Very brave of him. I belive Putin has said that anyone who doesn't support his war in Ukraine, is no longer a Russian.
the Suwalki gap is on Putins list
Kaliningrad getting lots of attention from intelligence gathering aircraft at the moment. Has anyone with their finget on the OSINT pulse heard anything? Troop movements? Fighter jet movements?
Wow indeed. What sort of lunatic would want to wave a CCCP flag in Europe after all the utter carnage and decades of misery they caused? I think we forget sometimes that there was something even worse than the Nazis and that the CCCP was it: ethnic cleansing, genocide, mass starvation, reeducation camps, forced labor, killing people with disabilities (including thousands of disabled Russian WWI and WWII veterans that were sent off to die in forced labor camps), forced movement of people, redrawing of national boundaries and all the bells and whistles.
Ach, that said, there wasn't that much of a crowd at that thing and they are probably just a collection of people with vested interests (and no shame) and accompanying oddballs.
That flag though. SMH.
>Defenders of Mariupol prevent the city from being besieged. Attacked by the Ukrainians today, one battalion tactical group of the Russians – the 102nd Regiment of the 150th Motorized Rifle Division – "practically ceased to exist." –Joint Forces Operation, Armed Forces of Ukraine<https://twitter.com/Bykvu/status/1502380721473736720
That is a pretty big and important development, if true. A BTG is 700-800 men.
Its the Brits and the Yanks that were on the ground who were training and arming the Ukranians, while Merkel blathered on about the Minsk accords like they were some sacred text and refused to "provoke" Putin.
The only reason there still is a Ukraine for the Germans to supply as Johnny-come-latelys is due to the Brits and the Yanks, having put the work in. Which is why the Ukrainians are damn sight more grateful to them than to the country that built a gas pipeline to Russa after they had invaded Dobass just so they could bypass Ukraine, giving Putin a green light to invade.
But, yeah this is all about Brexit. Absolutely obssessed.
In using Lviv I was using a short-hand for major cities in Ukraine, but you are correct about the West of Ukraine. I'll concede that most of my experience in Ukraine is Kyiv, but cocking my ear when out and about there, Ukrainian was not the language of choice at all. You'd hear it occasionally, but Russian was dominant. I understand from Ukrainian friends that's the way of things in large cities bar the West of the country.
Though ex-President McAleese made the interesting point that he actually told the truth when he went on Russian TV and told the audience Ireland hates the Putin regime (even if his clear intention was to badmouth us and slag us off).
Getting back to that lying prick of a Russian ambassador in Dublin. Fair enough if the powers that be reckon its best to have an ambassador here but surely it doesn't have to be that lying prick. After lying to our nation and then bad mouthing us on Russian zombie TV surely he should be replaced with some other Russian stooge.
Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦
Those **** have some **** cheek.
In Stalingrad they were able to get supplies in from one side of the Volga river. This won't be possible in Kyiv.
Wow
Even most of the Russian speaking cities identify as Ukrainian. It's only in certain parts of the Donbass that you have fanatical pro-Putin types who want to be ruled by him. Less than 100k people have left Ukraine and fled into Russia since the war started - which gives you an indication of just how few people identify with the Russian regime.
https://liveuamap.com/
You gotta wonder what sort of first impression Boris makes with people who are not familiar with him - a Prime Minister who looks like he's just crawled out of bed and can't even brush his hair. That said, if he thought he was gonna have an easy time of it as PM, he's had a very rude awakening. As much as he likes to champion Brexit, in reality its mostly been a mess, then along came COVID, investigations into misleading parliament over Downing Street parties (still to be concluded), and now Ukraine and dirty Russian money in London. I seem to remember that he complained at one point that he could earn more money for less work if he wasn't PM. Be careful what you wish for n'all that....
Dmytro Kuebla (Ukrainian foreign affairs minister) called it a week ago, that's exactly what he said would happen
https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1499506552109158402
To be fair though Wibbs, Germany's help was a little lastminute.com and really only after international pressure had been exerted.
An EU that has never been more united and agreed sanctions near overnight and is providing real world humanitarian help and military help too? That EU? And a Germany that has thrown out 80 years of 'oops sorry about that business' and is rearming? The Ukrainians are quite naturally telling everyone they're grateful for help, but Britain's help was a cheap smokescreen to cover up their Russian cronyism and their pathetic response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis. And when Ukraine is being rebulit and invested in it'll be far more an EU affair.
Apparently Roman Abrahmovich has Irraeli, Portuguese and Russian passports. The Portuguese one was obtained by passing himself off as a Sephardic Jew and thus entitled to citizenship as "compensation" for the sins of Ferdinand and Isabella 550 years ago (😄). The Portuguese authorities have detained a prominent Porto rabbi who is apparently suspected of making a fraudulent application for R AB. Russian Jews are mostly Ashkenazim not Sephardim and do not qualify.
https://guardian.ng/news/portugal-detains-rabbi-over-abramovich-naturalisation/
And I thought Sturgeon's apology for a 16 century low on burning witches was going back a bitt far!
If a referendum is held, the result will of course be fixed, Russia will "recognise" the result, then all that will be used as international legalese to validate to the Russian people that Russian forces control ("protect") the city.
@html6 - Normal Russians should be allowed to protest freely. They also should be allowed to vote in fair elections.
Yes but fear is the reality, with ignorance giving it a good race.
..and that no strange chemicals have been applied to your underwear!
Kherson is the place that had thousands of people on the streets recently waving Ukrainian flags and telling the invaders to go home. These (Russian nationalist) guys are nuts.
I wonder what exactly “Putin winning the war” might look like or entail? Most seem to agree he can’t occupy Ukraine for long.
I hope the only “win” Putin can have will be one of the many nonsense fantasy’s that russia has been peddling. The allies may actually help him draft it , think it’s called “pave a road of gold for your enemy” in below discussion. Basically make it easy for Putin to do the right thing and f**k off back to the box he came from.
Now they’re threatening her for that excellent interview
in her shoes, i’d take precautions even in the US. See Sergei Skrypal.
Ukraine might be led by a comedian who has stepped up and into the pages of history, Britain has proven herself over the last few years to be led by a corrupted clown as they step back into the pages of history.
Russian TV pundits [2 of them] are publicly sounding out against the war
If I was those lads I wouldn't be drinking any cups of tea I hadn't made myself from scratch for the next while...
They are a help, but not if there is no one left alive to wield them. I think the Ukrainians need just a little help in the south to free up forces that can then go and attack the Russian encirclement of Kiev from behind and rout them.
Oh god not again
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