Everyman and their Dog knowing should have lead to contingency planning. But no that never happened because Germany have a needle in their arm and need their fix from Russia in the form of gas.
thats the clean sweep of Poland, Sweden and the Czechs, in the qualification group. Either FIFA have to give Russia a walkover into the world cup or they kick them out. Even if they did a re-draw, there are no Russian allies in the play off spots.
One possible solution is that there is a team in the UEFA Play Offs that may play be very willing to play them. Ukraine 😁
No they cannot but I would expect that will change or at the very least we will offer to take about 5,000 to 10,000 refugees.
China would be appalled if Russia were to execute a nuclear strike against Ukraine.
In a nuclear winter, the entire world is consumed. It doesn't matter if you're in China or Australia; everyone gets caught up.
China isn't going to sit back and allow that eventuality to take hold.
He's just torn up and thrown out the past 30 years of German foreign & military policy in one thirty-minute speech. Decoupling from Russian gas supplies, increased cooperation with NATO & EU allies, change in defence spending is MASSIVE, including a 100 billion euro special fund for military modernisation. I'd love to have seen "Gazprom Gerd" Schroeder's face when he saw that.
Anybody watch the live feed on cnn of Germany committing more funds to defence (think 200 billion). The speech (not necessarily intended to sound sinister) really did sound like the start of a significant potential EU army.
Also mentioned Putins empire , mayhe im wrong but it’s like Europe is gearing up for potential war?! It’s certainly flexing it’s muscles.
What chance of a kind of propaganda retreat? i.e. Putin essentially gives up on the rest of Ukraine, concentrates on Donbas, and says that was the entire goal all along? That pressure on Kyiv etc was to force Ukraine to give up the region.
These figures will be greatly inflated, but indeed they have doled out considerable damage to Russian forces (so far)
Here's a very interesting analysis/explanation of the current state of the Russian military and why things aren't going so well for Vlad the Invader. It's a combination of corruption, incompetence, wishful thinking and stupid decisions. I would have found it hard to believe but snippets coming out of the Ukraine seem to bear it out. In short, the Russians appear to have taken every possible precaution against running a successful operation.
Belgium and Germany closing airspace from 2pm but Russians may reciprocate, which will cause headaches.
They could do horrendous things to Ukraine, then focus on LNR and DNR (and keep some sort of Crimea landbridge) and then withdraw from the rest of Ukraine to claim victory in their "peacekeeping" mission on state TV.
And you have countries like Italy who have deep ties with Russia (and China also) although we always seem to be on the back foot for tax stuff.
Denmark will close airspace (also Finland announced it). Looks like we may get an EU wide ban
Scholz giving a rousing speech in Bundestag, with some surprising change on defence spending and weapons. Also planning to build LNG facilities.
One thing is for sure Ukraine has won the social media aspect of this war.
Does anyone know if Ukrainians that come here can work without a visa ?
We really are in the depths of unknown waters with the end game here. We are no longer dealing with a rationale mind with Putin and we really dont know how he is going to react to the latest rounds of sanctions and more seriously, the military support the West is openly providing Ukraine. The Russian foreign secretary yesterday said that we have "reached the point of no return" as a result.
In order to see what this looks like you have to read the media across the world. There is no doubt that a high percentage of Russian people are only seeing the spin Russia uses. The Guardian ran a piece on how Russian and Ukrainian influencers are reacting but its in vein because many of them dont live in Russia and Russians dont have access to be influenced. Many Russians see the West/US/NATO as the enemy who wants Russia to fall and would invade if Russia didn't have nukes.
We are all holding out for the Putin to be removed domestically. Dont expect that to happy from his cabinet, after all they were hand picked for those roles by Putin himself. Just like Stalin they will be with him till the end. The general public won't mobilise because the police in Russia shut them down very quick.
The western media is also writing that China is not throwing its weight behind Russia. This is untrue. China has lifted import restrictions on Russian goods as the result of the restrictions imposed on Russia. The Chinese government has referenced the strong relations with Russia in Chinese media regularly over the past few days.
A poster a few pages back theorised that Russia could use a low yield nuke which may trigger NATO taking action. As hair balled as this sounds, Russia updated its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons a few years ago. It got some media attention. Russia gave itself permission to use nukes against conventional warfare if Russia is threatened. The wording gives them free reign and nukes can no longer just be considered a deterrent from their perspective.
Will they use a tactical nuke in Ukraine? Its unlikely but not improbable. Many military commentators speculated about it prior to the invasion. From a domestic perspective the average Russian would be shocked but less so if the spin is that it was a retaliatory defensive measure. However the international community would condemn Russia to great lengths. Would NATO respond? Unlikely, unless it is on NATO soil etc. I can't see China being ok with it either.
The question we have to ask is what will Russia do to get out of this when they are defeated on the ground. Daisy cutters? Chemical weapons? What if that doesnt have the desired effect? There is no way Russia will voluntarily withdraw with tail between the legs. They may push diplomacy again but Ukraine doesn't seem interested, unless Russia withdraw first.
So what will the injured Russian bear do when the moment comes and they have nothing else to lose?
In terms of recent history, yes. Assad still there, Maduro, Lukashenko, Burma junta. Autocratic regimes that have a firm grip on the military are almost impossible for people to remove. I wonder if this conflict will cause a rift between the Russian military and Putin.
You can if you find the right person, as I pointed out earlier in the Thread. Poland found Lech Walesa, Czechslovakia found Vaclav Havel, and Russia had the misfortune to find Boris Yeltsin.
Russia has mistakenly done what a lot of end of level bosses can't help doing in old school video games - temporarily unfurl their armoured shell, revealing a great big red spot on their soft underbelly.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Someone else suggested streaming gay porn, but I think your suggestion is probably the more pragmatic one.
Ukraine estimating that Russia have now lost more than they did in 8 years in Syria, 4,300 to date.
https://www.facebook.com/ganna.maliar/posts/2098386283653736
I agree bar possibly that Russia will never win this...I suppose it depends what you mean by winning...my worry is they will literally just get p'ed off and flatten the place :( it could be a long drawn out process with a huge amount of casualties
Very hard to kill people in a city and as long as they are alive they will fight. If you're hiding in the rubble even a cruise missile would almost have to have a direct strike to do you damage. Urban warfare negates technical superiority but numbers really make the difference.
Yes, but if the last few decades have taught us anything it's that you can't remove a brutal dictatorship and naively expect democracy to flourish.
I don't even know how it happens, or (distressingly) if it is even possible and the power vacuum invariably just becomes filled by another ghoul - as happened in Russia itself.
EU decision making involves the agreement of 27 countries. That is never going to be instant and it's not like you picking from a takeaway menu!
This is only happening because of the Ukrainian resistance which has shown the Russians to be weak. The west now smells blood and is opportunistically piling weapons in to exploit the weakness. This is a huge opportunity to deal a fatal blow to Putins Russia.
I imagine the EU-wide announcement is coming today. Might wake up the apathetic Russian populace if they can't go on their holidays to Turkey, Bulgaria etc
Good morning folks. My opening thought.
Zelenskiy - what a **** hero. The manner in which he has mobilised the population to become the resistance is incredible. All through words followed by action. Not hiding or cowering. Being a President and Commander.
The power of a united people.
Russia are bogged. They will never win this.
I am fully aware of that it Raoul, in fact the closest it came to it was a brief period in 1917 before the revolution and perhaps the first months of the individual Soviets in St Petersburgh after or during the Revolution. The point is it must become. I beleive the sanctions must remain in place long after the resolution of the war in Ukraine.
Russia has this week proven itself too unstable and dangerous to be permitted to remain a dictatorship in possesion of 6,000 nuclear warheads.
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