r/worldnews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 21h ago

Russia/Ukraine ‘We Were Mistaken’: Putin Admits Russia Was Unprepared for Ukrainian Strikes on Oil Refineries

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/83674
26.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

14.6k

u/ArgentineBeauty 21h ago

“[We] assumed that these were purely civilian facilities and could not be targets of any kind of attacks even amid an armed conflict,” Putin said. “But in this regard, we were mistaken. Our adversary, unfortunately, thinks differently.”

Russia spent years hitting Ukraine’s infrastructure, but suddenly Putin thinks civilian infrastructure should be off limits. Amazing how the rules change when it is his side.

3.4k

u/figlu 21h ago

Putin was bombing Ukrainian power stations

2.6k

u/Weekly_Curve_6642 21h ago

During winter.

985

u/Adept_Guest_6609 18h ago

And will do so again this winter.

190

u/Prior_Performer5273 18h ago

Dont forget the double taps...

32

u/theaviationhistorian 16h ago

Only the cruelest countries and nonstate actors (like drug cartels) commit to double taps.

6

u/GearhedMG 13h ago

It's Zombie survival rule #2 though

2

u/Thomasje25 4h ago

I wonder how many times Putin's checked his bathroom...

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (9)

188

u/Can-i-Pet-Dat-Daaawg 18h ago

The bombings will continue until morale improves.

6

u/401LocalsOnly 17h ago

I secretly wish this would be your top awarded comment

7

u/smithers85 16h ago

Isn't that the US's Iran War strategy?

8

u/Gregarious_Grump 16h ago

It's working almost as well

2

u/quizat-haderach 14h ago

What strategy?

2

u/DrumsAndStuff18 14h ago

That's the joke.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/Dragonhost252 16h ago

Now is the winter of our discount tank

2

u/JezSq 16h ago

Not “will”, already does. Part of Odesa is without electricity.

2

u/masnart 15h ago

Something is telling me that this winter it's not gonna be a one way street anymore. Putin will make a Pikachu face again

→ More replies (8)

6

u/StrongBuy3494 18h ago

That’s very reminiscent of the Holodomor.

6

u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

6

u/SeeShark 18h ago

He's anything but an idiot. This speech is propaganda.

4

u/ContractElegant4310 17h ago

He's just trying to save his ass.

2

u/Semideis 16h ago

Double tapping*

1.6k

u/xcassets 21h ago

And children's hospitals... and supermarkets... and numerous other places that have nothing to do with the military.

927

u/FlukemanFrancis 21h ago

He just bombed schools on the first day back after summer in Kyiv and also bombed textbook production and storage centres because they produced books in Ukrainian

He’s attempting cultural and literal genocide while moaning the people he’s attempting to wipe out are fighting back.

343

u/Izmetg68 20h ago

and lets not forget kids on bikes, people running hiding under bridges, Theaters in Mariupol, Bucha Massacre, Old Babushkas in wheelchairs and grandpas on crutches....let me know when any of these civillian attacks influences the rest of the world to care.....

105

u/A_Skyless_God 18h ago

Most of us do care. Can I ask you what exactly it is you expect me to do? More importantly, what exactly are YOU doing?

73

u/jazzy663 18h ago

I was about to ask this as well. I've purchased things that go to fund Ukrainian efforts, but short of hopping in a plane to Ukraine and putting my boots on the ground, I'd like to know what else is expected of me. And then I'll tell you how realistic it is when the US is already dealing with multiple crises.

Also - being a vocal advocate for Ukrainian sovereignty does not to a whole lot in practice, but I submit in good faith that it is not nothing.

13

u/holyhottamale 16h ago

If you are interested, I have an American friend that is serving in Ukraine as a medic. I was matched with him through PAV so it is all legit.

I donate to him and his team every month and just sent them a huge care package.

Let me know if you want info!

3

u/SpineofGorgax 15h ago

I would love to do more to help but I'm so short on £'s. How much do the care packages cost? What sorts of things are needed?

5

u/holyhottamale 15h ago

They would appreciate anything really!

Snacks, hygiene products, a card saying thank you.

A lot of them on his team feel like the world has moved on so support means a lot to them.

2

u/jazzy663 15h ago

Given what's at stake, sending a care package is perfectly reasonable and I would encourage others to do the same. I definitely prefer to do stuff like that through a website, though, if that's available.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

6

u/ndefontenay 17h ago

Eloquently said!

20

u/The_Folding_Atty 18h ago

…when the US is already dealing with multiple crises of its own making.

9

u/PetrichorMoodFluid 16h ago

... of their GOVERNMENT'S making. You realize most of us citizen ARE fighting back, correct...?

(Edited to correct spelling)

9

u/unlordtempest 16h ago

You, you do realize that a lot Americans, myself included, support Ukraine? There's the fact that we are currently living in this nightmare of a fever dream in which our once great nation is being run by an 80 year old man child who is, in my opinion, actively try to kill us by taking away food assistance, health coverage, vaccine mandates, and he's trying to deregulate things so that the food we consume doesn't have to be inspected. Because of these things, and so much fucking more, not only does the rest of the world hate us, everything is worse for us here. Groceries are obscenely expensive. There's kids getting measles. A company paid a sizable amount of money to his administration to get around some health inspection resulting in bad lettuce getting eaten all over the country which made a lot of people sick with a disease resembling dysentery. At least one person died from it, though there's probably more. The list goes on. He doesn't give a fuck about anyone that lives here unless they're a billionaire and in my opinion, doesn't really care about them either, just the money and influence they have. Us citizens do not have any say in what he does. In fact, I'm certain that he sees people as things. I'd move out of this place were I able.

2

u/Izmetg68 13h ago

Great comments! Agree with you

→ More replies (6)

3

u/EllaB9454 17h ago

Excellent point!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

40

u/lostin88 18h ago

I'll have you know I've had to replace multiple keys on my keyboard and my space bar multiple times due to wear. /s

5

u/PizzaTacoPastablabla 18h ago

War=wear on the keyboard of course haha

→ More replies (1)

24

u/LizardSlayer 18h ago

Be braver on Reddit, duh.

3

u/Kruegon 18h ago edited 17h ago

I care greatly. The idea of "Not my monkeys, not my circus" does not work when talking about global powers. John Donne's words should resound with anyone who has compassion. Those who do not understand, will never do more than shrug. "Any man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankinde" holds no better reference than it does today. A quote from 1624AD has more relevance now than it did 400 years ago. But in the category of questions not answered, what CAN we do? What are YOU doing? The best I can do is to support the efforts in place to back up the defense of Ukraine. We, as the Allied Nations, can not get involved without chancing to spark WWIII.

4

u/Eric_12345678 18h ago

FWIW, I donate 50€ to https://u24.gov.ua/ every time I can.

As much as I'd like to donate for education and science, I mostly select drones and air defense, because there wouldn't be anything left of Ukraine otherwise.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Fit-Let8175 18h ago

Actually, you'd be surprised how even knowing people are supporting you verbally helps. It's the silence that is crippling.

I have multiple relatives in Ukraine. One recently moved to my city with his wife and 2 young children about a year ago.

6

u/Significant_Meet_613 18h ago

Does paying Ukrainian webcam girls count?

6

u/MediocreDesigner88 18h ago

It’s not nothing.

→ More replies (60)

5

u/thejourneybegins42 18h ago

Human safari. Disgusting.

18

u/Scope_Dog 20h ago

Yep, most of the people in the US just shrug.

3

u/tomspy77 18h ago

Partially now as we have our own Putin and just yesterday we bombed a bloody wedding...sadly it was planned that way I think and now we gotta stop the illegal war here before we have the onus (or competent leadership) to focus elsewhere.

3

u/molotavcocktail 16h ago

I just heard there were military diplomats families at the wedding. smh

→ More replies (21)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (4)

28

u/MoronicPlayer 18h ago

Not to mention they do double tap. Fucking horrible.

18

u/Vegetable-Drama-4895 18h ago

Don’t forget the apartment buildings

5

u/Ok-Jello9514 18h ago

And apartment buildings intentionally. Continuously, maliciously...

3

u/ThePensiveE 18h ago

Don't forget the apartment blocks.

2

u/Awrfhyesggrdghkj 18h ago

Don’t forget that random poor food stand guy that the drone chased in circles

2

u/CommandAware4069 18h ago

Like USA AND isNOTreal are doing to a civilization in Palestine since 1948 not since 7 september 23

2

u/SlightDesigner8214 18h ago

And remember the drama theatre in Mariupol that literally had “Children” written on the ground in huge letters. Where the Russians bombed and killed between 500-1200 mostly women and children that had taken shelter there.

→ More replies (11)

201

u/McLeod3577 20h ago

Entire fucking cities have been completely flattened. Power stations are nothing compared to complete Groznification.

90

u/mylarky 19h ago

dams
shopping malls
apartment complexes
playgrounds

7

u/ecnelisS_ 18h ago

Maternity home

3

u/ThisIsBB56 17h ago

Hospitals. Theaters. Kindergardens. Churches. Trains with people in them. Easier to list what they don't bomb.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

157

u/PuzzleheadedTalk4651 19h ago

Putin is a lying hypocrite and is crying that ukraine hits back on infrastructure and economic targets because he thinks: i have the right to do so but you may not do it to me

36

u/FinallyAGoodReply 18h ago

Who is he even trying to fool at this point?

69

u/Zagumaar 18h ago

His own population

14

u/FinallyAGoodReply 18h ago

Is anyone still falling for it? Is there a Russian MARA instead of MAGA group of fools?

23

u/TeddyRoo_v_Gods 18h ago

Unfortunately, yes. If you go to Russian social media you will see plenty of trolls still justifying this conflict as “Denazification of Ukraine.” You will also see comments questioning what this conflict has achieved, but those posts don’t stay up too long.

14

u/MongooseCurrent4337 17h ago

Not only this but their news lie about the war constantly. A person I know who watches Russian news told me with bright eyes that Russia has never bombed civilian areas, only uninhabited areas. Some people will believe anything.

4

u/capsaicinintheeyes 16h ago edited 15h ago

...okay, but that stuff can be refuted with on-scene phone footage, not to mention photos of the aftermath.

Maybe he means they only bomb cities after telling the population there to clear out? Still wouldn't cover them firing on civilians using humanitarian evac corridors in Mariupol, to give one example, but I suppose you could quibble that most of that was small arms fire (is it still "small arms" if it's mounted on a vehicle?)

3

u/ultimateskillchain 15h ago

Aside from the obvious of how wrong that is, what would even be the point? Is a military at war going to waste resources bombing nothing? If they thought about it for even a few seconds, the logic would fall apart.

8

u/architecture13 17h ago

There absolutely is a group wishing for the “bygone era” of the unified USSR to return. They see those territories as “theirs” because Soviet Russia conquered them.

In South Florida we see this tension because Hallandale Beach is filled with wealthy Russian ex-pats and their kids avoiding the draft but cheering on Putin.

Then 2 miles south in Aventura there’s a huge Ukrainian population, all with Ukraine support bumper stickers and politics.

It makes things here…interesting. But yeah, their equivalent to MAGA pining for the 1950 America (with all its repressed issues) is the Russian wealthy and the Moscovites that pine for the glory days of the USSR when they where “feared” as a world power.

6

u/frontfight 18h ago

Ive tuned into Russian channels even on youtube, it’s quite depression what they feed their audience ngl.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/PJballa34 16h ago

Himself

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

62

u/fuhglarix 18h ago

And flew a drone into the Chernobyl sarcophagus

7

u/redditor36 18h ago

Which set back the cleanup efforts by decades, unlikely we’ll see the last of the Chernobyl cleanup within this century

6

u/MrSmilingDeath 17h ago

Just a small correction: it was the New Safe Confinement that was damaged via drone, not the Sarcophagus

4

u/WeirdSysAdmin 18h ago edited 16h ago

Remember when they invaded and started digging trenches in the red forest?

5

u/ChristineBorus 18h ago

Because he probably wanted to blow it up and cause another nuclear explosion, the bastard.

24

u/WrappedInLinen 18h ago

And apartment buildings. His strategy was to get the populace to rebel against the war.

→ More replies (1)

11

u/TRexArmsGFY 18h ago

And apartment complexes and malls and train stations and hospitals and power stations but yeah I can see how he’d be confused about what a valid target is.

2

u/MATlad 13h ago

'They were valid military targets because they housed or were known to be frequented by military-aged individuals eligible for, or already in, service.'

/s

5

u/TheArmoredKitten 18h ago

Putin bombed Chernobyl for fucks sake. They sabotaged dams. They are finally being faced with the realities of their stupidity.

Turnabout is always fair.

3

u/jhawkkw 18h ago

He hit the one place on earth that should never have been a target: Chernobyl. They still haven't repaired the damaged containment building from that February 2025 drone strike.

2

u/darkenseyreth 18h ago

They attacked fucking Chernobyl with the hopes of spreading the radiation there

2

u/doubleo_maestro 18h ago

Putin fucking bombed Chernobyl. Cos yeah.... that ends badly for absolutely no one right?

2

u/fuckofakaboom 18h ago

Risking nuclear meltdown…

2

u/camcamfc 18h ago

Bro didn’t seem to give a shit about nuclear power plants but has the audacity to complain about oil facilities getting hit. Madness.

→ More replies (53)

573

u/Constant-Plant-9378 21h ago

[We] assumed that these were purely civilian facilities and could not be targets of any kind of attacks

Putin's hypocrisy remains one of his most defining traits. The piece of shit cannot get his subscription to Life cancelled soon enough.

(Edit: But unbelievably, Tankie fuckfaces on Reddit will arrive arguing that Ukraine is wrong to do these strikes)

45

u/Random_ICE_Agent 18h ago

That’s the problem with pieces of shit like Putin and Trump, their life subscriptions run way too long.

77

u/MyNamesAreStolen 20h ago

And. Trump likes him better than Carney.

33

u/manbruhpig 18h ago

Birds of a feather

30

u/Rocketeer006 18h ago

Fuck Trump and everyone that supports him

→ More replies (1)

20

u/Coryperkin15 18h ago

Likely as Putin helped him get elected.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/SixtySix_VI 14h ago

It’s literally Russian culture at this point to be like this though. Like it’s an actual poison, they just deny reality and lie without an ounce of shame. How can you deal with a whole country built on bad faith?

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (20)

3.4k

u/AMW1987 21h ago

Putin's Russia is a pure case study in cognitive dissonance.

2.1k

u/CumAmore 21h ago

I don't think he actually believes what he says, it's more a case study of how you get your countrymen to believe everything you say.

698

u/FlukemanFrancis 21h ago

It almost certainly splits along the good old 1/3 rule

1/3 of them support him

1/3 genuinely don’t care about anything except themselves and their immediate circle

1/3 are against it but in a society like Russia have learned to keep quiet. If Russia were normal that 1/3 would be doing standard political opposition and trying to persuade the 1/3 of selfish assholes to vote with them to overcome the 1/3 of mindless bootlickers.

552

u/ruchik 20h ago

This sounds like the US as well…

124

u/Ambitious_Bit_9389 20h ago

This person 1/3rds are not based on political stance though. The 1/3 of each category could be spread across the whole political spectrum.

203

u/Straight-Balance830 19h ago

In the American Revolution, a third were Loyalists, another third were revolutionaries, and the other third were indifferent. About the Nazis, someone remarked “a third of society killed the other third, and the last third just watched”. I think it’s a valid general rule of ideological distribution.

155

u/Yardsale420 19h ago

Dear America:
You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches.
—Werner Herzog

13

u/unurbane 19h ago

When was that written?

41

u/Odie_Odie 19h ago

He didnt say it really but the fabrication spread in 2017 according to Politifaq. I believe the quote but I just think it came from some tweet.

→ More replies (0)

10

u/chiPersei 18h ago

This quote was not said by filmmaker Werner Herzog; it originated from a satirical Twitter parody account @WernerTwertzog in 2017.

→ More replies (0)

12

u/CheshireCat78 18h ago

Just now. 😁

I’m sorry I will see myself out.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Adjective_Noun_2000 18h ago

It's a great quote but it's not from Herzog. It's from a Twitter account called Werner Twertzog (back in the days before Twitter was lost to the first 1/3).

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/werner-herzog-germany-quote/

→ More replies (4)

10

u/Xtj8805 18h ago

Yea ive seen numerous studies where in essentially any population of people and even most subpopulations always tend to split this way, 1/3 to each side and 1/3 in the middle cant be bothered. Even in more ideologically pure areas you still get it to some some extent where 1/3 are full steam, 1/3 tend to be overly cautious and 1/3 somewhere between/not interested in picking sides.

→ More replies (1)

21

u/mattmillze 20h ago

Same thing could be said about Americans. There are people on both sides that fit neatly into all three of these categories. Main difference is that ours flips every 4-8 years and people switch which category they're in at the time.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

12

u/Environmental-Video3 18h ago

Americans have the ability to, and the strongest will, to say whatever they want whenever they want.

The ratios of support for government are applicable to any country.

In terms of political opposition though Russians are bred to say nothing to nobody about anything. Ever. They used to be disappeared during Stalinist purges but now they just have poorly maintained windows.

3

u/fairlywired 16h ago

Maybe it's just the way it looks from the outside but it always seems like Americans will stage a couple protests for big issues but when there's no immediate change, most go back to just putting up with it and complaining online.

People seem to be more content with asking if it's time to do something than actually doing something.

6

u/derinus 18h ago

That ability is fading. We'll see about that will power when ICE knocks on the door

→ More replies (1)

2

u/bigrv 16h ago

Also they have those special handguns that allow you to commit suicide by shooting yourself twice in the back of the head.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

3

u/AdventurousVast6510 15h ago

except that the comment you replied to is untrue

3

u/noir_lord 14h ago

The US is where Russia was 25ish years ago, I didn't think the US would get this bad this fast given Russia always had weak democratic institutions (given they where a decade old and the US was 250 years old and mostly stable since late 19th) but here we are.

Americans if you want to see your current future in a decade or so at most, look at Russia circa ~2015 basically.

5

u/Helmett-13 18h ago

If that was true our prisons were be full to capacity with political opponents...well, the ones that weren't tossed out of windows.

Americans aren't scared to speak up about the shitty things their government perpetrates.

When was the last time a "No More Kings" protest was held in Moscow? Ah, yes, that's right.

2

u/tdog_2005 17h ago

Yes the world would be a lot better place with out Putin and Trump , both evil pos

→ More replies (12)

49

u/Accomplished-Cow-234 20h ago

It's hard to meaningfully organize effective dissent, because so much of the visible opposition is itself a honeypot. Putinism has really brought rot all the way to the core of an already deeply damaged society.

18

u/oops_all_memes 17h ago

I knew a person who worked on multiple projects lead by Navalny. So it made it comfortable for me to share a lot of information with them that I would otherwise keep to myself. Including information that would've completely compromised me

Well, yesterday I accidentally stumbled on an interview where that person explains that they used to work with FSB 🤡 For context, I left Russia because someone reported me to authorities due to certain activities that the gestapo deemed inappropriate. I now wonder if it had anything to do with that person

That is to say, you are absolutely right and the mofos have their hands in everyone's arses

4

u/Accomplished-Cow-234 17h ago

Seems like the only social trust you can really have is trust that someone is compromised and for everyone else, that could be you. It is a sad state of affairs.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Wyrmnax 17h ago

Well, it is not just Putinism. It tends to happen on all types of dictatorships. Because there is always a lot of people that are discontent with the government, and if the people in power let it show, it gains strenght quickly.

So you have to stomp it out before it even begins, all the time. It is also one of the reasons why free press is such a important concept of democracy - because you need to be able to criticize the people in power openly to be able to steer the country in another direction.

4

u/Accomplished-Cow-234 16h ago

For sure. The FSB didn't invent the tactic, it is just incredible how many pies their fingers are in.

2

u/Lepelotonfromager 13h ago

That can work in the short run but just like with the soviet union it's a rot that eventually collapses society. If people can't meaningfully criticise or provide feedback, if the elite become a protected class then the corruption just sets in.

Just look at the Russian armoury turning out to be about half of what was on paper because so much stuff had been embezzled or left to rot.

31

u/jwyn3150 18h ago

I’ve been to and lived in Russia. His support is closer to 60% or even more. Everyone over 50 loves him due to what happened in the 90s , basically. Generalization but that’s what it felt like in SPB which is the most liberal city in Russia, where funny enough is where he’s from.

12

u/Lia64893 18h ago

I was only there for a month two years ago and you’re right. All of my mom’s friends and family voted for him except my uncle and maybe my cousin. I had a girl my age tell me that Russia isn’t invading Ukraine, they’re defending themselves from Ukraine’s attacks. And that was July 2024.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

7

u/unknown-one 19h ago

and thats the problem

horrible incompetence of western countries and even ukraine in doing any psyops on ruZZians

at the same time ruZZia pays politicians, influencers, people working for government, media, celebrities etc to create mess in western countries with propaganda and fake new

3

u/magnus150 18h ago

I mean, it IS the country that taught me that "defenestration" happens enough that there is a whole word for it.

2

u/Detox208 18h ago

This is America

→ More replies (15)

36

u/Westerdutch 19h ago

I don't think he actually believes what he says

Russia has a long and proud history where everyone lies, everyone knows they all lie and they all play along anyways because telling the truth or showing a divide in opinion makes everyone look worse than just playing along with the lie.

25

u/MyUsername2459 18h ago

This is the same civilization that brought us "We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us."

That sort of "we all know this is BS, but let's just pretend it's normal" is baked pretty deeply into their society after generations of Tsars and dictators.

3

u/vladikusi 18h ago

Funnily enough, my Russian university teacher (she was teaching workplace ethics/psychology or something along those lines, but absolutely loved to share her political opinions for whatever reason) attributed this phenomenon to Russia's rapid westernisation and transition to capitalism in the '90s. She argued that the newly established system didn't fit the Russian spirit and only encouraged the things you're talking about, bringing out the worst tendencies of people. She also recounted some anecdotes about first Western factories in Russia facing the harsh reality of the local workers. (Though, of course, NOW Russia is heading in absolutely the right direction!!!)

I honestly disagree with the notion of it being something "cultural" and deeply ingrained, but for what its worth, I find it interesting that even the Russian patriots would kinda agree with you, just with a different idea of who/what to blame.

5

u/BigUptokes 18h ago

The word "hypernormalisation" was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. He introduced the word in his book "Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation" (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s. He says everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, the mass delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy, with everyone accepting it as the new norm rather than pretend, an effect Yurchak termed "hypernormalisation".

2

u/ContractElegant4310 17h ago

I've talked to older Russian immigrants who came to the US literally as soon as they could in the early 90s, and they said that no one, not even the party apparatchiks, believed the stupid propaganda on TASS or in the pages of Pravda or Izvestia in the 70s-80s. Everyone knew the system was a mess but until Gorbachev came along the cost of expressing any skepticism or dissent was too high, so almost everyone just played along to avoid any trouble.

3

u/BloodShotEye13 18h ago

This sounds like my North American workplace.

2

u/Puzzled-Relief2916 18h ago

Sounds like a certain orange buffoon took a page out of the Putin playbook.

2

u/Westerdutch 18h ago

I genuinely doubt he is aware that he is lying, hes so far gone that he thinks whatever he makes up is now the truth and that's so much worse.

→ More replies (2)

19

u/MishkaZ 18h ago

There was a russian leftist who actually talked about what the brain washing that goes on in Russia is like.

It's not this grand "WE ARE THE BEST AND EVERYONE SUCKS, GLORY TO PUTIN! GLORY TO RUSSIA". It's constantly at every single turn lying and spinning and goal post moving for decades on top of disappearing anyone who challenged the regime. Real brain washing isn't falling into the spin, but real brain washing is keeping your head down. When someone brings up politics, you respond with "yeah, but you know, it's complicated" and then shrugging and walking away. Not putting an extra ounce of thought into it.

It's not brain washing in the sense of blind patriotism. It's brain washing in the sense of being numb to the noise that is politics.

Just something to think about. Really changed my perspective when I became aware of this type of numbing.

3

u/the_jivest_turkey 11h ago

That's illuminating, thanks for sharing

139

u/Constant-Plant-9378 20h ago

MAGA was originally a Russian export product.

120

u/terid3 20h ago

Yup. Remember the "lock her up" rallies in 2016? Proven Russian Psy-op. Pepperidge farm remembers.

70

u/Good_Restaurant15 20h ago

I remember when the NRA was found to have been working for the russians, having a russian agent in it, and doling out russian money like it was going out of style...

Funny how that just - fizzled away.

27

u/terid3 19h ago

Same here. And yeah, it all just got swept under the rug while Trump and Maga hollered about the "Russia Hoax" painting themselves as victims.

17

u/Tall-Introduction414 19h ago

Classic DARVO. MAGA is an entire political ideology based on mental illness, narcisism and supporting evil.

3

u/MattinglyBaseball 18h ago

Remember when the online “Progressives” continued to push ‘both sides’ despite this? It’s the ongoing psyops to divide the left.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/fugaziozbourne 18h ago

See also: Canada

2

u/terid3 13h ago

Yes, I was very relieved when Trump pissed Canadians off and derailed Maple Maga. The danger is still there though. If we get of here alive both the U.S. and Canada need a come to Jesus moment regarding their colonial/imperialist roots.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/MyUsername2459 18h ago

I've got a wonderful meme saved on my hard drive, I'd share it here if I could.

It's a picture of Vladimir Putin captioned:

Buy American!

Donald Trump is the best purchase I ever made.

→ More replies (4)

10

u/JarasM 19h ago

Well, that's exactly the case. The Kremlin would never admit to hitting civilian targets. Internal media will paint Russian attacks as surgical strikes against military targets, and Ukrainian attacks as terrorism against civilian infrastructure.

9

u/Haunting-South-962 19h ago

I don't know, man. After that many years of lying, it is hard to peel off the truths from reality:) he might actually believe in all those things by now. You can't be that consistently and convincingly crazy without total immersion.

14

u/Snitsie 20h ago

Honestly he's had people say "yes" to him for so long now i wouldn't be surprised if he truly believed all he says. Like unlimited power destroys a humans mind.

11

u/smartestgiant 20h ago

It’s notable how leaders who have been in power for a long time can become somewhat insulated from everyday realities when most of the people around them tend to agree with them. Prolonged authority can sometimes create an environment where accurate feedback is limited. Did you see the recent reports about a temporary drop in petrol prices in a Russian city during a presidential visit, with the prices returning to previous levels shortly after the visit ended? It raises the question of whether local adjustments are sometimes made around official trips, either for practical reasons or in connection with public optics.

2

u/ourlittlevisionary 18h ago

A modern age Potemkin village!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (11)

14

u/duxnrunz 20h ago

Yes, just like a lot of MAGAs

13

u/DisastrousAcshin 19h ago

It's wild that older magas are the same people that were aggressively anti Russian through the 80s and 90s

→ More replies (1)

3

u/cisned 19h ago

It’s more like he didn’t think Ukraine could do it because of the lack of long range missiles

→ More replies (17)

26

u/xeoron 21h ago

Just like many in power that are pro corruption 

16

u/CoffeeDrinkerMao 20h ago

Nah Russia is just spread too thing to protect their oil refineries. They just don’t want to admit it.

8

u/Fractoos 20h ago

Not really. He just thought he could do it and they wouldn't retaliate because he thought the US wouldn't let them, which was true originally. Major miscalculation.

→ More replies (1)

9

u/weededorpheus32 21h ago

I would point and laugh if this were a civil matter

8

u/HeavenlyChickenWings 19h ago

He knows what he is saying

"They attacked civilian structures everyone! See?! They are the bad guys!"

4

u/thenwhat 19h ago

No, he knows very well that he's lying. He's always lying.

→ More replies (2)

4

u/Mark_Logan 20h ago

Putin is a gold medalist in cognitive gymnastics.

Though the IOC did disqualify most of the Russian contenders during the widespread doping scandal revealed after the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

→ More replies (2)

8

u/FromImgurToReddit 21h ago

More for internal consumption and vatniks outside.

2

u/Contemplatetheveiled 18h ago

Not at all. They know exactly what they're doing and exactly who their audience is.

→ More replies (57)

76

u/teckers 21h ago

It doesn't even make sense, does no military equipment use refined oil? Are the proceeds of export sales not being spent on the war effort? It's directly connected to the military. It's mad if they ran war games on that assumption. They are very good as bad assumptions.

17

u/canspop 20h ago

No, no, no. The ruZZian military doesn't used refined fuels such as diesel & jet fuel (amongst others). It's run entirely from a never-ending stream of hot air emanating from the kremlin.

4

u/pjm8786 18h ago

They’re 4.5 years into a 10 day special military operation. Theres no way they seriously war gamed for this phase of conflict

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

191

u/Phoenix2111 21h ago edited 15h ago

Yeah, the headline is misleading as fuck. At no point have Russia admitted 'We were mistaken' in relation to preparedness for Ukrainians attack. They just said they were mistaken for 'thinking civilian infrastructure was not a target'.

It's the equivalent of saying 'I'm sorry for how you felt about what I did' and someone claiming you apologised lol.

They're trying to make out Ukraine played dirty, and they were 'mistaken' for thinking Ukraine would be 'honourable' etc. Etc. It's all internal propaganda crap, and they've definitely not admitted the fact that war with Ukraine was a mistake, or that they are in any way unprepared for attacks against 'valid targets'

Which would be better more honest things for them to admit lol

Edir: Given this has a decent amount of responses, and based on the content of a couple of those, just making sure it's clear, I'm not suggesting any kind of support for Russia in this conflict, or that they shouldn't be mistaken for starting it, or that it's actually a surprise to them that these are targets.  At best, they may have thought they wouldn't be, due to assuming Ukraine wouldn't be able to hit them. But frankly it's more likely they didn't give a fuck about wasting resources protecting their people's infrastructure (let's be honest, the oligarchs will have generators etc) and this is just propaganda and saving face to ensure people continue to tow the line as their relatives get thrown in the grinder.

21

u/gizmozed 19h ago

Why wouldn't it be a target? Ukrainian civilian infrastructure has been a target of the Russians since almost the beginning.

21

u/big_trike 19h ago

But that's different because they were trying to fix the problem of corruption and nazis in government. With bombs and murder.

3

u/MyUsername2459 18h ago

They simply never thought Ukraine would be able to, or would dare to, actually strike Russia..

For a long time, Putin blustered that any strike on the actual Russian homeland would be met with nuclear response.

They never thought Ukraine would be able to launch such strikes when they began the war, and even if they could, they thought their nuclear arsenal was an invincible passive deterrent.

Ukraine called the bluff, and Putin folded. Putin wasn't going to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine.

3

u/ClaireTrice 17h ago

Targeting the power grid and fuel reserves has been Putin's calling card, when he isn't busy targeting housing and hospitals...hell, he shelled too close to Chernobyl for heaven'ssake....

2

u/impulse_thoughts 18h ago

Why wouldn't it be a target?

The most likely answer is that they simply didn't anticipate Ukraine to have: 1 the range to hit these targets (remember it was only 1 year ago that Ukraine had to sneak in drones hidden in trucks to have the range) 2. to have enough quantities of these long range weapons to effectively target and get past air defenses to hit them.

And by the time they recognized it, they were too late to respond with appropriate defenses, and in enough quantities. Hubris. Similar (lack of) reasoning Trump went into Iran when so many American bases and assets (including Amazon datacenters that were hit that caused widespread AWS outages at the time) were in range of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones... years after this war has continuously shown the effectiveness and long-range abilities of the exact same cheap Shahed drones.

2

u/ourlittlevisionary 18h ago

IIRC, Russian forces took over the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and dug up trenches stirring up radioactive dust while holding civilians hostage. Then they retreated. Then one of their combat drones struck the confinement shell on reactor 4, damaging the shell and starting a fire (thankfully, there have been no signs of an increase in radiation from that attack).

2

u/I-Like-To-Talk-Tax 16h ago

Ukrainian civilian infrastructure has been a target of the Russians since almost the beginning.

Putin's statement is specifically ignoring this fact and is attempting to gaslight people into thinking that Ukraine is acting inappropriately.

→ More replies (4)

3

u/MyUsername2459 18h ago

They just said they were mistaken for 'thinking civilian infrastructure was not a target'.

They never really thought, when they started this war, that Ukraine would be able to do anything to meaningfully damage them.

They expected to win total control within 48 hours, and rapidly annex all of Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

They expected relatively light casualties, with zero damage to the Russian homeland.

54 months later. . .Ukraine is still fighting, Russia has suffered massive losses where even victory at this point would by Pyrrhic. The best and brightest of Russia has fled. Their entire Cold War era arsenal has been destroyed, and the supposed power of the Russian Army has been proven to be far, far weaker than anyone imagined.

→ More replies (3)

50

u/skend24 21h ago

They do it only for internal propaganda.

2

u/RedApple655321 18h ago

That's what I'm assuming as well. Sounds a lot better than "we were militarily unprepared to protect these assets." I don't think Putin really thinks that these refineries were off limits based the strikes that Russia has done on Ukrainian infrastructure. He's a liar; he's not stupid.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

81

u/IndividualSkill3432 21h ago

sumed that these were purely civilian facilities and could not be targets of any kind of attacks even amid an armed conflict,”

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."

12

u/Capable-Parsnip-9615 19h ago

Came here just looking for someone quoting this

→ More replies (9)

21

u/Flessuh 20h ago

From what I understand the US and EU did not allow those kind of strikes with their weapons. So basically he is saying they did not expect Ukraine to develop medium/long strike capabilities

21

u/rehab170 20h ago

Ukraine assumed Russia would not directly attack civilians and commit a massive amount of war crimes. But in this regard, we were mistaken. Ukraines adversary’s, unfortunately, think differently.

12

u/big_trike 19h ago

Russia also kidnapped Ukrainian children.

5

u/Tall-Introduction414 18h ago

And bombed civilian apartment buildings, an old favorite terrorist crime of Putins.

23

u/sumr4ndo 20h ago

The Russians entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Mariupol, Kyev, Bakhmut, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.

10

u/Gh0sth4nd 20h ago

Well bombing powerplants hospitals and schools for me but not for thee.

And Ukraine is not bombing powerplants hospitals and schools just refineries and warehouses.

6

u/ash_ninetyone 20h ago

When you spend time attacking civilians and civilians infrastructure, you can't be shocked when the other side starts flinging it back at you

3

u/PopUpClicker 20h ago

He is a liar. All he does is lie.

3

u/att0mic 20h ago

Doing something to others and then crying when the same is done to them is Russia's MO.

3

u/Dardlem 20h ago

Russia was bombing oil & gas industry in Ukraine back in 2022 and now they cry when they get hit back.

3

u/MostJudgment3212 20h ago

It’s internal propaganda. All Russian citizens were being told that Russia has only been attacking military.

3

u/Imperative-Primitive 19h ago

Dude literally has been structurally bombing the most civilian infrastructures of all: houses.

3

u/just-a-random-accnt 18h ago

You know the saying,

"All is fair in love and 3 day special military operations"

2

u/Feligris 20h ago

I'm guessing WW2 never happened in the alternative reality which Putin and Kremlin currently inhabit, given how denial of oil and attacks against energy infrastructure were pivotal in crippling the enemy over time.

Though I'm guessing that they expected the Western countries/NATO to be so overly pacifist and reliant on low fuel prices that they'd sanction Ukraine for attacking Russian oil refineries, or they're weaving yet another narrative where Ukraine is the bad guy, or both.

2

u/deja-roo 19h ago

Facilities that produce diesel and jet fuel are not civilian facilities.

2

u/Romnonaldao 19h ago

Like any bully, he wants to have all the advantages and his opponent to have all the restrictions

2

u/Dshark 18h ago

Putin fucking sucks huge bags of dicks.

2

u/superlemon118 18h ago

Putin is the definition of a crybully

2

u/Square-Competition48 18h ago

“The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them.” - Arthur Harris, RAF Bomber Command

2

u/ZephoBarx 17h ago

Rules haven’t changed. Just PR work to lay the ground for some fucked up stuff he’s about to do.

→ More replies (215)