The Russian-Ukrainian War Thread

[Hoover]

Russia in its primitivism and barbarism is so low below our cultural and economical standard, that i absolute would prefer death over russian rule over Europe. Your suggestion is like thinking Egypt under Ramses II would accept to be ruled by some australian aboriginie tribal leader. The whole idea is absurd

Yes. Russia is the aggressor, it is stroger than Ukraine, has nuclear weapons that´s why the world is watching the war, and Russia is free to do whatever it wants. There is no one who will support Ukraine beside some insufficient ammo and weapons deliveries. But that is the situation.
But, you/I/we can talk about preferring death over living under a Russian regime of murder and terror. There will a lot of Ukrainans who prefer living under Russian terror than to die, and some will flee to Western Europe.
IF the Russians will seeing fullfill all their demands like gouvernment change to a Russian puppet regime and end of the Ukrianian souvereignity.
The war has not ended yet, and the Russians are as far away from winning the war as the Ukriane is losing it.

 

[Beltrami2005]

Yes. Russia is the aggressor, it is stroger than Ukraine, has nuclear weapons that´s why the world is watching the war, and Russia is free to do whatever it wants. There is no one who will support Ukraine beside some insufficient ammo and weapons deliveries. But that is the situation.
But, you/I/we can talk about preferring death over living under a Russian regime of murder and terror. There will a lot of Ukrainans who prefer living under Russian terror than to die, and some will flee to Western Europe.
IF the Russians will seeing fullfill all their demands like gouvernment change to a Russian puppet regime and end of the Ukrianian souvereignity.
The war has not ended yet, and the Russians are as far away from winning the war as the Ukriane is losing it.

Exactly, this war goes far beyond Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine functions as shield and history shows how savage regimes like Russia act once they win. Next would be the Baltics or Finland. Putin envions eastern europe completly under russian tyranny and western europe fragmented and weak. Its his only hope to win, he knows himself, that Russia itself is weak and pathetic. It is our duty to not let that happen.

 

[personaldesas]

Your suggestion is like thinking Egypt under Ramses II would accept to be ruled by some australian aboriginie tribal leader. The whole idea is absurd

Or Romans under Goths?

 

[rsemmes]

Russia in its primitivism and barbarism

They cannot be that barbaric, they don't torture bulls, bleeding them to death, to the amusement of some spectators.

 

[Beltrami2005]

Or Romans under the Goths?

Visigoths and Ostrogoths were considerable higher on the civilisation level than Russia is compared to Europe. Remember large parts of russias population doesnt even have toilets.

Russias economy is small and fragile
Russias population is shrinking fast
Russia military is depleted and its weapon systems broken
Its 600 million Europeans vs 140 million ageing, falling apart russians.

Our best bet is to keep the Ukraine thing going till Russia simply splinters apart.

They cannot be that barbaric, they don't torture bulls, bleeding them to death, to the amusement of some spectators.

They do this with humans in large scale.

 

[Feanor]

Visigoths and Ostrogoths were considerable higher on the civilisation level than Russia is compared to Europe. Remember large parts of russias population doesnt even have toilets.

Would you like to quantify that? How do you even make the comparison?

Russias economy is small and fragile

This is clearly not true. By PPP Russia is one of the largest economies on the planet. And it's survived years of war stress and sanctions intact.

Russias population is shrinking fast

Russia's birth rates are higher than Spain for example...

Russia military is depleted and its weapon systems broken

Not sure what you mean by weapon systems being broken, but I think Ukraine would beg to differ on the part about the Russian military being depleted.

Its 600 million Europeans vs 140 million ageing, falling apart russians.

Median age of the Russian population is lower than the median age of the population of Spain...

Our best bet is to keep the Ukraine thing going till Russia simply splinters apart.

Or Ukraine splinters apart.

 

[personaldesas]

Median age of the Russian population is lower than the median age of the population of Spain...

To be fair, that’s mostly the British retirement brigade on the costa del sol quietly inflating the average

 

[Feanor]

To be fair, that’s mostly the British retirement brigade on the costa del sol quietly inflating the average

There aren't many European countries with a median age substantially lower than Russia though. Russian demographics aren't unique or an outlier in terms of aging of the population when compared to the rest of Europe.

 

[rsemmes]

Remember large parts of russias population doesnt even have toilets.

I wonder if you could provide us with some statistics on the percentage of Russian population without toilets. Even if, maybe, is not the topic of this forum.

I have to agree with personaldesas, Spain is being colonized by wild hordes of British retirees.

 

[Beltrami2005]

Would you like to quantify that? How do you even make the comparison?



This is clearly not true. By PPP Russia is one of the largest economies on the planet. And it's survived years of war stress and sanctions intact.



Russia's birth rates are higher than Spain for example...



Not sure what you mean by weapon systems being broken, but I think Ukraine would beg to differ on the part about the Russian military being depleted.



Median age of the Russian population is lower than the median age of the population of Spain...



Or Ukraine splinters apart.

We dont kill our people in wars. You are free to bring numbers were are our people dieing right now? Oh they arent.

20% of russia have no indoor plumbing. Pathetic.

Indoor Plumbing Still a Pipe Dream for 20% of Russian Households, Reports Say - The Moscow Times

You have the wrong assumption that i care if Ukraine splinters apart.

As for russias economy

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/02/16/russias-economy-has-entered-the-death-zone

 

[personaldesas]

There aren't many European countries with a median age substantially lower than Russia though. Russian demographics aren't unique or an outlier in terms of aging of the population when compared to the rest of Europe.

Didn’t mean that too seriously tbh

 

[personaldesas]

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/02/16/russias-economy-has-entered-the-death-zone

The TL;DR if anyone cares:

Russia’s economy isn’t about to collapse, but it’s slowly self-damaging to sustain the war. Military spending is propping up headline growth while the civilian economy weakens. Budget deficits are rising, oil revenues are down, debt costs are up, and resources are being diverted into destruction rather than productive capacity. This creates a “death-zone” economy: it can keep going for a while, but at mounting long-term cost. Ending the war is the only real path to stabilization, yet political incentives make that unlikely soon.

 

[Beltrami2005]

From that article, in case anyone else wondered what they mean by death zone

Whoever was in the Andes knows that and its important to keep the current system up and rise the pressure. Russias economy is anemic to the bone.It was derelict even before the war started and now it starts to rott apart, build ulvers ect. I believe it is absolute important to keep this going that way.

The best scenario is a collapse into multiple statelets that are goverened by warlords and fight each other. We arent there yet but its approaching.

Putin hoped for Trump but Trump cant deliver.

 

[Feanor]

We dont kill our people in wars. You are free to bring numbers were are our people dieing right now? Oh they arent.

You've moved the goalposts yet again. Spain isn't at war, but Spain's demographics aren't any better than Russia's. It's also aging with birth rates well below replacement rates.

You have the wrong assumption that i care if Ukraine splinters apart.

If Ukraine "splinters" it might not work as a shield anymore. This war will have some sort of outcome. I'm of the opinion that the EU is better served by Ukraine still being intact and not under Russian domination. This means ending the war before Ukraine "splinters".

As for russias economy

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/02/16/russias-economy-has-entered-the-death-zone

Sorry, it's paywalled, and even disabling java doesn't seem to get around it. I will say this though, predictions about how the Russian economy will fail have been coming in a steady stream since '22. They have yet to be correct. And of course with a last name like Prokopenko, I'm sure the author is very objective and not at all hostile to Russia.

The TL;DR if anyone cares:

Russia’s economy isn’t about to collapse, but it’s slowly self-damaging to sustain the war. Military spending is propping up headline growth while the civilian economy weakens. Budget deficits are rising, oil revenues are down, debt costs are up, and resources are being diverted into destruction rather than productive capacity. This creates a “death-zone” economy: it can keep going for a while, but at mounting long-term cost. Ending the war is the only real path to stabilization, yet political incentives make that unlikely soon.

Thanks for sharing. In general I wouldn't disagree with the sentiment. But I think Russia can keep going for quite a long time. One other thing to consider, occupied and annexed areas are also part of the Russian economy. Meaning places like Melitopol', Mariupol', Donetsk, and Lugansk are all contributing to Russian economic output. And this is where Russia's ability to continue to attract population back into the conquered areas will matter. A dead and empty Artemovsk/Bakhmut is useless. But a living Pervomaysk/Sokologorsk with thousands of residents isn't.

 

[personaldesas]

A dead and empty Artemovsk/Bakhmut is useless. But a living Pervomaysk/Sokologorsk with thousands of residents isn't.

Slight tangent, did Russia rename those cities back to their Soviet-era names?

 

[personaldesas]

And of course with a last name like Prokopenko, I'm sure the author is very objective and not at all hostile to Russia.

From my experience, The Economist usually doesn’t publish mindless hit pieces. You can disagree with the argument, but they generally try to ground their pieces in data and a clear line of reasoning.

 

[Vanquish]

There aren't many European countries with a median age substantially lower than Russia though. Russian demographics aren't unique or an outlier in terms of aging of the population when compared to the rest of Europe.

Russian men must be loving the demographics with the the shortage of eligible male to female ratio.

 

[Feanor]

Slight tangent, did Russia rename those cities back to their Soviet-era names?

Yes. Well sort of. Russia passed a law cancelling post-Soviet renaming in the newly-annexed areas. However it doesn't apply to renaming done before the fall of the USSR, so for example Mariupol' won't be getting renamed back to Zhdanov, and Donetsk won't be turning into Stalino again. Also in some cases the names are words in either Russian or Ukrainian, and even with my limited Ukrainian I often don't catch it. Prime example the village of Zaliznichnoe, west of Gulyaypole. Zaliznichnoe is Ukrainian for "railroad place". Which in Russian would be Zheleznodorozhnoe. Will it get renamed into Zheleznodorozhnoe? Or will it stay Zaliznichnoe? And even in Ukrainian documents this is often not consistent. For example the Ukrainian for May is Traven'. I didn't know this which led me to translate the name Pershotravenevoe as "first grassy place" (trava = grass in both Ukrainian and Russian). But it's really "First of May", i.e. the international labor holiday. Except that there are also Ukrainian villages called Pervomayskoe, which also means first of May but in Russian. So unfortunately the nomenclature confusion is likely to continue. Making matters worse is the fact that different sources will often used either the Russian or Ukrainian name, or the old Soviet name. And this is without getting into ghost villages, places that exist on Soviet era maps and sometimes are still marked on google maps as a locale, but if you zoom in there's nothing left there.

I'm going to continue the dual-name approach of writing names of places to make it as easy as possible to tell what places I'm referring to, but occasionally there will still be confusion.

Russian men must be loving the demographics with the the shortage of eligible male to female ratio.

That one isn't unique to Russia either, though it is related to the former Soviet Union.

Why the former USSR has far fewer men than women

This region in Eastern Europe has been predominately female since at least WWII.

www.pewresearch.org

From my experience, The Economist usually doesn’t publish mindless hit pieces. You can disagree with the argument, but they generally try to ground their pieces in data and a clear line of reasoning.

Like I said, the part you quoted sounded about right to me. Without reading the entire article it's hard to be certain of anything.

 

[rsemmes]

Beltrami2005, you are not calling one philologist "scientists", but I wonder if you only read the articles after posting the headlines. It is 9% in urban areas and then it's indoor toilets, that doesn't add up as "large areas"; you are still using a creative concept of reality.

On the other hand, Russia looks really European if you use your brain instead of your ignorance:
"One in six people in Romania (15.4%) do not have a flushing toilet inside their home... In Bulgaria (9.6%), Latvia (6%) and Lithuania (5%), thousands of people also live without a toilet... Over the course of the pandemic 1.8% of the EU’s inhabitants had no access to a flushing toilet at home – some 8 million people..."

https://voxeurop.eu/en/europeans-without-toilets/

Only 0.4% in your country.

 

[Beltrami2005]

You've moved the goalposts yet again. Spain isn't at war, but Spain's demographics aren't any better than Russia's. It's also aging with birth rates well below replacement rates.



If Ukraine "splinters" it might not work as a shield anymore. This war will have some sort of outcome. I'm of the opinion that the EU is better served by Ukraine still being intact and not under Russian domination. This means ending the war before Ukraine "splinters".



Sorry, it's paywalled, and even disabling java doesn't seem to get around it. I will say this though, predictions about how the Russian economy will fail have been coming in a steady stream since '22. They have yet to be correct. And of course with a last name like Prokopenko, I'm sure the author is very objective and not at all hostile to Russia.



Thanks for sharing. In general I wouldn't disagree with the sentiment. But I think Russia can keep going for quite a long time. One other thing to consider, occupied and annexed areas are also part of the Russian economy. Meaning places like Melitopol', Mariupol', Donetsk, and Lugansk are all contributing to Russian economic output. And this is where Russia's ability to continue to attract population back into the conquered areas will matter. A dead and empty Artemovsk/Bakhmut is useless. But a living Pervomaysk/Sokologorsk with thousands of residents isn't.

Our leaders made very clear what EU goal in this war is. German chancellor Merz expressed it openly at Munich Security Conference: The complete russian economical and military exhaustion. And each day this comes closer. Each russian dead, is one bloodline that ends when you have demographics like that.

Each day the world becomes better place

One million and counting: Russian casualties hit milestone in Ukraine war

Beltrami2005, you are not calling one philologist "scientists", but I wonder if you only read the articles after posting the headlines. It is 9% in urban areas and then it's indoor toilets, that doesn't add up as "large areas"; you are still using a creative concept of reality.

On the other hand, Russia looks really European if you use your brain instead of your ignorance:
"One in six people in Romania (15.4%) do not have a flushing toilet inside their home... In Bulgaria (9.6%), Latvia (6%) and Lithuania (5%), thousands of people also live without a toilet... Over the course of the pandemic 1.8% of the EU’s inhabitants had no access to a flushing toilet at home – some 8 million people..."

https://voxeurop.eu/en/europeans-without-toilets/

Only 0.4% in your country.

I told you i saw Russia. Irkutsk, most pathetic place i have ever seen. If i had to decide to live there or death, i would chose death.

Russia is one of those places you see and thank god for evrything.