Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Watching RT news last night, the Ukrainians are shelling their own schools. 🙄

Indeed, the Russians can go in much harder than this, they did it to Chechnya.

If Russia continues to struggle making headway, and that could certainly change, how about this as a peace deal -

1. Russia to withdraw all forces, including from Donbas
2. Russia to pay reparations for war damages
3. Internationally-observed referendum held for Crimean accession to Russian Federation

To be fair on the Crimea question, even leaving aside the 2014 referendum, there have been two previous referenda in 1991 and 1994 where the questions were, "Do you want to leave Ukraine and be your own SSR?" and "Do you want greater autonomy from Ukraine and be able to hold dual citizenship?", respectively, and in both cases the answer was overwhelmingly 'yes'. So, I think the question does at least need to be decidedly asked if Crimea wishes to be a part of Ukraine or not. It would give Russia a chance to save face and pipe down a bit.

Still, any peace deal with Russia comes with the troubling suspicion that peace deals with Russia may not be worth so much.

It's a humanitarian operation I've heard them call it.

The Russians should be careful with propaganda like that. Russian kids might demand that their schools be shelled too. 😁

Regarding Germany, there's currently a special session of the Bundestag underway to discuss Ukraine and any potential additional measures that Germany. I'm watching the live stream on YouTube. The change of tone is remarkable.

That'll throw him.

(Sorry)

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

Does anyone know if Ukrainians that come here can work without a visa ?