Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin – the Russian mercenary leader whose plane crashed weeks after he led a mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership – shows what happens when people make deals with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive moves into a fourth month, with only modest gains to show so far, Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria he rejected suggestions it was time to negotiate peace with the Kremlin.

“When you want to have a compromise or a dialogue with somebody, you cannot do it with a liar,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.

  • Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Withdrawing troops, returning stolen land, children, prisoners and paying for damages… thats all i would accept. Nothing less.

  • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
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    Russia is a terrorist country. Terrorists can’t be negotiated with. #SlavaUkraini

    • sndmn@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Russia can’t be accepted back into the international community until Putin is in a jail cell or in the ground.

      • IndefiniteBen@feddit.nl
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        While I’d like to believe this, if Putin comes to some peaceful agreement with Ukraine, the international community will just wait until people are distracted by the next big news story and then let Putin back in.

        I’d rather be cynical and happily surprised than optimistic and disappointed.

        • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Actually likely not, he’s been building international relations similarly to the Russian criminal code of behavior, and while it’s sad that even Americans and Europeans would consider this kinda acceptable, now he’s shown himself to be weak and humiliated. In other words, of the lower caste, and simply said, a pidor.

          So no, he won’t be let back in. But some other (in appearances mostly, not in essence) government in Russia may.

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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              I tried to look it up, I am only finding that it is a slur used to call people gay when they may or not be. U.S. equivalent seems to be like saying “Suck a dick, fag!” With pidor being the word at the end that would be shunned for being said.

              I halted on submitting this over and over because I feel like I am going to get downvoted for using that term even to define a word/usecase. (Then I remembered the points don’t matter and intent changes context)

      • zephyreks@programming.dev
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        I mean, by that logic we might as well dump everyone who’s started a major land war recently into the ground.

        Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan… ah fuck, eh?

          • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            And? Should we not point hypocricy and double standards because it hurts your feelings?

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              This isn’t hypocrisy or a double standard. Your argument is unironically “because America did bad things we must let bad things happen everywhere.”

              No one here is saying America smells like roses. Does that mean we can’t try to do good? Must we stand idle and let Ukrainians die when we could help them?

              • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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                /u/sndmn@lemmy.ca

                Russia can’t be accepted back into the international community

                Veraticus

                our argument is unironically “because America did bad things we must let bad things happen everywhere.”

                NO, idiot (sorry, sometime, let’s call a cat, a cat). Your “community” would have no sense and credibility as they still have one of the biggest warmonger at their table. This is not a stupid “whataboutism” argument that you are all blindly paroting! So sndmn@lemmy.ca’s comment is stupid.

                We, european, should not supply UA and follow USA’s plan in their proxy war. We should instead really work on a diplomatic level. BUT by playing the stupid rats we are, Putin has not reason to listen.

                No tankie, no Putin-sucker, i’m just plain rational and honest dude.

              • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
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                Who here said “we must let bad things happen”?

                The commenter you replied to just mentioned that if we are outraged at Russia, we should be even more outraged at the US, and since a much longer time. But Ukraine and Russia are the only issues most hypocrites with double standards speak about. Say any criticism of the west and they lash out like is happening right here.

                • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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                  Because criticism of the west is totally irrelevant to the question. It’s not even whataboutism; it’s absurdity. Even if the west is literally Satan incarnate, why does that mean we have to let Putin wage whatever war of aggression he desires?

                  The people who advance this argument are so anti-US they’ve become dictator simps. I think it’s good to shove the absurdity of their positions back in their faces.

              • kd637_mi@lemmy.sdf.org
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                No, it’s pointing out a precedent set by the USA and allies that wholesale slaughter of innocents is acceptable to the international community. Russia’s invasion, whether legitimate or not, is no more spurious in its reasons than so many of the USA’s ones over the last how ever many decades.

                That doesn’t make this one right, it just points out that the “rules based order” is a falsehood. Otherwise every US president in recent to not so recent history would also have an arrest warrant out for them, and the US would be sanctioned into the ground.

                I generally have a hard time believing the US intends to do good outside of padding the pockets of corporate lobbyists and politicians. I’m not a fan of the whole “until the last Ukrainian” war that’s happening either.

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                  This seems totally unrelated to my point.

                  Even if this is true, we can still try to do the right thing. And we should try.

                • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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                  But the United States did not carpet bomb half of the Middle East like Russia is doing to Ukraine. The United States did not level Baghdad, or Kabul. Last time I checked both of those cities were still standing.

                  Do you want to talk about what aboutism? Go look at The destruction of Aleppo. That was done by the Assad regime with the backing of Russia. The United States never inflicted that level of destruction anywhere close to the scale of that war which has killed over 600,000 people.

                  https://youtu.be/n9cDP-UdP3E?si=_qWJYgdxvZR61X4X

            • BigNote@lemm.ee
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              No, you shouldn’t do it because it’s stupid. If you had real arguments you would use them, but you don’t, so instead you trot out this garbage. It’s a sign of intellectual weakness and dishonesty.

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                If it really was such a bad and stupid argument, why can’t you address it? Spending paragraphs telling me an argument is bad without actually addressing it screens entitlement and incompetence to me.

                • BigNote@lemm.ee
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                  Where did I “[spend] paragraphs telling [you] an argument is bad”?

                  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

                  Maybe you’ve mistaken me for someone else.

                  I used a few short and simple sentences to explain why your position is crap. That’s it.

        • Matombo@feddit.de
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          Sorry to see you downvoted, but in ukraine topics you can’t have any other opinion then West=Good or you are a Putin apologist. We are back at cold war red scare disscusion levels, no nuace is allowed.

        • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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          Most of those actual deaths were Muslims killing Muslims. Deaths caused by United States soldiers are comparatively low.

          For example, the Iraqi body count website tracks 210,000 civilians killed between 2003 and 2020.

          According to your article, it cites US-led wars in countries such as Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Syria. However, the United States did not launch a war in any of those countries and certainly did not fight a war in Pakistan which is a US ally.

          The Washington Post article as well as research from Brown University has Lucy affiliated anyone who has died outside of the expected peacetime death rate in any country in Africa in the Middle East to be attributable to the United States which is, frankly completely unfair. ISIL aka the Islamic State for instance killed tens of thousands of people, yet those deaths are attributed to the United States. Which is completely crazy!

          While I was completely against the 2003 Iraq war, and even March and protest against it, the truth of the matter is that Saddam was a complete bastard, the bath is party were fascist, and destroying them created enormous power vacuum which resulted in chaos death and destruction. However, this was probably an inevitability Saddam wasn’t going to last forever and had no system of governance to transfer leadership to someone else. The Middle East has been well known for centuries as a chaotic and violent region of the world and Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been at war with each other since time immemorial.

          • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
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            Maybe take a good look at that last paragraph you wrote and think about why you blame the conflicts in the middle east on a reductive basis of “they are savages” rather than looking at the actual historical context of what has caused instability in the region.

            Seriously, this entire comment is just a racist write-off of the middle east that is completely devoid of any true consideration of history. Ignorance personified.

    • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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      I would understand if at least 20% of the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel would be comprised of western volunteers talking about terrorists and no negotiations.

      But that is not a thing. So looks a bit ballsy, cause one would think that in a rather apocalyptic war on Ukraine’s soil, after they’ve reclaimed large swathes of territory, they’d be interested in some reduction of monthly casualties and rebuilding various capacities on that territory. Which a ceasefire would provide.

      I mean, even if you are right, you are eagerly advocating for spending mobilized Ukrainian lives on a costly offensive.

      • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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        what a ceasefire would provide

        Like the 2014 ceasefire? All it does is give Russia the opportunity to retrench and dig in. When the Ukrainians ask for a ceasefire, then I’ll support one.

        • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Like every ceasefire.

          I suppose right now Ukraine just wants some better guarantees while it has a strong negotiating position.

          So that it takes some effort from Putin to even be heard.

          Or maybe what Zelensky says is what he means, you can’t negotiate with a pathological liar (just like a few of Ukraine’s allies, though) who doesn’t know how to lose with dignity. Be it a person or a whole elite of some country, like Russia. I mean, emotionally I’ve met some and I’d agree. Just don’t know what it is rationally.

      • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
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        I’m only repeating what Ukrainians say. They know any concession with ruzzian terrorists now will only lead to ruzzian terrorists regrouping and reloading to perfom more genocide in a few months/years all over again. The fascist moscow regime needs to be stopped NOW.

        • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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          The word “genocide” means something else (which, in case of Turkey and China and even Yazidis in Syria, most of the world has problems recognizing).

          Yes, but Ukrainians need to regroup too.

          • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
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            Murdering, kidnapping and brainwashing Ukrainian children is genocide. Attempting to exterminate the Ukrainian people is genocide.

            • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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              Murdering, kidnapping and brainwashing Ukrainian children is genocide.

              Then we’ll have to introduce degrees of genocide.

              Attempting to exterminate the Ukrainian people is genocide.

              Which is not happening.

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                  You don’t fucking know which things the words you use mean. And since you still dare voice your opinions on real world - blocking me is an important first step at stopping that.

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        I would understand if at least 20% of the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel would be comprised of western volunteers talking about terrorists and no negotiations.

        Now do Russia. There must be more western volunteers on that side, I take it?

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      Foundations of geopolitics? Fuck that, more war. More Ukrainians will die, and that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

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        More Ukrainians will die, and that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

        I genuinely can’t tell if you are saying this ironically considering you are all over this thread defending Russia’s invasion.

        • Pili@lemmygrad.ml
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          He’s making fun of all the libs/fascists who want to kill all the Ukrainians in the hope of owning Putin, while sitting comfortably on their gamer chairs in their mom’s basement.

    • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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      Slava Ukraini was literally the battle cry of the OUN, which collaborated in the holocaust. Find a different motto.

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        “ahhhhhh splat” is the current warcry of the woefully unprepared orcs getting slaughtered in a war that could end today. maybe you guys could at least come up with something original before winding up as compost?

        as expected tankies and brain-dead conservatives take issue with the fact I’m mocking the vatniks out there being converted into soil. guess what? I give as much a shit about you guys as the decomposing corpses of the mobiks, and find your opinions on the topic to be as usual, laughably silly and predictable. no, I’m not gonna have any need to humanise a bunch of trash that are invading another country. do I feel genuine sympathy for the conscripts who have no choice and no possibility to surrender? sure. that’s their lot unfortunatly, but you won’t find me crying over dead Russians in Ukraine

    • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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      “Slava Ukraini” is fascists slogan used by, and mainly associated with, the mass murderers of hundreds of thousands of Poles and Jews. I guess that doesn’t count as terrorism in your worldview.

      • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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        Ah yes, “Glory to Ukraine,” seems like a super specific slogan that can only be associated with one movement. In no way is it a generically nationalist slogan.

        • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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          I already responded to this in a reply to another user:

          So it’s perfectly normal to revive a slogan that was last used by fascists? I’m sure the fact that Ukraine also made Bandera a national hero and put up statues of him and named streets in his honor right around the same time that slogan made its comeback is just a coincidence? Totally innocent slogan my ass.

          You might be blind in your right eye if you think this isn’t some fascist shit. This is like “the swastika is an old Hindu symbol” type defense, only worse because you’re ignoring the Hitler portrait right next to it.

          • jarfil@lemmy.world
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            I’m blind in my left eye, thank you very much… but since we’re copying other comments:

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists

            It’s mainly associated with “Ukrainian Nationalists” since WWI, adoped by the fascist organization which took part in the Holocaust and massacre of Poles, whose members have been granted veteran benefits in 2019, and its emblem is being used by present Ukrainians.

            I’m not defending it, and as a Pole I’m definitely suspicious of Ukraine’s true intentions behind the slogan and the emblem… but I’m also pro-EU, and right now it’s better to support Ukraine, than to let Russia think about which EU member state to invade next.

            Afterwards, if Ukraine wants to get its shit in order to a level where it could join the EU and NATO… then go ahead. Germany did it, Italy and Spain did it, and we’re all better for that.

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              Germany and Italy literally did not get rid fascism willingly, they were defeated and this was imposed on them. And being from Germany, I assure you denazification was incredibly half-assed.

              Look at it for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SlCLSBr9sW0

              They’re doing the salute and everything. That salute was introduced by the fascist OUN.

              • jarfil@lemmy.world
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                FML… that is indeed the fascist salute.

                I know de-nazification was half-assed; I lived in Italy, now I live in Spain, and man, 45 years after the fascist regime was “gone”, there are still those opposing the removal of some fascist symbols. They used to argue that “it’s too soon”, now they’re arguing “it’s too late, let them be”, while there are still people killed by the dictature laying unidentified in some ditch or another.

                Guess we’ll have to live and see where it all goes.

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          I really think “Slava Ukraini” is a fascist slogan, because it is. Since you’re mad at me for pointing it out, I suspect it might be you who would get banned if you said what you really think.

          In April 1941 in German-occupied Kraków, the younger part of the OUN seceded and formed its own organisation, called the OUN-B after its leader Stepan Bandera. The group adopted a fascist-style salute along with calling “Glory to Ukraine!” and responding with “Glory to the Heroes!”. During the failed attempt to build a Ukrainian state on lands occupied by Germany after its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, triumphal arches with “Glory to Ukraine!”, along with other slogans, were erected in numerous Ukrainian cities.

            • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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              So it’s perfectly normal to revive a slogan that was last used by fascists? I’m sure the fact that Ukraine also made Bandera a national hero and put up statues of him and named streets in his honor right around the same time that slogan made its comeback is just a coincidence? Totally innocent slogan my ass.

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                  Have a good day.

                  Look, you can’t just present an argument and then tell me not to reply.

                  The history of Ukrainian support of him is fairly new and is far more complicated than “we like fascists”,

                  I’d like to hear your arguments why worshiping the leader of an organization that took part in the Holocaust is somehow “complicated”. It’s not like this isn’t some well-known fact. Seriously, this is obviously totally fucked. Why would you feel to need to defend this? It’s not, actually, fucking complicated.

                  hostility so far

                  And whose fault is that?

      • mashbooq@infosec.pub
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        No, it’s neither fascist, nor mainly associated with mass murderers to anyone except redfash

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          hows your special operation going champ?

          edit: you still waiting for your response to be sent to you? arent able to think of one yourself? pretty sad. what about the other tankies downvoting, got any thoughts of your own fellas?

  • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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    Lol right? I mean why would literally anyone trust Putin at this point?

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      I’m kind of confused why Prigozhin did what he did, even. He knew Putin was going to try to kill him afterwards, I had assumed he had his own play but I guess not.

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        His entire plan made very little sense. And he’s dead now so clearly whatever he thought he was doing definitely did not work out.

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        IIRC, I believe Putin found the family members of the people in his chain of command and threatened with their safety.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          It’s pretty weird if Prigozhin didn’t have those people all locked down already, too. He knew the gravity of starting an armed rebellion and he knew as well as anyone how Putin operates.

      • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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        Quite dishonest to equate “not wanting Ukraine invaded by Russia” with being pro NATO.

        • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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          Quite dishonest to equate “not wanting Ukraine invaded by Russia” with being pro NATO.

          Quite dishonest to equate “criticizing Zelensky and this US proxy war” with being tankie or russian terrorist.

          That’s crazy, the level of accusatory reversal.

          • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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            You might have mixed up something. Neither I or anybody on this direct thread said anything about terrorism or tankies. We didn’t even mention zelensky.

            Either you’re the crazy one or you have been called those this enough time as to lose track.

            BTW, it couldn’t be a pretty war if, you know, Russia didn’t start a war… small detail I know

            • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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              Neither I or anybody on this direct thread said anything about terrorism

              just ctrl+f “terrorist”

              • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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                As a clarification, since searching the page will give you the wrong idea, direct thread is referring to this direct chain of comments, not the whole post.

              • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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                You are the first one on this come thread. Other threads sure talk about that. But not this one. So yeah… double down in your mistakes, the Putin’s way.

                • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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                  take it. You just demonstrated your dishonesty here. There’s like at least, 10 occurences of this word in this thread.

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            Please go ahead and tell yourself what it says and why that makes it ok to kill Ukrainian civilians.

              • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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                No. Just no. Russia is invading. You can’t, in good faith, blame the invaded for the casualties. The same way you can’t tell a woman that she got beaten because she refused to have sex.

                I can understand it’s not a black and white issue, but this is the laziest propaganda imaginable. You want to stop the casualties right now? Russia retreats to their territory at this very moment. It’s that simple. Keep trying to invade the country won’t reduce the casualties. Now you will take your whataboutism card to say it’s your time to do some killing. Or say that US allying with Ukraine and Russia taking my force is basically the same.

                You think the invasion is rightful so the deaths are in there fault of the defenders? Happy that Russia reports low civilian death ratio? Fantastic, you have now used the same argument that all other atrocities used. I’ll also oppose the ones you oppose BTW not only the ones that fit my agenda.

          • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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            Who cares? Russia sucks. Remember when they were the bad guy in every movie and every American was anti-Russia? What the fuck happened to the GOP that they’re all sucking Russian dick now?

            Putin is a wannabe dictator fucking with Europe, America, and Canada with troll farms while invading non-aggressive neighbours and should be crushed.

            • Stalins_Spoon@lemmygrad.ml
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              Yes, let’s all go back to the McCarthyist days where everyone was secretly a ebil commie, why don’t you go the frontlines and see how ‘enthusiastic’ the Ukrainian conscripts are about the war, if you hate Russia so much

            • shroobinator@lemmygrad.ml
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              The United States made Russia into what it is today. Yeltsin’s campaign was heavily funded be the US under Clinton, and Putin was hand picked by Yeltsin as his successor.

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            Remind me again what did RAND Corp outline about US agenda against Russia in 2019 documents, or US ex-VP Dick Cheney tell us what NATO’s vision about Russia is (spoiler: balkanisation),

            Dunno, but not really necessary to know about it when the statement being challenged is “not wanting Ukraine invaded by Russia”.

            how Biden, after pumping $40B into Ukraine, is asking for $60B more from GOP to use Ukraine as a condom to try fuck with Russia till the “last Ukrainian”, causing deaths of both Ukrainians and Russians

            Don’t really care about US but isn’t your yearly military spending like 1Trillion? I looked it up and in 2016 the budget was $639.86B, while in 2023 seems to be $797.B, Accounting for inflation from 2016 to 2023 (Core inflation averaged 3.09% per year between 2016 and 2023 (vs all-CPI inflation of 3.52%), for an inflation total of 23.74%.) $639.86B then is $791,76B now, so accouting for inflation This year’s military budget is not higher than the one in 2016. I picked that year because as an outsider I don’t think the US was doing anything special by then, no covid no Ukraining war, nothing. So basically the US is not spending more than usual for the military, and although I think that’s too much in general, blaming the war maybe isn’t the best approach.

            It took me 5 mins to find these numbers and do the math.

  • tomatopathe@sh.itjust.works
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    So from having had a few exchanges with pro Russian accounts on Lemmy (which seems to be infested with a few very active ones) this is a summary of their arguments:

    • “Ukraine is Nazi”
    • “Well far right parties got a total of under 6% of the vote, and they elected a Jewish man president”
    • “yeah but Bandera and whatabout America”

    • “Ukraine killed ethnic Russians”
    • “A huge percentage of their population are ethnic Russians, including in government, and they are fine, and were until the Russian invasion. And now it’s Russia that has killed, maimed and raped more ethnic Russians, including civilians, than Ukraine every did or even could. Including their own people thorough incompetence and corruption”.
    • “Yeah but Bandera, and whatabout America”

    • “Ukraine is fighting because they are forced to by their colonial masters, the USA and NATO, and Ukrainians will keep dying so long as they keep being armed”
    • “Actually > 90% of the population wants to continue fighting for their country back, so what you’re basically saying is you think Ukrainians should be abandoned to Russian enslavement”
    • “Yeah but Bandera, and whatabout America”

    • “NATO and USA are colonialists and this is just more colonialism”
    • “Actually both Russia and China are actual, bone fide land empires, with ethnic minorities that are forced to live like colonized people - including doing the fighting for Russia while their families back home live in misery and squalor and Putin’s Mafia collect mansions, private jets and yachts”
    • “Yeah but Bandera, and whatabout America”
  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    Very true. Russia (well, putin) has shown over and over that he can’t be trusted, he will stab you in the back and he will murder you.

    Hell, the entire land grab from Ukraine was going against accords made where Russia promised to allow Ukraine to exist as a sovereign nation and Russia would get all their nukes. Russia got the nukes and theb went on to invade and steal Crimea and then to just drop all pretence and invade the entire Ukraine.

    Just give some shitty transparent excuses, mumble something about non existent Nazis, and just steal lands.

    So no, you can’t make deals with Putin

    However, Ukraine is in a tight spot. They still rely on the west (and mostly United States)for the Weapons and gear they use on the war. Russia has the Republican party in their pocket and if the Republican party (or worse trump) wins the election, they’ll at the least stop all Help and likely hand the Ukraine to Russia on a silver platter.

    This means they basically gotta gain as much as possible before the US elections, which is why they’re grinding on so much without the proper air support they’ll start having at the end of the year. It sucks, but it’s the situation they’re in.

    It’s impressive though to see how much they advance without air support. Slava Ukraine!

  • DDNB@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    His plane “crashed”? You mean after it was shot with AA missiles right?

  • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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    Ironically the CIA believes Putin killed Prigozhin to defuse tensions with NATO for exiling Wagner to Belarus.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        I’m skeptical the government would allow him to do that.

        He’s not actually a god-king. If a leader ever became a threat to the power structure, he’d be eliminated. Just ask JFK 🙃

        • LetterboxPancake@sh.itjust.works
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          I don’t think you can compare those situations. Putin has had everyone fall out the window that was a threat to his power. Or accidentally get himself stabbed with poison by a Russian agent. Or pour themselves poisoned tea definitely nobody else poisoned.

          • ME5SENGER_24@lemm.ee
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            In the west we say Putin, like he’s some sorta boogieman. In the US our politicians are essentially puppets with some corporation’s hand up their ass. Yes, Putin has been in power for years; that doesn’t mean he isn’t in power because he keeps the oligarch’s money flowing. The second the money flow comes into question, someone falls from a window.

            Now I’m not saying Putin isn’t the one ordering the hits - he could be and also potentially couldn’t be. What I am saying is that there are often multiple versions of the truth and/or layers to that truth.

            I think Zelenskyy is right, don’t make deals with the devil. But there’s a 100% certainty that this isn’t only “Putin’s War” and there are more players, potentially those with their hand deep in Putin’s ass, pulling his puppet-strings

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            You think Putin is the one personally pushing people out of windows?

            This is bigger than he is - he’s a figurehead of a power bloc within the government, he isn’t god.

              • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
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                Just ignore that obvious shill. The other day they were denying the importance of education to combat propaganda. It’s obvious where their loyalties lie.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                Did Putin conquer Russia all by himself?

                The idea that he’s some kind of lonely tyrant and accountable to no-one really implies that he actually is a god, like he somehow managed to take over the largest country on Earth and rule it with an iron fist and there wasn’t anyone else that helped him get there or helps him stay there (and could help him “retire” if he ever became a problem)

                • LetterboxPancake@sh.itjust.works
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                  I’ve never said he alone is responsible for everything. For example, he has loads of assholes trying to defend him online.

                  Good night.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          Putin is, for all intents and purposes, an absolute ruler. He’s a lot closer to being the “god-king” of Russia than you appear to think.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            Absolute rulers don’t actually exist. That’s fantasy stuff for kids books.

            Even under feudalism and in ancient empires the leader wasn’t actually like that, they could always go too far and be replaced (with lots of violence of course)

      • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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        yeah sure, he will surrender to a comedian who didn’t even go through compulsory military service. Hallo, this guy played piano with his dick on TV.

        what a shame, real people are dying and this zelensdick plays the victim in his castle.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          Or you know, Russia could just have not attacked in the first place.

          Putin is the laughingstock of the world.

        • mashbooq@infosec.pub
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          Which is why he put in a military expert as commander in chief, even though he’s legally entitled to that position. Almost like he knows how to delegate like a leader

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          aww are you scared of the big bad comedy man? perhaps you needn’t be if russia just skedaddled back whence they came from

        • heeplr@feddit.de
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          this guy played piano with his dick on TV

          Maybe it’s probably not necessary to kickass the “world’s #2 strongest army” but knowing how to use your dick certainly doesn’t hurt obviously.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            I, for one, think it’s pretty fucking hilarious and incredible that the “world’s second best army” is getting curbstomped by a country led by a guy who played piano with his dick on TV.

            • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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              You might need to check your sources about how the war is going… Russia hasn’t committed its full army to this war.

              • BigNote@lemm.ee
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                This doesn’t mean what you seem to think it means. It’s not the case that Russia is somehow holding back and has huge additional reserves and resources that it can throw at the conflict. The Russian military isn’t about to collapse or anything, but it’s not doing great either and has largely been exposed as far weaker than was previously supposed.

                • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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                  Yes I agree, particularly in the fact that the corruption and facade that was the Russian military reporting structure made it seem to Russian leadership that they were more powerful than they thought. This is the problem with having so many yes men surrounding an authoritarian leader.

                  However as we’re hitting the two year mark on the war soon, the Russian military has likely become more competent and less corrupt than before with the increased attention.

              • goat@sh.itjust.works
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                not that I don’t believe you, but do you have sources yourself? Lotta propaganda flying everywhere

              • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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                Russia can’t commit its full army to the war, for quite a few reasons. One of which is that it’s “full army” has been decisively proven to be WAY more of a paper tiger than anybody would have guessed.

                The scale and duration of this war are orders of magnitude are far larger than anyone in Russia was planning for in January of 2022. They discovered that their battalions were rife with ghost soldiers so the officers could scoop up their pay. They discovered their modern tank stockpiles were not only unmaintained, but also often scavenged for parts to either repair other vehicles or simply sell on the black market. They discovered that, incredibly, their Air Force was unable to fully suppress a force that (on paper) was a mere fraction of their size and supposed capability.

                This is scratching the surface. This shit goes way deeper, and it involves their whole military industrial complex, as well as pretty much all seriously profitable ventures in Russia. If money is made at any serious scale, someone’s going to put together a scheme to take a cut of it. That’s how the country works. And it’s biting them in the ass right now.

                • Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml
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                  Yup I agree. But much like the Ukrainians were able to mobilize, Russia is doing the same. The paper tiger isn’t all paper though, they really do have 5 times the population as Ukraine.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          So, you’re saying Putin can’t back down because he would look like a fool, but somehow people dying is fault of Zelenskyy for not being at the front, just like Putin?

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          Lmao cope harder, tankie. Russia went from the “second best army in the world” to the 3rd best army operating openly in the Ukraine AO. Russia has proven themselves to be a joke, militarily - they went from being considered a superpower to being a peer-power of Ukraine. That’s a fucking HUGE step down in geopolitical clout and military credibility.

          • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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            I don’t know what to think, are you sad there’s few dead toll on UA side. Russia especially proved they were not in clean-slate mode. Do you really think they wouldn’t use aviation if they wanted “more”, really?

            Between, UA is supplied by our governments (and certainly on the intel side too), so it is not just “UA” against RU, idiot!

    • jarfil@lemmy.world
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      A day earlier, Prigozhin published a video purportedly from Africa. Next day, he managed to get himself killed on a flight from Moscow. While being exiled.

      Not sure what the CIA believes, but it’s all sus AF.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    As Ukraine’s counteroffensive moves into a fourth month, with only modest gains to show so far, Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria he rejected suggestions it was time to negotiate peace with the Kremlin.

    The Wagner leader’s dramatic death, which followed a short-lived rebellion that threatened the authority of the Russian president, was a warning to be heeded, Zelensky suggested.

    While the United States and other key Ukrainian allies continue to supply weapons to Kyiv, and stress that conditions to pursue a “just and durable” peace are not yet in place, a handful of world leaders, such as Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, have put the onus on Ukraine to end the war.

    As evidence for his position, Zelensky cited other countries which have been attacked by Russian soldiers and continue to be partially occupied by them.

    Ukraine has made incremental gains in the south amid fierce fighting with Russian troops, accounts from the front lines suggest.

    Geolocated videos on Friday showed a wasteland of shell holes, abandoned trenches and wrecked military hardware in the area between Robotyne, Verbove and Novoprokopivka — a triangle of villages that hold the key for Ukrainians to getting closer to Tokmak, an important hub for Russian defenses.


    The original article contains 282 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 29%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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      I love you hexbear tankies. It makes all the stupid things I’ve done in my life look not as stupid in retrospect. You’re a nice ego boost!

  • flaneur@lemm.ee
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    Zelensky has forgotten to mention Mink and Mink2 agreement that he and EU have broken, thus lying to Russia, and even admitted it.

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    Every time I read comments about the war on Lemmy I lose a little hope for liberals as with every war the same shit happens and they are blood thirsty monsters living in fantasy land, and when this war comes to an end they will surely denounce ever supporting Ukraine just like they did with the brave freedom fighters of the Mujahadeen…

  • WuTang @lemmy.ninja
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    Using terrorist to talk about russian’s state army, well identified, sounds fishy to me.

    looking for a EU only fediverse instance. I’m fed up of us trolls.