San Francisco/ portland
Russia has unlimited manpower / resources
Not really. They have a low birth rate ever since the Soviet Union collapsed. So that affects their military because they no longer have unlimited cannon fodder like they did in the past.
talk about dead
Russia is a rich man
the usa is a broken down joke
transvestite
your choice ukraine
Russia does not have unlimited manpower or resources. They haven’t sent a single T-14 or Su-57 into combat. But they are sending T-62 tanks into combat just as the Ukrainians are deploying Leopards.
They’re short a missile cruiser and their sole aircraft carrier is a rusting hulk alongside in Murmansk.
Russia is losing this war and you know it. What should have been a seven day cakewalk has turned into a multi-year meatgrinder.
And it’s not over. China is sooner or later going to strike and take back what the thieving Russians stole from them.
hissy fit
hah hah
Nope. I’m laughing at the 16,774 confirmed Russians who got denazified between February 4 and March 10.
Winning.
+1
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