My entirely uneducated guess is that Russia has had to divert their longer range weapons systems to Belarus/Ukraine so they've been forced to conduct more "standard" bombing runs in Syria.
Believe it or not, he was Azerbaijani😊
My feeling too. But after the financial crash or 1929 , the 1930's happened. After 07/08 here we are. On the cusp of WWIII
Heartwarming to see that your average joe such as labourers and farmers are all willing to do their bit for mother Ukraine...
I think the really interesting bit will be how they respond in such a scenario though.
Just because Article 5 is triggered it does not mean NATO suddenly ride into Ukraine all guns blazing: my money would be surgical strikes against any units on NATO territory.
And if it's a missile or other ranged strike I would expect them to use stand-off attacks against the specific unit and/or command structure that would have been involved in the actual attack; and that would be that.
A few years back in London there was marchers with Stalin banners on a demonstration. I think it had many Turkish communist party members taking part, who certainly wouldn't dare to do this in Turkey under Erdogan's rule.
If someone was actually carrying Hitler banners they would have been arrested immediately.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/john-mcdonnell-didn-t-know-may-day-protesters-were-flying-communist-and-syrian-flags-behind-him-a3531446.html#comments-area
I'd go so far as to say that the majority of Russians are against this war in one way or another. Or they are, at least, completely bewildered by it. They gain absolutely nothing from it and lose a hell of a lot...and all on the whim of the reckless actions of a few people in the top echelon of the Kremlin.
The problem is is that they have no way of articulating any kind of protest against Putin's war. People are already getting their collars felt if they say anything against it and no doubt there's a cohort of the brainwashed faithful that are only itching to shop their neighbours if they speak out of turn.
If the average Ivan or Katya had the chance on turning back the clock and erasing this useless conflict altogether, I'd bet that they would in a heartbeat. They're watching their country go down the toilet because of some barney that has no discernable reason for being.
Off the top of my head I believe Kaliningrad is a significant industrial centre for things like ore processing, ship-building, metal forging and so on; all things which are presumably likely to ramp up during wartime. It's my understanding that FIRMS also picks up many industrial and agricultural processes as potential anomalies so I guess that might explain it.
Hopefully wibbs.
If it goes the other way I shudder to think.
His side, perfidious albion's side. 800 years. *shakes fist* 😂
Two organizations have kept a lid on European blood-feuds since the end of WWII: the European Union and NATO.
I can tell it's totally lost on you that were it not for Poland's NATO membership, they would have been stuck into this war almost after the first shot from a Russian artillery piece (mostly out of necessity it must be said).
You're consistently and frankly ridiculously attempting to make NATO the villain of the piece instead of where anyone with their faculties intact knows where the blame lies: Deep in the bowels of the Kremlin and in the hearts of Russian nationalists - trying to tear down the European peace attempting a do-over of the collapse of their empire.
Our side??
Completely OT, it's pass the dutchie (pot) aka a casserole dish or dutch oven in these parts.
Sorry for the off topic diversion.
The Polish and Russians have been imperial rivals for centuries. The Polish invaded Russia back in 1603 to impose a "false Tsar" on the Russians during their Time of Troubles. The Polish armies were finally expelled in 1612, and the Poles and Russians continued to war over control of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia for the following centuries. The Poles ultimately lost the contest but the bitterness of the defeat remains to this day. NATO has carelessly advanced into what amounts to a nationalistic feud.
Reading a lengthy report of the Putin rally in the Russian press and it was certainly a 'very' strange event. Part Third Reich, part North Korea, with patriotic songs and speeches, people wearing Zs and big slogans on the screens about the Donbass and Crimea and "eradicating Nazism in the world".
I'd say even quite a few Russian viewers who haven't yet been brainwashed must have been thinking 'what in God's name is all this?'.
I hear you Tom, but I suspect the rats will do what rats tend to do, leave the sinking ship. If they can.
I respectfully disagree. We can be used as an agitator to the uk and to the EU.
Anyone who wants to ever invade the uk...(not that even putin is that crazy) needs to invade us first. That goes intellectually too in some ways.
these are events populated by public workers who are forced and obligated to go and putin's youth party and military schools usually and a few genuine supporters ...
So Russia will be completely cut off and isolated.
Will the Russian people and the oligarchs that are losing the most, act and get rid of putin?
or
Will they back putin, double down and accuse the west of attacking Russia due to economic sanctions and supplying weapons to Ukraine, this ultimately leading to WW3?
😮 Bloody hell Tali, it'll probably be largely ignored among the back and forth noise of putin rallies and Russian tanks blowing up, but that's bloody huge. Add that to the nationalised airliners worth hundreds of millions that are now effectively worthless, the boycott of Russia's ability to get international leasing and insurance, the withdrawal of most shipping companies and that lot makes much more of an actual difference and impact than twenty or fifty of putin's generals lying dead. People are naturally concerned about the nuclear option, but those actions are the nuclear option for international and ultimately national interests as far as Russia is concerned.
Here's a Russian soldier falling off a tank
Everyone loses a nuclear war.
Just watch 1984’s Threads.
If you still think NATO should intervene and risk a nuclear war then there’s something wrong with you.
I presume you're talking about the planning permission related to the Russian embassy?
I mean it's fairly common knowledge that embassies are used to house intelligence and security apparatus: this is nothing new. The point is that any Russian intelligence or security services presence in Ireland is highly unlikely to be actually related to influencing Ireland directly; they have nothing to gain from that.
We are a very naivie country in terms of security, we just think who d do anything to us and then are shocked when the HSE is hacked or something..
Are you trying to claim that Russia isn't using all of its available conventional firepower in Ukraine? The only thing we don't have good evidence of being used against civilians yet are those munitions which are likely to further antagonise the wider world: phosphorous (although they have used other incendiary munitions in a very limited fashion in the East), thermobarics (which they have claimed to have used just not obviously against civilian targets), cluster munitions (have used widely), and then obviously chemical and biological of which they're only documented to have used small amounts of civil grade tear gas.
Putin has aircraft bombers and cruise missiles to level it.
No he doesn't.
Cruise missiles are expensive and limited; and already there is evidence they're running out of supplies. Indeed just today some of the older missiles and missile platforms have started to be airlifted into Belarus; hardly something you do if you have plenty of missiles for your modern missile systems which are already in place.
As for bombers he cannot use them against the larger cities because Ukraine still has air defence. In particular the Russian strategic bomber fleet has only been able to air launch cruise and long-range air-to-surface missiles at this point: those bombers can't operate in airspace which isn't 100% Russian controlled.
This is obviously on orders to not go into the city
Huh? I'm pretty sure it's because they cannot go into the city (assuming you mean Kyiv here but this also applies everywhere else) without taking severe losses. Not because they don't want to.
I mean in case you missed it Russia have virtually levelled Mariupol; and the same is happening albeit at a slower rate in Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Likewise any other city or town they've encountered resistance has been levelled e.g. Volnovakha.
9 Irish ambulances sent to Ukraine today, currently in Poland
https://twitter.com/davidhall75/status/1504865382733168651
The world didn't start after WWI.
A big blue area in the right part of the map is Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (or Union) established in 1385 and surviving till the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, i.e. for 4 centuries. It was ruled by a common monarch, with also some autonomy of both partners. It was one of the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th-century Europe, with some 390,000 square miles (1,000,000 km2) and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century. The state borders were changing. During such a long time many Polish people settled in eastern, and northern lands, which now to Ukraina, Belarus, Lithuania or Latvia belong.
They elected a jewish president and muslim first minister and have crimean tatar muslims fighting for them and are getting help from israel. Passes the ducky to the left hand side wibbs . 😏
Didn't he do a whole speech though?
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