Russia - threadbanned users in OP

First, as for the personal opinion's, you have never actually been in either Ukraine or Russia? your opinion is formed only from talking to Ukrainian refugees?? Correct? Hear say in other words? Now for sure that's about as far from an unbiased selection as you will get. My opinion is formed from personal experience, not hearsay. I've been in and out of Ukraine prewar, but I've lived in Putins Russia for the best part of 4 years. Any former USSR / Russian Federation state are ALL corrupt, bar none. Thats the bottom line breaking away from Russia, where Corruption is the norm. Since they left Russia Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, have all thrived. And the main reason they have thrived is that they have massively reduced corruption levels. Ukraine and Moldova are in the process of joining, and when they do, they will follow the same track. But presently the corruption is still alive and well in Ukraine, but not to the same extent that it once was. The EU has it under the corruption microscope. No elimination of Corruption? No EU membership.

As for not being willing to fight, I've worked in a lot of Countries that were at war, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Libya, Iran, Syria Chechnya, Sudan, Bosnia, etc. but I've never seen in any of them a willingness of 100% of the population to fight. Thats par for the course. So why out of a population of 40 million are more not volunteering to as you put it " lose their lives for him" They are not losing their lives for Zelensky, they are dying protecting homeland and Families ( and the EU) unlike all the Russians that are dying not for protecting their homeland and families, but for Putin's mad dream of empire, a man who would most definitely take the ride, and not ammunition. And he has now confiscated the passports of all military aged men, so they have very little or no chance of escaping his murderous clutches. Given a choice (and like most of the democratic world, I'd take Zelensky any day over Putin.

And what do you suggest Glen? Hand Ukraine back to Putin?

Glen123, Have you actually ever been to Ukraine? Have you ever visited any ex Soviet Union countries, seen the genocide & oppression of Soviet Russian imperialism in their many historical museums. Just because some Ukrainians speak Russian, doesn't mean they want to become ruled by Russia. Most people in Ireland speak English but don't want to be ruled by the British.

Ukrainians speaking Russian also doesn't mean they are Russian as above. The rest of your posts on the subject of Ukraine are standard Tankie supporting Russian propaganda memes as constantly parroted by evil scumbags like Mick Wallace & Clare Daly . You obviously don't respect the sovereignty of Ukraine, it's internationally recognised legal borders & the rights of that nation.

I've heard of that paper purely because of the editor winning the Nobel Peace prize a few years ago. Didn't realise it was so easy to read in English. Thanks for that.

glen123, thanks for your reply, I was asked about the new Zelensky government, whilst in Kyiv a couple of months after he was elected, they were making financial reductions in pensions, schools, health care & other important spending to fund the military. I was asked what I thought, I said, trying to be forthright & maybe expecting a negative response, that it was only a matter of time before Putin invaded the rest of Ukraine, so they have no choice but to strengthen the military. Everyone was in agreement.

Looking back I'm surprised Putin actually took so long to order the 2022 invasion.

I do see Zelensky as a flawed hero, same as Churchill who was decisively voted out as soon as WW2 was over. Hopefully Ukraine has the chance in future to make such a decision if that's what the people eventually want. It probably won't happen whilst the conflict continues. Which is likely for a couple more years.

My apologies for the Wallace / Daly comparison, I've been arguing with pro Putin Russian supporters & apologists for a long time in real life & online.

Doing what? They have been declared neutral since the 50s, they're not a part of NATO. To my knowledge, they didn't participate in Iraq or Afghanistan in any combat capacity.

Well, helpful suggestion or not, ordinary people want to see Ukrainian MPs suffer like they and their kids do and not just make money from this war, travelling abroad on holidays like there is no war, etc. This is exactly why there are no more volunteers to fight - people are sick of all the corruption and the scale of it. They don't see why they should go and loose their lives while someone else is sitting in the mobilization center making $100K in bribes and maximum that they'd get in punishment is get sacked and...a new job a month later :)

Zelensky needs to get his house in order. The only way to do it is to send a clear signal to those that see this war as an opportunity to make as much money as possible, including his own circle. This has not happened yet and as a result he is steadily loosing the support of ordinary people, people that he wants to go and fight. Western support alone won't cut it, I am afraid.

Bit of a pointless discussion anyway. Let's say the good colonel shot someone at some point of his career - will that change what you think of his video briefings?

I never said Zelenky wasn't voted in fairly. He did everything correctly to get the vote - even finally learnt Ukrainian language right before the elections to get the votes from the West of the country, something he hadn't bothered to do all his life. Very quickly however his rating dropped through the ground way before the war.

Also, not sure if he was corrupt or a puppet or just oligarch or maybe all three in one, but Poroshenko kept things stable between 2014 and 2019, even got Ukraine visa free travel in the EU. Looks like being a businessman and an experienced politician he was able to balance between the neighbour and the EU. Had Ukranians voted for him again, it's quite possible there would have been no invasion. It's also thanks to him Ukrainian army took some sort of a shape. I wouldn't be suprised that it was Zelenky's inaptitude as a politician that was a trigger point of this disaster of a situation, with Putin then overestimating the state of his army which is also corrupt to the core...and we are now where we are.

To be fair to Poroshenko he was prepared to defend his nation alongside many others, when Kyiv was under attack from Russia, I know there are corruption charges against him, however he was still willing to fight & apparently has funded military equipment purchases from his own money. I don't think he would have left Kyiv just as Zelensky didn't either.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-former-leader-petro-poroshenko-calls-for-military-aircraft-to-give-us-the-opportunity-to-protect-you-in-the-west-12559865

I believe most governments & political leaders are corrupt, however, at least some of Ukraines politicians are patriots. In shark contrast to some western European political leaders that hide in fridges & take bungs from Russian oligarchs.

The issue is he presents himself in uniform, presumably to add weight to his opinions. He's been shown to be wrong consistently in his predictions, yet folks want to point to him as some expert due to his employment. Pointing out his lack of viable experience is valid in that context.