What's going to happen in Ukraine? Some saner military analysts are predicting Russian forces will take Kyiv by the end of April. The other major cities would fall after the Russians held the heart of Ukraine. That would mean a strategic victory for Russia, though they'd only actually control the big cities, connecting corridors and the eastern pro-Russian areas.
I don't think the "Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union" argument is real. Strategically speaking, I believe Putin wants to accomplish 4 goals:
1) Solidify control of the Black Sea by creating a land based corridor in Eastern Ukraine to transport troops and supplies to Crimea, particularly to the naval base at Sevastopol. 2) Eliminate the land access corridor to Ukraine south of the Carpathian mountains by taking Odessa (solidifying goal 1) 3) Neutralize Ukraine as a potential NATO ally and eliminate any consideration of the same for Belarus, protecting the Western Russia border. 4) Minimize damage to cities in order to minimize any reconstruction costs that might fall on Russia to pay (I know this flies in the face of the media reports we are seeing but let's be realistic: if Russia's goal was to absolutely control major population areas, it would have already bombed the hell out of them and leveled them to the ground by this point).
"Looking at human history and the leaders running the show"I am certainly concerned about the instability in the world today. Irrespective of the various opinions I have read concerning Putin's motives for this basically unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, I believe Putin has become a rabid autocrat intent on bolstering his power. The operative word here is RABID. As much as I abhor the abuse of using a basically demented, senile old fool for politiocal purposes, we are in effect being governed by a witless clown and a vacuous, corrupt congress which any fool can see is being manipulated by an insidious cabal that is orchestrating the sideshow for our distraction while God knows what is being planned and worked out in secret. Further scanning the rest of the European leaders and Canada, I don't see any Winston Churchills out there. Trudeau is an effete, egotistical pseudo dictator. SO YES THIS IS A VERY GOOD TIME TO PRAY.
I don't think the "Putin wants to recreate the Soviet Union" argument is real. Strategically speaking, I believe Putin wants to accomplish 4 goals:
1) Solidify control of the Black Sea by creating a land based corridor in Eastern Ukraine to transport troops and supplies to Crimea, particularly to the naval base at Sevastopol. 2) Eliminate the land access corridor to Ukraine south of the Carpathian mountains by taking Odessa (solidifying goal 1) 3) Neutralize Ukraine as a potential NATO ally and eliminate any consideration of the same for Belarus, protecting the Western Russia border. 4) Minimize damage to cities in order to minimize any reconstruction costs that might fall on Russia to pay (I know this flies in the face of the media reports we are seeing but let's be realistic: if Russia's goal was to absolutely control major population areas, it would have already bombed the hell out of them and leveled them to the ground by this point).
"Looking at human history and the leaders running the show"I am certainly concerned about the instability in the world today. Irrespective of the various opinions I have read concerning Putin's motives for this basically unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, I believe Putin has become a rabid autocrat intent on bolstering his power. The operative word here is RABID. As much as I abhor the abuse of using a basically demented, senile old fool for politiocal purposes, we are in effect being governed by a witless clown and a vacuous, corrupt congress which any fool can see is being manipulated by an insidious cabal that is orchestrating the sideshow for our distraction while God knows what is being planned and worked out in secret. Further scanning the rest of the European leaders and Canada, I don't see any Winston Churchills out there. Trudeau is an effete, egotistical pseudo dictator. SO YES THIS IS A VERY GOOD TIME TO PRAY.