An example I use is Hong Kong. Til 97 they had democracy and their own identity. The Brits pussied out completely and left them to it.
I'd just like to take issue with you a bit over this. My understanding is that Britain had leased the use of Hong Kong from the Chinese and was expected to 'vacate the premises' when that lease was up. I have no love for the Chinese authorities in either their word or deed, but the British not giving back Hong Kong would have effectively been an invasion of another country's sovereign territory, which is what we're all so rightfully indignant at Russia about. Whether more could have or should have been done by the British for the people living in Hong Kong at the time is a different can of worms.
True the Irish government has foreign obligations for which our embassies are key towards fulfilling. Having said that we do not have embassies in every country and we have a very small presence in Russia even prior to their invasion and disgusting behaviour in Ukraine. I doubt it will happen anyway but I certainly would have no problem with Ireland and other EU countries getting together and having just one combined embassy in Russia and then closing down the Russian embassy in Dublin or at the very least reducing it to the very bare minimum of staff so we can cut down on the spying operations they run there.
Well compared with 2021 the EU is importing less gas from Russia in general; but this was even before the war began (https://www.bruegel.org/publications/datasets/european-natural-gas-imports/):
Although I wouldn't be overly surprised to see higher inflows from Russia to try and exhaust contracts or increase the amount in storage for the short term.
And Merkel still refuses to condemn the invasion.
Berlin must be forced to stop talking Pro Ukraine but acting Pro Putin.
Unless the rest of Europe puts pressure on them they will continue to undermine the response to the invasion.
My understanding is that it is standard conventional military doctrine to deploy artillery and SAM sites in wide open spaces. There are a bunch of other reasons for this on top of those I mentioned but here is a relatively recent example (2019) of a NATO artillery training exercise:
In any case both Ukraine and Russia also operate similarly; apart from sometimes setting up batteries in between buildings in suburban areas but that wouldn't be considered standard military doctrine. We're also getting a bit off-topic; might be worth you starting a thread in the Military forum to discuss it in more depth.
To be fair his argument seems to be that they should be supplied alongside and/or as part of a wider agreement with other members of the EU/NATO:
A decision on the matter was initially expected this week. But it’s now in limbo as the Social Democrat chancellor — much to the frustration of his governing coalition partners — argues Germany should first reach a common position with Western allies on the subject before delivering such heavy military equipment, the officials said.
Which on the surface seems reasonable; but it also begs the question why the EU and NATO can't sort themselves out and at least agree in principle to supply these "heavier weapons". But we can at least hope that the inventories involved are being processed in advance of the political decisions to move them.
The other aspect is that the vehicles and weapon systems being mentioned will require significant amounts of training; and in many cases it seems like they'll require a certain amount of preparatory work to get them ready for use. These are the particular systems Ukraine has asked Germany for according to Politico:
Note that the only vehicle which Germany seems to be close to approving is the Marder IFV; of which they have approximately 100 in storage which could be refurbished and sent to Ukraine. It's not clear what kind of time frames would be involved but these seem to be aimed at a longer term (months and years) conflict in Ukraine.
Offcourse you can its just a matter of finding the right spot i a forrest
There are many ways of camoflaging your vehicles
You use the landscape to your advantage,first thing you learn in the army
And its even more important these days with surveillance drones flying over you constantly.
There is even camonets to avoid Thermal and IR detection
If you ever watched western countries in excersises they are all camoflaged,be it Artillery or SAM positions.
This is absolutely nuts.. brilliant job by the Sky reporter
Ukraine War: Full Sky News interview with Vladimir Putin's spokesman
Sanctions issued, weapons sent, refugees taken in... There is more that can be done, but that does not meant nothing is being done. European politicians face the balancing act of applying sanctions to Russia in such a way that creates as little extra austerity at home as possible.
Cannot see all of the members agreeing to this as with the Polish NATO peacekeeping proposal.
Ah now, sure there are a lot of tossers in Cork, but that's going a bit to far.
Interesting interview with Obama on his perspective of the conflict. He comes off badly in this one, but to give you the gist, he essentially makes two points.
Are we still sleeping? I feel Germany in particular is akin to myself on a Monday morning when the alarm has truck at 7am. I don't really want to get out of bed, but I should.
Powerful & slighlty ironic
Although maybe the above has stopped now
I've heard a few of these now. As someone who's very much in favour of Ukraine, I don't believe a single one. They are just far too false and impersonal.
"What would happen if Ukraine invited NATO to take over Odessa and kyiv?"
Nothing would happen because NATO would turn down such an invite, NATO don't "take over" territories.
Dragging heels.
Not sure if its been shared before but - powerful
What would happen if Ukraine invited NATO to take over Odessa and kyiv? No attacking Russians just to insure the safety of innocent people.. would Russia attack them? I doubt it, maybe NATO should start doing special operations themselves.
A hilarious moment on Nazi state television in Moscow on Tuesday when producers inadvertently showed the wrong clip from Ukraine. Watch how angry host Solovyov becomes though, screaming abuse at the people in the TV gallery : an absolute thug and bully like his boss in the Kremlin.
There will be no reparations, only those that can be ceased as external assets.
There will be no trials of war criminal's. Any retribution would need to be taken now.
There will be no quick assession to the EU or investment from the west that isn't in some way favourable for the financier.
Unfortunately that is the way of this world.
There will most likely never be reparations from Russia. They are looking at a post western dominated world.
Reparation will only become relevant if Russia ever wants to re-engage with the West and global legal and trade frameworks etc. If they're happy to continue down their isolationist (or at least isolation from the West) path it will never even enter into their thinking.
Personally I don't see how Ukraine ever gets anything from Russia without military force; unless Russia itself changes seismically from within.
EDIT: Should have added "ever gets anything from Russia voluntarily"; it's possible some Russian assets seized as a result of sanctions may find their way to helping Ukraine.
I would suggest either a "Special Rules Bending Operation" or a "Special Rules Changing Operation"
Their Frozen assets can't be used to pay reparation without agreement.
It is also safe to say that they hold both top 2 places for the greatest defaults in the last 150 years globally.
The Irish government still has an obligation to Irish citizens abroad; and embassies are a part of that system.
Expelling diplomats sends the message of support for Ukraine and rebuking of Russia; we've already done that. If there are any other potential intelligence assets we should expel them too.
But expelling the ambassador and closing down the embassy completely destroys any lines of communication Ireland as a nation might have with Russia. Given that we are a non-NATO member and in a prime position to help with things like post-war rebuilding and security in Ukraine I don't think we should be completely cutting ourselves off from the Russian government.
I'm also not sure what completely cutting Russia off from diplomatic ties with the EU and the West as a whole is actually supposed to accomplish? I'm pretty sure they're already getting the message about our feelings towards their conduct.
Well a lot of assets are already frozen and probably 90% more not even known about so...
But yes about Germany the true figure is not known by anyone how much they really ever paid but they did pay something
Man of the Peoples Republic more like
Best of luck trying to get Russia to agree to pay reparation.
I don't think Germany ever repaid it's reparation, at least not in full, Poland have been chasing them I believe for millions and they only finished paying agreed WW1 reparations in 2010.
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