this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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The Russian commander of the “Vostok” Battalion fighting in southern Ukraine said on Thursday that Ukraine will not be defeated and suggested that Russia freeze the war along current frontlines.

Alexander Khodakovsky made the candid concession yesterday on his Telegram channel after Russian forces, including his own troops, were devastatingly defeated by Ukrainian marines earlier this week at Urozhaine in the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk regional border area.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Khodakovsky, a former official of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, said yesterday.

“When I talk to myself about our destiny in this war, I mean that we will not crawl forward, like the [Ukrainians], turning everything into [destroyed] Bakhmuts in our path. And, I do not foresee the easy occupation of cities,” he said.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It is a proxy war against America. You don't win those. You just set yourself up a good position and dig in. America gets bored and leaves and then you can pick over what is left of what was destroyed. So you don't win, you just wait for America to forfeit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine liking a queerphobic dictatorship.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What are you talking about? I said I don't like America. How did you get it backwards?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

America is a plutocracy which accepts queerness in its federal law. Your gotcha went too broad.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

which accepts queerness in its federal law.

Bwahahaha

Oh wait you're serious

Bwahahahahahahahahaha

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mate. Respect for Marriage Act 2022 is a federal law protecting same sex marriages. It's there. It's fact. Bwaha etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yikes-1 yikes-2 yikes-3

Someone else is going to have to explain the ignorance present in this statement for I do not have the time or energy, could one of our cishet hexbears be a good ally?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You are incapable. That is because the comment is factually correct. US Federal law has protections for queerness. The cited law proves it. What point are you trying to make exactly?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The long and short of it is that legalizing gay marriage isn't even a strong step to lgbt liberation, it is literally just tepid assimilationism. We are only "accepted by federal law" in most narrow and on their terms sense. Call me when the US government federally covers trans Healthcare, makes conversion torture a federal crime, deals with the queer(especially child) homelessness problem, and purges the people calling us all pedophiles.

Also, learn some fucking humility.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

But that's not what was under discussion. Does there exist a federal law which protects queerness?
Yes, yes there does.

Is it perfect? By no means, there's a long way to go. But the characterization of the US as queerphobic in the context of comparison to Russia is a nonsense. Both-sidesing this issue is a disgusting affront to the LGBTQ people suffering under Putin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You're original wording was:

which accepts queerness in its federal law.

You do not know what queerness is if you think that is met by gay marriage being legalized federally.

Is it perfect? By no means, there's a long way to go. But the characterization of the US as queerphobic in the context of comparison to Russia is a nonsense. Both-sidesing this issue is a disgusting affront to the LGBTQ people suffering under Putin.

This is whataboutism. Also US capitalists fund the passage of anti-lgbt laws and hate campaigns globally that create basically pogroms against gay and trans people. So it is ridiculous because the US is much worse to gay and trans people globally.

They also helped illegally and undemocratically dissolve the USSR and created the situation for Putin to exist in in the first place. Who knows, if they didn't interfere maybe the USSR would currently be as progressive as Cuba is on the issue of queer liberation. And Ukrainian and NATO capitalists and Russian capitalists wouldn't be sending conscripts to their deaths.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Legalising same sex marriage is an acceptance of queerness. At no point did I say that the issue was "met" (i.e. settled). In fact, I clearly said "it's not perfect".

Its not whataboutism though. It's a response to the original (flippant) claim that the US is a queerphobic dictatorship.

I have not seen any pogroms against gay or trans people that have been funded or supported by the US government. Maybe going back a ways?

I fucking hate the US government. Just need to mention that. They're a joke and I want to see huge reforms, though I don't hold out much hope.
I hate the Russian government more, and with good reason, especially on the issue of queerphobia. Are you genuinely of the belief that the Russian government is less queerphobic than the US govt? If so, please explain that to me in big letters so that I can understand properly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Legalising same sex marriage is an acceptance of queerness

Its not going to get less ridiculous if you keep saying it.

Are you even lgbt? Maybe you should ask some trans leftists what they think of this. Maybe read some Leslie Feinberg.

It's a response to the original (flippant) claim that the US is a queerphobic dictatorship.

It is lmao. It is literally a dictatorship of capital with the most queer people imprisoned per population.

I have not seen any pogroms against gay or trans people that have been funded or supported by the US government. Maybe going back a ways?

Look at every single liberation movements that they mass murdered and you will find countless queer folks. Queer folks have always lead the charge against US imperialism in such movements.

But also, I'm talking about US capitalists lobbying governments and running private campaigns. And the capitalists and the government are in the same bed together.

I fucking hate the US government. Just need to mention that. They're a joke and I want to see huge reforms, though I don't hold out much hope. I hate the Russian government more, and with good reason, especially on the issue of queerphobia. Are you genuinely of the belief that the Russian government is less queerphobic than the US govt? If so, please explain that to me in big letters so that I can understand properly.

Yes, they are more queerphobic, because they kill more queer people globally, and seek to destroy liberation movements globally. Russia might have worse laws but the US has more queer blood on its hands, and is ultimately responsible for a right wing Russian government existing in the first place.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Imagine having the reading comprehension of a sixth grader.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Putin can hang from a barbed wire noose and also this is a US proxy war

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wait a minute.. Who invaded Ukraine in 2014, and again in 2021? Who illegally annexed sovereign territory? America is not blameless, but in this war they are just the arms dealer

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who invaded Ukraine in 2014

After whose coup d'etat?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ahhh let's talk about those! The one in Russia last month was pretty cool. Sending Wagner to Belarus to mess with Poland, only for Poland to send 10,000 troops and see Wagner get shipped out of Belarus was pretty funny. Russia keeps trying the same playbook, and now it's being met with equal force, so they're pissed. Same reason the EU border states just expelled thousands of Russian citizens.

They keep trying to stage coups using Russian citizens. The coup in Ukraine in 2014 was preceded by a border buildup of "special operation forces." It also noteworthy how Russia has changed the lingo and now calls it "War in Ukraine."

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The USA has been training Ukraine military and irregulars for years. They organized a volunteer force to go fight there. They sent their politicians to support the right-wing coup. What the fuck are you talking about they are just arms dealers? They are providing recon and military intelligence, they are mobilizing their satellites and aerial assets, they are doing political work to get other nations to provide support and they are putting constraints on peace deals. They are not a fucking arms dealer.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Russia does not have the resources for that. A reminder this isn't a proxy war for them, even though it is for the West. Russia is there in person conventionally and is somehow losing to a minor Western ally.

The Ukrainians aren't going to run out of stuff within the next year for sure, and maybe not ever because even if the US gets bored Europe is highly invested. Russia has negligible productive capacity of it's own, and is bound to have serious problems eventually, unless they convince China to help and China has so far been uninterested. They could theoretically win by population attrition, I guess, but nobody's really talking about that yet. And, to do anything, they need political stability, after already having one mostly-failed coup.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

is somehow losing to the minor Western allies

How are you defining "losing" here? They're occupying the separatist parts of Ukraine and can do so indefinitely.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Their original objective was to topple the government in Kiev, and they've gotten fairly continuously further from that. Saying they're winning has "Mission Accomplished!" energy at this point.

They're occupying Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea if that's what you mean, although it's in question if they can do that or anything else including exist indefinitely.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, there war goals were to protect Donbass, kill a shitload of Nazis, and de-militarize Ukraine. Plans change but it still looks like they're doing what they set out to do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ukraine is looking plenty militerised, and more pro-Western than ever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are a finite number of 18-35 year old men.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"Kill nearly every young man in Ukraine" is their main path to victory, but Russia has only about 4x the population of Ukraine, so they'll have to mind their casualty ratios pretty well. And avoid any more coups.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Presumably the young men of Ukraine will realize that throwing themselves on to the enemy guns is a losing proposition at some point before that but who knows?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their original objective was to topple the government in Kiev

Citation needed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Here's a map of the invasion a few weeks in. Kiev (Киев if you can't read Cyrillic) is the capital of the nation. What does it look like they tried to achieve right off the bat?

Edit: Oooh, Wikipedia has an animation if it's still not clear.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their original objective was to topple the government in Kiev

According to who? If you read the article from U.S. military analysts posted elsewhere in this thread, not even they think that was the point of the early war thrust towards Kiev.

Interesting you mention "Mission Accomplished" -- would you say the U.S. and its media did a good job of accurately informing the public about the War on Terror? Would you say they had good intentions?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What did they decide the Kiev thing was about? Was it a botched attempt at a decapitation strike to prevent basically everything else that happened?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's very much worth a read. The broad strokes are:

  • There's a notable difference between the attack towards Kiev and the attack in the separatist regions (it also talks about attacks in southern Ukraine outside the separatist regions, but I think it says they're basically similar to the Kiev attack).
  • The attack in the separatist regions were to hold territory with an amenable population. So you have a lot of troops, tons of artillery, and they dug in elaborate fortifications that they will actually stay and defend.
  • The attack towards Kiev was an opportunistic raid to divert troops from the main thrust of the attack in thr separatist regions. The article talks about similar raids the Russian Empire did in the Napoleonic Wars, the Union calvalry did in the U.S. Civil War, pretty sure it mentions a Soviet one in WWII, etc. It involved much less artillery because it wasn't intended to hold ground and they wanted to avoid unnecessarily antagonizing civilians they didn't want to govern anyway.
  • On that last point, the article also talks about how Russian missile strikes have largely avoided the most damaging civilian targets. It gives an example of striking an electrical substation that converts electricity into a type usable by trains instead of striking electrical infrastructure that is more general purpose (and would shut down broader civilian electricity, too).

The Kiev attack's goal appears to have been "disrupt, divert, and if you see opportunities, take them." I bet if the Ukrainian government had shown signs of folding or if the defense of Kiev had been weaker they would have pushed for more, but that didn't happen, the separatist regions were taken successfully, and the Russian Kiev column had no more reason to be there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Okay, sure. That fits.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not just the US though. The European powers are far more firmly committed. It's not at all clear that the rest of NATO will simply walk away if/when the US does. Especially the former Soviet nations; this is not a fucking game to them. The loss of US support would be huge, but I don't see a universe in which the Europeans just roll over for Putin once the US loses interest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The European powers are far more firmly committed.

So firmly committed that america had to blow up one of germany's pipelines? Are you having a fucking laugh?

Everyone I speak to, you know, normal people, thinks this is a fucking stupid distraction from domestic politics and the consistently declining standard of living we are seeing. America has ended european prosperity with this shit and it won't recover for 50 years. You think people here haven't noticed that?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

America has ended european prosperity

USA invaded Ukraine? That's news to me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The US assisted in the 2014 fascist coup that led to the fascist transitionary government, the deployment of all the fascist militias to attacking the donbas, and the 8 year long civil war that led to Russia eventually invading.

Your mindset on this shit is that it began in 2022 which is false, the US has been stoking it since 8 years earlier. If you want we could go even further back though, Operation Aerodynamic was the US operation to fund, arm and support fascists in Ukraine in order to destabilise the soviet union. Absolutely none of this would be happening today without the US' historic support of fascists.