Kyiv claims to have snatched back a number of settlements in recent days - though they are all small in size.
Ukraine says it has liberated four villages in the south-east, calling these the first settlements won back from Russia since Kyiv's counter-offensive began
On Monday morning, officials reported that "the national flag is once again waving" over Storozhove, in the Donetsk region
A day earlier, footage showed Ukrainian troops celebrating in Blahodatne and Neskuchne - and a minister said nearby Makarivka was also taken
The settlements are relatively small - and Moscow is yet to confirm any retreat
The Institute for the Study of War backs up Kyiv's claims, saying Ukraine captured "multiple settlements" along the frontline over the weekend
On Saturday, President Zelensky acknowledged that the long-awaited counter-offensive was under way
An area amounting to about 6 km by 6 km. Still an excuse for cheerleading and manufacturing consent for escalation. One of the villages is like 6 houses.
Western liberals keep ignoring anything before 2022 in order to create a black-and-white narrative. This leads them to the conclusion that they're fighting absolute evil and so any means are justified no matter how many people will die, and how dangerous and even counter-productive their actions.
Nah. I don't see Russia as absolute evil. And there are plenty of means the west does not consider justified. Nobody I know falls into either of these categories.
I don't want Ukraine to kill poor Russian sods but as long as Russia kills poor Ukrainian sods I think it's only fair if they get to shoot back.
Most of us just want Russia to go home and let Ukraine be Ukraine.
This is such a simplistic view of the war. The civil war started because the country already had internal fault lines, and was pulled in different directions by Russian and Western meddling until it broke. The invasion was just the latest in a series of escalations. Nothing about this war is in the interest of the people living on the battlefield, they got duped or forced into fighting each other. Encouraging them to fight on is messed up.
Edit: I'd also like to add that Russia seemed quite willing, prior to the invasion, to have a compromise in which Ukraine would be neutral. The US especially clearly wasn't interested, insisting instead on its own supremacy, in which no opposing or neutral countries are to be tolerated. To this end they also supported the worst elements of Ukrainian society, ultra-nationalist Banderites, which they had been doing since the end of WW2.
Yanukovich, while definitely corrupt, won in a fair democratic election that was judged free and fair by international observers.. The coup overthrew a democratically elected leader. He was not appointed by anyone.
I guarantee you it means something to the residents of those six houses.
It's easy to lose track of individual humanity at the scale of a war, but this victory is the one these people will always most remember when they think of the tide turning. Their lives are worth something.
The summer offensive that has been going on for what? One week? Looking at how fast Russia gained ground in bakhmut, vuhledar, and avdiivka, this offensive is going swimmingly
I would save this comment and get back to you when the offensive has crumbled, but something tells me you and all the other Reddit libs currently swarming this website will have long crawled back to daddy Reddit by then ;)
E: Uh oh, seems like I've angered le epic reddit army! Whatever shall I do?! I know, I'll just wait a month or two until 80% of the accounts in this thread are long dead :3
@DerPapa69@lemmy.ml The fact that this instance often bans people for countering your imperialist world-view created a bubble where you might think it's the libs that you speak out against.
In reality it's not only radicals that you write of but it's also our comrades, long time antifa, anarchist and communist militants that are dying fighting back against yet another imperialist incursion into CEE from Russia. No amount of western ignorance, privilege and lack of education will stop us from struggling for our right to self-determination, solidarity with the refugees from Ukraine and all victims of this invasion or the broader struggle against a centuries long oppression of our peoples.
With regards, from admin of one of the first lemmy instances.