Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Stretched themselves a bit thin there too I might add. I wish the troops encircled north west of Kiev a speedy departure to the Donbas and hope they have enough food for the long journey.

Are they aiming too high with even that now? I mean the Donbas front has barely moved all along or are they talking of drawing the line where it currently is and not the whole Oblast.

This some sort of new Wordle game? 😐️

The main targets of the first phase of the Russian attack are now complete according to their government, the next seems to be to redirect all troops to Mariupol and the rest of the Donbas, thats a fair trek for many up north

He said "Ireland, well almost". I wouldn't read hugely into it. The rest of your post comes across as pretty fanatical.

I would say multiply these figures by around 10

You'd think but beware of them announcing their intentions like that. Wait for the US confirmation of troop movements.

There have been some reports of troops moving back into Belarus from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas; it's entirely possible they're going to be rotated to the Donbass front.

Once they have utterly wiped out Mariupol, which is realistically only a matter of days away; they can also push those troops up. It also seems like they're forcibly dispersing the population so they won't need troops to actually hold it; unlike Kherson.

There have also been reports and images of mass conscription in Russian controlled areas in the Donbass. Along with the additional fighters and equipment which have been pictured moving towards Ukraine and could be used.

I suspect if they concentrate their forces in a smaller number of areas they will be able to make much more progress than they have been in the east.

I think the interesting part will be if they just abandon Kyiv completely (which you could argue they already have done) or if they'll keep trying to tie up Ukraine's forces there; and whether Ukraine will take the risk of trying to move larger groups of forces through the country to meet the Russians in the east.

Maybe the little turnip head thinks he is playing a Ukrainian game of Risk where he can just move his troops around the board.

I look forward to the day that him and his s*ithole country are so insignificant that we no longer hear about them...

I don't think I have said it had to be one or the other, and if I did, it was in error. My preferred option would be to send both. I phrased it as I did to better make a point. Absolutely every single thing anyone and any country does to help Ukraine is to be welcomed and admired.

The ambulances were a usefull gesture but would have been 100 times more so had they been full to the brim with AT4's or Javelins.

Ah, the Daily Mail. A Bastion of forthright Journalism. Well, well, well indeed.

Once they have utterly wiped out Mariupol, which is realistically only a matter of days away

Been hearing that every day for a month now.

From the Guardian:

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday slammed the west for discriminating against Russian culture, comparing the treatment of Russian cultural figures with that of “cancelled” Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

At a televised meeting with leading cultural figures, Putin said the west was “trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people,” citing the cancellation of events involving Russian artists in some western countries.

“They’re now engaging in the cancel culture, even removing Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov from posters, Russian writer and books are now cancelled,” Putin said.

A number of events involving Russian cultural figures who have expressed their backing for the war have been cancelled, most notably concerts by the award-winning Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a friend and supporter of Putin, who was part of the meeting on Friday.

Some events involving dead Russian cultural figures have also been cancelled, with the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra removing the Russian composer Tchaikovsky from its programme, a move that was widely criticized by western cultural figures.

 Russian president Vladimir Putin said the west was “trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people.” Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images

Putin in his address added that the “last time” such a campaign was waged against “unwanted literature” was when Nazi supporters burned books in the 1930s.

The Russian leader further compared the treatment Russia has received following the country’s invasion of Ukraine with the controversy surrounding British author JK Rowling’s comments on transgender people.

“Recently they cancelled the children’s writer Joanne Rowling because she – the author of books that have sold 100s of millions of copies worldwide – fell out of favour with fans of so-called ‘gender freedoms.’ Today they want to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people,” Putin said.

JK Rowling on Friday distanced herself from Putin’s comments by sharing an article about jailed Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny on Twitter.

“Critiques of western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” the British author write, sharing the hashtag IStandWithUkraine.

Putin has in the past repeatedly expressed his disdain of western “liberal” values, comparing cancel culture with the coronavirus.

When asked last year by a Russian journalist about the “cancellation” of J.K. Rowling, Putin said that he “adhered to the traditional approach — a woman is a woman, a man is a man, a mother is a mother, a father is a father.”

Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said that Putin’s adress on Friday gave another insight into the “distorted” view the Russian leader had of the west.

“Putin uses the information he receives from advisors and then creates his own reality of the west,” Kolesnikov said.

“He hears about some extreme examples that happen in the west and then convinces himself that this is the trend. He doesn’t like the nuance.”

Kolesnikov said Friday’s meeting with the Russian cultural elite was also meant to show the Russian public that the west was waging a parallel cultural war against the country, four weeks after Moscow’s invasion into Ukraine.

“Putin wants to tell Russians that they are under siege, also culturally. In his eyes, the west is in a relentless war against traditional Russian values.”

Putin in his address added that the “last time” such a campaign was waged against “unwanted literature” was when Nazi supporters burned books in the 1930s.

Ah listen to the muppet, what was one of the first things that the Russians did in the occupied territories back in 2014. That's right they gathered up Ukrainian Language books from the Libraries and Schools and torched them.

If Vladimir Putin and his cronies represent "Russian Values" the sooner we cancel them the better.

I wonder does he actually believe the sh1te he spouts. The west bad for cancelling events while he obliterates a sovereign country causing the death both innocent people and his own soldiers.