What utter bullsh*t. The real issue is Russia invading Ukraine for no reason other than the whims of an autocratic megalomaniac, not an occasional pianist having their concert cancelled, or people being asked to account for their pro putin or “both sides” stance with reference to reason and logic, not the propaganda of Lavrov and their ilk. That there are wide ranging attempts on here and other places to draw false equivalence between a brutal invasion of Ukraine and the criticism of those espousing putin friendly or sympathetic views is quite frankly ridiculous. No one is prevented for making a genuine argument based on facts. See pro Russian protests in Berlin from Russian “ex-pats”.
When people hold opinions that are based on lies, calling them out on that is not censorship. People have a right to hold any views on the matter. don’t go whinging when views based on obvious lies are ridiculed.
In the world of the contrarian they have the right to hold whatever lunatic position they wish, but no one has the right to point out the lunacy is it?
For a girl who has no intention of helping any Ukrainians or showing Jack **** in sympathy to them you've suddenly become very concerned about them. Your lack of empathy is only exceeded by your stupidity.
He meant to say you're just a clown!
Soon as the Covid narrative began falling apart, it was a very sudden pivot to "forget the last two years of non-stop Covid propaganda, look over here... war!" 😄
Nothing says "Trust the science" like Pfizer trying to lock away their safety data for 75 years, lol.
So yeah, anyway, good man, #istandwithUkraine etc etc... enjoy your latest distraction, hahaha. You definitely ain't getting played again 🤣
It will be interesting to see how the US, and especially the Fox et Al crew will appraise this and react
I think this is it. Or at least was the original intention. This is the only motivation for the whole invasion that makes any sense to me (of course, I have no more insight than anyone else on these matters, so take it for what it's worth):
Putin wanted his annexation of Crimea and the vassal status of the Donbas regions legitimised. Putting his troops in there left him with sanctions and an eternal conflict hanging over him. The rest of the world was just never going to accept it.
So the plan was to go in big (under the flimsiest of pretexts), take as much of Ukraine as possible, break the military and political establishment, and negotiate back from that. Get recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and the "independence" of the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics" (possibly extended from the separatist held territories), not just by Ukraine, but by extension the whole West too. Normalise their status and start to get sanctions lifted - all on notion that if Ukraine agrees to it, the the West will too. I'm not sure if the demands regarding keeping what would have been left of Ukraine out of NATO and the EU were actual red lines or not. Maybe the NATO one, but I suspect Russia may have dropped the EU one, and hoped that everything that would go into integrating a broken, impoverished country with a massive population into the EU would distract and weaken the bloc for a long time to come. (note, I'm talking about Russia's potential position here, not my personal feelings on Ukrainian EU membership).
Problem is, I don't think he factored on the resistance of the Ukrainians, the inept state of his army and the swift unified economic response from the West (he had his nuclear threat ready to neutralise any direct military intervention). So the invasion is taking much longer and proving to me more costly (in every sense of the term: money, equipment, troops, morale, domestic support, international support) than he ever expected - and even if he does succeed in taking the major cities of Ukraine, breaking the official army and ousting the government, and even if he is able to negotiate Crimea and Donbas back from that - he's still left with a Europe that literally thinks he's the worst person since Hitler. Even if the official sanctions were to be lifted as part of a negotiated settlement (and I don't think they would be), there's also the "market" sanctions. Western companies just won't want to deal with Russia because they won't trust it while he's still in power. Europe will move away from Russian exports (especially gas and petroleum) no matter what. Entire industries won't ever take the risk of dealing with Russia under Putin, because there's no possible guarantee he can give that he won't do something like this again.
So now Putin is unable to back down. His entire purpose as President of Russia is being a strongman. He has to go for broke. Unfortunately for the ordinary Russian people, that's not a euphemism. And unfortunately for the Ukrainian people, their physical destruction is the price he's willing to pay to save face. He'll keep going and take/destroy as much as he can, and see where the chips fall. From his point of view, that's the best he can hope for at this stage. The invasion has been a massive miscalculation, which makes it seem irrational. But he just can't go back.
Russia hasn't been a superpower for decades.
If you're suggesting the US would suddenly 'get involved' because of this - nope.
I don’t that it will make them get involved per se, but it may ramp up their resolve against the Russians
Indeed, from a fallout pov the bigger problems after the first weeks will be food and water supplies as the soil and open water would be contaminated. But even then you are probably looking at longer term cancer risks rather than short term and there will be rural areas less contaminated due to their distance from detonation spots and weather conditions. Getting enough food with a changed climate to live that long though, would be a bigger struggle.
If there is even a hint of a nuke being launched Xi would step in and stop the war.
China have basically got what suits them going forward, I imagine they will start making more noises about "peace" over the next couple of weeks.
It's every invaders plan really. You can go back to Roman times and see the same method. Getting rid of opposition and installing "your guy" is pretty standard.
It’s all over the uk media
It just confirms what we have seen already RuSSians actively targeting journalists. They need to be careful these kind of incidents will push the US towards more direct action. Public opinion in the US is firmly behind more decisive action, if that increases the Biden admin will not be able to ignore it.
What are you going on about??
They are the debating the definition of genocide and whether the current war forged by Russia constitutes a genocide
without the ability to source fuel all farm machinery would grind to a halt, people would be manning the fields like in medieval times, the food production would drop dramatically and resulting starvation would ensue for all those who were not strong enough to pull their weight, it would be survival of the fittest and the radiation would be making people less fit, i reckon the population of affected countries would be reduced to 10% of its pre-nuke war population
We are only a drop in time, somethings are worth fighting for.
This is true, but perspectives can change when all hope is lost.
If you see that you cannot win and no one is going to help you, your home is going to be in ruins and you may never see your children again, no one could be blamed for accepting truce conditions.
At the moment Zelenskyy believes Ukraine can win the war. I hope he is right.
I suspect the endgame will be in the form of peace talks, a ceasefire, followed by a Russian withdrawal to their fortified regions, Putin claiming a victory. Kiev may survive, Zelenskyy may survive.
Russia will sink further into the abyss of an economic basket case. A bit like Germany in the 1930s. Putin will probably try to deflect and harness the Russian people's anger towards the West.
It's hardly the sinking of the Lusitania, but will mean more equipment sent to Uktaine.
Journalists have been killed in lots of conflict zones. We can't comment on this one yet, but the Russians would certainly like less scrutiny of their war. Sending a 'message' to journalists like this might be just the thing to make them stop coming into the contested areas and stay in Lviv or Kyiv.
Some top notch grand A lunacy there frost. Go on, keep telling yourself you and your fellow contrarians are somehow “in the know” while those in “run” the sites where ye get fed your talking points laugh at what absolute horsh*t ye will swallow without question
I think this was already covered early on in the thread.
Fuel can only bring you so far..
CHINESE WHOSPERS
They won't get involved in any war with Russia is what I'm saying. They are afraid of them after WW2 and Cold War period. Maybe you should start paying attention to previous US military action and that they never go in until they get the ass kicked in some shape or form.
That's not how fallout works. The most radioactive fallout decays rapidly, so after a couple of weeks the fallout will be causing elevated background radiation, but not bad enough to cause acute radiation sickness
If Putin has a bunker that he can live in for a few months he'll survive to survey the rubble and witness the nuclear winter (he'll probably have plenty of canned food to feed himself and his his mates for a few years)
They... Are afraid of the Russians?
Say what now?
The American army is in no way afraid of the Russians.
I wonder do those newly installed Russian “mayors” have a bounty on their heads already.
You have to feel for the man's family finding these pictures on social media this morning.
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