Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

I know that we are cynical about politicians these days, but this guy has massive balls. It is almost guaranteed that he will die within the next week, but he is still going with that.

I think it massively improves the moral of his soldiers who are also sacrificing their lives. When you see him and ex president Poroshenko fighting, multi-millionaire Klitschko brothers, Osyk returning to fight, it gets easier to say ‘if I die, so what, I’ll probably take a Russian or two with me’.

Someone should probably let Lomachenko, who apparently hopped a flight to Greece, know about this.



 
I know that we are cynical about politicians these days, but this guy has massive balls. It is almost guaranteed that he will die within the next week, but he is still going with that.

I think it massively improves the moral of his soldiers who are also sacrificing their lives. When you see him and ex president Poroshenko fighting, multi-millionaire Klitschko brothers, Osyk returning to fight, it gets easier to say ‘if I die, so what, I’ll probably take a Russian or two with me’.
I hope he does not die. Maybe Putler refrains from attacking Kiev.
 
Someone should probably let Lomashenko, who apparently hopped a flight to Greece, know about this.
The guy’s standing has gradually eroded over recent years. He’s been greatly surpassed by Usyk in the public consciousness.
 
What of the rumours that Putin has stolen so much wealth from Russia that he's secretly the richest person on the planet?
I wouldn’t be surprised if they are true — he’s certainly one of them, at least. The issue is, his wealth is well hidden and distributed between many people, off-shore companies, properties etc., so even after many investigations we only see the very top of that iceberg (and it already makes him a multi-billionaire).
 
That video where the russian tank crushes that civillan car is sickening but by a pure miracle the old man inside survived to live another day.
 
Some of the statements from Russian officials shown on the news come across as if even they aren't aware of how far Putin is intending to go.
 
A lot of his own country men think hes a fool
His politics had been very much hit and miss (with more of the latter), hence the general perception of him in Ukraine, but you can’t deny that’s his acting courageously in the face of (literally) grave danger.
 
His politics had been very much hit and miss (with more of the latter), hence the general perception of him in Ukraine, but you can’t deny that’s his acting courageously in the face of (literally) grave danger.

yep. boris johnson would be on the first helicopter to the south of france before addressing the nation and informing us that he’s planning to “fight them on the beaches of nice.”
 
They are only processing family visa applications and not tourism or other more general visas. So we couldn't apply for our in-laws to come because parents of a UK national are not in scope. They would a tourism visa which cannot be applied for from Ukraine currently.

Anyone who expected Britain to be one of the easier countries to get a visa to is very, very naive. Our policies have been designed to keep families apart and make it way more difficult than it should be for people to even bring their partners to the UK. It is very expensive and you need to meet a certain barrier financially. We got married in Ukraine and I had to move back to the UK alone to earn a salary over the threshold to be able to apply for my wife to then move here.

Ireland has waived visa requirements for Ukranians. If they can get residency here then maybe they can take advantage of the Common Travel Area to move closer to you.
 
Over the past few days I’ve been exposed to much more of those opinions, sadly. The main argument is “they’re crying war now but why were they ignoring 8-year long war at Donbass?”.

But I wouldn’t dare to estimate. The petition for the end of any military action has gained about 500 thousand signatures over the last 24 hours, which is quite a lot, I’d say. Many public figures (even some that I haven’t expected it from) are starting their disagreement with what’s happening in Ukraine. But a lot are seeing it the other way :(

It’s very weird. For example, at the Russian main sports-related website the general attitude towards anything Putin-related is overwhelmingly negative, but when it comes to this war, most of the upvoted comments are criticizing NATO/West/Ukraine, mentioning 8 year-long aggression towards Donbass, recalling Yugoslavia bombings etc.

thank you for the detailed response.
 
There are hundreds of tanks near Kiev right now and many were already destroyed in Kiev.

I think this will end only one way for Zelenski.
Javelins will do their job. The only way I can see him getting killed anytime soon is massive bombing of Kiev. Taking into account the amount of civil population there, highly unlikely.
 
That doesn't make any sense. Russian operatives would have had to put the marks on the residential buildings right? When and why would they do that?

I mean in fairness it could be the opposite and they are marking them to signal to try and avoid them.
 
Javelins will do their job. The only way I can see him getting killed anytime soon is massive bombing of Kiev. Taking into account the amount of civil population there, highly unlikely.
With Chechen troops also getting involved, doubt Zelensky would stay alive.
 
Saw this on Sky News live. Time for us to step in I think.

Russia's objectives 'not limited to Ukraine' - NATO secretary general
NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, tells a news conference "the Kremlin's objectives are not limited to Ukraine".

He says Putin is asking for troops to be withdrawn from countries which joined the alliance after 1997, and will use force to achieve its objectives.

He says Europe now has a "new normal", and Russia and Belarus will be "held accountable".
 
Seen reports on a few ships being hit today:



That's enough now to justify enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting shipping in the area to me with naval escorts. Obviously we won't because we're a big bunch of wusses.
 
Sanctions make perfect sense:
  • No European visas for Russians
  • No resident cards for Russians
  • No appeals to the European Court of Human Rights (the only way to get Justice for political prisoners at the moment)
  • Nothing that now stops Russia from reintroducing death sentence

Basically it makes the lives of those that oppose Putin from inside the country 10 times more difficult while hardly even influencing his loyal electorate & ensuring the success of Putin’s politics of alienation from the West. Well done.
 
Saw this on Sky News live. Time for us to step in I think.

Russia's objectives 'not limited to Ukraine' - NATO secretary general
NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, tells a news conference "the Kremlin's objectives are not limited to Ukraine".

He says Putin is asking for troops to be withdrawn from countries which joined the alliance after 1997, and will use force to achieve its objectives.

He says Europe now has a "new normal", and Russia and Belarus will be "held accountable".
If that's not a direct threat to basically entire Europe, I don't know what is.
 
Saw this on Sky News live. Time for us to step in I think.

Russia's objectives 'not limited to Ukraine' - NATO secretary general
NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, tells a news conference "the Kremlin's objectives are not limited to Ukraine".

He says Putin is asking for troops to be withdrawn from countries which joined the alliance after 1997, and will use force to achieve its objectives.

He says Europe now has a "new normal", and Russia and Belarus will be "held accountable".
He said this previously as well. This is why letting him get away with Ukraine is dangerous.

You appease him once, he goes further. You appease him again, he goes further still. You try to appease him for the third time and you notice you'd be inviting him into your own house.

The guy is a maniac and despite all this 'let's look at it from his PoV' desire for rational thinking, he only recognises strength. At this point, unless the Chinese stop him, I think he'd be willing to start a fight with NATO, sooner or later.
 
That's enough now to justify enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting shipping in the area to me with naval escorts. Obviously we won't because we're a big bunch of wusses.

With the list of neutral ships getting hit in the Black Sea growing, this adds weight to a point I brought some time not long ago. The US Sixth Fleet and a number of other NATO navies have to enter the Black Sea to make sure this stuff won't be tolerated.