You are thoroughly deluded.
The Russians also have a lot of hardware that they can afford to lose and life has always been a bit cheaper in Russia than the West.
This war is a Putin problem, not a problem of the West trying to understand the mysterious unknowable soul of the Russian nation.
I agree, but in order to fix things the West has to understand the guys across the table from them. Otherwise war goes on.
...
Much of it abandoned. Russians trying to outdo Biden in abandoning military equipment. I've never seen anything like this. Tank after tank, even AD systems worth $20m a piece. Either it's chronic fuel shortages or the young kids Putin has sent in decided to high tail it back home.
In a way that would be great if he said that, because it would be an open admission on his part that Russia are struggling to subdue Ukraine.
And hopefully let him lie in his own sh1t for 12 hours like his idols.
Putin is likely the most studied and pored over individual since the end of the cold war.
In filing cabinets in foreign ministeries across the world there's probably millions of words trying to devine his psychological profile, his disposition, his priorities etc. That's for 20 years. We know enough.
What! Did you think I thought they ring putin from a coin box! Pretty simple, ring the landline and throw a few f...s into them.
100% AGREED
I think you could be right about Russian seizing only certain cities, then claiming "job done, operation over"
They might start throwing everything that have at certain strategic points over the next weeks. Very critical time-frame for both sides I'd imagine. If Russia can't gain anything significant in that period they face getting more and more bogged down with no viable "exit strategy" bar a humiliating withdrawal.
This kind of proves my point.
You still don't get it. Ukraine wants to join nato. This means nato has a legal right to put nukes in Ukraine. Russia rightfully objects to this. Putin himself asked the question "How would the United States like it if there were Russian nukes in Canada?" This is not rocket science (pun intended).
You should listen to Lavrov's address this morning (edit out the dramatic Nazi references)
Everybodys getting tierd
The first foreign fighters have arrived in Ukraine to help defend the country against the Russian invasion, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Ukraine is already greeting foreign volunteers. (The) first 16,000 are already on their way to protect freedom and life for us, and for all,” he said in a video address posted on Facebook.
Food. He plans to use food as an economic and socio-political weapon as much as he's been using gas.
And yet most people wouldn’t have a clue about Putin beyond “he’s bad, He’s mad and probably hitler”, myself included. For some that’s as far as they want to go, which is fine.
Is it that hard not to attack others with who want to discuss it further and may want to see if that narrative holds up.
Once you move away from the big cities in Russia, and hit the rural areas, the differences between them are vast. But the whole Country is a tapestry of different ethnicities, religions, clans etc. You could ask "Will the real Russian please stand up?"
Not really, I think you're labouring under the illusion that's there's some sort of credible solution out there that can be hashed out that will sate the man's appetite and won't radically undermine the safety and security of central and eastern Europe.
A total redraw of the security map of Europe is tantamount to a redraw of the political map of Europe. You're asking central and Europe to chop the b*llocks off their own democracies and their own sovereignty.
Russia has just invaded Ukraine (over false pretenses), other countries are now feeling threatened, e.g. Finland. Therefore they are considering joining NATO.
You see the issue there?
An aggressive Russia has always been the issue.
More like North Korea.
He can barely attack a pretty backward nation on his doorstep with his military machine, he's not going to push to attack anywhere else, certainly not anywhere that's NATO. Sending in NATO troops and planes is the kind of moronic kneejerk response that escalates things way beyond what you hope. Very much like Putin sending in troops and planes into Ukraine. This is not a video game. There is no 'New Game' option. Hotheads start wars, cool heads stop them.
TBH that may seem like a reasonable position to us but in reality what organisation a sovereign country joins is their own business and no-one else's.
No, that's not reality, it's naive and wishful thinking. The reality is no sovereign nation is an island and they have to consider their actions in the minds of others. The ones that don't actually become islands like North Korea.
I think the aim for the world now is to get the dangerous regime out of power in Russia, denazify Russia and demilitarised them up to ensure they no longer have nukes.
And how is 'the world' going to do that exactly? Sounds fantastic, but just as naive. There is no way in hell they'll give up their nuclear weapons. Would America? China? France? the UK? No and I sure as hell wouldn't if I were them. Change will ultimately come from within. External forces will certainly play a huge part(back to no sovereign nation is an island), but it can only come from within in the end.
No , I’m suggesting its wise to know and understand your enemy.
Kherson down the south seems to have fully fallen to Russia, and Mariupol is in extreme trouble
If only Microsoft could disable every Windows install in Putinstan...
On the contrary, the alarm bells were sounding for years that this was exactly who Putin was. Institutional Europe's faith in multilateralism and jaw jaw when this man was running wild in other conflicts has been repayed in kind with this war, but the political and diplomatic world were fully aware of who the man was. It was all a merry dance - the music has now stopped.
Europe shouldn't play any more and it looks like they won't. Russia's relationship with the West is irreparable as long as Putin occupies the Kremlin.
Maybe the scales haven't fallen from your eyes yet, but for the rest of Europe, they most certainly have.
Ah but you see, Ukraine is an unfortunate geo-political mistake, it's not a country.
Or you know people are just seeing children being cluster bombed to bits by Putin and his death squads and after a week of witnessing constant sustained and escalating war crimes their empathy and horror at this moment in time supersedes your desire to change the narrative to "Yeah Putin is bad but.....".
From what I can see the sustained world wide horror on all media channels has undoubtedly and fundamentally helped Ukraine.
Your chance to parrot Russell Brands talking points will come, maybe leave it while though eh?
@Yurt! Alternatively, how would the Irish feel if the U.S. made Ireland a nuclear base and filled it with hydrogen bombs?
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