Russia - threadbanned users in OP

They are probably cold war era Soviet planes similar to what Ukraine has from Poland and Bulgaria I think. Seems like they wouldnt be game changers.

EDIT: this is fake news. Can't remove the tweet link

The Chinese have squirmed their way to "let there be peace and no this is not a war nor an invasion". TBH you get a sense that they are hiding behind this bland PR and are privately embarrassed after investing in Putin as someone they could deal with as a serious statesman.

Thank you!

Define really wanted. I mean they can obviously nuke Ukraine to end resistance pretty quick (obviously this has other wider side effects but ignoring them). The there is a sliding scale of war crimes Russia has the weaponry to commit which would varying levels of international outcry. They could reduce the numbers of armed forces elsewhere which again could have side effects.

Certainly what Russia can politically throw into the arena is as much a war factor as geography or anything else. Russia knew how much it was willing to commit at the start before the invasion so from that angle I would say the Ukraine is holding out.

I never seen sportwashing in action so much, but then again Chelsea have had issues regarding racism so probably wasn't too hard to buy them over to hail Comrade Putin.

many of these weapons being handed out to civilians and imported into Ukraine from the EU will eventually fall into the wrong hands and end up back in central Europe and some will land on our shores in the wrong hands, god help us

Lots of people are saying Putin has gone mad, he is a lunatic.

They seem to be forgetting he has been as good as a dictator for a number of years and he is just resorting to some stereotypical dictator traits at this stage.

He has had no problem blatantly assassinating dissidents even in the UK, he had no compunction about assassinating opposition on the streets of Moscow or poisoning political opponents.

He hasn't feared the rest of the world for quite a while.

He made a calculated gamble in this invasion in that firstly the Ukrainian military and the Ukrainian population would crumble, that the actor Zelenskyy would do an Afghan fleeing the country and that the international community would do nothing bar light up a few building in Ukrainian flag.

A lot of dictators are gamblers, it is often how they get to power in the first place. It can also be their downfall.

Another trait is that they surround themselves with yes men who dare not question them, they start believing their own propaganda, that they know better than anyone else.

He probably believed the Russian Army would roll over them in hours and he definitely underestimated the international community.

He got the Eastern European determination totally wrong.

He probably thought this was his Sudetenland or even better his Anschluss where the Ukrainian masses would end up welcoming him.

Instead it looks more like his Stalingrad where he either prevails or perishes.

And in typical dictatorish fashion Putin can't be seen to be backing down and losing face is the worst possible scenario for him.

And yes to be a successful dictator (i.e. you get power and hold on to it for some time) you have to be a tad unhinged anyway, at least some sort of sociopath with narcissistic paranoid tendencies.

As for the article about how Irish aircraft leasing companies are going all out to recover their aircraft, all I will say is good luck with that.

Any pilots or techs I know of would not be volunteering to go into Russia at this stage trying to take anything out for a company based in EU with no doubt US connections of some sort.

😆

Missed the actual question in Necro's post.

I assume Russia will offer some concession for the ending of sanctions. If they take Kiev they will have bargaining power will they not?

They really upset me today too. I couldn't believe what I was reading on a day when seeing pictures of horror from Kharkiv.

Russian UN ambassador just said Ukraine started the shelling and killing.

Can easily see how the Russian nation is brainwashed.