Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Eh if you read between the lines I think it's quite likely they were expressing support for Ukraine.

This is a picture from the press conference on March 17th the day before they left where they're wearing blue: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/russian-cosmonauts-set-friday-launch-international-space-station-2022-03-18/

And then they somehow ended up clad in bright canary yellow when they were left alone on the capsule; yet nobody thought at any stage before-hand that it might not be the best optics given the political climate?

Added to the comments attributed to the cosmonauts themselves:

I'm not really sure how you "accumulate a lot of [yellow] fabric" and then "[have] to" wear a certain colour when you're literally an astronaut. I have also been unable to find a cosmonaut wearing anything other than the primary colours of the Russian flag; although there are some turquoise suits I think that passes as close enough to blue.

Also the mouthpiece who claimed it had nothing to do with Ukraine is the same gobshite who claimed they would abandon the US astronaut on the ISS due to sanctions so yeah; not sure he's exactly the most reliable of sources.

Yeah but the losses at Kherson were due to artillery hitting targets on the ground: I'm referring to the claims Ukraine have been making about shooting down aircraft. Remember too that earlier in the invasion they claimed 30 helicopters were destroyed at Kherson but satellite imagery only indicated about 6 were actually destroyed.

Also in the vast majority of cases it has been citizens and soldiers posting videos of losses and hits on aircraft; I'm really just commenting on the scarcity of footage this past week or two compared to earlier in the invasion even though Ukraine are still claiming significant numbers of aircraft downed.

And you're right about the lack of sorties and the Russians becoming much more risk averse which also makes me question how Ukraine are still shooting down as many aircraft as they're claiming.

In any case all I'm really saying is that Ukraine are probably counting any and all reported possible kills in their figures; as opposed to those which have actually been confirmed in any tangible way. Which also makes perfect sense from a morale perspective too; I'm just saying their figures should be treated as a maximum rather than an accurate figure. And they're hardly going to be sending troops into enemy fire to try and find and document wreckage either.

Here's an indication of aircraft and missile launch activity from Belarus since March 1st; shows that the last three days have been particularly quiet:

Nope , world market prices but there's a charge in the banking system- and not just Europe .swift is pretty much world wide , and secondary sanctions could force/ encourage most of the rest of the world to play ball..

Yes

He UN should immediately start compiling a list of who these people are ant tell Russia that it is responsible for their safety and none of this s!,t that they ran away into the Forrest and died from starvation

Why would you pay more , ? For eg - shell buy a tanker of oil from rosneft , she'll deposit the agreed payment in a bank (prob in dollars ) , and the swift system automatically removes the " rebuild ukraine percentage" and if Russia don't like it they can sell to some one else ,( Mali maybe ? ) Who would then be subject to secondary sanctions - or not sell fuel / fert / food at all - but they need the foreign currency -

Nice video from the Russians of the damage from the Kherson airport strike. It's seems highly likely, given the debris everywhere, that the helicpoters that appear to be in one piece are inoperable due to being hit by the debris, not mention a lot of the equipment to maintain opperability likely has been damaged or destroyed.

And here they are towing some of those intact looking damaged helicopters:

The only way some of thes war criminals will ever get the justce they deserve is if Ukraine - if it survives - trains people to infiltrate Russia and track down all the military pilots, commanders and planners behind thes attacks and assassinate them.

Talking about war crimes means nothing unless someone intervenes. Until then it's just waffle that the political classes like to throw about. The only way to punish war crimes is to devastate the perpetrators. Sick of our cowardly governments sitting on the sidelines watching atrocities in Syria, Yemen and now Ukraine. They've learned nothing from the mess they made of Yugoslavia.

I agree. It's absolutely sickening. But would you be willing to risk nuclear war by using NATO plans to attack the Russians?

So am I. I was advocating real intervention in the first week of this as I believe it's inevitable and that Putin's bluffing. The earlier you intervene, the more lives you save and destruction you prevent. Everyones hoping for some mirracle so they don't have to, like Europe did sitting on it's hands while watching the ethnic cleansings in the Balkans, praying for a mirracle, before finally realising there weren't going to be any

I remember screaming and raging at the TV saying 'do something now'. I've been raging for weeks now for the same reason. Putin won't stop this until he has accomplished what he's set out to do. Everyone who thinks he can't possibly win is kidding themselves; serial appeasers. Putin will probably start using chemical weapons at some point. He seems aimed at absolute mass slaughter of civillians and egendering hopelessness and fear until the Ukraine government can't take any more and surrenders.

Only boots on the ground and planes in the air will stop Putin from winning via surrender, as it's only those that can allow what's necessary to prevent the use of chemical weapons.

Putin is bluffing about the use of nuclear weapons against the west. I suspect Biden knows it and is cynically using it as a justification to keep the US out of it. Europe and perhaps some others like Australia, are more than capable of turning the tide and devestating Russian air, naval and land forces in Ukraine without US involvent other than what they are already providing in terms of weapons, intelligence and asssessment.