Russia - threadbanned users in OP

When I see that Z symbol, I immediately think of Oswald Mosley's lightning flash symbol. Dark connotations....

The usual pinch of salt, but indeed Ru forces are increasingly surrounding Kyiv

If they don't know what's going on inside their country, surely the ones outside know now.

The endgame is Putin wants Biden, Johnson and Macron to sit at the table about territory expansion in the balkins.

He won’t stop forcing the expansion until a conversation has started at the very least

Okay I thought that Chernobyl had been cut from the grid to stop electricity production but the below does not sound good

Yes, apparently he thought the Ukrainian army was a vastly inferior one that would be overrun almost instantaneously by Russian firepower and also thought Zelensky would flee the country immediately, leaving Kyiv there for the taking.

The Russians are taking a leaf out of the British/American playbook with the biological programme find, retroactively

are you a rational actor in all of this?

I would have read the "in which nuclear weapons are used" clause as qualifying both preceding clauses "If Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression OR an object of a threat of aggression" not just the immediately preceding clause, but I guess that's one for the international lawyers and grammar experts to argue over.

Russia have already ignored the terms of the above1994 Bucharest Memorandum and now the recent UN Security Council resolution ES-11/. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3958976?ln=en

Recalling the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, signed in Helsinki on 1 August 1975, and the Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Budapest Memorandum) of 5 December 1994,

Condemning the 24 February 2022 declaration by the Russian Federation of a “special military operation” in Ukraine,

Reaffirming that no territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal,

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1. Reaffirms its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters;

2. Deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in violation of Article 2 (4) of the Charter;

3. Demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and to refrain from any further unlawful threat or use of force against any Member State;

4. Also demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders;

5. Deplores the 21 February 2022 decision by the Russian Federation related to the status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter;

6. Demands that the Russian Federation immediately and unconditionally reverse the decision related to the status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine;

The UN Security Council could pass a resolution to put UN forces in Ukraine. This could provide a broader and larger force than the Bucharest Memorandum alone.

In my view it should also consider the Russia's place as a permanent member of the UN Security Council considering its current and previous actions in Ukraine and the legal questions raised about the post USSR status of the Russian Federation's place on the UN Security Council.

Don't be silly.

Car manufacturers suspending production due to lack of parts.

BREAKING:

Poland has offered to hand over all 28 of its MiG-29 jet fighter jets to Ukraine via the United States.

The planes will be flown to the U.S. Rammstein Air Base in Germany.

Poland have asked for 28 F-16 in return from USA.

sic

Ah I remember a time in the past (anything beyond 3 weeks ago really) when similar claims were taken seriously by a portion of posters on this site.

"Russia has repeated allegations that the United States supported a military biological programme in Ukraine involving deadly pathogens including plague and anthrax – claims that the Pentagon has described as “absurd”.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said evidence of the alleged programme had been uncovered in Russia during what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Zakharova said:

We can already conclude that in Ukrainian biological laboratories in direct proximity to the territory of our country, development of components of biological weapons was being carried out.

She went on to allege that Russia had documents showing that the Ukrainian health ministry had ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera, anthrax and other pathogens after 24 February.

Zakharova said the alleged programme was financed by the Pentagon and demanded transparency from Washington.

We are not talking here about peaceful uses or scientific goals... What were you up to there?

Russia “demands details”, she continued:

The US Defence Department and the presidential administration of the United States are obliged to officially explain to the global community, officially, not through talking heads, about the programmes in Ukraine.

Both the Pentagon and the Ukrainian government has strongly denied these allegations, and Reuters reports that it was not possible to independently confirm the authenticity of any such documents.

In response to earlier Russian allegations about the purported military biological programme in Ukraine, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday:

This absurd Russian misinformation is patently false.

A Ukrainian presidential spokesperson said Ukraine “strictly denies any such allegation”.