Russia - threadbanned users in OP

You can be sure that China are clandestinely backing Russia to the hilt as well. I should hope that Maxxar have their eyes on the Russia/China border crossings.

What exactly needs to be 'corrected' as regards Siberia? It's already part of Russia.

I'd rather use my last bullet on myself than be taken by those animals. They'll be tortured then executed.

I’m sick of these types taking the piss out of our liberal democracy and laughing at us. Likes of this shite should be treasonous (it is) with immediate deportation clauses attached.

I’d imagine American military technology is so advanced now that so much can be done remotely effectively. I suspect a loot is being done already we don’t see. I doubt the Ukrainians on their own could have so well to date

Listening to a Russia expert on radio last night and he said the only possible way the Russia - Ukraine situation can end is Putin's removal or death. Any scenario where he remains in power means years of ongoing military conflict in the region, sanctions, large scale Cold War, international instability etc.

If you want to bankrupt Putin just turn off the taps for gas and oil for a month. Once that's done, he's done as is the industry as their production capacity will drop significantly having to shut off wells because storage is full. Putin knows if that happens its all over for Russia. They have nothing else. The problem is you have the likes of the Germans and French who don't care who dies as long as their industry isn't affected.

Anyone in a western country looking to prolong this for self interest is no better than the rapists in the Russian army. Purveyors of human misery with zero moral compass.

This war has been particularly dividing of the world nations into --

Nations of despicable savages

Nations of hideous standbyers

Nations of craw thumpers

Nations who provide real help

Nations who stand (unfortunately Ukraine is doing all the standing)

Theres no doubt the Americans have been providing excellent satellite and drone reconesence but unfortunately Ukraine hasn't had the weaponry to make the most of it. The ideal scenario is that drones or satellites pick up high density Russian troop movement or bases even well behind the front line. The GPS co-ordinates are reported back to a mobile long range missile. They fire on the position from relative safety and move on so their own position isn't compromised. If you had multiple units doing this all day everyday for a week along with drones who could carry out more surgical immediate strikes the effects on the Rapists would be immense. Imminent death from the sky 24/7 a real possibility.

An incomprehensible amount of suffering could have been avoided for the price of a bullet or a vial of poison.

Is it 40 million the pre-war population was? - let an online list be compiled of those unaffected by this - let maths do the rest.

The French and Germans want this to go away so they don't have to worry about their cheap gas. Unfortunately its been shown up that having these two as the leading lights in europe is only a step away from disaster. The Germans waffle about arms being damaged or needing repair but you can be damn sure that if Germany was attacked tomorrow they'd pull stuff out from all angles. The most industrialised country in europe that spends its every waking moment telling us the brilliance of German engineering, how its superior to all others and they can't even fix up a few tanks or RPG's. Its not believable. The only explanation is the most obvious and that is that not upsetting Russia and the continuation of Russian gas to flow is the more important than Ukrainian lives.

China will do what further advances their own strategic interests.

It's pretty well known that the German armed forces have been allowed to rot away for quite some time. Which isn't to excuse the Germans for not doing more; but they do have large amounts of equipment which isn't operational. There's a reason they announced such a huge increase in spending as a result of Russia's invasion.

The frustrating part about Germany's response has been that they're not allowing German industry to complete deals with Ukraine to supply IFVs and tanks; which is a separate issue and is not really going to help Ukraine in the very short term anyway.

France is a slightly different story; I'm not even sure what they've supplied to Ukraine or in what amounts. For some reason they've decided not to say what has been sent even though virtually every other country has been very open about it. Possibly they're doing it to avoid criticism, or Macron wants plausible deniability when talking to Putin; who knows.

The Ukrainians are certainly using propaganda, but it mostly seems to me to be via concealing setbacks and bad news and strongly pushing good news. But I am unaware of them using outright lies and misinformation to any degree. Would you have some examples where they have done so?

An accusation of the Ukrainians lying about the use of chemical weapons to gain sympathy from the west is pretty strong and needs some justification in my eyes.

This didn't start with the report of chemical weapons use, but several hours earlier:

"Occupation authorities in parts of Donetsk region of Ukraine via Russian State media urge to use chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops in Mariupol" https://liveuamap.com/en/2022/11-april-occupation-authorities-in-parts-of-donetsk-region

Russian state media is fairly open and verifiable source and unlikely to be subject to fake news originating from Ukrainian intelligence. So now the narrative has to be that following the convenient urging of chemical weapons use by Russian agents, the Ukrainians decided to mislead about them being used a few hours later.

Another circumstance the Ukrainians couldn't be argued to have engineered is the Russians appointing General Alexander Dvornikov, known as the butcher of Syria who has instigated the use of chemical weapons.

My version of Occam's razor has the simpler explanation being that the Russians went 1 then 2 then 3, rather than the Ukrainians seeing an opportunity and crying wolf and shouting 3.

Also, the US chipping in wouldn't hurt for the crying wolf scenario, but at the same time, it would more suggest the US perhaps has intelligence that certain brutal tactics were about to be used and that the Ukrainians wouldn't need to lie about it.

"Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement last night. “These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine.”It’s unclear what sort of weapon was employed. CNN reported it appeared to be a small munition dropped from a drone that sickened three people. “Before today, there was credible information available to us that the Russians may have been preparing to use agents, chemical agents, potentially tear gas mixed with other agents, as part of an effort to weaken, to incapacitate the Ukrainian military and civilian elements that are entrenched in Mariupol,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN last night. “We shared that information with our Ukrainian partners. We are going to be in direct conversations with them to try and determine what exactly has transpired here, and as soon as we gain additional fidelity, we’ll be in a better position to say what this was or what this may have been.”

I don't believe the US warned the Ukrainians chemical weapons might soon be used and the Ukrainians then piped up a couple hours later and said 'chemical weapons have been used'. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/as-new-russian-general-takes-charges-of-ukraine-invasion-reports-of-possible-chemical-weapons-use-in-mariupol