Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Now look what you done Trumpolini and Putler

You woken Germany who are ripping up self imposed limits

It’s these clowns protesting outside government buildings today about removing the triple lock that tells me we will have some job getting the country onboard with the need to defend itself.

Trust Sinn Fein to come out with total bollocks about neutrality.

Journalist who asked Zelenskyy about the costume in the White House complains about threats

Brian Glenn, a journalist for the far-right network Real America's Voice, who asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House why he was not wearing a suit, complained about the threats.

Source: The journalist said in an interview with the BBC, as reported by European Pravda

Details: "Thousands, tens of thousands of comments on social media, death threats, phone calls - I don't know where they got my number," Glenn said.

He admitted that people apparently did not understand his intention to check whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy understood the "level of respect" that people entering the Oval Office should have.

Easily one of the best things I've read today.

Tbf the person who quoted the tweet is posting misinformation. That's clearly not what he said.

Absolutely agree what he did say is scary though. I keep thinking they can't let him last 4 years but the alternative will be Vance so will that be any better? How do they get rid of both?

Certain irony in you saying people never learn from history. Appeasement of Nazi Germany did not work meanwhile you're arguing for that very policy with Russia. People really never do learn.

It's always the same.

Indeed, you are right, at the start putin said not war but the long war ,me thinks this has been conspired by many blank faces .

Jesus fcuking Christ, Putin Jr.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgn3v0rdx2o

"He repeated his desire for an American annexation of Greenland, promised American control of the Panama Canal …"

Attempting to humiliate Zelensky over his attire, yet there is his girlfriend Marjorie in Congress wearing that ridiculously stupid MAGA baseball cap.

I am still waiting for the latest Orwell Rd representative to grace us with their presence, to squeal “Russophobia”

Then my bingo card will be complete

Don’t agree with everything in the below, but it covers what’s happening without being too one sided.

“Many people were understandably appalled at the Oval Office row involving Trump and Zelensky. It was indeed unedifying and appeared to be a form of bullying of President Zelensky by Trump and his lapdog JD Vance.

However, people’s understandable loathing of Trump, which I share, should not blind them to the background and realpolitik to this public spat which lies in the long and murky history of US involvement in Ukraine.

While Trump is a boorish, arrogant oaf, his statement that President Zelensky wouldn’t be “such a tough guy without US support” is essentially correct. You don’t have to like the messenger to accept the factual basis of the message.

Zelensky has never held “the cards”- as Trump put it - in this war. Ukraine was never an independent actor in this conflict. The real movers and shakers have always been in Washington, Moscow and Brussels.

The reality also is that many western supporters of continued war in Ukraine take a simplistic, ill-informed view on the background to the conflict which, to be frank about it, is the result of a diet of Russophobia which people in this part of the world have basically been reared on.

The truth is that the long histories of Ukraine and Russia are inextricably linked. They have been for 1,000 years. Ukraine’s capital was the heart of Kievan Rus and laid the foundations for the Russian nation.

Despite huge efforts in the west to portray Ukraine as an oppressed nation, that caricature is disputed by many. For instance, the most obvious problem with this analysis is that Ukraine was an integral part of the old Russian Empire.

Even during the Soviet era, Ukraine was a central player in the USSR. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was himself Ukrainian.

What is also true, of course is that the Ukrainian people suffered horrifically during the period of the Holodomor, which some historians believe was a man made famine engineered purposely by Stalin.

Saying any of the foregoing does not make one an admirer of Putin, who is a brutal authoritatian. It is merely to understand the history of the region.

When the USSR collapsed, Ukraine became independent and that’s when things get more complicated.

The United States and NATO gave explicit assurances to the world that in the post Soviet period, NATO would not expand “one inch eastward." It wasn't long before this solemn commitment was torn up.

Western intelligence and political interests began meddling in the internal politics of Ukraine. So too did Russia.

In 2014, what many people describe, fairly accurately as “a coup” overthrew a democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, because he rejected an EU trade deal.

The hidden hand of the US and the CIA was exposed - when officials like Victoria Nuland were heard on a leaked phonecall, handpicking Ukraine’s next government before Yanukovych had even departed.

Anti-government protests at this time were anything but peaceful. They included self-declared, neo-Nazi organisations.

Western and Kiev backed groups supported bans on the Russian language, and people in the east of the country who identified with Russia were brutally attacked.

In this atmosphere, Crimea voted to return to Russia. Groups in Donbass also voted to secede.

Russia was clearly interfering in Ukraine at this time also. We all remember the “little green men”, who were clearly Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil.

However, it is also a fact that Kiev attacked their own people, shelling civilians for eight years, and there wasn’t a peep out of the bleeding heart liberals in the west.

It should also be remembered that Ukraine suffers hugely from corruption, with oligarchs funding political parties in their own self interest. It cannot be compared to any liberal democracy in Western Europe.

By 2022 NATO countries had funnelled millions of weapons and money into Ukraine. So, with NATO on its doorstep, in contravention of previous assurances; with Russian identifying communities being attacked; and the prospect of Ukraine becoming a base for NATO nuclear weapons - Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Russian invasion was wrong. It was illegal under international law. Like all invasions it was brutal.

But let nobody pretend that the US or other western powers would not do the same in similar circumstances. If you believe that - I have some magic beans to sell you!

Saying any of this does not make one an admirer of Putin. It merely means you recognise the truth.

And the truth is that Ukraine has been used as a pawn in geopolitical scheming for years, and it still is.

With President Zelenskyy being abandoned by his previous sponsors - Washington, Ukraine has now effectively lost the war.

There is no way that the Brits, France or the EU can fill the role played by Washington. They have neither the military capability nor the money.

But what Britain, France and others now wish to do is to greatly militarise Europe. They are seeking to keep up the fantasy that Russia can be defeated by Ukraine on the battlefield. This is utterly delusional.

If they weren’t able to defeat Russia with the backing of the most powerful military and economy in the world, how on earth can they do it without them?

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are dragging kids and old men off the streets to force them to the frontline in an unwinnable war.

It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. It’s a waste of human lives. And people in Ireland need to stop cheering it on.

Why should Ireland care about any of this at all? Well, because influential forces in this country are seeking very explicitly to drag us into the vortex of a new European militarism.

For a start, the British have announced that they will manufacture their weapons of destruction for Ukraine on the island of Ireland - in a city that itself has only recently emerged into peace from a decades long conflict. This is an obscenity!

The British have no money for struggling pensioners, or for their crumbling health service but have plenty of money for weapons of war.

Meanwhile, in the South the opinion writers, the columnists and the editors have been working overtime to end Ireland’s longstanding policy of military neutrality.

The first step in this process will be the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael government’s attempt to remove the Triple Lock regarding the deployment of Irish troops overseas.

The insidious campaign to chip away at Irish neutrality must be strongly opposed. The Irish people highly value our neutrality, our record of peacekeeping and our long anti-colonial history.

Meanwhile the efforts to flood Ukraine with more weapons of war and to escalate the conflict must be replaced with efforts to broker a ceasefire and serious negotiations towards a lasting peace.”

@tiktok "Ukraine’s capital was the heart of Kievan Rus and laid the foundations for the Russian nation."

Which means Russia should be living under Kyivan law and jurisdiction. Kyiv existed before Moscow did. So if historical arguments apply you have them here.

Great - so what do you want? The war to stop? Europe to do nothing?- let Putin have his victory? With what is looking like zero consequences for his actions? What happens the next time Russia comes knocking? Do we just appease him again? If you think that that the only reason Putin is in Ukraine is because of NATO or to protect Russian speakers you really do not understand at all. Love the confidence though.

Who wrote that horseh1t? It's disturbing to see that Russian propaganda has got a foothold.