Quote from: suchmoon on April 16, 2022, 03:33:44 PM

Quote from: Veleor on April 16, 2022, 06:30:14 AM

It is likely that Russia may exaggerate its achievements in terms of the number of destroyed Ukrainian military equipment.

Exaggerate LOL. Some other "exaggerations":

1. Just military training, definitely not invasion.
2. Entire Ukrainian air force and AA defense was allegedly destroyed but continues to function two months later.
3. Russian soldiers came to "liberate" but instead killed civilians and looted homes.
4. 30 biolabs developing military geese and pigeon corps.
5. Russia "defending" Donbas but killing predominantly Russian-speaking Donbas population.
6. The flagship randomly catches fire because it can't possibly be that the non-existent Bayraktars and non-existent Ukrainian anti-ship missiles could have something to do with it.
7. But by all means, keep looking for excuses for Russian propaganda lies.

suchmoon, I numbered the paragraphs in your message for detailed analysis and easier commenting.

1. "Just military training, definitely not invasion"
The Russian leadership deceived everyone in early February 2022 that they were just conducting military training and were not going to attack. But what does this lie have to do with the topic of the achievements of the Russian army in Ukraine? Most likely, the plan and the exact date of the invasion were known to a limited circle of people in the Kremlin. This lie partially explains why the statements of the Russian high command are not trusted. However, this doesn't mean that the statements of all Russian officials are now a priori false. Of course, they need additional verification, but it is also impossible to completely discard them as unreliable.

2. "Entire Ukrainian air force and AA defense was allegedly destroyed but continues to function two months later".
Please indicate your source, according to which the Russian military said about the "entire destruction" of Ukrainian air force.
As far as I know, the Russian General Staff didn't report such a thing. It is necessary to take into account every word in official statements in order to avoid false interpretations.
On March 25, 2022, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy told reporters: "At present, the Ukrainian air force and air defense system have been almost completely destroyed. The country's naval forces have ceased to exist".
Further in the same article, the number of destroyed and remaining Ukrainian military equipment is given:

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"The Russian military destroyed [...] 112 out of 152 aircraft, 75 helicopters out of 149,
148 air defense systems S-300 and Buk M1 out of 180 [...]"

For those who doubt that the Russian army now has an advantage in the air, I recommend to read the article in the Insider magazine dated April 16, 2022.
"Ukrainian pilots launch 'Buy Me A Jet' campaign to help defeat Russia's massive air superiority"
By the way, a video was posted in this article, and attentive users noticed that at 01:15 a Ukrainian pilot wears a Black Sun chevron, which refers to Nazi symbols.

3. "Russian soldiers came to "liberate" but instead killed civilians and looted homes".
Nothing can justify violence, and civilians suffer in every war, but there should be strong grounds for saying that Russian troops are purposefully killing Ukrainian civilians, literally engaging in genocide.
Note:

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14.04.2022 | "The UK, Canada, Poland and Spain have condemned Russian military action as genocide,
while France, Germany and leaders of the EU who visited Kyiv last week have refrained from the outright use of the word".

According to the UN, from February 24 to April 15, 2022, 1982 civilians died in Ukraine.
You can compare this information with the data from the Iraq War because it is well known. This statistic is consistent with the Statista website.
The war in Iraq began on March 20, 2003. In Iraq 7434 citizens died after 42 days (from March 20 to May 1 in 2003).
In the early days of the war in Iraq, more than three times as many people died as in Ukraine. But, as far as I know, the world community has not condemned the United States for the targeted extermination of Iraqi civilians.

On the issue of statistics, it must be taken into account that complete chaos is happening in Ukraine now. There is already a documented case of how Ukrainian Territorial Defense fighters, while under the influence of drugs, shot a 12-year-old Ukrainian boy and wounded his friend, thinking that they were Russian saboteurs. This is to the words of some users that civilians in Ukraine allegedly do not die at the hands of their military. It is still in question to which side these victims will be attributed. And there is a high risk that such cases will continue, since in Ukraine thousands of machine guns were distributed to volunteers and, moreover, Ukrainian prisoners were released so that they would go to war with the Russian army.

4. "30 biolabs developing military geese and pigeon corps".
You distorted the original statement of the Representative of Russia to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya. On March 11, he made the statement:

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The Russian Federation’s military became aware of a programme that has the goal of studying
the possibility of spreading infections using migratory birds, including H5N1 and the Newcastle disease.

Apparently, you have reason to be sarcastic on this topic if you have studied the materials presented by the Russian side and if you are a professional infectious disease specialist in order to completely eliminate the bacteriological threat from that 30 labs in Ukraine. Can you share your expert opinion in order to break the arguments of the Russian side on this issue once and for all?

5. "Russia "defending" Donbas but killing predominantly Russian-speaking Donbas population".
This is a very serious accusation. What are you basing it on?
According to the French war reporter Anne-Laure Bonnel during an interview with a French TV channel, it was not Russia, but the Ukrainian government that bombed its own population in the Donbass.

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"... The Donbass population, in 2014, has been targeted by its own government.
The Kiev government has bombarded the Russian-speaking population.
Yes. I have all the necessary proofs, which I can provide you when I return to France;
I have the photographs, and I have a video (documentary) about it... it's undeniable".

6. "The flagship randomly catches fire because it can't possibly be that the non-existent Bayraktars and non-existent Ukrainian anti-ship missiles could have something to do with it".
Even Pentagon spokesman John Kirby doesn't know the exact reason why the Moscow cruiser sank. Personally, I believe that the probable cause of the explosion, in addition to the version with Ukrainian Neptune missiles, could be sabotage by one of the team members, since I see no particular reason for Russia to deny the Ukrainian missile attack (if there really was one) as the cause of the sinking. Because Russia previously admitted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces damaged the Russian large landing ship "Saratov".
Ukrainian officials claimed that the Bayraktars diverted the air defense of the Moscow cruiser, and this video indirectly confirms it. However, the video doesn't show the burning cruiser Moscow, but a fire on a Tanzanian ship in 2019.

7. "But by all means, keep looking for excuses for Russian propaganda lies".
Do not confuse excuses with an attempt to understand the current situation, when a lot of fake information is published.