Thanks to Russians there ain’t many left in east and those that are left have nowhere to live or work or have electricity or running water for that matter, anything is an improvement from here.
the nationalism and demonisation on both sides very reminiscent of the Troubles back in their darkest days
And it seems was in play before Maidan as a Ukrainian I knew back in 2011 described it in those terms. Russia and Ukrainian nationalists stoked it up post Maidan and very much escalated it, but there was already fertile ground on both sides for that to grow into what it became. Of course it's no coincidence that the areas also just happen to have oil and gas fields under them...
The problems can't be solved by government supports on energy alone. Sales, sales, sales, sales are the lifeblood of any business and if the public have less money to spend due to rising inflation - that means sales fall for many businesses.
People who don't understand this are either on the social or have jobs in the public/ private sector that are totally disconnected from the real economy of making & selling goods & services.
A week of training
economist article here https://archive.ph/ofQbN
Yes they can (and many eu countries already are) the central banks and governments played pivotal role in not one but two severe downturns since 2007
A medium term solution is to extract the 15 years of shale gas around sligo instead of paying on world market by rolling back anti fracking laws and by opening up exploration, US have been ahead of curve there and are now energy independent and supplying Europe, creating jobs in process
Long term solution is to repeal yet more daft legislation and build nuclear and maybe maybe hope battery storage can somehow be deployed to smooth out the extreme underperforming wind (only 30% capacity factor)
There are no other alternatives unless you fall into “let’s go begging on knees to emperor Putin cause he is a fine fella” camp
Russian propagandists would love for all to abandon hope (and not look at facts) and think there are no options but to bend over and slide into Putin’s vision of oligarchic criminal fascism, and some might just like some embraced nazis in previous century but they are on wrong side of history
It was largely because Yanukovych, a Russian spy, stirred up separatism and the Russians created the Donbas armies. People complain that Yanukopuppet was ousted illegally but his election was not legal because of his treachery. Now the separatists have brought a war on themselves and may quieten down when the war is over. If they want to be Russian they should go back to Russia where their seeds came from.
Oh certainly, my point was that someone like Yanukovych couldn't have stirred up the same level of separatism in the West of Ukraine. It would have been more like trying to stir up Loyalism in Waterford rather than Belfast. The ground in Donbas was already primed to hear that stuff.
But I wonder how long Russian agents were whispering in the ears of Donbas Ukrainians? It often begins with whispers...
earlier in thread someone was boasting and using Wikipedia for claims of Russia having a “2 million stronk army” well more than half of these are civilian staff
Cannon fodder.
Fire in Russia
You're missing the point. It's about different ethnic identities and ethnic conflict and coexistence in the long term. I've met Ukrainian refugees here in the EU who blame Ukraine at least as much as Russia for this war and told me they can't stand Western Ukrainians. Yes, we can view them as morons but it's still how they think. The legacy of all this will have to be handled by whoever governs these countries in future, Ukraine can't just tell them all to move to Russia any more than a United Ireland could tell all unionists to go away.
Don’t worry the Russians are already busy sending people from these areas to far flung back arse of Siberia at best and concentration camps at worst
Sorry but that's mostly irrelevant to small Irish businesses and the general public, except in a very general sense. You watch this space, we'll see an amount of closures here in due course. It's inevitable as the public have less disposable income and are wary of further increases etc. For the greater stability of Europe it's a price to pay but make no mistake, a price will be paid in many different ways.
But if they don't go to Russia they are Ukrainians and must live accordingly. They can't stay in Ukraine and insist on being Russian. If Russia really cared about them they would give them the opportunity to move to Russia but the reality is Russia does not care about them. They are useful idiots and have been used to start this war.
A lot of Ukraine's make-up is still defined by 19th century nationalism, largely because they have nothing else. The perceived ethnic conflict is exaggerated and there are many Russians in Kyiv and western Ukraine who happily co-exist with everyone else. Had Putin not seen it to his advantage to stoke the gripes of a very belligerent pro-Russian but tiny group they'd still be gathering on some street somewhere waving flags and imagining they are part of a Greater Russia.
In 30 years the country has not moved on very much and is still the definition of an old style Communist bloc country. While one may see the vestiges of Western life the mentality is fairly unchanged and locked into the central power of the State, who you know and everyone getting their own little deal on the side.
Hmm, not looking positive on the various fronts this morning. Russians have pushed a good bit north on the Kherson front, and pushed a new front down from the international border towards Kharkiv. All still within turf they had taken previously and failed to hold, but still a bit disheartening.
With any luck it's just a brief surge in Russian activity in response to the Crimea attacks, and that Ukrainians can push back once they've used up their energy on this.
Any sources for this claim? Nothing on twitter, bbc, Reddit etc
As a few people have said already here, Russia is all gob...mostly.
The bigger the mouth and it's rhetoric the more likely it's all guff and nothing else.
It should be noted that the aircraft was even visible on FlightRadar24, hardly a stealth mission.
Despite the above, it happened anyway.
Looks like Shoigu is about to get a heart attack
Mostly my own tracking on the LiveUA map. I tend to follow up on it most days.
The lines had been mostly static for ages, but now there has been a bit of movement in Russia's favor. Very small gains overall it doesn't look like it has bought them any tactical advantage, but still you want those lines going back the other way towards Kherson.
Unless you have more recent information, sfa appears to have changed in the last week?
Kherson map 6 hours ago
Kherson map August 22
Kharkiv map 6 hours ago
Kharkiv map August 22
Another one? Didn’t he already have one in April or so?
Oh boy, that poor man’s health doesn’t seem to be up to the job at all……….. :D
Why doesn't Putin just die?, is written all over that depressed man's face.
Kherson: Breaking News 24/7 on Twitter: "🚨The Armed Forces of #Ukraine broke through the first line of defense of the Russians near Kherson after an intense battle in the last few hours. - Telegram" / Twitter
The Russians are full of sh1t. If they said it was Monday today i'd check the calendar
The G-7 Non-Proliferation Commission: Ukraine's right to produce energy from the Zaporizhzhya plant
Ukraine has a nuclear right, Russia is now becoming the number one rogue state
Looks like Ukraine has started the offense to retake Kherson, after spending the last few weeks targeting Russian logistics and supplies while cutting off routes so Kherson can't be re-enforced,
Someone suggested a fee pages ago that the conflict was at a standstill with neither side having the ability to push forward,
I don't agree,I think what we have been withnessing over the last few months is the Ukrainans backed by Nato intelligence and assistance preparing the path for their offensives going forward,
the incredible bottomless airforce!
They captured and destroyed 200 HiMars MLRS .
Zero evidence of either,
But we have seen the wreckage of a percentage of the russian airforce scattered actually across Ukraine
Another bit on Filatyev
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