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I am pretty sure you said it, but I admit I might be wrong. It would have been over a year ago. Must go and look when I have some time. You were posting up lectures + papers by Mearsheimer blaming Ukraine and the US for the entire situation (they poked the bear sums that up I think) + telling us all what a great scholar Mearsheimer was and we were all fools (unlike you) to disagree with his position of authority on the matter!
It doesn't matter if Ukraine or Ukrainians are "no angels", who is? And so what? It is fairly irrelevant to this situation.
Who do you think is an "angel" in this world? None of us are saints incl. Ireland, but Russia under Putin is more like Lucifer!
The fact is Ukraine was a peaceful democracy pretty much minding its own business and Russia attacked it. It's a clear old style "lebensraum" land grab + robbery on international scale, utterly revolting. Arming them is the just the right thing to do (in addition to non military aid).
Orbán is awful. He's no man of peace. Think he even regularly makes irredentist statements about other countries, similar to Putin. If Hungary was a lot more powerful, he had Putin's level of propaganda machine and control through fear over the country and a strong military, I am not convinced he wouldn't make moves on neighbours as well.
Obviously that would take overwhelming military force which doesn't seem to be available as things stand. Instead we are talking a 'land for peace' act of appeasement that we are hoping will be enough of a win to satisfy Putin for the rest of his time….
Indeed, but in my opinion the worry is that populists who gain power in Europe will pull out of this pact. Periphery nations okay, but when it's a core nation like Germany or France then there could be issues.
Putin's dream of course is a fractured Europe where every country just takes care of itself - so that he can pick off e.g. the Baltics with his 2.0 military.
So I believe any pact has to be strong and also modular. It has to have the ability to lose a member or two but still keep functioning. Ironically Trump is good in that regard, we are starting to wake up to some facts and realities. We have more than enough resources to easily contain Putin, plus we have Ukraine - it's just a question of putting them all together, and populist-proofing it
I said nothing about a tail or a bear. To me it's just common sense. It's come from a position where a good friend who has a Ukrainian spouse got radicalised and spend huge amounts of time following telegram and looking at the snuff videos some of which are posted here.
People here seem to thjink Ukraine are angels when in fact I think neither Russia or Ukraine are angels and have pointed out the corruption in both countries. I wouldn't be as extreme as Orban and think we should be giveing humanitarian help and it is good we have helped many refugess but getting involved in the war, especially in April 2022 has made things drastically worse. I do not know how that is hard to understand. There are onlt three EU countries pushing for peace; Hungary, Slovakia and the Vatican. I think it would be great if we were a fourth country and would benefit the Ukrainian and the Russian people the most.
Which will be equally as worthless as NATO, if not more so.
If you were Estonia would you trust a Le Pen government to come to your aid if Russia invaded?
Would you expect a Reform led UK to stand up to Russia?
An AfD government in Germany?
These people idolise Putin.
Poland would help, that is about it.
I think we are in the last few years of liberal democracy. There will be a lot of realigning over the next 10 years.
Putting out of action the main port pumping stations and bombing the Kirchhoff bridge would be IMO significant game changers. They may goad Putin to ‘up his game’ but is he not doing this all the time - bombing residential areas that are ‘not in the war’ , etc.
If Trump pulls out of NATO I could see Putin pivoting away from Ukraine and towards the Baltic state as he'd think they're an easier win.
However such a move would guarantee NATO being superceded by a continental defense pact.
Overnight, the Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai was attacked. It is one of the key refineries in the south of Russia, Andriy Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, reports.The refinery's capacity is about 6.6 million tons of oil per year. It specializes in producing:fuel;fuel oil;bitumen;gas oil and other petroleum products."Its significance for the Russian army lies in supplying fuel for military equipment, especially in the southern region and on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," stated Kovalenko.Also, the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station in Krasnodar Krai was taken out of operation. It is the largest oil pumping station of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) which provides the main export of oil from Kazakhstan.
Overnight, the Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai was attacked. It is one of the key refineries in the south of Russia, Andriy Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, reports.
The refinery's capacity is about 6.6 million tons of oil per year. It specializes in producing:
fuel;
fuel oil;
bitumen;
gas oil and other petroleum products.
"Its significance for the Russian army lies in supplying fuel for military equipment, especially in the southern region and on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," stated Kovalenko.
Also, the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station in Krasnodar Krai was taken out of operation. It is the largest oil pumping station of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) which provides the main export of oil from Kazakhstan.
Refinery in Krasnodar Krai attacked on February 17 - Details | RBC-Ukraine
Waiting to see any footage of potential damage.
It's a weird kink you have rabbiting on and on about "Bandera", or Ukraine being too friendly with Israel etc. (you know pretty well they were hoping Israel would supply/sell weapons - it has lots of very good ones - but no such luck!) while Russia invades and lands bombs/missiles/drones on their cities every day and you just could not give a hoot.
Or worse think it is all justified (they tugged the Russian tiger's tail or poked the bear was how you put it some time ago here, if am recalling correctly).
Danish intelligence (Finnish site): Putin could be ready for a new war after Ukraine in 6 months. A large scale war in 5 years.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20010573/64-3-258887
If Trump leaves NATO (or even if he doesn't), Putin will constantly seek to push and fracture Europe.
At the moment the Ru military is ramshackle relative to Ukraine, where there is a grinding stalemate - however if that is put on pause, the Russians still massively outnumber militaries in the e.g. tiny Baltic states. Any deal with Ukraine will leave his military free to play all sorts of games on borders. As a dictator he will 100% rebuild and reform his military after the Ukraine debacle (if that ever ends)
Keep in mind everything we are seeing today was an unthinkable scenario 5 years ago.
Yet another wake up call for Europe.
But very in keeping with the Trump circus which is now struggling to reemploy essential workers that were let go without warning.
The Scullabogue barn house massacre was carried out as retailation for a massacre of a United Irishmen field hospital earlier in the day in the Battle of New Ross by loyalist forces. Hundreds also died in that atrocity, injured men burned alive when the building was set alight from the base.
Retaliations happen in war by both sides & the winners always hide their own terrible deeds to glorify their victories.
Read Daniel Gahan "The People's Rising"
It's on virtually every news site repeating the Reuters report. Not good on the links but any Internet search for 'us Europe questionaire', brings up detailed results. It's bizarre.
any independant evidence that this actually happened . Are you quoting somebody else ? Did you read it someplace? Is it a suggestion by you? . I find it UNBELIEVABLE
Ah - but he is dealing with Trump now!!!!!!!!
Is this even possible?
Ukraine is huge, if the UK were to put boots on the ground you'd need a significant number to make an impact. Let's say a commitment of 10k troops plus support personnel. Does such capability even exist today, with the weapons, logistics, etc to support such an operation? What about the money? The UK budget is running at a deficit. Troops in Ukraine would be a long term commitment, could the UK sustain this for a decade?
Any kind of peace force suggests that it was a two sided conflict, when it very much is an invasion by one into another. Plus forcing Ukraine to cede any land, even temporarily gives Russia a rallying cause to encloak a Putin successor.
Ukraine and Europe needs Putin's invasion reversed entirely and any DMZ to be on Russian soil.
Putin needs to discredited entirely, or else there'll be a successor in another generation.
Well that's just it, if it happens there can't be "strict controls" if you mean by that they are to sit tight there and hope for the best, like a kind of UN peacekeeper force, keep out of the way and never respond to any Russian provocation.
if they do go it'll be a very large, expensive, and dangerous undertaking, with understanding for start that if Russia ever tests them seriously and breaks the peace, they will have to respond, and a lot of soldiers could die.
It would not be peace keeping, more like peace enforcement/very uneasy standoff, maybe like the mission the US has had in S. Korea since armistice there.
That's rather telling isn't it. The Russians.
Remind us again, in which country were these Russians? Ukraine.
And wasn't that a violation of all previous agreements? Yes.
So implicitly, in your post you have just entirely discredited your own position.
And if the US hadn't armed Ukraine, the Russians might have just strolled in to "Belarus" the entire country, as they did in Crimea.
"The facts suggest otherwise".
You mean, all the things you ignored in the post you just replied to and are reduced to repeating the same nonsense about OSCE reports, ignoring Russia's violations of Budapest, of Minsk et al - proof positive you have no credible response.
And the one "fact" you did bring it actually undermines your entire argument?
Putting British and other European soldiers on the Russian borders but with extremely strict controls on them, to avoid any conflict with Russia is a debacle for Europe imo. This is turning into such a mess that it could endanger the survival of Europe as a cohesive force. Trump has upended the situation beyond any redemption.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/16/keir-starmer-ready-to-put-british-troops-in-ukraine/
Pity it's just to enforce a peace deal, but it's not enough. The current carve up and handing Putrid the win, that some think are about peace, is going to fail. Trump will try and blame Ukrainian intransigence for not accepting his great deal to surrender and die and he'll then use it as justification to cease all support. The only effective counter to that IMO is European troops or airpower join the fray. I think the airpower would be enough. I can't see Trump refusing increased orders from Europe for weapons and ammunition.
If Trump can win the Daytona 500 in the Beast, he can find peace in Ukraine
'' this Putin guy is going down Harry ''
So it looks like a D M Z along the eastern border ,international troops will keep control of these areas, not un but peace force ,limited to a certain amount from each country, trade will be allowed across the border again ,I'm surprised that Russia would agree to nato troops in Ukraine, but I expect he got assurance and as he needs an out of his 3 day war its not a bad deal for Russia, for Ukraine they keep their country, apart from what was taken in2014 ,all them lives defending their country in Ukraine were fought for in valor and all the Russian army that were sent to the grinder for nothing.
Some people are saying that Russia is winning. Russia has already lost much more than just the fight for Ukraine, though it haven't felt the pain yet. Russia's demographic situation was dire before 2022, now it is catastrophic. Everyone knows now that the Russian army isn't a that great. Now China can apply any pressure on Russia for concessions in the Russian Far East with an indirect threat of a military action and all Russia can do is to wave its aging nuclear rockets. Syria, as a base in the Middle East, is lost. All the money squirrelled away for the rainy day are gone, the budget has a huge deficit and no one will lend Russia money. The enormous stocks of ammo and tanks are spent.
If Trump were a smart negotiator he could squeeze Russia dry and make it accept defeat. Will he realize that Putin is playing him like the idiot he is, or will he persist in his adoration of dictators and make the life difficult for everyone? I have no idea, though I am not very optimistic. But I am cautiously optimistic about the EU/UK collaboration on security matters which might be the results of Trump's actions.
What facts? Provide a proper source and context.
Obama was cautious and avoided arming Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea and started a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine, because he believed Russia would use it as a pretext to escalate further
Ukraine has obviously never been a threat to nuclear-armed Russia. That was propaganda fabricated by Putin to invade the country.
A Putin verbalk guarantee is not worth the paper it's written on…
Does Europe need Putin's permission to deploy the 250,000 troops into Ukraine?
Would those 250,000 European troops not be better utilised in freeing up more Ukrainians for frontline duty?
Does that make them a de-facto member anyway??
Or what happens if Belarus invades, with Little green soldiers, on crutches and in Lada's….?
If I were Zelensky, I'd be taking a long look at my personal security and routine. Reason being that I wouldn't trust Trump in any way not to slip intelligence on his day to day whereabouts to the Russians as the USA seeks to normalise relations. Trump's USA would have no scruples about doing this, if Zelensky refused whatever punitive peace plan the USA is likely to bring back from Putin's desk.
Of course Zelensky will be involved
