Will Russia invade the Ukraine?

[slowsider]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.
It it ok to say this, or have they all been elevated to hero status?

On UAE TV? What might their agenda be?

[Felix]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.
It it ok to say this, or have they all been elevated to hero status?

On UAE TV? What might their agenda be?

TBF it was on the BBC web page yesterday.

[slowsider]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.
It it ok to say this, or have they all been elevated to hero status?

On UAE TV? What might their agenda be?

TBF it was on the BBC web page yesterday.

S'funny how now the BBC is the measured reporter, whereas two weeks ago , Boris and his cronies wanted it defunded.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.
It it ok to say this, or have they all been elevated to hero status?

Maybe they're Russians living in Ukraine and not Ukrainians. How can we tell?

They're wearing white hats

[Horse]

so you're not saying they're in cahoots, or mutually influencing each other,

A list if what I'm not saying could include all sorts. Where did 'in cahots' come from? ???

so other countries like India, UAE, China, African countries, etc, are all independently saying the same thing.

Ditto, where is this 'saying the same' coming from?

I've not said it, or hinted at it, so it's not something that I need to deny.

Perhaps they're right.

Perhaps they're right
Perhaps they're wrong

[JamJar]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.
It it ok to say this, or have they all been elevated to hero status?

Well that settles it, Putin is a saint and the Ukrainians deserve to be invaded.

[JackyJoll]

Shit just got serious.

[Kneerly Down]

Between NATO playing games and the Nazi regiments it’s no surprise Putin eventually had enough.

Thank goodness that nice Mr Putin doesn't play games or have nasty enforcers on the streets.
Yes, I can see why he thought the best strategy was to invade the whole of Ukraine and bomb the cities!
It's great how Mr Putin is being very clear about what is going on, letting the press freely report the 'special operation' and has the whole country behind him.

[Count Steer]

Between NATO playing games and the Nazi regiments it’s no surprise Putin eventually had enough.

Thank goodness that nice Mr Putin doesn't play games or have nasty killers on the streets of Salisbury.

Minor tweak ^^^

[irie]

FT reported, a few days ago (I don't know whether the official viewpoints have altered):

https://amp.ft.com/content/6c52b083-d38 ... 47c913065f

While western nations condemned Russia’s aggression, New Delhi’s loyalty to its longstanding partner held firm. Last week India, as a temporary UN Security Council member, abstained from voting on a resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion, along with China and the UAE.

The east and west have different viewpoints? Blimey, does anyone else know about this?

Contrary to you oft repeated opinion, many others are indeed able to assess the veracity of news from different (inherently biased) sources in the same way as you say you are able to. Or possibly even better than you since they may have had the benefit of a far better formal education than you and furthermore do not live in an autocracy as you do.

[JackyJoll]

Just been watching Ukrainians looting shops in a mall, stealing essential items like mobile phone cases and fashion shoes.

That’s terrible. Anyone on the side we like should be much nicer than that.

[irie]

Contrary to you oft repeated opinion, many others are indeed able to assess the veracity of news from different (inherently biased) sources in the same way as you say you are able to. Or possibly even better than you since they may have had the benefit of a far better formal education than you and furthermore do not live in an autocracy as you do.

You've only ever lived in a little goldfish bowl and the only thing you have to rely on is whatever you've read, whereas there are people out travelling the world with very little formal education that know more about life than you ever will.
You boomers crack me up.

In spite of the fact that you know virtually nothing about me, you display your ignorant arrogance finished with an attempted insult. You never disappoint.

[JackyJoll]

Not even a big goldfish bowl!

[irie]

Back to Ukraine, seems that the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia may have been occupied by Russian forces. If that's the case and there's a nuclear accident then the forecast seems to be for a Northerly wind. Which will blow radiation across Crimea, the Black Sea, and into Turkey. Don't imagine Erdogan and Turkey, a member of NATO, will be happy with that!

[JackyJoll]

Back to Ukraine, seems that the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia may have been occupied by Russian forces. If that's the case and there's a nuclear accident then the forecast seems to be for a Northerly wind. Which will blow radiation across Crimea, the Black Sea, and into Turkey. Don't imagine Erdogan and Turkey, a member of NATO, will be happy with that!

Power station leaks would be a trivial thing, compared to the thousands of deaths which are occurring, from fighting and bombardment.

[irie]

Depends on how big the "leak" is of course.

[demographic]

I kind of don't get where Putin goes now though.
As far as I can see(pretty sure other people will see other goals as well though) all the goals of his invasion haven't really worked out well.

Stated goals...
Protect Russian lives, that didnt last long did it?
Stop NATO expansion, Finland and Sweden now want to join Nato. Fail.
Unite more with Russia, that's not going at all well now is it?
Now a million or so refugees will have stronger ties with Europe.
After trump attacking NATO he was in a better position than he is now as he's managed to renunite more of NATO against Russia
Show Russian power? Showed their weakness more like.
Oligarchs have been sanctioned and more likely to lose huge amounts of money because of the invasion.

The worrying part of all this is how do the rest of the world give Putin something to help him save face?
He's going to just crush Ukraine now but a protracted conflict won't look good either.

[Supermofo]

Well Putin's done more for getting Germany to rearm than anyone bar Hitler. He's probably lost the London money laundering party. He's made Russia an international outcast and he'll also probably push most of the west to move to renewables asap as well.

Can't see the wins for him.

[irie]

I kind of don't get where Putin goes now though.

Agree with you, Putin has nowhere to go. Collosal own goal. But he won't care because about 70% of the Russian population rely solely on state controlled media for their news, so they'll hear only what Putin wants them to hear.

[Count Steer]

I kind of don't get where Putin goes now though.

Agree with you, Putin has nowhere to go. Collosal own goal. But he won't care because about 70% of the Russian population rely solely on state controlled media for their news, so they'll hear only what Putin wants them to hear.

He may also have given his Chinese chums food for thought about the relationship. Their oil imports will be more expensive, (unless he sells it to them on the cheap because he can't sell elsewhere), and there'll be less money in the west to buy Chinese products. Be interesting to see how they react. They do tend to take the long view so may be thinking ahead to what happens when he's gone.
If NATO gets beefed up they may soft pedal on Taiwan for a while too. Hard to see much upside for them from his machinations.

One thing I do expect is there'll be some more dodgy foreign money and social media manipulation behind Trump's next presidential campaign (either to get him back in or to get his preferred candidate in). Biden appears to have had a popularity boost from recent events.