Gareth Barry Conlon
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Not if Rhod Gilbert raises an peasants army and they hold a line on Offa's Dyke!
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Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Thread starter feedmpenzaandhewillscore
- Start date
Don't know if anyone watched those stage meetings with the Security Counsel and the one with the oligarchs last week, but one very striking thing was that basically everyone seemed scared stiff of him. That's quite frightening in itself given that P***n is making nuclear threats now.
In other news from here this morning:
1. I just composed a letter in English at a colleague's behest and had to refer to the “special operation … to protect the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic”. Made me sick to have to write that, but it's a direct quote from guidance from the State Prosecutor's Office that people assisting the enemy, including with finance, are guilty of an offence and will be prosecuted (the client is a multinational that wants to transfer money to its Ukrainian branch office).
2. I did that just after speaking with a Moscow-based colleague who has relatives in Tchernigov (Ukr - Chernihiv), a city of just under 300,000 people in northern Ukraine. They're cowering, terrified, in their basement and say that large parts of the city have been destroyed (the home above them has been hit by something and will need to be rebuilt). These are ethnic Russians, incidentally, whom the "special operation" is meant to protect.
3. Been widely deleted now, but last night various Russian state media outlets published an essay that had obviously been written beforehand predicated on the assumption of an easy win for Russia in this war. In it, the writer gloated that "Putin has solved the Ukrainian issue forever". It's nauseating, nationalistic crap. Don't have time to translate bits for you, but this tweet reproduces some of it in English:
4. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultra-nationalist who featured in a clip posted on here what seems like years ago but is actually a few days, is in intensive care with Covid. (The clip actually dated from December.) Rumours are flying round that he may actually be dead, though they're completely unconfirmed at present.
5. In terms of a compromise, P***n made that much more difficult for himself to row back with those unhinged speeches last week screened to the whole Russian nation on prime-time TV, firstly about Ukraine having no right to exist and later about its leading politicians being degenerate Nazi drug-addicts. Much harder to broker a deal that the Ukrainians could agree to while not being regarded in Russia as a humiliation for the President than if he'd just stuck to the line of defending Russians in Donbass. Hope someone has the skill to do so.
Ta for the updates from the ‘other side’
feedmpenzaandhewillscore
Well-Known Member
Don't know if anyone watched those stage meetings with the Security Counsel and the one with the oligarchs last week, but one very striking thing was that basically everyone seemed scared stiff of him. That's quite frightening in itself given that P***n is making nuclear threats now.
In other news from here this morning:
1. I just composed a letter in English at a colleague's behest and had to refer to the “special operation … to protect the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic”. Made me sick to have to write that, but it's a direct quote from guidance from the State Prosecutor's Office that people assisting the enemy, including with finance, are guilty of an offence and will be prosecuted (the client is a multinational that wants to transfer money to its Ukrainian branch office).
2. I did that just after speaking with a Moscow-based colleague who has relatives in Tchernigov (Ukr - Chernihiv), a city of just under 300,000 people in northern Ukraine. They're cowering, terrified, in their basement and say that large parts of the city have been destroyed (the home above them has been hit by something and will need to be rebuilt). These are ethnic Russians, incidentally, whom the "special operation" is meant to protect.
3. Been widely deleted now, but last night various Russian state media outlets published an essay that had obviously been written beforehand predicated on the assumption of an easy win for Russia in this war. In it, the writer gloated that "Putin has solved the Ukrainian issue forever". It's nauseating, nationalistic crap. Don't have time to translate bits for you, but this tweet reproduces some of it in English:
4. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultra-nationalist who featured in a clip posted on here what seems like years ago but is actually a few days, is in intensive care with Covid. (The clip actually dated from December.) Rumours are flying round that he may actually be dead, though they're completely unconfirmed at present.
5. In terms of a compromise, P***n made that much more difficult for himself to row back with those unhinged speeches last week screened to the whole Russian nation on prime-time TV, firstly about Ukraine having no right to exist and later about its leading politicians being degenerate Nazi drug-addicts. Much harder to broker a deal that the Ukrainians could agree to while not being regarded in Russia as a humiliation for the President than if he'd just stuck to the line of defending Russians in Donbass. Hope someone has the skill to do so.
On point 5 the Ukrainians being Nazi drug addicts, isn’t the president of Ukraine Jewish which kinda debunks that theory. What’s the feeling on the inside of Russia being removed from Swift, it must have got Putin’s attention if he is putting the nukes on standby.
DrBlueBob
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To be fair my lack of military foresight may, upon reflection, explain why @KS55 sacked me as his military advisor.Not if Rhod Gilbert raises an peasants army and they hold a line on Offa's Dyke!
I completely overlooked "The Gilbert protocol".
uweuweuwe
Well-Known Member
Can someone explain to me why the Russians seem to keep running out of petrol? Seen videos of farmers stealing armoured vehicles that had been abandoned because they had run out. Two Russian lads captured because they knocked on a police station asking for fuel and a Georgian tanker telling a Russian ship to go fuck themselves when they asked if they could have some fuel. Is it bad luck, supply lines being cut or are the Russian army not the elite force they've been telling us.
Chippy_boy
Well-Known Member
I also hear what you are saying. However ...I know what you are saying but I cannot agree with the solution you suggested. Ukraine are a free Sovereign state and are able ( or should be able) to manage their own affairs as they see fit. Giving in to Russian demands undermines everything they stand for, and I hope they hold there own in these discussions and tell Russia to do one
For the past 40 years, I have always believed - and I still do in principle - is that the way to deal with Russia is to stand up to them. They respect strength but prey upon weakness. You look them straight in the eye and refuse to flinch. That's exactly what Kennedy did - and rightly so - in the Cuban missile crisis.
But this all depends upon dealing with someone on the other side who is not bonkers, and who is ultimately unwilling to do terrible things rather than back down. And I am very worried that we are not dealing with such a man. If he pulls out of Ukraine in humiliated defeat, it is the end for him. And the end in the dog-eat-dog environment he's risen through, probably means him being killed. Faced with that, who knows what he might be capable of. We simply must find a way for him to be able to sell this whole nightmare as have been worth it.
metalblue
Well-Known Member
You're dreaming mate. At least I hope so, because any nuclear retaliation from the UK - or the US or France or whovever - against Russia, and it's the end of the world as we know it.
We'd have very little (if any?) ability to intercept a nuke launched towards us from western Russia, and were that to happen - with a nuke aimed at the North Sea - the very best thing that could happen would be that we did nothing. Anything else would - literally - be suicide.
This isn’t the movies mate. It would take some massive balls of steel for the UK to wait to see where an inbound missile would land/exploded as it approached the UK - it will be considered extreme aggression and that would trigger a response. Likely from NATO as a whole.
We know he has nuclear weapons and we have no desire to have a conflict with Russia. It is far more likely that if he wanted to go nuclear it would be tactical and in Ukraine - and I don’t think it is that likely.
I hope the talks can bring an end to this, they need to be able to give Putin something he can sell - such as joint governance of the disputed eastern regions - not great but sometimes you have to be pragmatic. The west/NATO needs to look at their relationship with Russia and find common ground and work from there. Putin won’t last forever and doesn’t represent the Russian people, we just need to swallow deeply, hold our noses, smile sweetly at him and be nice once the fighting stops and an agreement that is acceptable to Ukraine is found. In the meantime we need to continue to support Ukraine and not pay any attention to Putins rantings, honestly if he wanted to make a nuclear strike he wouldn’t have broadcast it on TV - he sees the west as weak (or did until a couple of days ago) and it’s for the benefit of the flappers to try and create disunity.
There was a post a few pages back with a link from December describing how various strategic scenarios regarding Russian aggression on their western flank will play out and the logistic issues Russia faced, due to their unique country geography and military thinking on artillery and ground based air defences. Well worth a long readCan someone explain to me why the Russians seem to keep running out of petrol? Seen videos of farmers stealing armoured vehicles that had been abandoned because they had run out. Two Russian lads captured because they knocked on a police station asking for fuel and a Georgian tanker telling a Russian ship to go fuck themselves when they asked if they could have some fuel. Is it bad luck, supply lines being cut or are the Russian army not the elite force they've been telling us.
mosssideblue
Well-Known Member
I would suggest he is already humiliated and defeated insofar as Russia's standing in the worldI also hear what you are saying. However ...
For the past 40 years, I have always believed - and I still do in principle - is that the way to deal with Russia is to stand up to them. They respect strength but prey upon weakness. You look them straight in the eye and refuse to flinch. That's exactly what Kennedy did - and rightly so - in the Cuban missile crisis.
But this all depends upon dealing with someone on the other side who is not bonkers, and who is ultimately unwilling to do terrible things rather than back down. And I am very worried that we are not dealing with such a man. If he pulls out of Ukraine in humiliated defeat, it is the end for him. And the end in the dog-eat-dog environment he's risen through, probably means him being killed. Faced with that, who knows what he might be capable of. We simply must find a way for him to be able to sell this whole nightmare as have been worth it.