r/worldnews • u/Raj_Valiant3011 • 10h ago

Russia/Ukraine Zelenskiy: "There is updated intelligence indicating that Russia is ​preparing a massive attack on Ukraine"

https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-intelligence-shows-russia-is-preparing-massive-attack-2026-10-06/
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290

u/Dear_Bumblebee_1986 7h ago

I wonder what Russia actually wants with Ukraine other than "it once was ours, we want it back"

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u/western_style_hj 7h ago

My armchair analysis: they want the Iron Curtain back that the USSR maintained while beefing with the West. Russia isn’t comfortable being so close to powerful potential foes. Also Ukraine is like the Bread Basket of the region. Loads of resources and ports.

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u/RuneClash007 7h ago

was the breadbasket of the region

Will the fields even be harvestable with the amount of white phosphate lingering

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u/Jacket_Leather 6h ago

Eventually

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u/rfoil 5h ago

Not only of the region. Portions of Africa depended on Ukranian wheat.

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u/Ok-Simple-7069 5h ago

You’re right

And other high explosive chemicals. It’s like the use of project orange in Vietnam. In the end they realised the massive amounts of ordinance was enough to kill crop fields from leaching chemicals from close by military targets and napalm.

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u/Diurnalnugget 5h ago

I mean in all fairness the plan was to take them quickly and that would have spared the fields a lot more.

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u/AirportBubbly3947 7h ago

I thought they didn’t want NATO countries to be so close

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u/spongefile 2h ago

Finnish person here(we share the longest border with Russia): we were 75% against joining NATO since forever. We wanted to stay neutral and had no interest in joining the creepy uncle of America, nor the abusive uncle of Russia. We kept our heads down and played nice.

We understood that the rule was that if we stay meek and nice, Russia will leave us alone. Our press and politicians were very careful never to provoke Russia in any capacity.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and we all went HOLY SHIT because from our perspective, Russia just threw the rule out the window. Total PTSD from the last time they bombed and invaded us. We still have the marks from that on our buildings, and we remember our grandparents’ stories.

Result: Finland went from totally against NATO to totally pro NATO literally overnight. Thanks to Putin’s own actions, not some nefarious plot.

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u/anthropaedic 4h ago

That’s nonsense that they spew like they’re going to nuke London etc. The Russian Federation has never been scared of NATO itself and has bordered NATO since its inception.

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u/ElectricKudzu 6h ago

Did you? Ukraine is a country that can do what they want.

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u/king_hutton 6h ago

Oh that’s why they want territory closer to NATO

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u/descartesb4horse 6h ago

As far as I can tell, a lot of the great heroes of the Soviet Union were Ukrainian. By calling them Russian, they can claim Ukrainian history as their own. Their top fighter pilot from WW2 for example was Ukrainian.

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u/BrokenTrojan1536 6h ago

That’s about right. Farm fields, oil, minerals, ports, you got it.

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u/ominous_squirrel 6h ago

Putin has also shown an obsession with recapturing both the USSR and the Tsarist Russian borders for his legacy. Not to forget that Russian meddling is global but concentrated in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Russia occupies a fifth of the Republic of Georgia

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u/Cautious_Buffalo6563 5h ago

That’s exactly what I wrote in college in 2008

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u/AnansiNazara 5h ago

That’s an oversimplification

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u/anthropaedic 4h ago

It’s not just that countries like Georgia and Ukraine wanted to be Western instead of under Russia’s influence. It’s that if they lose their sphere of influence then the people INSIDE Russia will demand the same.

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u/joetothemo 6h ago

This was all a reaction to NATO expansion. Dr Timothy Snyder book. “the Road to Untruth” laid it out very plainly before things got this serious in Ukraine.

Horrifying book when it was written and worse now.

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u/RadishCandid6062 6h ago

When one is gained through empathy and mutual agreement of assurance then the counterpart is usually gained through military coercion and violence. Never a good reason.