Except they'd have had some kind of justification with their countrymen being burned out of their homes and a huge movement of refugees because of it. Rather than trying to get people to evacuate for no reason (unless they're looking for a "clear" battlefield).
Can't see how all of this has not been cleared with Xi months ago.
Greetings Professor Falken, would you like to play a game?......
Any fear Putin would take a two pronged approach and invade from the West too? Maybe along the Wild Atlantic Way?
Biden doesn't seem to care much about anything.
That fella's a knob, but anyone that calls for other people to put themselves in harm's way just so they can posture about geopolitics or win an argument is vile. In any case, what Irish Dads say is pretty irrelevant when it comes to these matters, so let them at it.
Of all the stupid posts I have seen in the history of boards, this is my new number one.
Your a child with keyboard
If Trump was president Putin would never invade, as Trump was as mad as him, and would respond in kind.
Biden is weak on the other hand.
Freedom for the ethnic Russian minorities in Ukraine.
A great day comrades we sail into history.
Irish centrist dads don't get enough credit for their geopolitical knowledge.
It would be some escalation alright.
Tbf I never thought he would go as far as he has. I've seen a very unhinged side of Putin today, much more than I thought he was capable of.
I was certain it was posturing to gain concessions and show strength domestically. I won't hang my hands in shame but I'll admit I was wrong.
So you're saying Russia holds all the cards, and the sanctions are just a joke.
I understand the concern over Ukraine.
I don't understand this idea that we'll be living in some post-nuclear winter in June.
Briany, you are an astute observer. The Russians don't bluster they just act. So when bloviating is the order of the day then one knows that other things are afoot. The US has lost this round Nd lost it quite badly. Russia has now announced that the y will recognise Donbas calls for independence. All the **** on this thread hammering about invasion.
Taking on a NATO member would be by many orders of magnitude a bigger deal than taking Ukraine. Christ. This is bad enough.
Might do the aul fallout shelter meself if that happens... although there is a strong counterargument that a post-nuclear war world might not be worth surviving into. Might be better off getting wiped out in the first blast. 😐️
Will Western leaders come out and state that Russia has invaded Ukraine? That’s the first test for me.
No they haven't, the only request made by Ukraine was in 2014 when Yuriy Sergeyev requested a meeting with the Security Council (yes, just a meeting, not even a request for peacekeepers) to discuss the situation in Crimea, Russia exercised it's veto (and again when re-requested in 2015) and there was no meeting, other than that Russia has only vetoed one other issue relating to them, that the 2014 Crimea referendum would be unlawful.
Under Article 27 of the UN Charter Russia as a P5 member must abstain rather than accept or veto any issue to which it is a party in conflict.
The security council will be meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the situation, could be an interesting meeting with Russia being a P5 member and in attendance.
If he makes any sort of a move towards NATO protected soil, he'll actively draw in Turkey, which would be the end of the Russian adventure. How he intends to progress beyond Ukraine is anyone's guess. Any push into the Baltic's will draw in Britain, actively. Any push into Romania /Bulgaria will alarm Turkey. Who are unafraid of Russia.
As for Germany, no one has anything to fear from the Bundeswehr. Not for at least a decade. A mess of an órganisation.
Yes
Is it known if Putin was following an autocue or not?
The weakest US president since James Polk . No wonder Putin is taking the piss.
If he's saying breaking up the soviet union was a mistake, doesn't that mean he'll want all former soviet states?
some people are saying what is the harm in letting putin have parts of georgia and now the 2 breakaway parts of eastern ukraine...
we all know why ...
estonia, latvia and large chunks of the rest of ukraine will be next .. putin wont stop he has the bug now..
If Putin thinks NATO is a hostile alliance, how does stealing more of Ukraine help with that? It doesn't, because using countries wanting to join NATO to protect themselves as an excuse is a blatant lie.
I remember watching that programme on RTE about Exercise Armageddon - the vaunted plan by which then Taoiseach Jack Lynch would send in an Irish army force into Northern Ireland under the pretext of intervening against the subjugation of the Irish Catholic minority living there. Even though I would be sympathetic to the Irish side of things in terms of the Troubles, I would have no problem recognising that this still would have constituted an act of open war by incurring into sovereign territory. So, if I have no problem recognising it, there, I certainly have no problem recognising Russia doing the very same, and actually going through with it. Moving your hostile forces into another nation's territory is an act of war, and should be treated as such, but Russia have been getting away with it for ages.
No it's not.
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