Russia - threadbanned users in OP

That guy is clueless, it's clearly as you say, a drone similar to that of a Shahed. There's images of the wreckage on Telegram suggesting it's of Chinese origin.

It's great to see Ukraine turning the tables like this. Make the Russians expend valuable air defence munitions on targets of lesser value.

According to the Ukrainians themselves, pretty much everyone misjudged. This isn't exactly news:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled that when the invasion began, ‘most people who called me – well, almost everyone – did not have faith that Ukraine can stand up to this and persevere.’ National Security and Defence Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov remembered the West believed Ukraine had, ‘almost zero chances to succeed'.

And guess who owns Ben & Jerry's...?

So still worth a boycott.

China has invested phenomenal wads of money in Russian Arctic ports, and China will no doubt be the biggest earner from this investment. The end result will be that Chinese goods will be shipped to the West through the Arctic ports instead of via the present southern routes. Because of this, I think the Chinese have every incentive to get Putin to toe the line and not have things escalate any further. The Chinese have got most of the planet by the balls, and that includes Russia.

The Chinese also have incentives to see it continue or escalate.

From a long term position. Greater incentives.

Xi has had 5 meetings with Putin in 12 months, some admittedly Tele meetings but a day long chat is still a big deal. He is showing clear backing for the comrade in the Kremlin.

Benefits to China from war going on.

US and West occupied in Eastern Europe. While China focuses on buying leaders, resources and infrastructure across Asia and Africa.

Longer it goes on the more damage to NATO, understocked and under resourced is the glaring fact for most NATO armies, especially in Western Europe. Nor does the will to change that appear to exist in most countries.

Much of the West will get war weary, Washington, London, the Baltics and Poles are in for the long haul, most of the rest of Europe?? Many of them were carried along so far by pressure.

We always hear how China is dependent on the West to buy exports, it's very important but 90% of China's economy is domestic or with countries it borders. This isn't 2001 anymore.

Who knows what China will do but Xi is a much tougher, brutal and ruthless man than Putin is and the only question in his mind is how can he use this to advance Chinese global power above the West.

Xi might be a little sore that Russia didn't storm through Ukraine and have Moldova taken now as well. He'll adapt and carry on.

From my understanding, the issue with depleted uranium shells is not so much that they're radioactive, as the radiation they emit is actually relatively weak, at least when compared to fuel-grade or weapons-grade uranium. I mean, those shells can basically be handled without protective equipment. The big issue is that the uranium is pulverized by the force of the impact on a target, and the resulting uranium dust is easily ingested or breathed in. And even a weak source of radiation can still be harmful or lethal when it's inside your body.

Amazing how gas can be cheaper when you have reliable suppliers that don't throttle supply to manipulate the price.

China is happy now, dominating ruSSia

So Russia admit they took Ukrainian children by force but it’s only to protect them from the horrors of war.

This is the 21st century folks.

How we can all watch this unfold.

Some good news, however slight...

Dear Timmyntc,

If you could please provide a list of peer reviewed sources and citations for each of the claims contained herein.

And where possible any contact details emails, phone numbers, where applicable for any of these sources. A well formatted excel sheet for cross reference purposes should do nicely.

Thanks. Yours sincerely, V

I did read it (!) but that passed me by - what was the Foundation quote?