What are you on about? Signing his land grab documents and winning/losing battles aren't mutually exclusive.
Or the Chinese proverb: Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.
I'm not so sure about that. Early on in the speech, he mentioned one possible out - by inviting Ukraine to the negotiating table with their acceptance of the landgrabs. Putin knows of course that the wind is in the sails of Ukraine, but it's possible he was telling the West that he'll wind up the invasion if he can have this slice of the pie, hoping that a fatigued West, fearful of nuclear, anxious about an energy-short winter will find this the best outcome.
Ukrainian officials expecting good news later today. NATO press conference at 5pm. I wonder if NATO decides now to implement a no-fly zone, perhaps just for western parts of Ukraine. Would be valid to call Russia a terrorist state, and accuse it of planning tactical nukes. A no-fly zone to protect against that possibility in west of Ukraine. Would be a smart move- doesn't directly cover those new areas of Russian annex, so Russia can't 'complain' about the 'sovereign' aspect. And NATO can just say the no-fly zone will cover areas 'not under active-fighting', so not directly acknowledge the annex. A no-fly zone, apart from protecting Ukraine from nuclear or other attacks, further limits Russian capabilities to be successful in it's 'special operations'.
It's different from at the start of the war when NATO was asked for a no-fly zone. Then, Russians were in large parts of Ukraine, so avoiding NATO/Russian conflict was basically impossible. That's not the case today. Also, the use of nuclear weapons in West Ukraine wasn't as strong as it is now.
Do it NATO. Please.
I'd argue this is the new cold war rather than ww3.
I very much doubt Nato is gonna engage with Russia, but Russia will continue to attack the wests interests
To some posters on here it's all just a big old computer game where all that matters in the end is how many orcs are killed
Putin promises to defend occupied lands with all means, also promises to rebuild everything destroyed
Found it!
It's never going to happen,
They will keep sending orc smashing goodies , weapons and so on but they won't impose a no fly zone, ukraine isn't a Nato member , but even at that they might need a UN mandate to do so and guess who's going to veto that idea
What a thing to say.
He might as well declared an annexation of London and Washington, this annexation of Ukraine territory is as likely.
...
Will not happen for the same reasons it wouldnt happen in the beginning.
We are not close to WW3 - NATO will not put boots on the ground (or air), and Putin won't be stupid enough to use nukes. It will be the status quo for years to come, a bloody but regional conflict in South and East Ukraine.
Skip to the 4:40 mark
I've never seen Putin try and express himself as much as he does when he's chanting at the very end. You can really see how much of his face has been immobilised by whatever cosmetic treatments he has had.
At least you're consistent in banging the same old drum, even it's been ruptured and shredded by Russian artillery and munitions.... for months past.
Just look at the expressions of the four stooges though! Thoughts of 'Am I mad' floating around their heads and are we all dead men walking.
No doubt Putin's approval rating will burst thru the ceiling after this...
Well you're always not too far behind me no matter where I post,so when I seen it was yourself I wasn't surprised.
yup. They didn't win getting to Kyiv, but that was a feint apparently. They didn't win in the north east either. It took them months to take Mariupol, they've not moved down south in months, oh and they didn't win the first week of this month when they had their Special Retreat Operation in the east. They've had more feints than a dramatic Victorian debutante. Even as his speech was going on he was winning less land...
They have grabbed the "independent republics" which gives putin a spin win to his peasants, but that's not going away as a big violent problem any time soon. He said he wasn't going to invade. He did. He swore no conscripts would be at the front. He lied. He swore no mobilisation. He lied. That's not going over well among his vassals in the regions and it can be argued there are more Russian men fleeing his mobilisation than Ukrainians.
Oh and putin's Russia was slapped with some of the worst sanctions in history, with more to come and billions being poured into Ukraine to keep on keeping on. Never mind the loss of any political goodwill in the bits of the world that matter. And that includes China.
Ukraine is submitting an application to join NATO, -President Zelenskyi said following the results of the NSDC meeting
Ukraine is not doing anything "sans the 4 republics" as no one else on planet Earth recognises them as anything but part of Ukraine.
The worse part is lavrov will be standing up in the UN crying how ukraine has invaded Russian sovereign territory and calls for the UN to ask Ukraine to withdraw it's forces from Russian soil
They're fighting for their nation, for sure, and part of that is fighting for its destiny. If enough Ukrainians saw their destiny as being inextricably linked to that of Russia's and wanted to go arm in arm with that country into the future, then I don't see how Ukraine's resistance would be as stubborn as it has been. The soldiers would large-scale down tools, refuse to fight, and the people would be in revolt against the Ukrainian government. These things have not happened.
Did the gobshíte actually come out with that? Jaysus...
No doubt, as measured by the same polling companies who conducted the referendum in Ukraine. I'd say 110% approval rating at least. Doncha just love democracy Russian style, just like evil capitalism, Russian style!
Unfortunately the application will mean nothing, you can't join NATO when you have territorial disputes, they must be settled peacefully before acceptance into the alliance.
Edit: Although Ukraine earlier saying they have good news and a mysterious NATO press briefing later on, who knows?
Exactly this.
He would be better asking for long range weapons capability
I wonder what the mood music in Hungary is like this afternoon after Putin's speech, considering Viktor Orbán continues to do business with Russia. Hungarians might say, their meagre revenues for Russian energy will not solely fund Putin's war, but y'know what Hungary, it just looks bad....
Well earned:-
If every member state wants them in NATO they'll be in NATO.
I highly doubt that is going to be the case though, territorial disputes or otherwise.
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