I said nothing about the US.
You managed to avoid mentioning how Russia carved off parts of their country in 2014.
Many countries in Europe have minorities belonging to the dominant nationality in their neighbour. It doesn't give that neighbour the right to invade and grab land.
Why have such faith in US intelligence.
They have got it spectacularly wrong many times in the past.
Seems clear to me the invasion is imminent based on the clarity of the warnings from US intelligence and now the seeming playing out of attempts to get Ukraine to retaliate against unprovoked shelling in the eastern regions by the Russian backed separatists. Playing out exactly as predicted while Putin gets desperate for his excuse.
Thanks to the forethought and clarity of NATO members telegraphing to the public every expectation of Russia's plans Putin won't get away with it and will be hit with really, really damaging sanctions if/when it happens.
No one to blame but themselves.
Let's put this nonsense to bed. It's been Kiev for 40 years of my life.
It's Calcutta, it's Bombay, it's Peking, it's Kiev.
Anyone, who when asked by their barber, "any holidays planned? ", says 'yes friend, I'm off to Deutschland' or 'it's España for me and the family this year'; feel free to say Kyiv, but until I see Bird's Eye change the spelling on the frozen chicken product, it's Kiev for me.
There was around 100,000 troops on the border in spring last year. I'm not going to argue about the amount of troops that are there now as I'm not sure how they done their calculations, although the Ukrainian president did say recently that USA satellite images alone are insufficient to judge the amount of troops on the border, citing that many of the tents included in the calculations appeared to be empty, although he did admit it's the best we have to go on.
They would still deny it ,
We've had posters deny that Russia has troops on the border at all , even after Russia said we're there ,we had denials immediately after on here
Well, there is a search function. Go waste your own time.
Stalker. Sure who has time for that. I'm just following along THIS thread. I wouldn't have appetite nor interest in following you around in whatever other nonsense threads you are in. But based on performance here I'd say some trump and covid ones are in the mix.
Amirigh..
I gave you a one line response? You're projecting a relationship that doesn't exist. Stalker much?
There was never 3/4 of the Russian active military on that border. Enough with the lies.
There is now though.
They won't be going alone,to varying degrees Austria, France and the Dutch are there as well.
Germany will undermine these sanctions same as it did after Crimea. The Germans are pragmatic, often to a fault.
Why keep responding to me then Swallowfield. Evidently you are interested in what I'm saying enough to construct your paragraphs of stuff you clearly copied off all of those social media sights 'you aren't on' lol..
I don't see much evidence for a full scale invasion against Ukraine apart from the troops on the border, which should be noted that there were a similar amount of troops there last year in spring and years before that as well.
There is a realistic possibility they could invade the pro Russian territory of Donbas like they did Crimea but little to no possibility of them trying to take the whole of Ukraine like the US are claiming.
Listermint - Its a new name I've coined for someone who thinks I care what they think.
What are you talking about?
Swallowfield.
Its a new name I've coined for someone who swallows an entire field of bull and regurgitates it as facts or 'in the know'
By extension you are pretending the US is not an imperialist power?
The reality is Ukraine is a multicultural state. Ethnically Ukrainian in the west and north. Ethnically Russian in the east and south. That is a broad generalisation, covering language and heritage. The ethnic Russians see a connection with Russia in their best interests. The ethnic Ukrainians see a connection with "the West" in their best interests. A responsible Ukrainian leadership would steer a middle course, trying to avoid forcing either group into a hard choice. That is not how things have panned out - in 2014 there was a violent overthrow of a democratically elected Ukrainian government by pro-Western factions. This has forced a hard choice.
The pro-western Ukrainian government has followed this up by various repressive measures against the ethnic Russian minority - outlawing education in Russian, outlawing media in Russian and placing ethnic Russian politicians under arrest for treason. If you want to make a comparison to Irish nationalism, the Ukrainian treatment of their ethnic Russian minority who found themselves in Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union reminds me more of how the Northern Irish government treated Irish Catholics who found themselves on the wrong side of the border after the partition of Ireland.
Let us be serious now. Unless the solution is ethnic cleansing (something I have seen proposed by more rabid supporters of Ukraine) then the solution to the conflict needs to involve Ukrainian recognition of the ethnic Russian minority and their right to be educated in their own language, to enjoy their own media and elect their own political representatives with some autonomy from a hostile Ukrainian government. A Good Friday style agreement would go a long way to resolving the issue.
Honestly you think Germany will go it alone if Putin invades Ukraine with 3/4 of its active military.
Is that what you believe......
If what Biden said last week comes true, that we will see a full scale invasion against Ukraine in the next few days that will include an overwhelming attack on Kyiv the capital, then I'll take back everything I said and I'll be on here ruthlessly condemning Russia. I'm just saying I don't believe either him or Boris Johnson.
Although I do think some sort of agreement will eventually have to be made in regards to the pro Russian territory like Donbas and Crimea, the situation in Crimea and Donbas is far more similar to the Chechen situation than the Irish situation.
Honestly?
Because they've no interest in further damaging EU solidarity post brexit.
Well for one, it's spelt Kyiv.
He still has every reason to think Germany will be there when needed down the line.
Why wouldn't he. Nothing in action has indicated otherwise, cheap words like the above tweet this do not count for much.
We've enough information to have a relatively informed discussion.
I don't buy the whole whataboutery and screams of 'give me the evidence' coming from some quarters. There's plenty of evidence piled up at this stage that Russia is planning a major invasion.
It seems only a manual headcount of troops on the borders would satisfy some people.
Lol 🤣
An invasion of the little avenue behind the best chip shop in Kiev is unlikely.
Next week you'll be saying that they will take the front of the chip shop but not occupy the cooking space.
LOL
As far as I understand it, there isn't massive support among ordinary Russians for an invasion of the Ukraine. So Putin is defying his own people if he orders this to go ahead.
I try to avoid personalizing events like these because the world is so messy and power is diffused through multi-layered systems, but Putin is going solo here, giving two fingers to his own people and most of all his serving military who he is putting harm's way.
I wonder are there powerful Russians looking on, perhaps having lived in the West for a while (for all its faults) and thinking... if the Russian State took a different approach domestically and overseas, we could be one of the wealthiest, most prosperous countries in the world. I hope so. Ordinary Russians deserve better.
I think their foreign minister is from the Greens rather than the Social Democrats though so is less reflexively pro russian.
one of the many words I'd use to describe it... but it's not about me..
if you're happy to conclude Sky is just propaganda, maybe you should look at the other sides equivalent
Looks like Germany coming to putins rescue isn't going to pan out the way he hoped.
Or they way the likely crew on here thought either.
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