Judging by the sound delay, the explosion was likely up to 5 miles away. BBC interviewed locals, who claimed that the shock waves were so powerful they might have died if they were just outside. Zelenskyy’s delusional war is suicidal, this must end
Target was most likely a large ammunition depot. Judging by the sheer amount, that was their storage for their entire spring counteroffensive. Welp.
In my opinion the whole “retribution for x action” thing is just PR spin. I doubt that the Russian military decides when, where and what to strike based on something as petty as revenge. It’s more likely that it was something they were going to do anyway and it was convenient for propaganda reasons to associate it with something Ukraine did to portray it as retaliatory action.
Whether or not Ukraine manages to hit a Russian target every now and then does not change the overall strategy that Russia is pursuing, which necessitates the destruction of the enemy’s material and manpower resources. This will take time. In the meantime, yes, unfortunately people die, that’s war. What Russia won’t do is allow Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilians to make them take emotionally motivated, rash actions that are not to their advantage. Russia has dealt with terrorism before during the Chechnya conflicts, and we have also seen in Syria that their strategic patience extends over many years.
As for China’s recent diplomatic overtures, we have to understand the kind of “good cop - bad cop” game that is being played. China’s interests are in large part aligned with Russia’s on this, they are not stupid, they understand Washington’s plans to subjugate Russia and afterwards use it to confront China. China needs to appear like the reasonable adults in the room compared to the warmongering West that keeps adding fuel to the fire. Of course China also has a material interest in re-establishing stability in that region since their BRI route goes through it. But they also understand that any negotiations will be on Russia’s terms - which include de-nazification and de-NATOization. If Ukraine accepts those terms, great, if not China can say look we tried to do all we could.
We may not like these games that are being played but it cannot be denied that they are effective. More and more countries in the global south are aligning with Russia and China, it seems everyone wants to join the BRICS nowadays, and the dollar financial hegemony is declining faster than most of us would have ever thought possible before this conflict began. A lot of that success depends also on Russia going at just the right pace in Ukraine to keep showing that the West are paper tigers and that all of the combined support of NATO cannot help Ukraine defeat Russia, while at the same time not spooking their allies in the global south with overly aggressive actions that could be seen as unprovoked or disproportionate.
Hello comrade, i would be grateful for your opinion on this.
First of all the “Moscow Times” is one of those liberal, NED funded propaganda rags. It’s owned by some Dutch guy and is banned in Russia. One should always be very skeptical of anything such outlets publish.
As to the article itself, despite the sensationalist title, it is little more than confirmation that there is an internal political struggle going on in South Africa too.
This was a comment made by some member of the legislature, not an official statement the government itself. The government is still very much aligned with the BRICS axis. Not too long ago their president was saying South Africa intended to withdraw from the ICC.
Overall i wouldn’t pay too much attention to stories like this. Their purpose is to distract and to shore up the morale among the opponents of Russia at a time when things are going quite badly for the Kiev regime.
Thank you
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-try-withdraw-icc-again-ramaphosa-2023-04-25/
Nice, ty.
And the reason they were warning Putin not to come in the first place was because they did not want to arrest him
Yeah that clearly looked like that, them being the 5th BRICS member is starting to look like one of the best decisions ever made so it’s no brainer they wouldn’t endanger that.
Especially now that countries all across the global south are practically scrambling to get into BRICS. Last i heard there were over a dozen countries eager to apply for membership as soon as possible.
It is clear which way the wind is blowing and a country would have to have either very stupid or very bribed/blackmailed leadership to side with the loser West against the rising tide of China and co.
Most of the global south nevertheless need to perform quite a delicate balancing act, being careful not too take steps that are too provocative because the US can still cause significant harm to weaker nations for now.