Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Its the Sudetenland argument about Russian speakers/German speakers being oppressed and Russia/Nazi Germany 'saving them'. Its a lie by Lavrov and we should stop giving it airtime. And Hitler, when given the Sudetenland after broke security guarantees by France to Czechoslovakia, wrote "this is my last territorial demand in Europe".

Zelensky himself is a Russian speaker until he was 40 so I dont buy that argument.

Hitler then met with Josef Tiso, the Slovak leader, and told him to demand German intervention in Czechoslovakia. If he refused, Slovakia would be occupied and given to Hungary, Slovakia's former rulers with which they then had bad relations. So Tiso agreed to ask Nazi Germany for "help" for imagined repression, despite Tiso originally telling Hitler they didnt want to leave Czechoslovakia. Hitler told them that if they agreed to his demands, Slovakia could have independence an no occupation. Thats what happened but Slovakia was really a client state of Nazi Germany, just as the DPR and LPR were before annexation by Russia.

It would be like Britain trying to dictate English language policy in Ireland after independence. It's none of their business nor do they claim it to be.

Russias demands extend far beyond Ukraine and change depending on the audience. On State TV, Olga Skabaeva said Russia should reach the Polish border. At the start of the war a Russian general said one of their goals was a land bridge to Transnistria, the breakaway enclave in Moldova.

There's also subtle pressure on Kazakhstan, with Putin referring to it as a "Russian speaking country". In the past he has called it "part of the Russian world", and tried unsuccessfully to award the President of Kazakhstan the "Alexander Nevsky" medal (this was televised and he refused).

Belarus is little more than a puppet-state of Russia now. Georgia also though the people are resisting it fiercely.

Olaf Scholz told the German parliament a few days ago that there are Kremlin officials who do not believe the mutual defence provision (Article 5) of NATO would be enforced if Russia attacked and are considering some sort of attack on NATO in the years ahead.

Russians don't do reality, they invent it as they go along.

Turn up the volume

What basic human rights were Ukraine not respecting? Source please.

Have yet to see any evidence of this.. Yeah the same line is thrown around again and again.

And how were Ukraine denying them 'the right of self determination'?

Interesting that if they are in fact being treated as poorly as you make out, that they rather stay in Ukraine than move to Russia where they would be surrounded by ethnic Russians which share their values and 'notions'.

if only tucker had the balls to ask actually provocative questions and push the Russians for answers rather than appease them and trumpet the America did this that and the other mantra.

I haven’t watched the lavrov one but if it’s anything like the Putin one then **** wasting energy on that

And when / and if Ukraine regains currently occupied territories, the world is going to be equally horrified by the number of Ukrainians that the Russians have killed and buried in unmarked graves… Men, Women and Children. Remember the mobile crematoriums' the Russian had in their invasion convoys? And the satellite images showing Russians using bull dozers to demolish buildings, burying the bodies underneath?

Russians are not enjoying themselves

Reality beginning to hit home in Damascus

Lot of rightly worried people at the moment.

No word yet on evacuation of Russian forces from Syria just yet.

The got those ideas because the west are arch back-downers. They have been emboldened.

"… were drawn from …" - that's a lovely euphemism for forced to fight against their fellow countrymen. You're right to put "Russians" in quotation marks, though - their Russian passports counted for nothing when any of them decided to relocate to the Kremlin side of the border.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Happened a few times now, not sure why.

Ooooh, Donald - you know you'd be thrown in prison for wearing that colour combination in Moscow, don't you?

If anything's going to shift Trump's opinion on the conflict, I'd say it'd be the events in Syria. Even if he's blaming Obama (???) the very fact that Putin is literally unable to do anything to help Assad, and that Russia's troops have been forced out of Syria at a run, makes Putin a genuine loser. And Trump hates to be associated with losers.

I reckon it'd only take one more Kremlin-sponsored regime to fall - Georgia maybe - and Trump will decide to hitch his wagon to the Ukrainian horse.