One of the next moves in this Russia shit-show is for Putin to declare that just arming the Ukrainian resistance will be considered to be an act of war against Russia- to see if the Americans and Nato will back down out of fear of nuke war.
As of 7 pm local time, Bennett’s meeting with Putin was continuing, some two and a half hours into the discussion. Both the United States and Ukraine were notified ahead of Bennet’s trip. The prime minister was accompanied by Housing and Construction Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who is assisting with translation, as well as Dr. Eyal Hulata, head of Israel’s National Security Council, political adviser Shimrit Meir and Bennett’s spokesperson Matan Sidi. Bennett has repeatedly offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, including during his meeting with Putin in Sochi last October, but Putin has rejected the offers. The prime minister’s office has refused to comment on the meeting, saying the issue is “particularly sensitive.”
History rhymes. You'd think Putin would know this as it would appear the shoe is now on the other foot. In the end this didn't work out well for Hitler. Leningrad never fell. ++++++++++ Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military blockade undertaken from the south by the Army Group North of Nazi Germany against the Soviet city of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) on the Eastern Front in World War II. The Finnish army invaded from the north, co-operating with the Germans, and completed the ring around the city. The siege began on 8 September 1941, when the Wehrmacht severed the last road to the city. Although Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the Red Army did not lift the siege until 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and it was possibly the costliest siege in history due to the number of casualties which were suffered throughout its duration. In the 21st century, some historians have classified it as a genocide due to the systematic starvation and intentional destruction of the city's civilian population. German soldiers near Leningrad in 1941. In the background are burning houses and a church Leningrad's capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army Group North. The strategy was motivated by Leningrad's political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution and the hated Bolshevism, the city's military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, and its industrial strength, housing numerous arms factories. By 1939, the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output. It has been reported that Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria. By Monday, 8 September, German forces had largely surrounded the city, cutting off all supply routes to Leningrad and its suburbs. Unable to press home their offensive, and facing defences of the city organised by Marshal Zhukov, the Axis armies laid siege to the city for "900 days and nights". The air attack of Friday, 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid. The two-and-a-half-year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city. On Hitler's direct orders the Wehrmacht looted and then destroyed most of the imperial palaces, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter, with many art collections transported to Germany.[69] A number of factories, schools, hospitals and other civil infrastructure were destroyed by air raids and long range artillery bombardment. The diary of Tanya Savicheva, a girl of 11, her notes about starvation and deaths of her sister, then grandmother, then brother, then uncle, then another uncle, then mother. The last three notes say "Savichevs died", "Everyone died" and "Only Tanya is left." She died of progressive dystrophy shortly after the siege. Her diary was used by the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials. The 872 days of the siege caused extreme famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of up to 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of 1,400,000 more (mainly women and children), many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment. Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Leningrad holds half a million civilian victims of the siege alone. Economic destruction and human losses in Leningrad on both sides exceeded those of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Moscow, or the bombing of Tokyo. The siege of Leningrad ranks as the most lethal siege in world history, and some historians speak of the siege operations in terms of genocide, as a "racially motivated starvation policy" that became an integral part of the unprecedented German war of extermination against populations of the Soviet Union generally. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I mean this looks to be playing out verbatim.
Not really, there were no allies to help out Leningrad, whereas Ukraine does have outside assistance to supply lines.
For now. That's part of the problem. What does NATO do when they close them. The port city of Odessa is next. You can bet on it.
And Marianne Williamson probably has an essential oil for that. Not sure the Ruskies pay a lot of attention to treaties these days. And as we find out more each day, their argument is that they are not violating certain war crimes and the laws of nations and sovereignty is that they never signed any of those treaties. Nice. OR NOT.