back in my map era, we’re ukrainemaxxing right now
Declarations of the imminent doom of Ukraine are a news megathread specialty, and this is not what I am doing here - mostly because I’m convinced that whenever we do so, the war extends another three months to spite us. Ukraine has been in an essentially apocalyptic crisis for over a year now after the failure of the 2023 counteroffensive, unable to make any substantial progress and resigned to merely being a persistent nuisance (and arms market!) as NATO fights to the last Ukrainian. In this context, predicting a terminal point is difficult, as things seem to always be going so badly that it’s hard to understand how and why they fight on. In every way, Ukraine is a truly shattered country, barely held together by the sheer combined force of Western hegemony. And that hegemony is weakening.
I therefore won’t be giving any predictions of a timeframe for a Ukrainian defeat, but the coming presidency of Trump is a big question mark for the conflict. Trump has talked about how he wishes for the war to end and for a deal to be made with Putin, but Trump also tends to change his mind on an issue at least three or four times before actually making a decision, simply adopting the position of who talked to him last. And, of course, his ability to end the war might be curtailed by a military-industrial complex (and various intelligence agencies) that want to keep the money flowing.
The alignment of the US election with the accelerating rate of Russian gains is pretty interesting, with talk of both escalation and de-escalation coinciding - the former from Biden, and the latter from Trump. Russia very recently performed perhaps the single largest aerial attack of Ukraine of the entire war, striking targets across the whole country with missiles and drones from various platforms. In response, the US is talking about allowing Ukraine to hit long-range targets in Russia (but the strategic value of this, at this point, seems pretty minimal).
Additionally, Russia has made genuine progress in terms of land acquisition. We aren’t talking about endless and meaningless battles over empty fields anymore. Some of the big Ukrainian strongholds that we’ve been spending the last couple years speculating over - Chasiv Yar, Kupiansk, Orikhiv - are now being approached and entered by Russian forces. The map is actually changing now, though it’s hard to tell as Ukraine is so goddamn big.
Attrition has finally paid off for Russia. An entire generation of Ukrainians has been fed into the meat grinder. Recovery will take, at minimum, decades - more realistically, the country might be permanently ruined, until that global communist revolution comes around at least. And they could have just made a fucking deal a month into the war.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
RFK Jr will cut prescription drugs and increase weed and psychedelics access
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/rfk-jr-prescription-drugs-cannabis-psychedelics
Guardian libs handwringing about the one good thing RFK might do
Would other countries respond if israel attempts to annex the west bank? It seems like their fascist tendencies are out of control at the moment
around a dozen inmates have set themselves on fire over the last year or so to try to get transferred out of virginia’s supermax Red Onion prison after facing horrific racism and violence. three men interviewed intentionally set their legs or feet on fire knowing that there aren’t any burn centers in that part of the state and they would have to be sent to Richmond for treatment
sorry if this has already been posted but Evo Morales said he has proof that the US via the DEA and USAID was behind his attempted assassination.
https://youtu.be/YfrNXlYbwlY?t=202 (the grayzone)jumping to the conclusion that the CIA is behind every attempted assassination and coup of every country that they don’t like makes you correct 100% of the time
A gift to the Korean people: Vladimir Putin gave the DPRK zoo more than 70 animals from the Moscow Zoo.
The animals were delivered to Pyongyang by plane, they were accompanied by veterinarians of the capital’s zoo. Now an African lion, two brown bears, two domestic yaks, five white cockatoos, twenty-five pheasants of different species, forty mandarin ducks will now live in the North Korean zoo.
Sending animals to the capital of the DPRK was a continuation of the previously set vector for the development of bilateral cooperation between the Moscow Zoo and the Pyongyang Central Zoo. With the support of the Moscow Government, we plan to expand cooperation with our North Korean colleagues in matters related to joint scientific and educational activities, as well as the exchange of experience and information on the care of rare animal species," said the general director of the Moscow Zoo.
The Pyongyang Central Zoo has been operating for 65 years. The transfer of animals became possible thanks to the Pyongyang Zoo’s membership in the Eurasian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Moscow already transferred birds to North Korea this spring.
Russia supplies the DPRK with zoo animals. This is a threat to world peace and cannot be tolerated.
Tf is happening in Romania?
Colonelcassad says Ukraine reporting RF have crossed the Oskol River and established a bridgehead on west bank area.
Latest Tankie therapy is really good. Discussion on dealing with psychic intrusions, dealing with emotional burn out, and understanding that our shame, and depression seeing the events in Gaza is normal and healthy.
According to the most recent CBS news poll, a majority of Americans do not support sending military aid to Ukraine (49/51)
The president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, said in a post on X that he had telephoned the president-elect of Uruguay, Yamandu Orsi, to congratulate him and put himself at his disposal for the transition of government. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva congratulated the Uruguayan people for today’s elections and the winner, Yamandu Orsi. Lula also sent his congratulations to Pepe Mujica, and said it was “a victory for all Latin America”.
I was checking Wikipedia’s page on Self-Coups. And there was this there:
Notable events described as attempted self-coups:
Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Ongoing events, since he assumed office on December 29, 2022)
Is this related to the reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court?
The Hill Op-Ed: World War III is now Trump’s to lose
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5000642-trump-world-war-iii/
Negotiations with Russia would be futile. History tells us that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words are meaningless. Anything short of a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and the restoration of their 1991 borders would be a victory for the Kremlin.
The defeat of Russian forces is the best outcome, and precision deep-strike weapons are a vital part of that outcome. Now is the time to invoke General Ulysses S. Grant — to close with and destroy the enemy, applying relentless pressure until they capitulate.
Bruh, these libs really want us all to die
by Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet,
Deeply unserious country.
PROJECTION OF RESULTS URUGUAY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Yamandu Orsi/ Frente Amplio/Broad Front (Leftist, Socdem, Democratic Socialist) - 50.1%
Álvaro Delgado/ National Party/Republican Coalition (Conservative, Neoliberal) - 45.7%
Blank/Null 4.3%
Source: Citizen Perception Plant, with polling station projection data
20:30. Projections show Yamandú Orsi as winner. The Frente Amplio headquarters reacted euphorically when the clock struck 20.30 and the projections marked an irreversible victory with 49.5% for Yamandú Orsi, against 45.9% for the coalition candidate Álvaro Delgado. - La Nacion
Good to see the leftist back in power in Uruguay. This will futher isolate Argentina, and Uruguay will have much better relations with Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. The leftists were really smart, the two most popular candidates decided to run in a unified ticket.
More ballistic missile attacks by Ukraine against Russia in Kursk were reported on within the last hour, with an alleged simultaneous UAV attack against Russian oil assets in Kaluga Oblast (information is more sketchy on that at this time). There is audible air defence activity being heard in Kursk. Pro Ukrainian sources are claiming that these attacks in Kursk made use of US made and targeted ATACMS missiles, as expected.
