[JohnRawls]

Duce id presume that is correct, half a year with just positioning around and artilery exchanges is not a good situation for vulanteers, so yes, some should have gone away. As for who will attack, that is unknown, but i think its ukraine. If you go by numbers Ukraine has 70k-80k soldiers, around 800-1000 tanks concentrated along the perimeter, also was able to repair its aviation to a degree. Rebels have less than that, so its unlikely that the seps will go on the attack. But who knows, rebels have shown that they can defeat greater Ukranian numbers with their moral and 'sic' some help from Russia.

[Thunderhawk]

Should the conflict get hot again, wont Russian volunteers start pouring in again? Be it voluntary or not.
Besides, the rebels have had months to prepare. I suspect they have marked out and have good pre-calculated artillery solutions for their artillery units, so when the Ukrainians advance the rebels will respond accurately and do so for a while.

[Igor Antunov]

10 killed near Mariupol in the past 24 hours.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-18/f ... ng/6705190

[JohnRawls]

Apparently Ukranian army 'by accident' also bombed one of their cities called Sartana near Mariupol, locals outraged about that and although propaganda is high, volunateers are shocked when they come to the city and get mocked there. UA army instituted martial law in the city to mantain order.

[Routis]

Duce id presume that is correct, half a year with just positioning around and artilery exchanges is not a good situation for vulanteers, so yes, some should have gone away. As for who will attack, that is unknown, but i think its ukraine. If you go by numbers Ukraine has 70k-80k soldiers, around 800-1000 tanks concentrated along the perimeter, also was able to repair its aviation to a degree. Rebels have less than that, so its unlikely that the seps will go on the attack. But who knows, rebels have shown that they can defeat greater Ukranian numbers with their moral and 'sic' some help from Russia.

There's two things to look at there.

I) The rebels have, last winter, conducted two major offensives the first being on Donetsk airport which was successfully captured, and the second being at Debaltseve which was also successfully captured. Both were major defeats for the UA, the point here is that both were conducted with numerical inferiority and both achieved their objectives. This means that the rebels are capable of operating offensively, and have chosen to do so, despite being outnumbered.

II) In the last two major confrontations, at Shyrokyne and Mariinka the rebels chose to withdraw rather than continue fighting but both of these could be political and in Shyrokyne there wasn't any real reason to hold the town it was largely destroyed by artillery and had little value any way.

[Routis]

The rebels have massed 400 tanks and 2000 fully manned APC's on the front lines. I think they're about to mount an offensive. Skirmishes near Mariupol and Donetsk are heating up, those may be the focus points.

According to Ukrainian sources of course, the rebel don't disclose any figures on heavy weaponry meaning its safe to assume that the figures have been exaggerated for most likely political purposes.

[Igor Antunov]

Whatever they do with the figures, they always end up on their asses/retreating. So no big deal.

[Routis]

Whatever they do with the figures, they always end up on their asses/retreating. So no big deal.

With the exception of Shyrokyne and Mariinka of course.

[pikachu]

China vs Russia dick measuring contest results are ready for this year. Let's see which parade drew more high-level participants.

The Moscow parade drew the representatives of extra 7 internationally-recognized states, plus 3 states with partial recognition: Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Palestine. 10 total.
The Beijing parade drew the representatives of extra 16 internationally-recognized states.
If Zeman and Fico were included for Moscow (they were seen at the closing ceremony), it would be 12 in Moscow vs 15 in Beijing. Either way, China wins. Given that China is not under western sanctions but Russia is due to the Ukraine situation, this is not entirely unexpected.

Some details are interesting too.
-Pakistan participated only in Beijing while India participated only in Moscow. While Russia is hardly phased by Pakistan's absence, India's refusal to attend is unfortunate for Beijing.
-Unexpectedly, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan showed the same pattern - the Uzbek president went only to Beijing, while the Turkmenistan president went only to Moscow. In this case, it is Uzbek's absence in Moscow that upsets Russia, while China cares very little about Turkmenistan.
-Bosnia managed to attend both parades despite a change in leadership. The rotating presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina went from a Serb to a Croat in July of this year.
-President Sisi of Egypt went to both parades and brought contingents of Egyptian troops with him. I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to say with that.
-Palestinian leadership was more interested in being present in Moscow than in Beijing, reminding us that Moscow's clout in the Middle East is still far greater than Beijing's.
-The African countries were predictably more interested in Beijing than Moscow, however you'd think that China would be able to attract more foreign dignitaries from Africa than it did. Even Mugabe didn't bother to show up in Beijing, though he was present in Moscow.
-The Mexican army cadets unexpectedly decided to show up in Beijing, 75 people total. However, not much interest was shown by the big powers of South America, Argentina and Brazil, for either parade.

[jimjam]

Kerry: "How many Ukrainians does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

[Balancer]

I will continue here, so that there is no offtopic in the Syrian topic

Only Russians in Donbass weren't really oppressed like the Kurds and those opposed to the Ba'ath regime were in Syria.

Russians in the Donbas had very bright prospects for large infringements. So obvious that they risked declaring independence. Unfortunately, Russia was not ready for such a step. The readiness of Crimea to declare independence was obvious to many, and Russia prepared in advance. Therefore, the process of declaring independence was very quick and bloodless there. To the events in Donbass, the Kremlin was completely unprepared. However, it was not only in the Donbass. Attempts to overthrow the new illegal Kiev authorities were also in many other places in Ukraine - in Odessa, Kharkov region, in Mariupol.

[Rugoz]

Russians in the Donbas had very bright prospects for large infringements.

Oh please. By your standards Russia would have to be dissolved entirely.

The readiness of Crimea to declare independence was obvious to many, and Russia prepared in advance. Therefore, the process of declaring independence was very quick and bloodless there.

You mean annexation. Yes it was bloodless because Kiev refrained from attacking the Russian invasion forces, it would have lost anyway. I know of Russian provinces where independence would be bloodless if the Russian military wasn't present.

[Balancer]

Oh please. By your standards Russia would have to be dissolved entirely... I know of Russian provinces where independence would be bloodless if the Russian military wasn't present.

Well, call them. And it looks like if you yourself are not sure of it

Yes it was bloodless because Kiev refrained from attacking the Russian invasion forces

And Kiev could not do anything. Because Crimea went to Russia with its entire Ukrainian army Of the 20,315 servicemen of all kinds, including the SBU and the national guard, only 6010 returned to Ukraine. The rest are preferable to remain in Russia. Most of them are now serving in the Russian law enforcement agencies.

Such military transitions were not only in the Crimea and the Donbas. For example, in Marupol the local police went over to the side of the insurgents. But they were few and they were destroyed by the military, controlled by the radical Lyashko.

700ht_Mol.jpg (120.91 KiB) Viewed 1156 times

In Ukraine, many were dissatisfied with the coup d'état. But Kiev was concerned about the support of a large part of the military, and this saved the coup.

Update: sorry, again I did not pay attention to your nickname. Continue to argue with you I will not.

[Rugoz]

Well, call them. And it looks like if you yourself are not sure of it

I am not, it's obviously hard to tell, not least because in Russia public calls for separatism, including on social networks, is punishable with up to 5 years in prison.

An article on the topic:
https://imrussia.org/en/politics/2469-t ... separatism

And Kiev could not do anything. Because Crimea went to Russia with its entire Ukrainian army Of the 20,315 servicemen of all kinds, including the SBU and the national guard, only 6010 returned to Ukraine. The rest are preferable to remain in Russia.

The fact that Ukrainian forces stationed in Crimea weren't loyal or suicidal enough doesn't contradict what I said. Without the Russian military presence securing the secession it would not have happened.

Update: sorry, again I did not pay attention to your nickname. Continue to argue with you I will not.

Great, you'll end up like Tintin Storm, posting your little propaganda while avoiding meaningful debate.