Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Actually not quite true.

Granted there are a lot of Indian IT workers out there and in particular it looks like the Middle East is full of them.

Coincidentally a lot of them want to get to Ireland.

But the West reliant on them ?

More worringly the West is far more reliant on getting shyte built in China because it is cheap.

It is time the West wakes up and starts reversing all the production in a probable enemy state.

The more the world goes on the more it stays the same.

A lot of major US & British industrialists were up to their necks in Germany and some rather liked old Adolf.

Hell it looked like they even wanted to keep doing business with him despite his warring ways.

They were involved with Germany because it made them money and they couldn't care less if he slaughtered Jews, homosexuals, political opponents, etc.

Likewise with all the Western multinationals to their necks in China. They couldn't care less.

The amount of "off-shoring" disasters you'd hear about in industry would probably surprise most people. Management paying peanuts and then over the next year or two find out they are getting plenty of monkeys but not much work done.

CNN op-ed on the influence of Western intelligence in presenting the Russian invasion as a disaster.

Oh man the stories I could tell out certain large Indian outsourcers. There is no way that companies save money by using them. The ones who do tend to suffer significant reputational damage from their customers if they have the outsourcers in customer facing roles.

Any client I've dealt with who have gone down the route of using Indian outsourcers for their IT have by in large had major buyers regret.

Ukrainian govt not confirming or denying that the helicopter attack on the oil depot was them while Russia saying it was them. Putin is on record a few weeks ago saying he would use nuclear weapons if Russia was threatened, things could really escalate now as he has his reason for using them.

It seems to draw an equivalence between NATO and Russia which isn't very accurate or fair. Only Russia invaded Ukraine.

What else could the Russian invasion of Ukraine be defined as at this point than a disaster? Not only did the Russian military not make it to Kyiv in a few days, as some here were predicting, they never even got to the capital proper. They're even being pushed back, it seems. Have never been able to get air superiority. Have had several high-ranking officers killed (confirmed by both sides). Tanks getting milled out of it. Thousands of troops killed. Can't even take Mariupol fully after a month despite it literally being surrounded on 3 sides. Whatever way one talks it up or breaks it down, the invasion has decidedly not gone to plan. Yes, it is in Western interests to present the invasion as a disaster, but the point is that there's no shortage of material to this end.

Unfortunately no one is willing to Stand up and guarantee their security ,nato membership is the only other option

Russians finally getting across the river at Izyum is not news I wanted to see today. Success around Kiev is great though. Hopefully Ukraine can put some of the recently acquired Russian equipment to good use in the east.

While I'm seeing tanks, rocket launchers etc. are they acquiring much artillery units? The arrival of the American switchblade drones can't come quick enough.

Edit: I see the official number sent by the US is 100. I'm going to sound like Zelenskyy now and say could they not have sent more.

Poland and Denmark both said they would be willing to be named as guarantor's for Ukraine in there peace talks.

Wonderful apt cartoon. Summarises the situation far better than the western media unfortunately has done.

Its more to do with not taking to many causualtys as you withdraw so shell thr sh1t out of them so they stay in cover and dont follow for a while as you withdraw

Remarkable good faith there from the Russians indeed.

The Russians leaving Kyiv is good news, I guess, but part of me is worried that they may be just getting their troops out of the way before carpet bombing the place or, worse still, using some kind of WMD. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them.