Russia - threadbanned users in OP

You didn't "bring up uncomfortable points". You drew a moral equivalence between Ukraine and Russia in the 2022 conflict by calling them both murderous regimes.

Nobody says Ukraine in 2014-2021 was a paragon of virtue. But to present Ukraine and Russia as morally equivalent can only be done via reliance on Russian propaganda lies, which you repeat here.

I didn’t say they were morally equivalent, I just said I’m not a fan of Kievs government and condemned some of their actions, particularly supporting and arming far right militias, and the persecution of ethnic Russians in Donbas.

This doesn’t mean I support Moscow. Some people seem to be having a hard time computing this.

Weasel words, you said a lot more than that, including accusations of ethnic cleansing of ethnic Russians which have no basic in reality.

You are only walking back the Russian propaganda lies you posted because they has been challenged on this thread.

Why are we having a hard time computing it?

You wrote "it's murdering regime v murdering regime", a clear attempt at drawing a moral equivalence between them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119262115/#Comment_119262115

Well done to him for taking action. A lot of evidence of Russian interference in the no-confidence motion he faced.

I stand by everything I said. Kiev is 100% a murdering regime as is Moscow.

Ukraine are morally in the right to defend their homeland against invaders, so the moral comparison ends there. Russia are on the wrong side of this war. Nothing I’ve said is inconsistent with that position which I’ve held throughout.

You are 100%correct on the West underestimating the store of Russian weaponry, it may be old and by Western standards near primitive but a 155 shell from 1960 is still going to be a problem if they are landing daily in thousands .

Russia is not holding back its latest weapons in case of NATO and NATO are not going to care if they do, the gap is still incredible in terms of capabilities.

Could Russia beat Poland, hard to see it, could Russia even beat the tiny force that the US have in Europe, not a hope.

Russia have a lump hammer Army, Brutal, rough but it can be deadly against a smaller opponent.

So it seems Turkey has dropped its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

Good.

Well done Putin, you've fcuked yourself over even more. Lol.

You wrote: "This is bad guy vs bad guy, with innocent people in the middle."

Of course you were drawing a moral equivalence and are just trying to weasel out of it now you've been found out.

You are only back tracking on whatever lies you have been challenged on. It is a tactic seen before by those disseminating Russian propaganda.

You said Ukraine was engaged in ethnic cleansing in Donbas.

This is a lie and if you stand over it you are a liar.

Moscow has launched an illegal invasion of a neighbouring country, has indiscriminately targeted residential cites with widespread attacks, has committed war crimes, has executed civilians in Bucha, has deliberately targeted civilian refuges and medical facilities with heavy weapons. You have drawn a false equivalence between Ukraine's actions in Donbas 2014-2021 and Russia's in 2022, or even for that matter that of Russia and separatists in 2014-2021. An equivalence which is without foundation.

Ukraine is a democracy. It has signed political agreements with the EU committing it to progress on human rights, rooting out corruption, and eventually becoming an EU member state.

Russia is a gangster fascist dictatorship.

To put Ukraine in the same camp as them as equally 'murdering regime' is morally bankrupt, and can only be done through an utterly dishonest misrepresentation of the facts.

Given that you’re never going to believe that people in Donbass have suffered persecution, we are at an impasse.

You choose to believe the lads wearing the yellow and black swastikas on black sun symbols were not persecuting the ethnic minorities in Ukraine if it makes you feel better.

I’ll choose to argue the need for a peace treaty that recognises Ukraine’s political reality to be hammered out as soon as possible.

100k behind the front line at a russian military airbase

To paraphrase Admiral Nimitz: "Where is, repeat, where is Russian Air Defense? The world wonders!"

Seriously, I know that the Russian Air Force isn't in the best of shapes, to put it mildly. However, why on Earth do they not have aircraft flying Combat Air Patrol behind the border 24/7? Surely, there are at least SOME of the 600 aircraft of the Fulcrum and Flanker family that Russia has in its active inventory that can be ordered to fly CAP next to an active war zone? I mean, it's not like the Ukrainian Air Force has been neutralised, far from it. If this does turn out to be a Ukrainian air attack of some sort, then it really makes me wonder just how hollowed out the Russian armed forces really are. Not a good picture for Russia.