The really radical approach to take with Russia (and Belarus) would be to make it clear that they would be welcome to apply for EU membership in the future. Sounds crazy eh?
Onerous preconditions attached obviously.
I suspect it would take a decade plus of succesful Ukrainian EU membership to make the benefits of this apparent.
"We are not against joining (Bosnia and Herzegovina. - LB.ua) to NATO. This is not a threat, perhaps a warning. It's up to you. It's like a closed circle, I have already said about it... Let’s say, for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a NATO member, and Brussels decides to put nuclear missiles aimed at Moscow. We will assess the strategic situation and therefore, I think, the way out of this should be the European system, not NATO", the Russian ambassador said"
Good to know that Brussels can decide to put nuclear missiles in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whilst Belgium host US nuclear missiles under a nuclear sharing agreement they don't have their own nuclear weapons and don't decide where they are stationed, but hey don't let misinformation stop them.
And what's this "European system", the EU or an EU army organisation perhaps? Is joining the EU the lesser of the two evils?
I imagine Lacky Lukashenko being sent to Ukraine to fight, by Putin personally, would play out almost exactly as that scene in Blackadder Goes Forth where Melchett sends Darling to the front line.
Very difficult to combat something travelling at 5 times the speed of sound which has built in defence capabilities
It might have evaded your notice but the US flattened both Japan and Germany, forced their entire populations to disown the previous regime and built a new society from scratch. Might be a bit more difficult to do that when your enemy has nukes.
"The owner of a war-zone mobile hospital in eastern Ukraine has told a Ukrainian TV interviewer that he has instructed his doctors to 'castrate' captured Russian soldiers.
Gennadiy Druzenko, 49, told Ukraine-24 about his alleged order, but it is unclear if it was bravado or a genuine order that would break the Geneva Conventions.
Discussing captured injured Russian soldiers, Druzenko said: 'I have always been a great humanist and said that if a man is wounded, he is no longer an enemy but a patient.
'But now [I gave] very strict orders to castrate all [captured Russian] men, because they are cockroaches, not people.'" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10636597/Ukrainian-doctor-tells-TV-interviewer-ordered-staff-CASTRATE-Russian-soldiers.html?login#readerCommentsCommand-message-field
Seems fair.
Amazingly Russia is the way it is because Russians are the way they are, rather than ermehrgerd Capitalism
Thanks for the history lesson. I had forgotten that the US was the only belligerent against the Axis powers. 😉
You seem to have a bit of a linear concept of history whereas it's actually a series of overlapping arcs. The point (apart from the one on top of your head) being that previous bad actors can be, and indeed have been, transformed into good actors. Nothing, including the disposition of nation states, is immutable.
Russia could, theoretically, become a good actor. The question is how.
While the term “Brussels” is often used as shorthand for the EU, or indeed simply referring to the capital of Belgium, NATO’s headquarters are also located there, and I assume it’s in this context that he’s using it.
That sounds like nonsense. There's no way doctors or medics would be torturing or mutilating their patients (I'm assuming something got lost in translation or it was an example of very black humour). Medics are trained only to help people.
History isn't on your side, but hope springs eternal, I suppose.
Is now a bad time
Why do you say that? History not being on my side, not hope.
Joseph Mengele, Harold Shipman, that nurse who killed all the babies, that nurse in Germany who was very prolific at killing patients and so on and so on.
I am suspecting it was black humour.
Likely nonsense, but never let a good story stop the Daily Mail.
Massive if true...
Is it under anaesthetic?
That will result in an ex employee of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper no doubt.
An interesting reply in that Tweet:-
They'll be lucky if they are fired. More likely a firing squad....
It will be higher than that then. Lots of dead Russians being stored in Ukraine waiting to be picked up. Some bodies have been buried because Russia hasn't picked them up.
I know manpads is an acronym for man portable air defence system but the marketing department of the weapons manufacturer really didnt think the name through. Like going into a battlefield with a Stinger or a Javelin is fine, but manpads sound like an incontinence device for a leaky bladder.
Some of the dead Russians are saving Ukrainian soldiers apparently.
Claimed five times the speed of sound. After the MiG updated Foxbat gets to over mach 2(stressing her engines as she does so) and releases the missile, I'd not be too shocked if it got to up to mach 4 with that boost, but no way is it going to be going near that speed for the cruise phase, especially over its what 2000Km range? It simply wouldn't have enough fuel to sustain that, or even close to it. It's a tarted up no doubt improved version of an older existing missile, it's a rocket rather than a scramjet(which would have far more hope of sustained speed). There was a purported vid taken of it going overhead in Ukraine. If it was that missile then no way in hell was it doing Mach 5. That's nearly two kilometres per second.
I think he was implying NATO HQ rather than the EC or EU. After all, it is based in Brussels!
You do realise that huge chunks of once industrialised Western world are now wastelands.
And that breeds discontent and ultimately leads to the likes of Brexit and the Trumps of this world.
Of course some just label these people as morons and that the usual platitudes about upskilling for better jobs.
There will be pain, but it is time that people start weaning themselves off the production offered by China and other low cost economies.
Production was moved to these countries and it can be moved back.
Yes items will cost more, but it is the same argument about food.
I bet on the one hand you will complain about the likes of CAP funding for farmers whilst at the same time demanding cheap food.
Do you seriously think that living standards are going to keep improving, what with aging workforce, environmental concerns, etc ?
In the US I believe they are reversing anyway.
A lot of people that have been born in the last few decades are in for a shock.
Anyway this is going off topic, the point has to be made that we have to face fact that we may have to bring China into line or let them support naked agression from Russia or even worse let them start throwing their weight around with Taiwan.
I know its a stereotype but are the Russian generals and army pissed out of their minds on vodka or something.
There is nothing about them that screams organised and disciplined.
I always find it amusing when I go past the 'OTAN' (NATO) on the bus or tram in Brussels. I think I always had an image of it being some secretive bunker complex but the reality is much more prosaic.
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