Ukraine, full scale invasion ?

So what will be the final outcome? Full scale invasion or will Putin settle for the breakaway and think NATO will negotiate a truce?

He'll take whatever he wants. Europe is too dependent on Russian oil and gas...

Meanwhile, China is watching how global powers react and using that data for it's plans on Taiwan.

Will Russia try and take all Ukraine and then have its state of Belarus push to the north and "reclaim" their Baltic states too?

Putin knows better than to screw with NATO members, if your not NATO he knows we won't do anything.

TheQuig wrote:

Putin knows better than to screw with NATO members, if your not NATO he knows we won't do anything.

I wouldn't be so sure of that.
Belarus is a Russian state and they are engaged in a "hybrid" war with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Belarus, probably with support from Russia, has been actively bringing people from all over the middle east and using them to soften the boarders of those nato nations. Immigrants have stated Belarus authorities supplied them with wire cutters, axes and told them where to cross into said countries.

Poland border crisis

Thats interesting to know.

So far Im surprised and happy with the resistance the Ukrainians have been able to provide.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was an internal coup to remove him from office and end the needless misery. Hopefully his political future is on a tight rope.

Diesel Dan wrote:

TheQuig wrote:

Putin knows better than to screw with NATO members, if your not NATO he knows we won't do anything.

I wouldn't be so sure of that.
Belarus is a Russian state and they are engaged in a "hybrid" war with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Belarus, probably with support from Russia, has been actively bringing people from all over the middle east and using them to soften the boarders of those nato nations. Immigrants have stated Belarus authorities supplied them with wire cutters, axes and told them where to cross into said countries.

Poland border crisis

Russia is pushing Belarus to start regional problems. In a heartbeat, if troops from Belarus were to attack any of the NATO members WWIII will happen. Ukraine is asking people from around the world to come and fight with them against Russia.

Is Putin actually crazy or is he trying to bluff? I don't know.

He has oil prices at about $112 a barrel...that's his goal. Drive those prices as high as he can.

He's so far down the path he almost has nothing to lose. He'll probably do something even more crazy to show how serious he is with the hope of the west backing down. Maybe launch a small tactical nuke into the ocean? The question is how much support he has from ranking generals and those with fingers on red buttons.

No telling how far he's willing to go to save face now.
Ukraine didn't fold in days like he was hoping.
Short of a Russian coup I'd expect things to ramp up as anything short of total annexation will be viewed as a military loss now.

He will keep the war going until he can install a puppet govt to use as a buffer between Russia and NATO countries or he goes the way of Stalin. Im really hoping he dies some mysterious death SOON and this can all be stopped.

Brandon+Putin=Stretched Anus at the Pump

How high will it go? I paid $4.29 on Monday, still the same price but I know it will go up.

Hanging around $3.59-3.69 around here.

Diesel in my area $4.99-5.49

Paid 4.69 on Wednesday...it was 5.29 yesterday.
Bit of price gouging going on IMHO.

Some people are guessing $7 will be the new normal.
On days that I work the same school as my wife, I'll ride in with her. I don't do that now as I can leave earlier than she can. Today, I'm done at 12:20, she can't leave until 2:15.

TheQuig wrote:

Some people are guessing $7 will be the new normal.

The country won't put up with that, or put up with $5 much longer either.
Working Americans just can't sustain that kind of prolonged financial hit.

I need to figure out a way to have someone else pick the kid up from school so I can get back to riding the motorcycle to work. It gets 3 times the mileage compared to what the pickup gets.

I was really surprised this week. The gas lines at Costco are crazy around here. Maybe this is the calm before the storm. Could it all start to bite the consumer pocketbook? The old global economy might be gone for now. We'll see how strong the Russian-China ties are.  

I read the left is wanting to pass a bill to take a big chunk of oil company profits and write checks to Americans. As if we can turn a switch and overnight everyone is driving an EV and powering homes with the sun. And of course the administration didn't do anything to discourage US oil production etc...

Gas actually went down today. At Costco i paid $4.17. One station in town was the same price.

I paid $4.35 at Costco on Thursday for regular - today it's up a few pennies to $4.39. Otherwise best case is $4.59 at other outlets. At least we aren't hitting $5 or $6 a gallon.

So we are into week 3 and russia still has no major footprint in Kyiv?

Don't think it's going as planned, jmo.
Shock and awe is now ground and pound. Estimated over $100B in lost infrastructure for Ukraine.

Putin has no choice but to keep pounding away. His ego is too big to stop the fighting. I fear that if any bombs hit into Poland we will be in the war.

He wont stop until the whole country is leveled or someone puts a bullet in him.

Biden is the Trump Dems warned us about.

They say Putin's M.O is to surround Kyiv, stop supply shipments, and starve them out. That sounds like another red-line.

Biden told the world the US won't move on another country with nukes. That adds motivation for Iran, North Korea, etc to get nukes. It won't be long and we'll need world maps and globes that adjust country borders in real-time.

At this point Russia does not seem to have a solid game plan on what they are doing. They will face war crimes once this is over. If they are having this much trouble with Ukraine, they would be pretty stupid to try to bomb supply lines in NATO countries. Putin doesn't have a plan B, he pretty much blew this one.

If Russia is allowed to keep any of Ukraine then that will embolden other bullies. That includes Crimea.