Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

That will run out soon enough.
He can take up debt from elsewhere. Huge part of Russian people are used to misery and oligarchs are crazy as him. He's in fact at the top of the pile. He's pulling out hundreds of tons of gold each year too. Make no mistake, he can endure a war for couple of years easily, sanctions or no sanctions.

This is not valid for the West, which is the main difference. People from rich countries are not used to living under poor conditions and driving the prices up. Russia have almost no middle class it's either rich or poor.

On top of that he has been prepared for like 8 years..

Europe and NATO did feck all for Crimea which opened the door for this.
 
No, only Putin is responsible for this. No matter how people acted or thought, his worldview wouldn’t change.

who’s giving him the platform in the first place?
 
i’m amazed and appalled in equal measures that something like this can still happen today. i really don’t understand how war is still gloried or pursued with how accessible the annals of history to the majority of the planet. this kind of thing on the shoulders of every small minded bigot and nationalist. on every one who still glorifies the world wars. on everyone who continues to vote for parties and politicians that want to segregate and divide people. on people that are happy to let large chunks of the population fail as they want someone to serve them a starbucks for feck all money whilst they rake in shareholder profits. russia is just a fox news or gb news on a national scale and it’s amazing how many people look at that and go “yeah, i fancy some of that, that farage talks a lot of sense.”

this is a symptom of how far we’ve fallen as race. we’ve managed to take all the benefits of advancing as a species and just fecked it all up.

the elite will move chess pieces around a board to make sure they profit from all this, the people will pay the real cost, as always, many, the highest one imaginable.

i’m just lucky that i’m currently miles away from the conflict and i have the daily mail to report on the real issues, like how much petrol prices will rise now or how many custard creams i won’t be able to buy now the heating bill has gone up. then i’ll have the ft to report bp and shell’s record profits over the next quarter. but i guess anything is better than publishing the pictures of the dead children at the heart of this war.

it’s all so tiring and so predictable and feck each and everyone responsible for this. this is bigger than russia v ukraine, this is on people who aren’t able to see that this kind of thing is always inevitable with how they think and how they act.

Post of the century. It's exactly how I feel but you put it into words better than I ever could!
 
Don’t underestimate the military might of the Yanks btw, they are way more powerful and modernized then they are letting on…
 
I'm not sure about that. They've been cuddling for quite a while now. China will not refuse to buy Russian resources at low prices or even give them debt. They will exploit this situation at 100% to their advantage.

If one China and Japan will be the most likely "winners" of all this. Europe, Russia and USA markets will come crashing down in case of a full scale war..
China will not be able to help Russia openly. It will come at a cost. At the end of the day EU, US, G20 and other countries are a much bigger market with less risks. As for resources they have already signed a gas contract with Russia on preferential for China terms.
 
China will not be able to help Russia openly. It will come at a cost. At the end of the day EU, US, G20 and other countries are a much bigger market with less risks. As for resources they have already signed a gas contract with Russia on preferential for China terms.
It will of course to China's advantage. Also they will buy every molecule of gas there is as the need for the Asian market is really huge. Russia can divert to fund this operation.

China of course won't go and admit it publicly as they will gain advantage over European markets as well.
 
If you don’t know what you are talking about then you don’t know what you’re talking about. Now is not the time to pretend you know what you’re talking about, this isn’t a childish game.

There has literally just been a journalist specialised in Russia and its economy saying exactly this on sky news. Also the guardian has a piece about this. So maybe it's you who needs to stop being the child here.
 
who’s giving him the platform in the first place?

He may be an autocrat, but he's democratically elected.

And you're wrong in your above post, this conflict is on Putin and Russia and nobody else. They've planned and executed this since 2014, all on false pretexts, propaganda and lies.

I'm not sure why you make equivalence with Fox and GB News, I'm not fond of those either, but you're comparing political leanings you're personally not keen on with an autocratic psychopath who is threatening the world with nuclear holocaust if they try to stop him.
 
I wonder were Ukraine really naive and thought that west will defend them or they just thought that Russia will not have balls to go in open war?
 
UNCONFIRMED reports that Poland and Lithuania are demanding Ukraine be given EU membership.
What’s the procedure? Can they do it by a executive decision by, say, the EU Council or do they need to have a popular vote first? Even in situations like this?

I’d still imagine that even in the case of the swiftest decision possible there won’t be much left of Ukraine at the time that it’s announced.
 
I wonder were Ukraine really naive and thought that west will defend them or they just thought that Russia will not have balls to go in open war?
What’s the alternative? Give in to all of Putin’s demands, essentially surrounding your sovereignty on your own?
 
I’d still imagine that even in the case of the swiftest decision possible there won’t be much left of Ukraine at the time that it’s announced.

Afghanistan mk2 provably cant last as long in the court of public opinion in the 21st century. Unless he just makes it a rump state and withdraws.
 
What’s the alternative? Give in to all of Putin’s demands, essentially surrounding your sovereignty on your own?

mine the ports, blow up the railways, inflict real pain. Or buy a nuke from India/pakistan and let Putin know you’re ready for him when you parade it. (Last point not totally serious, but not totally a joke)
 
He may be an autocrat, but he's democratically elected.

And you're wrong in your above post, this conflict is on Putin and Russia and nobody else. They've planned and executed this since 2014, all on false pretexts, propaganda and lies.

I'm not sure why you make equivalence with Fox and GB News, I'm not fond of those either, but you're comparing political leanings you're personally not keen on with an autocratic psychopath who is threatening the world with nuclear holocaust if they try to stop him.
Thank you for finally getting me to smile today
 
Reports that Russian tanks are moving towards Mariupol. Keep an eye on that, this city is heavily defended by some of Ukraine's most effective forces and Russia might face fierce resistance here.
 
If you know the geography of Ukraine, this tweet is terrifying. This is like Germany invading, expected from the Normandy coast, and landing missiles on Liverpool airport. This is West Ukraine!

 
UNCONFIRMED reports that Poland and Lithuania are demanding Ukraine be given EU membership.
Besides heavy sanctions, this could be the best possible response that won't trigger a nuclear war. Just quickly shoehorn them in.
 
His position as dictator of Russia. How would you propose removing that platform.

not giving him the platform to begin with, which is the point.

He may be an autocrat, but he's democratically elected.

And you're wrong in your above post, this conflict is on Putin and Russia and nobody else. They've planned and executed this since 2014, all on a false pretext of propaganda and lies.

I'm not sure why you make equivalence with Fox and GB News, I'm not fond of those either, but you're comparing political leanings you're personally not keen on with an autocratic psychopath who is threatening the world with nuclear holocaust if they try to stop him.

you’re wrong. look at trump, he’s already been on fox news with gems such as “wouldn’t have happened under my watch,” it’s just a platform to push his agenda and people lap it up and would vote for him again, despite all the evidence that shows he is cut from the same cloth as the likes of putin. no regard for people he perceives as lower than him (that’s everyone btw,) and people are only their to serve his wants and needs.

allowing it all to be blamed on a big, bad boogeyman and not as a direct result of what allows them to get into the position to be able to do it is the root cause of all this. all the bad on the world went away when hitler died. then it came back until stalin died. there are always bad eggs, the fact people seem to still like cracking them for their breakfast is what leads to all this.
 
I wonder were Ukraine really naive and thought that west will defend them or they just thought that Russia will not have balls to go in open war?

It makes me sick to be honest

Ukraine were a friend

they wanted too Join NATO, NATO said yeh sure ok

Russia stepped in and said no!!!! And have essentially gone ahead and beat the crap out of them right in front of us….and NATO have shrugged their shoulders and just watched.

it’s disgusting

Sanctions aren’t help, they needed immediate help when forces “began” too gather on their border.

NATO are the “too late brigade”

No way in one million years would Russia have invaded Ukraine if we’d have got Ukraine across the line and under NATO, Putin is a mad man but he wouldn’t have had the balls to get UKR in that scenario.

we failed them
 
Oh right, Odessa is indeed geographically close to Moldova on the Western borders. I was thinking more in term of demographics.

Seems to be uncertainly now if there has been any direct assault on Odessa, lots of Russian mis-info going about.
 
That will run out soon enough.
Unfortunately it shows they have prepared for this.
Russian gold reserves and foreign exchange reserves are on an all time high.