Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I'm in no way condoning Putin's actions in Ukraine but is it true that there was acts of genocide against ethnic Russians living in Ukraine by Ukraine armed militia before the war broke out?

I know its look a bit like saying two things at once, but the point is that the current war cannot last. Putin cannot take those Ukrainian cities without massive casualties, and his popularity in Russia cannot survive that, so he will end it quickly or it will be a wider conflict.

And now it looks like he will have to physically occupy the cities if he wants to claim control them. Barraging them with Grads was the easy part. Now watch the Russian soldier death toll rise.

No

Saw a video earlier that Russian soldiers made showing the bodies of the Ukrainian soldiers they killed, its only when you see something like that you realise how brutal this conflict is on the ground.

A Ukrainian MP was talking on Drivetime just after 6pm, she was in a bunker taking cover from an air raid and that Cormac whats his name asks her how she is doing!

Not content with asking one stupid question he asks her what they need from Ireland and when she says weapons to arm the men and women on the front line he then goes into a big spiel about Ireland being a neutral country.

Presume it’s some kind of hacking of anti Russian (ie the truth) type discussions allover the west by the Putin bots?

I think genocide might be a strong word but the Russians definitely have a case in the two Eastern provinces in terms of Russian speakers and how they were treated.

The issue is they've gone about things in a way where they are too easy to paint as the bad guys.

In relation to this invasion, it's just strategic bullying and criminality by Russia.

There are other ways they could have highlighted issues in Donbass and even got sympathy. Instead they sent mercenaries to forment a war there.

I didn't say anything about Russian bots in my comment. I'll continue to comment unless a mod says otherwise.

A lot of Ukrainians were forced to leave Luhansk and Donetsk.

There were incidents after 2014 when Pro-Russian protesters were killed by Ukrainians. One incident in Odessa was widely reported.

It would be wrong to say that there have not been localised incidents of Ukrainian-Russians being told to clear off out of communities. But it has been totally overblown and not government sanctioned.

I have been pure Pro-Ukrainian since this kicked off last week but it has to be acknowledged that it wasn't free and easy before it. There was stuff going on that the Ukrainian government should not have done. Giving the Azov Battalion military accreditation was one of them.

None of it. Not one jot justifies what has been happening this last week.

Isn't there a football forum somewhere that the kids could go play in?

They are giving Mig-29's, Hips and Hinds ( helicopters), not Western aircraft. Many Ukrainian pilots would already by type-rated on these as they are all types used in Ukraine.