Ukraine

[Welsh Cake]

Well, the shit really has hit the fan now.

No idea how this will be resolved. Any ideas?

[Heinrich]

Super secret special forces goes in and kills Putin and the oligarchs. Won't happen but it should.

[vikingdk]

Super secret special forces goes in and kills Putin and the oligarchs. Won't happen but it should.

Israel is said to be good at that kind of things, maybe we should ask them 

[Heinrich]

There'd be too much irony with that because they did the Putin thing first to Palestine.

[ladsnet]

No idea how this will end.

Its obvious that Putin has lost his marbles now. We're in the Saddam/Gadhafi/Stalin/Hitler nutjob despot territory now.
Anything could happen.

[Heinrich]

Apparently the Ukrainian army is already giving him way more trouble than he expected. If NATO does come in he is so fucked.

[EthanE]

watching the parents taking their young kids fleeing the country breaks my heart.

god bless.

[ladsnet]

NATO isn't coming in.

Whilst its admirable that the Ukrainians are giving a good defence, part of me thinks they should just surrender now.

They can't win. The more they fight back the harder he'll hit them.
If they start making any significant gains then he'll just start flattening Kyiv.


There's only 2 ways that Putin isn't going to win this.

either Sanctions will piss off the mafia style oligarchs so much that they depose him to save their wealth. But you need TOTAL sanctions for this. Massive deep far-reaching. Any Russian money is frozen/confiscated. Now.

or.. the Russian troops, who were told this was just going to be a training exercise, start refusing to shoot their Ukrainian cousins and friends. Unlikely but possible.

Otherwise its just a matter of time before Ukraine becomes part of Russia. And a matter of how much of it is left to become part of Russia.

[Pete]

No idea how this will end.

Its obvious that Putin has lost his marbles now. We're in the Saddam/Gadhafi/Stalin/Hitler nutjob despot territory now.
Anything could happen.

He hasn't lost his marbles at all. Putin's actions are a perfectly rational response to decades of weakness and handwringing by the west.

When western politicians did warn of the dangers, they were mocked (see Obama's smug comment about the 80s wanting their foreign policy back when Mitt Romney named Russia as one of the greatest geopolitical dangers). We got the Hilldebeest running off to Moscow with her stupid fucking button, well what message did we expect Putin to take from that?

For the benefit of the morons who will try to claim this is Putin apologism, it isn't. We need to put our big boy trousers on and punch the bully on the nose, hard, but we also need to realise that our failures emboldened him. From the danegeld to Munich, appeasement has never worked and we could save a lot of pain by admitting this before trying it.

[Ollie2UK]

It does seem astonishing that nobody saw this coming after 2014. It's an actual disgrace that the world is still so reliant on Russian gas and oil that it has allowed Putin to flex his muscles over and again without consequence until he feels so emboldened he'll pull a stunt like this.

It's horrible to watch the suffering of ordinary Ukrainians who are basically caught in a pissing contest between Putin & NATO. About time Western governments accept their share of the blame for this and (just for once) learn the fucking lessons.

[ladsnet]

He's lost his marbles.

True, we turned a blind eye with Crimea.
From his point of view that was a strategic move though. He wanted the Black Sea ports.

Now its all about his Napoleon complex and being emperor of a Greater Russia.

Complete fruitloop.

[Parsifal]

Trump has called Putin's move on Ukraine "genius" (as if anything that comes out of Trump's mouth is worth anything).

Meanwhile Republicans in Congress are starting to blame Biden for the invasion.

It's an actual disgrace that the world is still so reliant on Russian gas and oil that it has allowed Putin to flex his muscles over and again without consequence until he feels so emboldened he'll pull a stunt like this.

I've never understood why Germany (think: Merkel) would allow itself to become so dependent on Russia for energy with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

[Jwb52z]

if the reports are true of people who are actually physically near Putin, he is said to literally be out of his mind. This won't last more than a month and Putin will get to keep a bit of land, but nothing else. It's the beginning of his downfall.

[Tiuri]

I've never understood why Germany (think: Merkel) would allow itself to become so dependent on Russia for energy with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

She wanted (part of) her legacy to be a nuclear-free Germany

[ladsnet]

Indeed.
I don't think Germany has oil or gas reserves (although ours have almost dried up). Coal is a no-no and they don't want Nuclear.

[Heinrich]

Trump has called Putin's move on Ukraine "genius" (as if anything that comes out of Trump's mouth is worth anything).

Meanwhile Republicans in Congress are starting to blame Biden for the invasion.

It's an actual disgrace that the world is still so reliant on Russian gas and oil that it has allowed Putin to flex his muscles over and again without consequence until he feels so emboldened he'll pull a stunt like this.

I've never understood why Germany (think: Merkel) would allow itself to become so dependent on Russia for energy with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Sorry I couldn't hear you over us kissing Saudi Arabia's ass and several wars in the Middle East.

[RyCamp88]

there seems to be a serious case of amnesia going on, folk seem to forget what the uk and the us, along with support from other countries did in the middle east and parts of Africa in the not so distant past, where was the outcry etc then. But Ukraine is being invade and suddenly nobody wants to help incase it starts something.

[Heinrich]

We just bombed Somalia a couple days ago and after searching for a good reason I could not find one. And we've been doing it for over a decade.

Then there are Russians burning their passports while living in Israel, totally without irony.

All that said, I do find the spirit of the Ukrainian people incredibly heartening. They love their country a whole goddamn lot.

[RyCamp88]

Its disgusting how they haven't been sent help and civilians with no experience, some children and women, are having to defend themselves. But as i said they are happy to go in and blow up countries when it suits.

[Duncan]

Its disgusting how they haven't been sent help and civilians with no experience, some children and women, are having to defend themselves. But as i said they are happy to go in and blow up countries when it suits.

So we should blow up Russia then? What have you done to help Ukraine today or since the invasion began?