And so it begins...the excuses! 🤣
You seem to confuse me with someone else, I've made no defence of Putin here or anywhere for that matter, I'm well aware of his crimes. I've systematically called out the rank hypocrisy of US/UK imperialism and their faux concern for democracy, sovereignty and human rights. It's far from whataboutery but I dare say you know that.
The US is in a league of its own in terms of direct and proxy interventions to destabilise or unseat governments who don't toe the line. They've been directly involved in some of the worst atrocities of the 21st century thus far so away with your sanctimony and perhaps get an education.
Various reports of foreign fighter jets have been patrolling over the skies of eastern Ukraine,
Skies over eastern Ukraine have been closed to air traffic since Russia shot down flight MH17
Every country has ministry of defense.....
It explains a lot about your mentality, that you think NATO qualifies as a "defensive alliance".
That's a bit like when Britain changed it's "ministry of war" into the "ministry of defense"... 😂
"Hmm, now which country shall we defend this time?" "Let me see now, what country full of poor people have we yet to screw up and steal all of their resources? ... Is there any left?" lol
@Shao Kahn you Been to Ukraine ...
Yeah right .
Probably never left mammies back room.
But Ukraine isn't getting broke up anytime soon ,no matter what claim you and others make up
Cut out the name calling @correct horse battery staple
Can't handle that other people have a different opinion?
Nope, i'm questioning the posters assertion that all invasions are illegal.
The Afghanistan operation was under a NATO and UN mandate.
Are you saying now that the UN is an American lackey?
Don't worry, Ukraine will be carved up into so many pieces in the coming years, that nobody will be able to tell which borders go where. Like a big smashed up jigsaw.
Unfortunately, that's what you get when you go running to the yanks and disrespect your historical neighbors. Sad for the good citizens of Ukraine, but their own leadership brought them down this road.
And as we can see after the annexation of Crimea, everybody kept doing business with Putin and Russia the last time. They'll keep the show on the road whatever happens this time as well. They all have bills to pay, and nobody is prepared to cut their own nose off to back a failed state like Ukraine.
There is a valuable lesson here. Respect thy neighbor, and beware of which friends you court. We have the luxury over here, of cozying up to the yanks with no real consequences. We even let them use shannon, again zero negative consequences. It's not the same in other parts of the world. If you fraternize with the enemy, you're playing Russian roulette with your very future as going concern.
It's a shame things had to go this way really, Ukraine was such a beautiful place and nice people too.
Like I said, if you want peace and stability in your neighborhood, the first thing you have to do is chase the damn yanks out of town. Ask anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with them in their region of the world. Just like the Brits, historically, they poison everything they touch.
I wrote that last bit especially for you @Gatling... I know you'll appreciate it. 😂
Ah so you're back tracking on your earlier assertion.
So you're saying that when the US (and lackeys) invaded Iraq twice, that was illegal.
When the US (and lackeys) invaded Afghanistan, that too was illegal.
Correct?
Ya know what I'm enjoying about all this? These lads are having me agree with posters that I haven't agreed with in a long time. It's like this is undoing all their hard work at polarising opinion.
Lol.
Its ongoing
More equipment has arrived over the last 24 hour's , including 60 transport and helicopter gunships .
Remember in 2008 they held exercises on the Georgian border , when they announced the end of the exercise and we're withdrawing from the area ,they about turned and entered Georgia
It is when your troops are in Sovereign states sizing parts of it and declaring independent nations of the parts .
It's not really difficult to understand
Has the Russian invasion been downgraded from “very imminent” to “imminent” yet?
There is nothing illegal about a state officially recognizing the independence of another.
Those seem to be a large convey moving near the border within 10km, but at the same time tanks are loaded on trains near Crimea. Not sure if it is a withdrawal or some other play.
The timing of any attack is all in Putins hands, though it'd suit him better if Ukraine were to attack, hence the antics in the Duma today. OSINT seems to be indicating "sideways" movement of Russian troops. Time will tell.
It's all a sham ,in the meantime they have more or less annexed the east by reconising the two separatists areas as independent states all illegal
Just listening to Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO press conference. He was asked about Russian withdrawal, replied that they had seen no signs of Russian de-escalation, quite the opposite and goes on to list what's been moved up towards Ukraine.
I suppose it's a "curious case" in that foreigners/immigrants who get deeply involved in politics & doings of the country they move to are quite curious (and something I find hard to understand), but am sure he's far from unique there, and its not always indicative of what I think you imply/suggest.
The Irish Times article makes it quite clear he is not a "man on the street"/some random Irish head visiting or with little connection to Ukraine anyway, given article says he participated in maidan, and is also willing to take up arms against Russian invaders should they launch this war that all are worrying about!
I have not read the tabloid stuff to see if they were passing him off as something he was not. You may not be aware of it, alot of posters on this thread really don't know much about Ireland for some reason and expose that in comments the odd time, but this country is quite lax on dual or multiple citizenships, people here holding foreign allegiances and the like (possibly because of our history).
If Ukraine's govt. are unhappy with him & what he is doing am sure it is very easy for them to expel him. Anyway that's it from me on the subject...
Yeah I had mentioned before that this could be a case of taking Donbass. If the Russians stretch the Ukrainians out by making them think it's a full scale invasion then they can make a push into Donbass with less resistance.
The problem here is how the west responds. If they apply sanctions then the Russians can start to affect gas supplies. China is having an energy shortage and are already building pipelines so there is somewhere for the surplus to go, eventually. Another problem is if there are sanctions it puts them in a nothing to lose scenario and they may well push to take as much of Ukraine as possible, taking Odessa being a big win in controlling the Black Sea.
That's fairly simple. Putin doesn't get judged domestically based on economic performance alone. In somewhere like Ireland the economy gets trotted out as the be all and end all in terms of evaluating a prosperous society. Look next door. Brexit wasn't won over completely on the potential for a stronger economy. There are a lot topics that interest the average joe in the street.
It isn't correct to always and only think economically but that's what we do here in Ireland. Which isn't the correct way to look at things either IMO. Our own wee country has a lot of societal issues despite strong GDP numbers.
Back onto the economic argument for a moment though. I wouldn't necessarily say Putin wants to destabilise the EU but he wants to weaken it. Less bargaining power among a fragmented Europe means they can charge what they want for their gas. A bit of instability can help bring that about though.
Wonder how many Russian soldiers will be deployed to the Ukrainian regions declared independent by russia
Ukraine aren't in the EU. Conflict in Ukraine (unless everyone got drawn in) wouldn't have a huge impact on the EU. See the last almost decade for examples.
Russia's aim isn't bombastic gains. They're playing the long game in Ukraine, they still have troops waiting to tell the "separatists" to make their move. If you look at a map and see Crimea and Sevastopol and Moldova another base, they are gradually cutting Ukraine off. Seize bits moving in from the East til there's a manageable rump left that poses no threat. They tried the Belarus tactic with Ukraine but it didn't work so now it's time for other tactics.
The thing about state controlled media is that the general majority of the Public don't believe it any more.....they recognize it for what it is, State propaganda.
Stopped reading at that point.
Can anyone give me one good reason (without the new ‘Soviet empire’ conspiracy nonsense please) why Russia wants to ‘destabilise’ their biggest trading partner the EU? Don’t they want to sell gas to Germany. Isn’t a strong German economy in their interests?
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