Ted Lieu also thinks Putin wants to destroy Ukraine. New tweet:

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

[Hav]

1. Looks more and more like scorched earth tactics

I don't think I expected to see that in the 21th century.
Whatever happens, I hope the sanctions won't get lifted until an independent Ukraine is fully rebuilt.

[Gore1FL]

2. People are sure giving Putin and Russian battlefield communications a lot of credit.

He ordered a brutal invasion. Yeah, he is a bad guy. He isn't directing tactical artillery, though.

Russian military incompetence is the Occam's razor answer to the incident at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

[highplainsdem]

3. I agree there's some incompetence. But I doubt Russian generals just forgot to give any instruction

on whether or not to shell nuclear plants.

[Gore1FL]

4. They didn't tell them they were invading Ukraine.

I am under the impression a lot of info is not shared, and I suspect there isn't a lot of rational thinking going on with the troops in the field.

[Martin68]

7. I agree. The cannon folder have not ben trained for anything but to die for Mother Tussia.

[58Sunliner]

8. They don't choose the targets.

"During military operations, field artillery has the role of providing support to other arms in combat or of attacking targets'"

[yaesu]

5. not just Ukraine but Europe

British prime minister Boris Johnson has spoken with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy after news broke about a fire at the nuclear power station in Zaporizhzhia, calling Putin’s “reckless actions” a danger to the safety of Europe.

[Martin68]

6. Looks like Put'n want to create a radioactive buffer zone between Russia and her neighbors.

[TomSlick]

9. I think Rep. Lieu is correct. Putin does not intend to occupy Ukraine, only destroy it.

I have been wondering from the beginning how Putin thinks he can occupy Ukraine. Russia simply cannot occupy Ukraine for the long term. Surely, the attempt by the USSR at occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s is fresh enough in the Russian memory that Putin appreciates that an occupation of Ukraine would be costly, in blood and treasure, and ultimately fail.

The only logical conclusion is that Putin has never intended to occupy Ukraine. I believe his plan has always been to destroy Ukraine as a country and withdraw. Putin assumes that a devastated Ukraine will repent of its experiment with democracy and beg to be readmitted to the Russian empire.

[halfulglas]

10. Putin is the abusive ex.

He doesn't love Ukraine, but he would rather destroy it than let it make its own decisions and be independent, especially not let it join with others and be successful or be powerful in its own right.

[soldierant]

13. Ding ding ding ding ding. We have a winner!

[panfluteman]

11. Nuke Chernobyl? Old Man Putin's Clearly Off His Rocker!

It seems like if Putin can't take the country and make it surrender easily, he's going to destroy it, then. That could have been done just by carpet bombing Ukraine from outside the country, without a single Russian soldier setting foot in the country.

[Warpy]

12. Like a spurned lover, "IF I can't have you, no one can!"

He doesn't seem to care that all he'll win are rubble, ashes, and a population that hates his guts and anyone who wears his uniform along with him. Long term, they'll bleed Russia dry.

That idiot Lukashenko has telegraphed his intentions, so Moldova and Georgia have just applied for entry into the EU. They're next.