Yes. With Putin having made the mother of all fuck ups invading Ukraine, I think his warped mind will want this to give justification to the Russian population that he was fighting trying to protect from this, so it gives him some credibility to his ownDoes anyone think this is going to end up with direct confrontation with Nato led by the US?
I'm starting to wonder if Putin is running out of conventional weapons, so is using chemical etcChemical weapons don’t seem to be a red line when they should be and they will be used in the tool box to stop an advancing army. They’ve shown they will do anything blowing up a dam, the power station going up in smoke wouldn’t surprise me.
NATO and the West should have some blame for what’s happened with Russia, they have let them get away with the initial land grab in 2014. No one has been brought to justice for shooting down the Malaysian airliner, they didn’t seem to do much when they had Russian agents using chemical weapons in Salisbury.
The hope that this comes to an end is Ukraine either pushed Russia back enough to bring them to the negotiating table or there’s an uprising to stop it. It’s a tragedy that a lot of people will die before either conclusion is realised.
Will NATO get involved? Maybe if they did try blowing up a nuclear power station. Trouble is for Russia vast amounts of their capability to fight a war has been taken away in Ukraine, if it came to a conventional exchange with NATO they would back down quickly and then go hiding behind the nuclear rhetoric.
I'm starting to wonder if Putin is running out of conventional weapons, so is using chemical etc
Well lads you claim you aren't meat but you clearly are. I think the grey cells need to think a bit more.
To misquote the tune: "We are not meat, we are Devo. D.E.V.O". Sorry lads you aren't Devo either.
I think a lot of what you say about how ineffectual NATO was is totally fair comment, but it wasn’t a wholly unreasonable approach through the lens of the time, albeit a wrong and (with hindsight) a wilfully blind one. The mistake (and it was fundamental) that Putin made is that he presumed our response to his machinations would remain unchanged, irrespective.Chemical weapons don’t seem to be a red line when they should be and they will be used in the tool box to stop an advancing army. They’ve shown they will do anything blowing up a dam, the power station going up in smoke wouldn’t surprise me.
NATO and the West should have some blame for what’s happened with Russia, they have let them get away with the initial land grab in 2014. No one has been brought to justice for shooting down the Malaysian airliner, they didn’t seem to do much when they had Russian agents using chemical weapons in Salisbury.
The hope that this comes to an end is Ukraine either pushed Russia back enough to bring them to the negotiating table or there’s an uprising to stop it. It’s a tragedy that a lot of people will die before either conclusion is realised.
Will NATO get involved? Maybe if they did try blowing up a nuclear power station. Trouble is for Russia vast amounts of their capability to fight a war has been taken away in Ukraine, if it came to a conventional exchange with NATO they would back down quickly and then go hiding behind the nuclear rhetoric.
If an incident does occur at the nuclear power plant the international nuclear group ( cant remember there actual name ) apparently have the ability to request NATO go in an secure the area ( any where in the world ). so its possible we would see NATO forces on the ground at the NPP if needed. Id then guess it depends on if they get attacked!Does anyone think this is going to end up with direct confrontation with Nato led by the US?
And the bad news is that we give a fuck; Putin doesn't - his population is expendable but they don't realise it. The nuclear incident is looking, perhaps, only hours away, and I dread to think what happens thereafter.I think a lot of what you say about how ineffectual NATO was is totally fair comment, but it wasn’t a wholly unreasonable approach through the lens of the time, albeit a wrong and (with hindsight) a wilfully blind one. The mistake (and it was fundamental) that Putin made is that he presumed our response to his machinations would remain unchanged, irrespective.
The relationship between Western Europe and Russia has been akin to an abusive, domestic one, where the bigger, truculent partner has repeatedly, and cowardly, bullied the other and assumed they would be able to continue to with relative impunity, partly because experience taught them that, plus because of the economic power the believed they held over the other; but one day, against all the weight of previous experience, the abused partner snaps and suddenly gains resolve to resist - and the balance of power shifts.
Putin pushed it too far and I fully believe, irrespective of how it plays out in the States in a couple of years, that there is sufficient resolve in Western Europe to continue resisting. There will simply be no going back to where we found ourselves a decade or so ago, because Putin pushed it too far, we snapped and our perspective changed. Quire simply, he woke us up.
Western Europe has come to realise that it is in an existential fight for its way of life. We simply now have to see this through. There is no fucking choice.