Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
All mod instructions from the previous thread remain in force here
Original thread:
Putin's 'Peace' offer sounds more like an ultimatum. More akin to Hitler's speech and 'Peace' offer to Britain after the fall of France.
Has the West been lured into a false sense of security by nuclear deterrence?
Has China made its choice and we have to accept it as an unfriendly nation ,basically on a level with Russia?
Same in this country no interest in defense or even credible deterrence.
It's all the one fight as far as Beijing, Tehran, Moscow and a good few others are concerned.
What is going on in Ukraine is likely the precursor to taking Taiwan and possibly Mongolia.
European armies are basically empty of ammunition and lacking equipment, it was right to give it to Ukraine but it was wrong to not aggressively replace it.
It's the scale needed that is the problem.
For Ukraine to beat Russia it will take multiples of what has been given. For Europe to be able to defend itself, its interests, deter The numerous enemies around it, it will take a significant jump in capability. Who honestly sees any interest in western Europe in self defense or national security, the opposite.
It looks like for the next decade anybad actor or totalitarian state will have free run.
Is China looking to swap Taiwan for Ukraine?
It's great to see but the scale is very small. Not even a million shells.
The Red army are currently firing 300k shells a month, the Ukrainians 60k a month.
Even at that the Russians are dealing with the limits they have, and have fired more in the past.
Russia has China helping it and its production of weapons will continue to expand .
Western Europe refuses to take a meaningful step to defend itself or be in a position to help others.
China is running down the west capability of more precisely the West is allowing it by refusing to take defense seriously.
Germany is at least taking small steps to fixing that and by 2035 it is expected to have enough artillery to equate to what Russia or ukraine lose in 6 months.
Defense and security spending needs to be a European priority.
Several reports and videos now of Russians getting surrounded in vovchansk right on the Kharkiv border
Berlin wall fell in 89 and the Russian's only fully left in 1994. There is a huge number of 2nd generation "Russian's" left in Germany now in the 30-40's age bracket who will be taking on positions of influence, and who are very much still very pro-Russian.
Even worse though, they haven't experienced the iron curtain, but still idolise it, and in their eyes Russia can do no wrong.
This is similar in a lot of Baltic states.
It's no surprise Putin waited until this scenario occurred, so there is maximum resistance engrained in various states socio-economic and political stances. This will be the case until this generation dies off unfortunately.
Only way to combat it is to recognise it's there, and vote against them, every time and everywhere.
A lot of people were copped on to them. Thread comments are a gas.
Yep part of the problem was caused by Russia being responsible for the place becoming very poor, but a lot of the modern anger isn't just a longing for the old times, but resentment against the rich Westerners who came in and bought up all the land and industry because it was so cheap and now dominate.
The 'funny' thing is a lot of ordinary Westerners resent the East too because a lot of their taxes went to support the East. It was a real f'k-up that mostly benefitted the rich.
Something similar happened in Hungary too, where a lot of the land was bought by Austrians. About 10 years ago when there was some tension between the countries Orban threatened to confiscate a lot of this land, but nothing came of it in the end. I think they do have a law now though that you need to be a citizen to purchase land there.
Like we all know the politicians say what they do because they are in Putin's pocket, but it's important too to understand the views of the people who vote for them, and phrase things appropriately for them.
I know a few people who were tempted to vote for Wagenknecht because she phrases her support for Putin as support for peace. So I have to tell them there will be no peace for the Ukrainians in the Russian occupied areas, rather than talking about territorial integrity or protecting Germany from Russia, which to them sounds like support for war and militarisation.
Good point! I Stand corrected
Article on how these are arriving now
Return the kidnapped children
Apart from Iran and North Korea, no other Russian aligned country has provided Russia with direct arms. So even a country who wanted to sell to Russia indirectly would need to go through Iran or NK. That's pretty hard with both countries under sanctions.
As for supplying Ukraine, there's still countries who would prefer not to support (directly) or remain neutral so selling to an intermediary would be a solution.
The Czech initiative is a mix of all calibres - 105, 122, 152 and 155.
On a lighter note, be sure to keep an eye on Ukraine in the Euros. A good shout for us neutrals.
And it seems that there are now a large cohort of anti-war far-rightists….of the MAGA persuasion in the USA. One could remain sceptical as to whether their objection to war extends from ''wars that don't benefit us'' (anything involving Russia) to ''wars that we believe in and approve of'' (anything involving Israel and China). Some of these radical peaceniks seem to have quite a appetite for unleashing destruction on Mexico, oddly enough.
Fake news, every Russian car crash YouTube video taught me the Russians have not yet discovered seatbelt technology
….
I think there's a handbag over the shoulder so it might have been a woman.
Yeh good question, we now seem to have 5 sources of artillery
Know your enemy. Vodka is a big part of Russia's eventual downfall.
Huh. I wonder where they got those from? Would have thought the world's 152mm supply would have been bought out by now, either by Ukraine if the owners were so aligned, or by Russia if the owners were Russian-aligned.
Clare who? 😁
that one guy moved out of the way…
Clare Daly previously said she wasn't in favour of sanctions against Russia as they would hurt ordinary Russian people, not the regime. She forgot about this view when she called for sanctions on Israel . Also she is a pure sore loser. RTE tried to speak to her plenty of times over the last few months.
The Dutch are a fine lot
More warheads to foreheads of those who shot down MH17
Indeed.
Unlike the «peace-loving» centrists / Putin-bots who’ll pop up screaming «Peace!!!», I do have a Peace Plan that I think would be acceptable:
In exchange the Russians will get:
Of course, the Russians are never likely accept any of that. Meaning they need to be beaten militarily alas.
I know many would disagree with me on this, but I think Ukraine should respond to Putin's demands by saying that Ukraine would be willing to enter peace talks with Russia but with absolutely no pre-conditions attached to such talks.
They would not be obliged to agree to any concessions, it would only be to agree to talk and no more.
I don't think Putin is serious about any peace plan, as his latest demands obviously show. He would be backed into a corner with this and would reject it demanding more preconditions for talks.
This would at least show that it is not Ukraine who are refusing to enter peace negotiations.
Unlike the Russians who pull figures out of their rears, EU is trusted source
“On January 24, we had a production capacity of one million shells per year. By the end of the year, we will have a production capacity of 1.7 million shells per year, and by 2025 we should reach 2.5 million shells per year. “
TiMe Is On RuZzIaS SiDe
just to note.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/06/14/defence-forces-donate-30-non-lethal-military-vehicles-to-ukraine/
(sorry if posted already, not arsed to check)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/c599644a213e5f18742e0afff85076a6.svg)
