What an utter coward and a scutter of a man
Interesting capsule summary of Ukrainian leaders of the Soviet Union. The article doesn't mention it but Leon Trotsky was also Ukrainian.
Why are Ukraine not attacking the Russian convoy?
If they wanted a guarantee then sign a treaty (preferably with mutual nuclear reduction - which are treaties Russia welch on regularly btw). An en passant "guarantee" to the leader of a state that is now extinct is not a treaty.
The Russian account of the "guarantee" is a sexed-up exaggeration of events designed to buttress the Russian pity-party, and a blow by blow account of why the Russian stance is bullsh*t was posted earlier on in thread. If they were so damn concerned about Eastward expansion, sign a damn treaty with iron-clad security guarantees for your neighbours. Look at the Budapest memorandum and the joke the Russians made of that - so I have zero time for the Russian state tearing up the security of Europe off the back of puffed-up account of something that was allegedly said in a private meeting to the leader of an extinct state that is not the Russian Federation.
Putin must be delighted with these absolute tools!! Boyd Barrett Murphy and Co need to crawl under a fûcking rock and stay there!!
I'm thinking out loud here but I'm just wondering could Putin's saving grace be the fast moving news cycle and western apathy once things die down a little?
We know about blood sacrifices in this country. If the Russians are obliged to bring massive force onto Kyiv in order to subdue the army & population, we'll be in a situation of genocide. At which point surely anything is possible, including a rapidly deployed UN 'peace keeping' force in name. That has to be part of the Ukrainian game plan, key question is how far Putin and his generals are prepared to go, they've stuck their necks well & truly out.
Russia's advantage lies in being a massive land mass and having seemingly good air defences. I mean I'm hoping their nukes run out of fuel on the way to Europe.
hashtag both sides. I mean are they still going with that narrative, anything on RT now seems to be about Ukranian internal issues and less about NATO. The basic premise doesn't make sense though. Russia was annoyed at NATO expansion so they want it to expand even more? If NATO expansion led to inevitable war then you would expect some manner of actually hurting NATO would be logical instead of running the world's biggest advertising campaign for them.
Many in the west protested and argued against the Iraq invasion. What % went to prison vs those protesting the war in Russia? I am not saying the west is perfect and there is much I would change if I could. Especially with regard to US foreign policy. However there is a massive, massive difference in scale in the problems in Russia and in the west. The west isn't the hero but there is suddenly a strong overlap between stopping Putin from invading more countries and their own interests.
You don't need a degree in international relations to have an opinion. Otherwise no one would be able to comment on pretty much anything ever. People should be open to new ideas and other opinions though. Especially when presented with facts when they are not experts on a subject (this is directed at anyone in anything, not you in particular).
You could try that against other countries but Russia would detect that.
Maybe you could declare part of Western Ukraine \ Lviv a safe haven city, but it would mean say not "NATO" but 'EU\Polish\Czech' troops going in on the ground like UN blue helmets.
After all, Putin hasn't declared war on Ukraine, he says he is there to remove the Kiev government and protect ethnic Russians in the east... so this is just to prevent a humanitarian refugee crisis.
But even then, the risk of it escalating is too much.
I suppose if it comes to it, we'd try to destroy their nuclear weapons and they'd try to destroy ours. Preferably they'd want to destroy them before they launch. So having loads of weapons and loads of launch sites probably increases your chances of actually launching more of them?
He's nothing more than a Putin bootlicker, f-him. If they are stupid enough to start a shooting war with anyone else the Russian invasion forces in Ukraine would be obliterated. The amount of modern air assets that could be brought to bear on the Russian ground forces in the Ukraine would be eye watering and they have been tracking every piece of hardware since they crossed the border last Thursday morning.
Another "Russia is great" merchant. He left out the "Russia is great at bombing hospitals and civilians".
Ever think the reason they joined NATO was because they were afraid of a time like this where the Russian bear would want to reconquer them and put in another puppet regime to last another 40 odd years of repression.
Some of these states didn't exist pre 1939, but a fair few did and remembered first being conquered and subjugated by Germany and then supposedly liberated and subjugated by USSR.
In the case of the Baltics and Eastern Poland they got the privledge of being first conquered by USSR and then liberated by Germany.
The ex Yugoslav countries were never part of the Eastern Bloc
Slovenia
Croatia
Montenegro
North Macedonia
The number of nukes doesn't mean much. Once one is sent off, all hell breaks loose. We're all doomed then.
Nuclear plants could themselves be targeted sending radiation levels throughout Europe through the roof.
Russian nuclear doctrine is different to most countries. Most countries with nuclear weapons have tactical warheads, designed to destroy vast areas, thereby being a credible deterrent. Russia also has strategic nuclear warheads that they can use to target smaller objectives like military installations and infrastructure.
I'm aware of the Russian stance, and it has no basis in objective reality. It's a deeply held institutional paranoia within the Kremlin about the 'intentions of the West' that has a long tradition within Russian political thought. It has and had no basis in the late 20th century or early 21st century.
The only thing Nato threatened and continued to threaten was to stymie an unstable Russia's ability to coerce, bully and politically intimidate neighbouring states.
Who here would put their hand up now and say Poland / Estonia / Bulgaria / Latvia made a mistake by joining Nato? They didn't, they preserved their states and democracies from a paranoid crpto-fascist creep that would 100% be militarily and politically bullying them if they hadn't joined.
We on a windy rock on the Atlantic far away from Russia can maybe afford to do a Hyde Park speakers corner hand-wringing about Nato - Central and Eastern European states don't have that quaint luxury.
UN seeking urgent aid for Ukraine. Hope we see them sending it in soon.
Will be dangerous, fully expect (UN member) Russia to label them as "terrorists/Nazis/etc" and start attacking them
Well, they tell the story about how The West guaranteed Gorbachev thst Nato wouldn't expand East at all. Then, after they expanded east, they told the Russians they were fools to accept The West's word that they wouldn't expand nato eastwards. (Supposedly the US records show that "we" did make them that promise).
From their point of view, the Nato expansion is a serious issue. We dismiss that concern, partly because it contradicts our narrative in which we're the hero and Russia is the bad guy.
You mean we shouldn't pay attention to those darned EU westerners. Listen to mother Russia instead. Much better!
Yeah ok eitherway looks like the application is in and is under consideration
I think they are keeping the Russian Soldiers in the column approaching Kyiv because if they didn't they desert.
It isn't quite a sitting target but a slow moving target and not sensible from a tactical perspective.
Accepting them right now would be the acts of a saboteur. Open EU border with Russia.
War torn country needing billions and billions to rebuild.
Millions of Ukrainians fleeing to other EU countries.
EU country in a war with Russia in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Aiming high. I think they'll end up being accepted into the EU. By aiming high, they may be pushing for slightly lesser realities. i.e "we want NATO air cover" Zelensky knows that isn't happening, but forces the west into a second best option.
Well the last paragraph of that letter dated very well now, didn't it?
The alliance those leaders led is still relevant. Imagining that the behaviour of The West is erased every time there's a new leader is a bit naive. In any case, I'm not making the case for the Russians, I'm relaying the stories they tell themselves. I'm also saying that they tell themselves that the alliance that has moved closer to their borders over the last 30 years is well able to make up a pretext for war based on little or no fact. The WMD is a recent example of exactly that process.
Did the factual basis of WMD matter in that invasion? No
Does the factual basis of the Russians invasion of Ukraine matter?
Can somebody explain something regarding nuclear warheads?
UK and France have over 500 between each other. What difference does it make that Russia has 6000? I’d of thought 500 nukes could probably finish off Russia quite comfortably, 6000 seems like excessive but not much more damaging then 500 if we are talking about an existential threat. Is 500 nukes going off in Russia going to leave much of it in tact? What’s the difference if you have feck all of a country left?
Given that, why is the EU seen as vulnerable to nuclear threat? If nuclear war starts, army size won’t count for much. Nobody wants to see escalation of nuclear war but I’m just wondering , asides from not having an army or much weapons, why the EU Is seen so weak regarding the nuclear threat.
"How come you're so paranoid about our self-defence alliance that everyone can join except you?"
It's not going to happen. This is one of the issues I have with their leaders. They are setting unrealistic milestones.
This is the foreign minister today. He knows full well that's not going to happen yet he is giving this expectation to his people. Doesn't make much sense.
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