Hi AC,

I think that you are the one swallowing all the propaganda. As the histories of once aggressive nations like Germany shows, cooperation and industry give far better outcomes than belligerence and terrorism. I note that Russia's propaganda machine is now pushing the line that Russians are seeing a great increase in their prosperity thanks to Putin. Perhaps they could use some of their new found wealth to rebuild their decimated armour and air defences? At least then they might have the capacity to assault the Ukrainian forces without using suicide squads.

Russia is a terrorist nation AC. I think its army, although massive, is near the point of suffering a critical loss of equipment. Their targeting of civilians in Ukraine is winning them no friends.

Hmmm...
Russia is not necessarily the aggressor here, you're missing the elephants in the room.
This was always a proxy war by the west against Russia until it was forced to act against the Kiev regime co-opted by the West after the Maidan.

And then there's the other elephant in the room as well.
NO NATO membership for Ukraine,

NYET MEANS NYET
http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html

This was Russia's position back in 2008 when (current) CIA director Willaim Burns (Then US ambassador for Russia) stated so himself.

And the US under Biden isn't backing down no matter how many Ukrainians have to die for it.

NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET
NYET MEANS NYET

How many have to die till you get it?

America thinks that ONLY IT has national security interests.
- NYET MEANS NYET -

"Their targeting of civilians in Ukraine is winning them no friends."
- If that's what you want to foolishly and naively believe is the real story...

The problem with western citizens is that they believe only nations like Russia, China and Iran are they types of nations who engage in propaganda.

The problem is that western citizens are subjected to probably way more propaganda than those other countries, our nations are so full of gullible citizens, and the reason why they are so gullible is that they can't believe that propaganda is actually being directed at them.
- And so they are far more naive and believe everything they're told.
At least soviet citizens knew they were being lied to.
Ours don't or refuse to believe that they are.

The Ukrainian counter offensive will begin in the next few days - maybe a few weeks,
- Weather permitting.

It's all designed to create a shock that leads to Putins ousting I believe.
I guess we'll soon see how it all pans out.
Russia's trying to finish up asap in Bakhmut I think.

I don't doubt the West has put everything into planning this.

Hi AC,

Look at the authoritarian control of the narrative in Russia. Journalists are not allowed to be openly critical of the war and could be jailed for expressing an unfavourable opinion, as could Russian citizens. This fellow is serving a twenty-five year sentence for being openly critical of the war and Putin's regime:

https://www.9news.com.au/world/vladimir-karamurza-jailed-top-kremlin-critic-convicted-of-treason-given-25-years/72be460c-eced-4e63-a4dc-557bcfe27f81

You are right in saying that the truth might be different from what I think, but I would suggest that believing the Russian narrative as you do is less likely to give a true picture. According to your sources the Ukrainian defences are about to collapse and all of their western weapons are about to be destroyed. My view is that the Ukrainian army could release a large chunk of territory from Russian occupation within a few months and may even give Putin a nice present for his victory parade.

Let's see how things turn out.

"Journalists are not allowed to be openly critical of the war and could be jailed for expressing an unfavourable opinion, as could Russian citizens."

When are you going to see that the reason why this is is not because these nations WANT to act like power mad dictatorships, it's because it's all they can do to prevent the west deliberately causing civil unrest in an effort to conduct regime change and overthrows.

So until the West starts to act differently, in many of it's foreign policies, then this is how it has to be.
Sometimes they lock up the right people those who wish for civil unrest and turmoil, and sometimes innocent people and / or kids with nothing to do with anything end up arrested.
- But if you go soft, those who wish to do harm can make inroads

When is the coin going to drop?
What choice do they have except to act this way to defend their sovereignty against hostile foreign nations?
- Who use 'democracy' as a weapon to install leaders favourable to their own foreign interests.
When will you actually get it, and understand how the world actually works?

When you say what you say, because that's how you think,
Do you not realise that I think something completely different?
- If you don't learn to see the bigger picture, you'll never understand things for what they are.

Some pretty accurate drone flying here.
These is he fate of western tanks and APC's without air cover.
http://twitter.com/squatsons/status/1652601941887954944

"My view is that the Ukrainian army could release a large chunk of territory from Russian occupation within a few months and may even give Putin a nice present for his victory parade."

Maybe, they didn't postpone the counteroffensive for fun.
I'm sure they have something well planned out up their sleeve they needed more preparation time for.
It'll happen within the next two weeks, and as you say all of us in the peanut gallery will just have sit back and watch and see how it all unfolds.