Ukraine

If the west had gone all in, we'd have handed victory to Putin. He has always been paranoid that NATO is out to get him. He would have been proven right, and Russian nuclear doctrine allows them to launch the first nuclear strikes in that situation. I wonder, who is best prepared for a nuclear war. The largest country on earth, run by a succession of paranoid leaders, who build nuclear numbers everywhere, of NATO.

 

Have you seen the Putin look a likes visit to Kherson. The guy looks nothing like Putin.

Alternative view. Could the Allies have avoided ww2 by stopping Germany in Austria. Putin will do the same if Ukraine loses, he wont stop until he gets to a NATO country. History tells us that force is the best way to stop tyrants.

 

I'm not a history buff by any stretch of the imagination. But I think all wars have ended with diplomacy, and many more potential wars have been prevented with diplomacy.

I'm annoyed that it's taking the Brazilian leader to try to knock heads together. The US, UK and other allies with the exceptions of France and Turkey have flatly refused to talk as far as I can tell, and while Macron has at least made an attempt, although he hasn't quite been publicly chastised for it he has been subject to not so subtle criticism.

History tells us Russia is led by paranoid leaders. In 1983 the US nearly started a nuclear war when they made their annual training exercise so realistic that Russia actually thought the US was genuinely preparing to attack. The incident is well documented, and I think it was Reagan who realised, almost too late, how much they'd freaked the Russians out, and how important it was to communicate. That was 40 years ago, and here we are again.

In other news, just yesterday it was in the news that North Korea has stopped answering their twice daily phone calls from South Korea. The consequence? Now South Korea, Japan and the US are worrying about North Korea's intentions. Is that going to be another conflict started by a breakdown in communication?

Putin lied. He said against all evidence that he was not going to invade, then he did, and of course should be pushed back. But now the fight is on, and if there are no other options on the table, and there aren't because nobody will talk to them, then they have to keep going. No communication, no off ramp.

 

They resent us because of the old Empire days.
But millions of them want to live here.

 

Not sure Russia will give them many handouts.

 

I wholeheartedly agree

 

What a load of rubbish. Anyone that thinks Fox News is a credible source needs to get help. Stop spreading this nonsense.

 

A Su-34 fighter-bomber jet accidentally bombed the city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine. Doesn't say much about the accuracy of Russia's missions into Ukraine.
I wonder how many more of the explosions in Russia, put down to Ukrainian forces have just been similar "Blue on blue".

 

A few months back there was a spate of 'accidents' involving Russian fighter jets. In one example the plane exploded shortly after take off. The news that emerged after that was that Russian anti aircraft missile systems detected and shot down their own plane.

While it's kind of good that Russia is making mistakes, as they'd have had Ukraine by now if not for all their blunders, I do worry that Ukraine and it's allies rely on this being the case. Surely the Russians must be learning from their mistakes, and the longer the war goes on, assuming they don't run out of equipment, the more capable they'll become.

 

I think in all wars there are mistakes made on all sides.
You often don't hear about them, especially the ones on your own side, until the war becomes history.

Friendly fire being one of the biggest mistakes.

 

It's not the first incident though is it. If the news is to be believed, the Russians are making mistake after mistake. Right at the start, they rolled that 40 mile column of trucks and tanks towards Kyiv. The Ukrainians just attacked the front and the middle of the column and with light arms, attacked the fuel tanks of some of the trucks. The Russians probably had in mind a massive intimidation plan to cause panic in Kyiv. Instead they were left stuck and panicking as sitting ducks.

It went on and on. One blunder after another. They even fell for a massive disinformation effort when they had kharkiv and Kherson, told the Russians they were going to take one back, gave the Russians time to reinforce, then attacked and quickly reclaimed the other.

There's been several incidents of them blowing up their own planes with their own air defence.

They couldn't even capture snake island. A warship against a handful of lightly armed men.

And there are innumerable photos of farm fields full of craters. No wonder they're using a lot of ammo, they're putting it all on flat open ground where the Ukrainian soldiers aren't.

In sport, there's a saying for wealthy people who decide to get into the sport with no experience. It seems to apply well to Russia.

All the gear, no idea.

 

Looks like Putin has poisoned Recep Erdogan - this is priceless.