Russian invasion of Ukraine

[welshbairn]

16 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

If they set up some sort of puppet government no idea who is going to be pulled out to run it.

Doubtful rumours being put about that Yanukovych is in Minsk ready and waiting. Don't know if he still has significant support at home even amongst Russophiles.

[Lurkst]

31 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

 

 

My money's on second from right being the traitor...

 

[The DA]

45 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Not as many as last week anyway

About 100,000 more than the week before though.

[ICTChris]

12 minutes ago, Detective Jimmy McNulty said:

I'm pretty confident that that battle hardened, weapons trained wingnuts returning to their own countries after this won't have any blowback in years to come.

They are only accepting those who are military trained so likely they were battle hardened and weapons trained already.

There were quite a lot of foreign fighters on each side prior to the invasion - there are Chechen groups fighting with Ukrainian forces as well as Georgians.  Some of the far-right battalions also have foreign members.  On the pro-Russian side it's been reported that there are Belarussians, Armenians, Serbs and Hungarians fighting for them.  Apparently some of the DPR battalions have Russian neo-Nazis fighting for them as well, assume they won't be put in charge of the DeNazifcation.

[MuckleMoo]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, on the 2nd March Swedish air defence radar had been following 4 aircraft that took of from Kaliningrad, they took an unusual course to Gotland and the Swedish Airforce were scrambled.
i take it both Sweden and Finland are now being openly threatened by Putin if they choose to join NATO. Both countries can do what they want without permission from Putin and from what I gather Russia would regret messing with either of them.
 
 

I would think this happens on a fairly regular basis. It's a similar situation to the Russian bombers which occasionally skirt our own air space

[ICTChris]

Ukrainians continue to shoot down Russian planes.  Most assessments say that Ukrainian air defence remains at least partly operational, which is pretty insane given hundreds of missiles have been fired at them.  You'd assume that would be the first thing to do.

Clearly though, there are areas wehre the Russians do control the air - the huge column North of Kyiv must have air defence protection otherwise you'd assume they'd be subject to air strikes and drone attacks.

[101]

As good a news story as is likely to come out of this.

[Chefki Kuqi]

All this talk of NATO expansion being the principle problem gets my goat.

The West has made some serious foreign policy blunders around the world since it came to be regarded as a faction in its own right since WW2, but within Europe at-least it's done nothing to indicate any aggression, give or take views about participation in the Balkans. 

Vladimir Putin has sat there for three decades, two in power, and seen that the West has no wish to do anything aggressive towards the Russian state, other than condemning it verbally and occasionally sanctioning it for humans rights violations or disregarding normative behaviours by ordering assassination attempts, annexing territories, fermenting rebellion and the like.  

The last couple of months and this past week in particular has shown that we would be extremely reluctant to do anything to directly oppose Russia precisely because we fear the consequences. I'd hazard a guess that any resolution to this, even if we do intervene militarily (and not all die) would not see any challenge to Russia's sovereignty within its own borders, and probably not in Crimea or the puppet republics either. The idea that he'll actually face any repercussions from the West for this personally beyond sanctions and judgements passed on him in absentia are fanciful. 

Whether Putin himself has realised this or not, well one would hope the last week has revealed this at the very least.

The sad reality however is that if his fears were caused by our behaviour and that of his neighbours beforehand, then the behaviour towards him now will be starkly more hawkish. 

I'd hope a diplomatic compromise can be reached, but it's unlikely Ukraine will want to remain neutral, and Finland and Sweden are themselves likely to give up their neutrality. 

His calculations for Russia's security and standing in the world are likely to be even further undermined, as they should be frankly. If we cower every time he threatens to end the world, where does it end? If there was a reasonable endpoint rather than an endless slippery slope maybe that would be acceptable, but that can't be guaranteed in any way for the foreseeable, if ever. 

[Andre Bo]

5 hours ago, Shandon Par said:

I’d suggest going on a site like Bark or MyBuilder. You can post your job details and maybe a few pics and then local trades folk with the time and inclination can reply if they’re interested and give you a price etc.

Often there can be challenging little sections where access is tricky and there’s various types of paint you can use. There’s one particular one I like that can really modernise the look of a place. Welcome to send me some details etc anyway and I can give you some pointers etc.

 

I was taking a punt and half joking but that's really helpful. Thanks, pal!

[Salt n Vinegar]

I hope that the massed ranks of the Scottish football fans will be writing anti-Putin  chants for the eventual Scotland v Ukraine play off. 

It would be quite a thing to see 50,000+ blue and yellow tops at Hampden and it would be seen all over the world. 

The thought briefly crossed my mind that Scotland, Austria and Wales should withdraw from qualification but that's never going to happen. 

[Billy Jean King]

Banning Russian films is clearly racism. They aren't made by the military or the government and were obviously filmed prior to the invasion. 

So all sanctions are racist then too ???

[Guest Jedi]

21 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

3 hours ago, Detournement said:

 

So all sanctions are racist then too ???

It would appear so 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

4 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Cultural racism is the RT talking point du jour.  Russians as victims.  It is, of course, a complete non sequitur - a bit like the references to shock and awe which lasted all of a day and had no relevance either.

Some of the Russian sympathisers are making a concerted effort to try and make the Russians look like the real victims here, bit like the celtic fans last week. 

3 hours ago, Detournement said:

Banning Russian films is clearly racism. They aren't made by the military or the government and were obviously filmed prior to the invasion. 

Dunno if you read the thread you posted, but theres a pretty thorough reply in there showing that at least one of the films was funded partly by the Russian government champ. 

21 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

I hope that the massed ranks of the Scottish football fans will be writing anti-Putin  chants for the eventual Scotland v Ukraine play off. 

It would be quite a thing to see 50,000+ blue and yellow tops at Hampden and it would be seen all over the world. 

The thought briefly crossed my mind that Scotland, Austria and Wales should withdraw from qualification but that's never going to happen. 

Should never withdraw, what a slap in the face that would be to the Ukrainians. 

[Salt n Vinegar]

25 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Some of the Russian sympathisers are making a concerted effort to try and make the Russians look like the real victims here, bit like the celtic fans last week. 

Dunno if you read the thread you posted, but theres a pretty thorough reply in there showing that at least one of the films was funded partly by the Russian government champ. 

Should never withdraw, what a slap in the face that would be to the Ukrainians. 

Aye, I know.  I was looking at it as a way of boosting Ukraine. The poor sods need something to look forward to. Can't help but think it puts Scotland or Wales in a spot though. Kicking a man when he's down, that sort of thing. 

What a world. 

[Vimto90]

Putin warning against any further sanctions. A point I raised earlier in thread when discussing where do you draw the line on his "nuclear" threat.

So do we now not impose any more sanctions?

[Tattie36]

2 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

Aye, I know.  I was looking at it as a way of boosting Ukraine. The poor sods need something to look forward to. Can't help but think it puts Scotland or Wales in a spot though. Kicking a man when he's down, that sort of thing. 

What a world. 

So where does it stop? Just hand them the World Cup trophy now? The biggest respect we could show them is to have some form of display, applause etc then put 100% in to winning the game. If they win, fair and square, then fine and I would hope they went on to qualify and even win the thing… but fairly.

[welshbairn]

4 hours ago, Detournement said:

Banning Russian films is clearly racism. They aren't made by the military or the government and were obviously filmed prior to the invasion. 

Presumably you're against BDS for the same reason?

[Detournement]

42 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

 

Dunno if you read the thread you posted, but theres a pretty thorough reply in there showing that at least one of the films was funded partly by the Russian government champ.  

All films in Russia will be funded by the state the same way that all films in the UK are funded by the state. 

[Detournement]

4 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Presumably you're against BDS for the same reason?

I watch football matches with Israeli teams and I've read books by Israelis. I don't think Palestinians are calling for a boycott of all Israeli cultural products. 

Glasgow Film Festival show Israeli films so definitely aren't doing BDS.

[Father Ted]

4 hours ago, ICTChris said:

Russian state Duma passes a law criminalising the spreading of false information about the armed forces. Penalty of 15 years in prison. Calling for people to attend anti-war protests is to be punished with 5 year prison sentences.

The law on false information is to be enforced retroactively, so assume it will be used against anyone in Russia who has already spoken out against the war or been arrested at protests.

This action is the beginning of the end for Putin.