Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The chat bot has been in place since the beginning of the invasion. The Ukrainians have been using every piece of information they could get their hands on. They were also harvesting information from TikTok. Russian and Belarus teenagers posting videos of military equipment passing through the rail network were an invaluable source of intelligence.

Ordinary Russians who overwhelmingly approve of Presidency. You make your bed you sleep in it, good enough for them.

It's the minority who don't approve of him that I feel sorry for.

There was another story though about Ukrainians doing some basic training in a local community hall/gym/basketball hall kind of place. One fella took a selfie of himself with all the lads in the background and posted it online. About 5 minutes later the building was hit with a rocket and they blamed local collaborators recognising the building from the inside and passing on the info.

If it's the same incident I'm thinking of it was actually worse than that:

It was reported that at least two Russian operatives entered the building and opened fire on mostly sleeping or resting volunteers; there was footage of multiple bodies appearing to have numerous gunshot wounds.

Might be a different one. The one I saw showed your man with the selfie and then beside it showed a picture of the building with a large hole in the wall where the rocket had gone in. It wasn't from a reputable news source though

Edit. This is not where I saw it but it is the same photos

There's no denying Russia has unilaterally broken the agreement. It could be argued that releases the other signatories to the agreement from any undertakings they gave to Russia but not from each other.

I think Russia has walked right up to the line in terms of use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in alluding to 'consequences you have never seen in history' without explicitly threatening Ukraine with the same as to do so would oblige the USA and UK to come to Ukraine's defence.

Russia will not want USA's and UK's direct involvement. I don't think that is a line they will cross.

There an oil exporter but don't have enough for themselves.

This is turning out be a sh1tshow in their own backyard... Delighted!

Agreed. It's a pretext for an asset grab.

Russia's unilateral breach of an existing agreement makes negotiations difficult. As Russia has shown it cannot be trusted any solution will need an effective means of enforcement, something which will be difficult for Russia to accept but without which will be difficult for Ukraine to accept.

I have no idea why people think that Putin will use Nukes. The chances are so low. They have never used them in the last 70 years, if they do use them there will be MAD, thus the end of Russia(and everyone else, although I bet not everyone). Why would they ever use them? The only point that I can see them using nukes is the moment before they lose access to their own nukes, then sure a decision would have to be made. I actually think Nato could invade and occupy large parts of mainland russia and even still they would not use nukes, only when the end of russia as a state is threatened might they consider nukes and even then, it is still better to not use them from russia's perspective.

Ireland needs to start growing a lot more Rape Seed, and to have it's own crushing plant and refinery. Ukraine was one of the biggest producers of seeds and vegetable oils, as are Russia, and all foods contain this, it's will soon show up in the prices of food.

Don't know about the electricity but we have the gas problem covered in our house. The wife has no problem at all flapping the duvet after a chicken madras.

There might be a couple of hundred extreme nationalists in one of the Ukraine battalions, we don't know. I would suggest that Ukraine and everyone else involved has more to worry about at the moment than this. It certainly doesn't justify the invasion. I would also be inclined to disbelieve anything I hear from the Russians, when almost everything they come out with is lies, I just assume all of it is.