They've agreed to buy Russian wheat. They'll prop up Russia one way or another but China are savy. China is probably involved, let's see what they do.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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They've agreed to buy Russian wheat. They'll prop up Russia one way or another but China are savy. China is probably involved, let's see what they do.
Fair play, fair play. It's good to know there is at least, a neutral view on the West in that region.
The West has been too unfriendly with the Middle East and the East for too long now. And I think this war is the start of something bigger.
For the future, we certainly need to change our approach to diplomacy. Sanctioning more than half the world isn't going to cut it anymore.
This press conference with the Russian Foreign Minister is insane.
It's alarming the language he uses and the justification he gives for the invasion.
Absolutely bonkers
It's alarming the language he uses and the justification he gives for the invasion.
Absolutely bonkers
That was the most insane thing I've seen on TV, absolutely crazy to watch
We are going to have massive influx of Ukrainians here now, the queue at the border is 20 km already. Will probably volunteer to give my spare apartment as a temporary place to some, could probably take 6-8 of them at a time.
Yep
Bless you. Each and every action of help counts.
why the feck are sky news allowing this prick from moscow
how the feck are sky news broadcasting this propaganda. what the feck is this.
It's not about the helmets. Hell, we might have had 1000s of rocket launchers that we could have sent to the Ukraine.
The problem is with the heavy gear, like jets and tanks (heavy and light ones) and helicopters, ships. Quite a high fraction of them needs to be repaired.
Also procurement processes are quite complex, long, expensive and not very effective at the end.
For example, the German army is trying to buy a heavy transport helicopter, so basically either Sikorsky or Lockheed Martin. The last bidding processes ended after 7 years or so with no bidder being successful. (Both bids were deemed to be to expensive.) It's back to square one now.
Also, in the planning now is the succession for the Tornado and Eurofighter jets. Everything points to long bidding procesess, we might have a solution until 2030. And it will take a few more years until the new weapon systems are delivered - most probably some of them will have outdated gear by then (happens always with such long winded processes.)
Thank you, interesting article.
Certainly the West could have acted in a different way after the dissolution of rthe USSR and perhaps things would be different now. I'm still not sure though that Versailles is a good comparison, that really was incredibly punitive. Would also say that calling Turkey part of the West is a stretch and they would have seen their opportunity to increase their influence on countries which share a common ethnic, religious and linguistic history with Turkey, as opposed to a broad Western move to curb Russian influence. And against Turkey's historic rival as well to boot.
I think we seriously need to rethink our relationships with Russia, China and India in the future.
If the three of them come together.. well...
, the sky has a better chance of turning purple than China and India becoming friends. You can blame 65 years of China policy for that. Heck they already have fought one war in the post-WW2 era and have fought many skirmishes over the past few years in the border regions.I agree there is no easy choice and i don't envy those who have to make those hard decisions. But Ukraine are getting bullied whilst we're just standing by watching. We either let Russia take Ukraine and save many many lives or we stand up to Russia (properly) but risk mass casualties and potentially the start of a world war.
India does have a long-standing friendship with Russia for many reasons but everything else you say is correct. India wouldn't break the rules-based international order for their friendship with Russia though. In fact, it's Pakistan that has a legitimate friendship with China, although I suspect China would ditch them at the first chance if it was to their advantage. China only cares about itself ultimately.
I don't mind the broadcasting of it, but it infuriates me that they don't spend an equal amount of time fact-checking it. I've seen zero on UK TV countering much of Russia's bogus claims.
And let's not forget we do not want to buy weaponized drones (just an example for many ethical questions which affect the state of the German army). There is a problem in recruiting personnel as well. This is not only due to the bad reputation of the army, but also due to the fact that you need to move around all the time if you want to make a career. That is quite unusual for Germans, so I know people that have basically stopped their career trajectory in the army, so they could remain in one place and live there with the family.
Its good to know, trust me. Russia/China alone is bad enough.
fair play, @Sarni. (though i’m guessing the only reason the apartment is spare because the majority of polish people are over here stealing my jobs.)
Poland has a long, rich tradition of hating Russia so I imagine the majority have a wildly unfavourable opinion about Putin's latest lunacy.
Some people are genuinely scared, the memories of Soviet control is still there.
I can speak from Polish perspective as a lot of my friends and colleague are based there. They feel exactly as we do utter contempt for Putin, utter contempt for the invasion
Isn't looking good for Ukraine. They fought so hard, but ultimately I don't see how they can stop such a huge influx of tanks, planes, rockets... endless soldiers.
Their people are so brave the fact heavy armour is already approaching the capital shows this will be over by the weekend IMO.
What I don't understand is why Civilians are still driving around the city like everything is normal? Just look at what happened with the tank running over the car.
Their people are so brave
the fact heavy armour is already approaching the capital shows this will be over by the weekend IMO.What I don't understand is why Civilians are still driving around the city like everything is normal? Just look at what happened with the tank running over the car.
Oh I get it. I’ve been following the problems in the Bundeswehr for some years now. The helmets joke is just me trying to have a sense of humor in the dropping of the ball that’s been going on there in Germany’s ministry of defense.
You can see how easy it is to convince people how noble and great it is to die for their country.
Amazing! Bless you!
Not slept in almost two days. Have a lot of colleagues and friends in Poland, Ukraine. Some of the things I am hearing are too heartbreaking to share
Man, I wish I saw it. Is it on Youtube?
Ya I agree with this totally, unfortunately I suspect a bit of a sinister ploy by the UKR government, they want to invite atrocities on the UKR population to try and force the West to intervene more significantly in some way. Hope I'm wrong though but a lot of the messages coming out of UKR on social media and in remarks by Zelensky give some credence to this theory.
Lies
Isn't looking good for Ukraine. They fought so hard, but ultimately I don't see how they can stop such a huge influx of tanks, planes, rockets... endless soldiers.
Their people are so brave
they were doomed from the start. i’m disappointed with how little support they seem to have been given. i did have the slight hope that pieces were being moved behind the scenes to catch russia unawares but then i remembered who is in power and realised how fecking stupid i was to think it in the first plac.
at least ukraine has the thoughts and prayers of our brave leaders, which will comfort them greatly, no doubt.
Who will use this crisis to make themselves a celebrity?
Sky news Live and rewind about 30 mins
Warms my heart reading this. Bless you mate. All of this just feels so surreal and one feels helpless or even a little useless watching it unfold from the UK.