Russian warship, go f**k yourself!

Isn't it amazing Putin took Ukrainian land under Obama and is back for more now his vice president is in power. Weakness.

Wouldn't be using RT as a news source here. That would be the Russian perspective only and discussing how they are peacekeepers

Well yeah , everyone has a bias , and you look at who's paying the piper and what's they're angle - it gets worse when you realize that many media sources are just copying each other's articles -

But Russia does not allow dissent in their media .. RT is purely a tool of the Russian state - who've been building up to this conflict since 2014 ..

I've a friend married in Russia, says the news there is unreal, complete fiction and brazenly so.

People there didn't even know about the build up of Russian troops.

I remember Ukraine being perceived as a dangerous unstable country with nuclear capacity? Lithuania/Latvia is hated by Poland with nearly more vitriol than they have for Russia who their relationship is complicated

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_air_disaster

A good few Lithuanian ps I worked with were very macho aggressive temperamental fuckers, they have a saying” a Lithuanian is never so happy as when his neighbours house is burning”

a seriously corrupt place in a constant state of paranoia I gleaned from a more amenable countryman.

my nephew is engaged to a lovely girl from Hungary as I was very much looking forward to a trip to Budapest. She is being funded through college by the church of Scientology which sent a shiver down my spine😂,I honestly don’t know what to make of the culture. my nephew describes the culture a bit like my friends description of Lithuania, corrupt and paranoid in part but thrifty and resourceful too. But the legacy of the ussr isn’t that far under the surface anywhere in the bloc I think.

It's illegal to protest in Russia.

Doing so gets you into a Russian prison.

Saying that over the thousand could be over the two thousand people have been arrested today protesting against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

That's unheard of in Russia.

Putin as a living being is on borrowed time you'd have to think.

They could easily have supplied more modern weapon systems They have clearly showed their willingness to fight and stand up to Russia. France should know we'll what's it's like to be invaded. Europe has left itself down badly once again

Ukraine is a major exporter of corn to China and the EU

Ukraine’s military has suspended commercial shipping at its ports after Russian forces invaded the country, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said, stoking fear of supply disruption from leading grain and oilseeds exporters, reported Reuters.

Russia earlier ordered the Azov Sea closed to the movement of commercial vessels until further notice, but kept Russian ports in the Black Sea open for navigation, its officials and five grain industry sources said on Thursday.

Global farm commodities trader Cargill Inc said an ocean vessel it chartered was “hit by a projectile” on the Black Sea, but that the ship remained seaworthy and all crew were safe .

Ukraine is a major exporter of corn (maize), much of it destined for China and the European Union. It also competes with Russia to supply wheat to major buyers such as Egypt and Turkey.

Industry estimates currently put Ukraine’s grain exports at about 5 million to 6 million tonnes a month, comprising about 4.5 million tonnes are corn, 1 million tonnes of wheat and a remaining share of mainly barley.

Main grain export ports include Chornomorsk, Mikolayiv, Odessa, Kherson and Yuzhny.

Egypt’s state grains buyer cancelled an international purchasing tender for wheat on Thursday amid reports that no offers of either Russian or Ukrainian wheat had been received.

Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday in a massed assault by land, sea and air, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.

“The market is still struggling to get a clear picture of the actual military situation on the ground. The ports in the Azov and Black Sea so far seem not to have been damaged according to the initial shipping agency reports,” one European grain trader said.

The trader said the market was looking out for any declarations of force majeure, meaning suppliers will not fulfil contractual obligations because of extreme circumstances.

Shipping group Maersk said on Thursday it had halted all port calls in Ukraine until the end of February and has shut its main office in Odessa on the Black Sea coast because of the conflict.

Global agricultural commodities trader Bunge Ltd BG.N said Thursday it had shuttered company offices in Ukraine and operations in its Black Sea grains port in Nikolaev, Ukraine, had been suspended. Competitor Archer-Daniels Midland Co said its Ukraine facilities, including an Odessa export terminal, were not operating.

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, mainly ships its grain from ports in the Black Sea.

The Azov Sea’s ports are shallower and have less capacity.

Mariupol, reported to be under attack from Russian forces, one of the biggest Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, mainly handles relatively small ships of between 3,000 to 10,000 tonnes deadweight. 

The Azov Sea ports export wheat, barley and corn to Mediterranean importers including Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and Turkey.

Another European trader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such countries would have to seek alternative supplies if the ships were unable to depart in the near future.

US wheat futures rose to the highest level in nearly a decade as the conflict threatened to disrupt the flow of supplies from the region while European wheat futures climbed to a record peak. 

Russia and Ukraine account for 29% of global wheat exports, 19% of world maize (corn) exports, and 80% of world sunflower oil exports.

Russia produced 76 million tonnes of wheat last year and is expected by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to export 35 million tonnes in the July-June season, 17% of the global total.

Russia supplies wheat to all the major global buyers. Turkey and Egypt are the largest importers. 

Ukraine asked Turkey on Thursday to close the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships, the Ukrainian ambassador to Ankara said. 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he backed Ukraine’s territorial integrity but there was no immediate response to Kyiv’s request. 

Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Ankara has control over the straits and can limit the passage of warships in wartime or if threatened.

There was chap on RTE radio 1 the other day (Friday I think).

The commentary for a few days on RTE radio 1 was that this was a watershed once in a lifetime moment etc

The guy was making the point that in conflict in populated regions like this, civilian lives are the primary concern.

He said not only was it not the worst conflict of the last 30 years, it was not the worst conflict of that particular morning, mentioning in particular Yemen, for lives lost.

Lots of talk about kicking the Russian ambassador out of Ireland. idk would that do any good considering we now have Russian nuclear Submarines hawkering off the coast of Ireland now.

No doubt in my mind that the so called "training exercise off the south west coast was for the Russians to be within striking distance of Cities like London, Paris and even Dublin or Shannon airport of any if not all Irish airports

Irish trawler fishermen have been saying that for years. Plenty of Irish boats dragged under water.