Russia - threadbanned users in OP

To paraphrase Brian Clough when he was at Leeds briefly:

"Well, I might as well tell you now. You lot may all be internationals and have won all the domestic and European honours there are to win under Roman Abramovich. But as far as I'm concerned, the first thing you can do for me is to chuck all your medals and all your caps and all your pots and all your pans into the biggest f***ing dustbin you can find, because you've never won any of them fairly. You've done it all by bloody cheating."

Another personal overview of the situation from a retired general

China's about to get a brand new vassal state.

You never answered my question.

But anyway.

Concerted acts of solidarity or even solo acts have been instrumental in not just military efforts but the economic ones.

Germany going from sending a few helmets to 1000s of missiles was brought about by the German people collectively shaming the German parliament with mass demonstrations being just one example.

Just over 2 weeks ago a back bench MP speaking to an empty house of commons used her privilege to name 35 Russian oligarchs, she was ignored, the video went viral and now today some of those oligarchs have had their assets frozen.

It's these collective acts of solidarity that may look "childish" to you or whoever, are exactly the sort of thing that has shamed governments and corporations to act against Russia and that helps Ukraine.

That's an absolute undeniable fact of the past fortnight.

"If we don't engage with Russia's legitimate concerns and enter into good faith dialogue with them, we will be the real bigots", or something like that.

Lavrov should be arrested in Turkey and extradited to The Hague.

Also, what Russia 'negotiates' could well be just a truce until Round 3. Especially if it cripples Ukraine's ability to rebuild and defend itself.

The moral calculation has to be as follows.

If the west is to continue to supply weapons to Ukraine, which it must - anything else is morally indefensible - it has to be clear about what the end goal is. The end goal has to be Ukrainian victory, the utter routing of the Russian army and a restoration of full Ukrainian territorial integrity, which obviously means Crimea and Donbas.

Providing enough weapons to merely keep the Russians "bogged down" is not good enough, and is morally indefensible. That way the war will continue indefinitely. This war has to be won.

Regime change in Russia - and preferably the entire regime spending the rest of their lives in cells in The Hague - is a natural follow on from Ukrainian victory.

Excellent post

Suggestions for Orwell Road name change due to Russian Invasion? Mine is "1984 Road" for many reasons as it feels like a dystopian novel we are living in and it also feels like 1984

You have interviewed all the residents? 😕

This is Ireland and the council, the consolation will take yonks, war will probably over before if it gets the go ahead