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).
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.
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.
>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.
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.
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?
the Suwalki gap is on Putins list
Very brave of him. I belive Putin has said that anyone who doesn't support his war in Ukraine, is no longer a Russian.
Sensational. In Chernihiv, people's forces have developed a molotov cocktail device that will be released from the drone. Must be a self igniting molotov cocktail mixture of some sort
https://twitter.com/5inan_/status/1502346249370058752
It's very sad but not surprising the regime in Russia has been so embarrassed by it's lack of progress since the USSR days it has to resort to shelling and indiscriminate rocket attacks on cities on an easy target. Everything Putin touches turns to shít. KGB man is never going to change. The sooner he is dead the better.
"When a clown moves into the palace, the clown does not become a king; the palace becomes a circus."
(Turkish saying)
In this case the guy who was a comedian turned out to be no clown, while the guy with he serious job...
Or they might tell us to stuff it up your jumper its him or no-one. Very likely at a time when Russians are essentially banned from international flights.
Diplomatic relations are essential now with flights out of Russia curtailed. Any Irish citizen still trying to get out of Russia will need all the help they can get.
Even if he were replaced the next guy would say the exact same thing and tow the party line. Filatov or any Russian ambassador is hardly going to start speaking out against Putin for fear they'll end up sipping a cup of polonium-210.
Is there any chance of a uprising in chechnya and Kazakhstan now that putins head is turned..
sadly for me when Russia first invaded Ukraine and I seen the young Russian soldiers my heart went out to them..I heard and listened to they didn't know what they were doing..all they had was Russian propaganda.
Now I feel fok them..They now have no exucses for knowingly carrying out genocide..Because if you don't carryout genocide your parents neighbours might shun them.Fok them
Zelenkyy on Sky News giving a press conference and absolutely smashing it. 1,300 Ukraiian military casualties.
Russia says it could target Western arms supplies to Ukraine, this could be risky as the border is porous and a missile could land in Nato territory, then what?
"Russia says..." lots of things most of it bullsh!t.
Am sick of listening their whinging at this stage.
.
'' the west can't get into a direct conflict with Russia for obvious reasons''
But Russia had no problem getting into a conflict with the west, in spite of those same obvious reasons
It's mostly fluff for now.
Genuine questions...
So is sending in these volunteers and way around war crimes...if they aren't official Russia solider's and they use chemical weapons how is that treated?
Imagine having the audacity to try to defend yourself against an invader who is pummelling your country for absolutely no reason other than the whims of a autocratic megalomaniac. How dare they!
This both sides’ism is beyond ridiculous at this. It’s a blatant part of the Russian disinformation tactic, to raise doubts where none exists to induce discord and break the unity against the regime. Those on this thread are thr gullible idiots who fall for it
Seems Odesa is next on Putin list. People need to remember how normal Ukraine used to be.
How the world watches on is crazy
I can't imagine sending in Arab mercenaries to a Slavic country is going to play too well with Serbian nationalists.
I really couldn't care less what he sips. In fact right now I care nothing about Russia or Russians.as for international flights, let him make his way home some other way hopefully having to drive through Ukraine 🇺🇦
He's doing what Biden isn't doing, playing hardball
Russia is not in conflict with US/NATO. It's invading a weaker neighbour, which it knows that the world cannot protect militarily.
The communist era conditioned Russians not to question the state.....ever. And this attitude and mindset was a godsend to the new Russia's leadership. Was watching a newer version of Chernobyl last night, and it came across very clearly just how dominated the people were. But maybe the newer generation of non-communist indoctrinated Russians will be a bit different, ( Navalny et al ) but even so, the msg is clear. Oppose the state ( in this case Putin) at your peril. Its not so much that they do not care, it's more like " Yes, we know the Govt ( Putin) is corrupt as hell, but what can we do? " When I was there anyway, and something was shown on TV depicting some Government activity, people would just shrug and say " more propaganda bullshit". They did not believe it one bit because they had been hearing it all their lives.
Biden or the world can't respond militarily.
It's a sovereign EU country, protecting it is a given... bullied into not doing that.
That's news. Ukraine's an EU member?
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