Russia - threadbanned users in OP

You have to look at the claim that in the context of centuries of invasion of Russian territory. There are no natural barriers to prevent a land based power invading from Western European plain (Sweden, Germany - you know how & France - Napoleon) or from the south like the Ottomon empire, the Golden Horde, the Mongols. These invasions tend to go rather badly for Russian people. That is why the military want to control the choke points and post World War II they thought they had achieved that with the buffer states of Eastern Europe in front of them. They are paranoid about that, from their perspective they have to control the space around their borders, because of that they see other states as a security threat, and because of that inherent insecurity, the states bordering then see Russia as a security threat.

I just heard a great summary of the Russian predicament in Kherson: "swim or surrender".

Which is what the people in Belarus and Ukraine want to do, they are not blind to the improvements in Poland and the Baltic states.

It's the exact same mentality that drives those PBP clowns. Hatred of the US/EU and the West is their raison d'être.

Yeah I don't like being sadistic but I would have quite happily seen those fleeing soldiers, and especially their leaders and commanders, the f*ckers who are now senselessly firing rockets at Kharkov for maximum destruction, surrounded and slaughtered or at least rounded up and given long jail sentences in Ukraine.

There are hundreds or thousands of war criminals who will now slip back into Russia and pay no price for their crimes - or even worse, regroup and come back. Still, it's not the most important issue right now

A border with the West is much narrower and less costly to defend and keeps the enemy away from the heartland. Supporting the heartland i.e Moscow - St. Petersburg, is also a problem across the Russian federation since all the wealth from the territories get sucked up by Moscow, leaving the republics starved of wealth to create employment. Within the Russian federation this has given rise to mass migration from different ethnic groups from the poor areas towards the heartland, which itself is a source of conflict as Russian racialists fear being outnumbered. There are racist groups within the heartland, like everywhere, for them expanding to Ukraine is more appealing.

Lol

No, I do not have to take the persecution delusions of a paranoid schizophrenic as justification for their murderous and barbaric behaviour. Have you ever known a paranoid schizophrenic? I have - their partner justifiably saw them as a threat to themselves and their child and gave them the boot. They didn't think it necessary to have any sympathy for their viewpoint.

Stalin engineered the deaths of 7-10 million Ukrainians in order to stamp out Ukrainian nationalism and as punishment for them wanting to eat some of what they had grown instead of allowing every last ear of grain to be sent to feed Russians in Russia because communism didn't work. Putin is just Stalin Mk II in his attitude, actions and motivations regarding Ukraine. Trying to justify your lie by an implication that Russia’s viewpoint is innately superior to everyone else's is sick-making.

Stalin's actions had nothing to do with centuries past invasion routes and neither does Putin's. It's still about Russia wanting all of what Ukraine has; being mostly it's grain. The fuc​kers are even stealing their children, washing machines, ships full of grain, agricultural equipment, Irish owned aircraft, and all you can see is the bullshit official Russian propagandic justifications. This is about a grab for resources, like the invasion of Iraq, not because NATO have been planning and scheming for a Russian invasion since it's formation, likely to happen any century now. The Mongols were easily the worst invaders the Russians have known, I don't see them pulling this nonsense in the far east because they are afraid of an imminent repeat.

The world does not have to kow-tow to the views of a cleptocracy.

Maybe now, due Putins mis -adventurers Russia as we know it will be under a threat to its very existence , but it will come from within. But even before the invasion of Ukraine, who would be even thinking about invading it? After all, it was supposed to be the 2nd strongest military in the world and with the BOMB, no less!!! Nato, the west etc, were all painted a s being a threat ( wrongly ) but Putin needed a reason to justify his illegal invasion plans. And so we have the big bad NATO and the evil EU. Putin has unleashed a whirlwind that will strengthen the EU and NATO beyond what he could ever have imagined in his wildest dreams, ( or worst nightmares ) but will go a long way to destroying Russia's ability wage war on its Neighbour's for generations.

I do agree with you fully. I am not saying their viewpoint is correct, I am pointing out they have a different perspective with its own logic and fallacies.

This looks like the car is utterly destroyed but then looks like only the petrol tank exploded. Only one escapes.

Not a good day for the Russian Airforce

Three new airframes to the Loss list. Confirmed a new SU-30, The SU-34 in Crimea and the crash of that SU-25 on social media today.

The potential for use of nuclear weapons has to be factored into any conflict with a nuclear power like Russia, it shapes how the conflict is cirrently being fought.

The Russians control Kazakhstan in much the same manner as they do Belarus. There are geographical barriers that limit Chinas movement (Mongolian steppe, desert, mountains and Amur river). For the time being, Russia has a solid alliance with China (who need them for resources), China has being building their belt and road through the old territories of the Soviet Union and diplomatically extending it's influence. In the face of the United States both are "frenemies" and China is some distance from the heartland.

I think it started out as psychological but has since become something real.

Ukrainians are playing a very clever game with social media, twitter, etc. Far better than anything the Russians have done.