Russia - threadbanned users in OP

From what I can hear, the translator says "preventive strikes" (not "preemptive") and then very quickly "preventive actions". It's hard to know from this video whether it was the translator, or Zelenskyy, that was correcting themselves, but it does sound like one of them meant to say "actions" rather than "strikes". There's a big difference between the two, and there's a big difference between preventive and preemptive, and in the context of what he was talking about before and after those words, it seems to me that the context was letting Russia know what would happen if they engaged in a nuclear strike first, rather than them doing so and then unleashing a reaction. Maybe I'm being too generous, but in the totality of his words, it really doesn't sound to me like he was calling for actual " preemptive strikes" - and in striking first and unilaterally - against Russia in the nuclear sense or against their nuclear infrastructure. But the use of the word "strike", whether by the translator or Zelenskyy, and whether by accident or not, certainly isn't helpful.

Being it's his birthday

No, it's fine, I'll keep reading for the worthwhile contributions and discussions, thanks anyway.

Just shows you can party every weekend and (maybe) take drugs but still be a better leader than a teetotaler judo master

In all fairness, I think the comment was a joke.

I like her….. I think I might be in love

Marin is hated by all the usual suspects as she is perceived to be yet another 'leftie woke liberal'.....it's just the usual right wing conservative brigade / Daily Mail types kicking off.

Putin (or anyone else) doesn't have to nuke Ireland. If it all goes WWIII, then all the other nukes going off around the world will be enough to kill those that live in Ireland. Nuclear winter and fall out will see to that.

I suspect that Biden has been misquoted or misunderstood too (the remarks that caused the question to be posed to Sanna today). He seemed to be suggesting that Putin would need to create or invent some sort of off ramp to de-escalate, not that the West should offer him one.

He and Daly are hiding something. They are way too sympathetic to the Russian and Chinese regimes and are not just naïve peace activists - I'd love to know what is really going on there.

Mick Wallace and Clare Daly are an irrelevance in the conversation around this conflict. Few, if any, are listening to them. In respect to this conflict, they represent few, if any, of their constituents. The only use their views on this conflict have is to people who wish to use this pair as an example of 'the left' in order to discredit that whole side of the political spectrum.

It's a tricky one. The old-school lefties always had a soft spot for Russia. Even that popular trade unionist over in the UK, Mick Lynch I think was his name, has come out with the usual "NATO expansion" stuff. Basically, they see Western Imperialism as a bad thing but when Russia engages in Imperialism, it must be the fault of the West. It's as if only Westerners have agency while those easterners just react reflexively to our shenanigans. People who believe this kind of nonsense don't have to be on the take. All it takes is a few junkets sponsored by Russia and and their ears are more than willing to receive whatever their handlers are whispering to them about evil NATO.

Tankies the pair of them. We all know some. Just this morning I got sent a YouTube video that has "irrefutable eveidence" that the Americans blew up the pipelines.

Rolled my eyes to the back of my head.

Russian warplanes target with air raids the Kabbana hills in the northern countryside of Lattakia, coinciding with an intense flight of Russian reconnaissance aircraft over the region

I said they're an irrelevance in the conversation around this conflict, which is correct. It's correct, because, as we've seen, their opinion has had no effect on the EU's approach to the conflict. If anything's given the EU pause and worked to stymie its response, it's been things like German energy concerns, not the small-minded witterings of Wallace, Daly and their little gang of contrarians in the EUP. And if people stopped sharing their asinine takes on the conflict around various Internet spaces in a 'you won't believe what these eejits have said now', they'd be a hell of a lot more irrelevant, still.

It's just a case with any conflict, you're going to get a few crackpots out on the edges of democratic systems, exercising their democratic right to spout complete waffle.