I was talking about all the "diplomats" in the embassy. Not sure how you got all Russians from that.
Meh, Brexiteer type. Par for the course.
Zelensky after 40 days of war. Powerful and terrible images. I bet when he launched that comedy show Servant of the People he never thought it would lead here.... Sawa docu on him the other day, in all honesty he seemed like a fairly superficial populist up till recently, but no doubt he has risen to the awful occasion
NATO and the US are being pretty careful not to trigger any kind of nuclear conflict. That's very clear in what they've been saying.
I've said this before on this forum, but the comparisons with all previous wars simply evaporate when you add nuclear weapons, and particularly large quantities of them and you would be very naive to assume that an unhinged Russian leadership definitely would not use them. This is not the later days of the USSR and all evidence would suggest that the regime in Moscow is not particularly strategic or logical in how they have approached this.
The consequences of a nuclear exchange are incalculably serious. You would be looking at hundreds of millions of deaths, mass starvation and the end of civilisation as well as the utter deviation of entire ecosystems. If it was very serious (all or most warheads fired), you'd have a distinct possibility of very large parts of the planet being uninhabitable, and not just for humans but also animals and plants. That could lead to mass extinctions of all sorts of life, including humans. You would be looking at a situation where none of this would matter. None of history would matter. There might literally be no large or complex life left and evolution would have spend billions of years getting back to something like this again, assuming intelligence even ever evolved again.
Nuclear war is basically suicide and it would be a decision someone would be taking on behalf of the rest of us, and I honestly do not think anyone has the mandate do to that nor should they have.
The Ukraine invasion is horrendous, but the solutions to it absolutely have to avert nuclear conflict. It's not something anyone can win.
I read an article from a retired American general a couple of weeks ago that if this conflict lasts until mid April that the Russians will be fast running out of equipment and weapons to sustain a major offensive never mind restart a new one. Seems like we are getting very close to that. I can see a major final onslaught on Donbas where they throw the kitchen sink at it, but i think Kyiv is safe for now, unless the Chinese start shipping the Russians equipment and bombs.
It just goes to show you never can tell. Though maybe it's because he was a comedian and not a career politician that makes the difference? Comedians have to be able to really understand human nature and culture to be close to any good. By nature they're observers of society and people and they also tend to know where the lines of truth and comedy converge and diverge. Not too bad a basis for leadership I reckon.
The same three problems for Russia apply, how to get there, secure them and hold them. Their efforts to date, barbarity aside, have been pretty appalling and there's no evidence they can achieve any of these so-called objectives either.
Weird thing is invasion was meant to be easy, holding is the difficult part. So far Russia cannot figure out the invasion part successfully.
As I've said for years, left and right matter far less than the principles of the people involved. Ukraine seemed to be continuing to progress. There's differences between campaigning, leading, and the nuts and bolts of administration. Take word from the right people, give the right people jobs and get things running properly. No-one can run a country top-to-bottom and the people with the humility to take that as a given and act accordingly are the more successful leaders.
In this war we've seen Zelenskyy be brave, speak well, be honest and earnest. He could have skipped off at any point but his principles have shone through. He's not perfect (there was something about off-shore accounts but my first impression was a nothingburger with a lack of details, like Jimmy Carr when he got stung) but only fools believe in such things. I remember the yanks putting out whispers about him and I don't think they were triple-bluffing at the time. 😅 He's done just about all he could since the Russians invaded.
Also, more an idle pondering than anything, but I think he (and the Ukrainians) are sharp enough to protect themselves. While the Ukrainians made some preparations before the invasion the fact the Yanks were shouting about it for ages beforehand and the Ukrainians didn't really seem to believe it (I'm sure behind the scenes more prep was happening) makes me think Zelenskyy and the rest were protecting themselves from the US. Similarly with the call that helped Trump get impeached, he was happy to let Trump hang himself while going off the reservation rather than just suck up to the Yanks.
China's got its own agendas, and from what I can see at least, none of those involve becoming sucked in to some crazy Russian invasion of a neighbouring country. They've been fence sitting and they clearly do not want to be seen to be directly in line with the 'West' but I strongly doubt that China has any interest in being pulled into some ridiculous Russian empire fantasy.
China has huge issues with human rights abuses, it's an authoritarian state, and it has many problems. However, it's also a hugely complex trading economy of a billion people and has a strong focus on increasing and improving living standards and so on. It's a far, far more successful country than Russia in a whole range of areas, and I really cannot see it throwing all that away to cozy up to Putin.
My assumption is that China will continue with a sort of 'careful now! down with that sort of thing!' type approach while actually doing nothing.
If anything, China may have an agenda of waiting for Russia to stabilise again, whenever this does eventually end and it will probably end in a Russian coup, and then it can enter the market buying in at rock bottom prices to secure resources for its manufacturing sector.
If we are dissecting past decisions like going ahead with the Nordstream pipeline, I should also point out the UK's disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq has given a huge amount of whataboutery ammunition to the Putin-bots, "look how bad the West is". There is a certain logic to it too. It isn't too different to what the Russians are doing, invading a country on some made up pretext because you don't like the government.
A relative of mine long since gone was with the American army fighting the nazis in WW2 across northern Europe to Germany. After the war he moved to Australia and he witnessed the atomic tests there in the early 50's. He came back to Ireland a few times later on after he retired and I remember a discussion between him and my dad and this guy, a man who had seen combat and the horrors of war said that bomb going off was the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen and he had nightmares about it.
Zelenskiy calling out the spinelessness of the UN in relation to past conflicts.
He's dead right.
This Azov lot are amazing alright. They seem to be everywhere at once according to the Russians and yet there's only about a thousand of them...
On that subject, ever notice how a bunch of comedians can turn their hand to drama so easily? Much rarer the other way around. Could expand further but I think it's down to "acting" being putting yourself out for a reaction whereas comedic stuff is much more symbiotic by default.
I'm just quoting this so everyone can revel in the instictive EUrophile counter of "But...but..Britain" no matter how much of a stretch it is
"Em what about....eh Iraq maybe?"
The nasty Brits werent selling Russia weapons after they invaded Ukraine were they? That was the likes of France and Germany who proudly proclaimed that they were still compliant with EU sanctions while doing so.
Makes you proud to be EUopean, eh?
Nah sure the Ukrainians are all Nazis remember? :P
I think at some level you have to assume all the nuclear powers, including Russia, realise that they are a pretty useless weapon as if you press the big red button, we're all gone. There is no winner. All of these people have families, friends, desires to swan about on yachts in the Caribbean and all of those things would become impossible. It would be, at best, life sealed up in some bunker until the food ran out.
:-)
Think poster (perhaps) was assuming you are a brexiter, maybe from the UK or something? Hence reference to UK which despite providing weapons to Ukraine before and during this war has made mistakes in hindsight in its policies towards Russia over the last decade or so.
Don't know if poster is right or why he did that. The EU does not set foreign policy of France and Germany re Russia. They made those mistakes themselves just like UK did, just like we did here in our own smaller way.
Anyway why do you you hate the EU as a matter of interest?
How much of a stretch it is? They invaded looking for non-existent WMD's, destabilised the entire region, leading directly to the 500k-1m deaths and who knows how many indirectly. We have ISIS and the situation in Syria to thank for their Iraqi war. Then when the refugees inevitably arrived in Europe, they blame the EU! I get it, you don't like the EU. But save us the sanctimonious bullshit about the UK. They have always and will always suit themselves in any situation.
You and others keep throwing up this argument but not one has been able to give an answer on where is the redline for push back. If we do nothing in Ukraine because we fear a nuclear strike, then we'll do nothing in moldova because we fear a nuclear strike and we'll do nothing in Lithuania because we don't want to escalate for fear of a nuclear strike. The time you spend wondering about your own redlines has Putin moving his redline closer to you. He senses the weakness and he'll exploit it. Nuclear war is far more likely the longer this conflict goes on.
Nato does not need to put one boot on Ukranian or Russia soil. Sell them arms like they sold them to the Russians for decades. Give them the best of the best to drive the Russians off their soil. If that crosses Putins redline well then we were never not going to cross it at some stage.
Save us the sanctimonious bullshit & whataboutery re the UK/USA/NATO and whatever else you're having.
We are witnessing a war in Europe - not Asia or Africa, on a scale of local human suffering and destruction not seen since the 1940s.
That's why we are exercised and engaged. If affects you and I and all of us. This is how countries got dragged into wars in the past despite the willingness or unwillingness of their public. There comes a time when people & states choose to make a stand for what is right. And then we get sucked in.
You and others keep throwing up this argument but not one has been able to give an answer on where is the redline for push back.
How would any of us know? It is known somewhere by the powers that make such calls but at a guess it is an attack on a NATO/EU country.
Similar process used to capture James Woods
The Russian ambassador to the UN is talking a load of shite.
Let's get something straight here folks
Are we weighing up current suffering against the kind of suffering a nuclear exchange would cause
Or, are we weighing up current suffering against the MERE THREAT of a nuclear exchange
I'm quite happy to go cold and hungry to fcuking save lives NOW !!!
In some parts of the world it's known as the truth!
In other news: Water is wet.
Where is Will Smith when you need him?
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