Russian invasion of Ukraine

[blue b4 the moon]

The Ukrainian athletes should refuse to compete and the 'free world' west as well in support.

Let the event go ahead with Russia, Belarus and China competing alone.

 

[mosssideblue]

Air battle, 2 ruskie planes shot down - sky news

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I agree, there will be a point where the sanctions send him over the edge imo.

Yep, which makes me nervous, as Putin has already called one bluff in terms of Western boots on the ground.

Many Russians will only feel the hurt of sanctions and Hitler utilised the Treaty of Versailles to his own end.

The Russian public are only getting one side of the story.

The final Putin bluff is one of mutually assured destruction, which he seems more than capable of calling.

 

[mosssideblue]

Yep, which makes me nervous, as Putin has already called one bluff in terms of Western boots on the ground.

Many Russians will only feel the hurt of sanctions and Hitler utilised the Treaty of Versailles to his own end.

The Russian public are only getting one side of the story.

The final Putin bluff is one of mutually assured destruction, which he seems more than capable of calling.

The big question though is will they execute his orders

 

[bobmcfc]

IOC allows Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Paralympics.

Utterly embarrassing. Are they a more inept and corrupt organisation than FIFA?

Hopefully no fucker watches it

 

[Bluemoon115]

The big question though is will they execute his orders

Far easier to execute a madman.

I don't think we're anywhere near to it happening, but you can bet every one of his inner circle has thought it over.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Hopefully no fucker watches it

Best bet would be all other competitors walk off the start line...... leave them to it......embarrass the IOC...... huge ask of people who have strived to get there but I doubt it would be allowed to go beyond the first couple of heats before the decision was reversed

 

[artfuldodger]

My wife is Russian, she’s lived in the UK for 25 years and whilst definitely not a Putin supporter fits into that 70% as does her father, a very intelligent man, whom I respect a lot. It’s honestly very difficult for me to get my head around their views which are basically that Russians in East Ukraine have been persecuted, murdered etc by a fascist Ukraine over the years and that Putin has up til now done everything he can for a peaceful solution but now has been left with no other option (oh and NATO takes is share of the blame in all this too). These are of course completely opposite to my views but arguing has become impossible - it’s literally like arguing to a mirror - I say ‘you’re being lied to’ - they say ‘no, you are being lied to’.
It’s difficult for me to understand how smart people can think like this, all I’ve come up with is that this belief that the west manipulates the truth has been ingrained in them for decades that it just becomes who they are.
The whole situation is very sad

My neighbours are Latvian and we spent 40 minutes yesterday having a similar conversation. They believe we in the west are being fed propaganda, there’s a different side to the story, Putin is acting in the interest of Ukraine. It does make you wonder how they can come to that conclusion?

 

[Blue_eyes]

What an utter shitshow, those poor Ukrainians must feel desperate right now.

Every Ukrainian is a human, just like us, with their own problems, whether work, medical, financial etc. All hoping for a peaceful, healthy existence for them and their families within the boundaries of a modern Europe.

A few days ago I thought if they held out for a week/ten days putins people would turn on him.

Now, sadly it looks like hes managed to convince them hes doing the right thing with his "special operation".

This is just conjecture of course, because who knows the truth with all the falseties flying around, certainly not me.

Wish we could help more militarily, surely that convoy is a sitting duck right now to state of the art drones or a cruise missile type weapons fired by Ukrainians from inside their own border.

Meanwhile putins telling peaceful, european civilians to leave their homes so he can bomb their cities, what the actual fuck.

Where does he think they can go? no need to answer, cos Im sure he doesnt give a shit.

I fear that putin has so much invested in this invasion that he is not going to pull out voluntarily or by an agreement with the west. That would take a massive climb down from him, honestly think he would prefer a wider conflict to that loss of face.

Now looks like two possible scenarios (short of that wider conflict).

1). putin takes all of Ukraine in a bloody war and going forward his puppet regime suffers at the hands of guerilla tactics, sadly this might give him justification to embark on a genocidal period. Or at least treat the Ukrainians as inferior citizens.

2). A deal is brokered where Ukraine is divided between west and east, a bit like germany post ww2. This could create another cold war and all the paranoia and mistrust could even create a new arms race etc.

So it brings us back to non military solutions.

I dont know how impactful sanctions are, but we should use every single last one that we possibly can in the hope of crippling russias economy quickly and turning his people against him in time to save Ukraine.

I would gladly take not having gas for a while, or whatever other shortages it took, and am sure the majority of civiliused people feel the same if it just made that difference.

Somehow a line has to be drawn against military aggression, and maybe its the civilians of this world and not the soldiers that can achieve that.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Far easier to execute a madman.

I don't think we're anywhere near to it happening, but you can bet every one of his inner circle has thought it over.

How easy? Do you think the people in the room with him are allowed to bring in guns? I don't. He won't even sit at the same end of the table. I guess they could put cyanide in his food or something.