Often when you face apparent feared evil head on its never as strong or as fearsome as you originally thought. I don’t think the Russian army grassroots have the stomach for this fight. The Ukrainians have it in shedloads. Plus they have very high tech support from abroad if not direct boots on the ground
Just in the news headlines, survivors are now starting to emerge from the rubble.
Please god most if not all come off unscathed.
Fcukin Russian scum, their depravity knows no bounds!
North Korea has to really fight to keep everyone inside their country that they can. Russia will have issues implementing that again and in any case would simply become a joke of a world power.
Yes, you are right that many analysts and experts have predicted Ukraine would lose very quickly and were completely wrong. I'll just hope the US/NATO are providing enough of the right supplies and Ukrainian resolve holds.
Supposedly in Mariupol....so Russians making some inroads there
Day 2 of the war: 'Looks like tonight is the night for Kyiv'
Day 3: 'Looks like tonight is the night for Kyiv'
Day 4: 'Looks like tonight is the night for Kyiv'
...Day 17: 'Looks like tonight is the night for Kyiv'
'Russia have only committed about half of their troops. Game over for Ukraine when the rest get involved."
'Expect Kyiv to fall within 96 hours'
'Can't see Russia invading the whole country. Most likely they'll move troops just into the Donbass.'
All these sentiments have been expressed, and more, and all have been bang wrong, especially that Kyiv one. I don't own a crystal ball and don't really know what's going to happen, but looking at the situation, it seems that Russia need this war to end as well, not just Ukraine. The Russians may go grander with the weapons they use, but they appear to be in a general malaise vs. the reputation they would have had before this conflict. They've stalled for whatever reason while the Ukrainians dig in, and get enormous amounts of weaponry delivered. If the Russians are still having a hard time taking Mariupol, how the hell do they expect to take Kyiv in anything like a short term time frame?
Please god. Indications are that everyone survived but as yet not fully confirmed by the Ukrainians. Had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach reading about it earlier
Plenty of Belarusian volunteers already fighting alongside the Ukrainian army, mainly in Kyiv. They're called the Kastus Kalinouski Battalion
Never mind your sky sabre. The big guns are really being rolled out now. Things are getting serious
Brits sending sky sabre to Poland, they do have some nice toys
I really hope you are right. I am just afraid of letting my desire to see Ukraine win or at least hold off the Russians make me too optimistic.
I am more hopeful than two weeks ago. That 60km long convoy heading towards Kyiv didn't look great. But with many of the vehicles abandoned and troops deserting, it's just showing that seeming might does not always win the day.
The Ukrainians are far more motivated and are doing a lot of damage.
The russian troops were not prepared for this
I'm not allowing myself to be optimistic. I'm still afraid that Putin will win simply because he has so many more troops and so much more equipment.
I much rathered when Yeltsin would fall asleep in a plane on a layover.
Those were the days comrad!
Today is the 8th anniversary of the annexation of Crimea
On 17 March, following the official announcement of the referendum results, the Supreme Council of Crimea declared the formal independence of the Republic of Crimea, comprising the territories of both the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which was granted special status within the breakaway republic.
Seems to me he is bringing anyone with a few quid in for a loyalty test.
The sanctions on Russia will not be what people are expecting. There will be a lot of superficial stuff like western companies pulling out, but the Iran deal will give Russia an out AND the sanctions that do stick depend on enforcement. With regards to Iran, the USA hasn't bothered that much to be ruthlessly effecting the sanctions. The same will happen with Russia. Over time, Russia will develop workarounds and learn to exploit loopholes.
It will not bring about the collapse of Russia. It may cause enough disruption to foment internal dissent, which did happen in Iran but was brutally supressed.
Look at North Korea. Heavily sanctioned, cut off from the world - still able to build ICBMs...albeit the last one didn't make it very far in testing.
Everything comes back to money.
It started with a multi-billionaire ordering the slaughter of innocent non-rich people, and now other rich people elsewhere in the world come up with ways to capitalise on the situation.
Disgusting but true.
The March crop for Ukrainian farmers continues to be a bumper one
Non-ukrainian nationals fleeing Ukraine should be facilitated as much as possible to return to their country of origin. The 3 year stay in the EU without visa requirement was not intended for them, they have somewhere else to go that is safe. There was a case there last week on social media where a Moroccan student was looking to come to Ireland with his Ukrainian girlfriend. I don't think the rules should really cater to this type of situation.
Russian banks are sanctioned. If they have money in international custodians (which most do) then it's usually blocked.
This asset block also includes hundreds of billions of good assets held by the Russian central bank.
The west has placed sanctions on it's own banks not Russia's. Russia has instructed JP Morgan to pay the debt from it's funds they hold, if JP Morgan don't for whatever reason, as far as Russia is concerned the debt is now paid. JP Morgan effectively is in default if they don't transfer, albeit it not being JPM's fault.
Wall Street have been buying up Russian bonds since day 1 of this war and are effectively funding Russia
Regarding how Russia is paying some of it's interest payments obligations. It looks like certain national regulators could be allowing them to pay if they have the money, i.e. if Russia owes X an amount in Euros to counterparties Y and they have it. Again it seems to be based on a wide range of factors. Will see how this progresses over time, and payments can range in complexity.
Good job EskimoHunt isn't still posting; he'd have a complete nuclear meltdown all over the thread.
Migrants from third countries in the Middle East and Africa have been turning up in EU cities claiming they are students in Ukraine in order to obtain refugee status, and in France, up to one in three claiming they are fleeing from Ukraine are not Ukrainian nationals. Arrival figures include more than 7.5% Algerians, 3.5% Ivorians, 3.5% Moroccans, 2.5% Indians, 2.5% Kyrgyz, 2% Congolese, 1 5% Cameroonians, 1% Pakistanis, but also Nigeriens, Chinese, Guineans, Angolans. Many people arrived by bus, from Berlin in particular, but also by train or by plane, also arrived by their own means in other cities. So refugees are arriving by plane in France from a war zone. it doesn't clarify if they are arriving from outside of the EU.....
Refugee status does not depend on nationality!!! But the facts still remain, there have been non-EU nationals in the past decade who have taken advantage of the humanitarian crisis and are now cynically exploiting the genuine suffering of people fleeing from a real war to enter the EU illegally. The leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson democrats called for a pause on all Non-European refugees entering the country in order to prioritize those who need urgent help, Ukrainians. This is a country that took immense pride in the country’s decision to accept 16.3,000 refugees in 2015, most from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and has accepted an extremely high number of migrants from other countries over the years, and have paid the price for it too.
Lukashenko has sent thousands of migrants to its border with Poland to provoke and antagonize the EU over the past two years. The EU is aware he is weaponizing migrants and using them as political weapons in response to the sanctions the EU put in place for his actions against political opponents and protesters. Now Lukashenko appears to be utilizing the war on Ukraine for his "hybrid war". On Tuesday, March 15th, in the section Poland-Belarus PSGKuźnica, four groups of illegal immigrants crossed the border into Poland, 23 foreign nationals: from Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Syria were detained. This month, there have already been 624 attempts to illegally enter the territory from a distance.
Among Ukrainian refugees are those who are economic migrants who will rear their heads later on down the line as we have seen on a thousand different occasions across Europe as a result of Merkl's infamous mistake in 2015. The Paris terrorist attacks in 2015 are an example of how a number of the attackers had come to Europe through Greece posing as refugees and how one of the terrorists Abdelhamid Abaaoud had sent a scout to "map out" the migrant route into Europe prior to the attacks. In an interview with BBC's 5 Live Investigates team [link]. A Libyan security advisor Abdul Basit Haroun had warned Europe that the Islamic State was sending operatives to Europe posing as refugees. This was ignored. Surely to God, the past 6 years have woken them up....it appears not!!
This is good.
Thats interesting, in two years time where will Putin be on the world stage? What condition will Russia be in, economically and militarily-wise? As things are going, I'd say that now is Putins last throw of the dice, and he will throw everything he has at it. Ukraine, on the other hand in two years time, while maybe still structurally damaged ( but with rebuilding well underway) and with a completely re-equipped military, and a force to be reckoned with in their own right. Putins days of rolling his army up to and crossing the Ukrainian border are done. When whats left of his army go home, it will be a one way trip.
Would be great. Although, do we know if the Belorussians are any better at this than the Regular-flavor Russians?
So far they appear to be about as effective at cracking down on civilians with thier police forces. But the Belarusian army? They're the junior partner in a "Union State" with Russia, so I'm guessing they aren't really better off there.
Here's hoping that it's their final push, and that it fails so hilariously that they'll go home out of embarrassment alone.
swap at will the words despot/desparate, and you'll find the red button could be more tempting to someone looking a failure.
Generals being killed on the front line, deserters, FSB heads under house arrest, unrest amongst genpop - there'd want to be a putsch sooner rather than later.
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