Russia - threadbanned users in OP

What kinda agreement do you think will stop all of this .

I find the whole situation baffling. Some people are still saying he'd never use even a tactical nuclear weapon but he's backed himself into an absolute corner now.

If he'd withdrawn Russian forces earlier and fed the country a big spoon of propaganda, like the special operation to "liberate" couldn't win because the might of NATO and the US were behind Ukraine, and he had to prioritize Russian lives, he'd at least hold onto power even though his personal legacy would be ruined.

By continuously escalating he's left himself very little options. I don't know how we could say he'd never use a tactical nuke when the man's just signed a decree annexing territories which are not only unstable, but in which Ukraine is making active inroads and only getting stronger.

To the Russian spectator who buys into the new glorious greater Russia, Ukraine will now be conquering Russia itself. Putin knows this, of course.

So he's either totally naive as to how well his army can hold the line indefinitely against a Ukraine that'll only get stronger as the Russian army and economy gets utterly ravaged, or he's ready to take the ultimate gamble and escalate even further.

It's hard to believe it's the first one. Equally it's hard to see how he could think the second option would bring anything other than the absolute destruction of Russia, literally on the battlefield, and in the wider sense in terms of the countrys economy and international standing.

It is baffling. It's impossible to know what his playbook is at this stage.

In that case, i'll ring the Orc embassy on Monday and offer them Ireland in exchange for getting out of Ukraine 2012.

I'll get there ;)

A piece of land!!!!! Really is that all the sovereignty of an independent country is to you

"I agree to fúck off out of Ukraine and never come back. And by the way, those areas are Ukrainian - I was only messing.

Lots of love,

Vladdykins"

Shocking...

But according to the Russians it happens on their territory and the attack was carried out by Ukraine

It’s all totally nuts.

I think one key thing about his speech today is that Putin hardly mentioned Ukraine at all, but kept talking about the US and the West. His framing is that Russia may be fighting in “the area previously known as Ukraine”, but they are not fighting Ukraine itself - they’re fighting the US, NATO, the EU, the West. This reduces the embarrassment of losing “Russian land” to their relatively tiny neighbour that isn’t even supposed to exist. I don’t think this is him setting the stage for an excusable defeat by a formidable foe, but it is allowing him to justify any action domestically as his supporters will recognise that how ever might they think Russia is, the enemy NATO is not to be underestimated.

He’s framing the war not as the land-grab it really is, but as an ideological last stand against what he actually started to describe in the speech as Satanism. By unspoken contrast, that puts him on the literal side of God. In Christian belief, God ultimately can’t lose, but any and every sacrifice is required to be on the side of victory. He’s softening Russia up more and more sacrifices.

It’s noteworthy that the tone of the speech and document signing ceremony was not one of victory and hope, which one would usually expect from a country fulfilling what it sees as its destiny in regaining its territorial integrity. Rather it was an exceptionally defensive, somber, paranoid affair, concentrating entirely on the danger of powerful enemies. Truly unprecedented and unbelievable stuff.

They aren't just fighting over a piece of land.

Russia are slaughtering civilians, trying to overturn the international order and revert to the rule of might is right, with a playbook copied from the Nazis in Sudetenland.

Your posts are nothing more than morally and intellectually bankrupt exercises in weasel words, in a blatant attempt to draw some sort of 'both sides' moral equivalence between Ukraine and Russia.

Tens of trillions of dollars of natural resources in the land he has stolen. Is army isn’t up to it so he has to threaten nukes to hold it.

And his army isn't up to it because his country is corrupt from top to bottom just like him. He set the standard for everyone else to follow. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, etc...