Russia invading Ukraine (NEWS/UPDATES)


Status
Not open for further replies.
Some very good posts which I have enjoyed reading.

I learnt my history from years of reading and watching Documentaries, and dont laugh watching films from the period, its funny how much you can learn about a nation by watching the propaganda films of the time, I wish I hadn't left school early at 15 and stayed on, my writing skills and grammar leave a lot to be desired, but I sometimes feel not having an "academic" background can sometimes be an advantage, as your learning what other people think, its important to have the skill set to be able to think for yourself, something which is being lost in current times.
Only way an empire expands imo is Culturally or by force, we see it time and time again all throughout history, People dont really think of the USA as an empire, as it doesn't quite fit the "movie" standard of what we think is an empire, but it is, from the early days of the states coming together due to Culturally being the same, to the civil war where the south and north had completely different values and had moved apart culturally, so the north had to use force in keeping those states in line and in their empire. Now the USA exports their cultures via tech and companies world wide, to make advancements in the culture war world wide, not for the good of there hearts but in their interests, a very clever carrot and stick approach, every once in a while the US flex's its muscles to remind people what it can do.

China has had a colourful past, its history is rich and varied, but we can see the reasons why China would mistrust the west, we haven't over the years played nice, but now China is playing the same game the US does, using money to influence people around the world with the carrot, but at the same time the peoples of china are becoming more westernized its fascinating to say the least, puts the Chinese leadership in a bit of a pickle to be honest as this culture war plays out.

India hardly gets a mention in some quarters and thats a mistake, its a growing power and should not be underestimated, we see the poor people in poverty there and some judge India as a backward nation due to that, but we have to remember our empire was built on the backs of a population in poverty, we looked like India, high pollution, mass poverty with a large gap between the haves and have nots, a bit like China a decade or three ago.

Back on topic, Russia is an empire in decline and is doing what all empires in decline do, lash out trying to hold on to past glories, its in that dangerous phase, look at when western roman empire failed, is scary how much this looks like that, outside forces chipping away at areas, shrinking the land that was in the empire, military a shadow of its past, the glory days long gone. I think this is the end for Russia as we know it, its been long on the cards to be honest, It maybe will take a few years yet but I can see an underlying shift in Russia, is coming back to being much more aligned with the EU , the population at least, the leadership will follow in due course.

think moving forward, we will see the EU as a major player now, it could be argued as a new empire, it ticks all the boxes to be one, remember not all empires come about through force, so we could see in years to come, EU, US, India and China as the new world order of super powers.

History has a funny way of repeating itself, its why I love looking back to get a sense of what may happen moving forward.
Great post
 
We - like other free democratic nations - should have boots on the ground in Ukraine. We should have had boots on the ground in Ukraine as soon as the possibility of this invasion was known to western intelligence services. Then it wouldn’t have happened to begin with.

I am absolutely sick to death of this weak as p*ss “ooooh we mustn’t do anything to upset Russia” nonsense. It’s what led us here. The message for a decade has been “just help yourself Vlad, we like to talk about our “values” but when it comes down to it, we’re not going to stop you”. So he’s unsurprisingly gone ahead and helped himself. And will continue to do so until we decide to actually stand for something.
Completely agree. Either we want to defend the free world or we don’t. I know which I would rather.
 
Imo the time for NATO to put boots on the ground was pre crisis - as others have said.

It would be too dangerous to get involved now .

We should be arming the Ukranians- but keeping out for now - much as it pains me to say that.

Public opinion is very much turning against Putin (.even more when they find out 6000+ of their boys ( est) are already dead and gone. If he draws NATO in he can paint us as aggressor and get public behind him

The goal now should be regime change from inside Russia - probably enacted by either military men / Oligrachs (.or both) .

Mikhail Khordokovsky gives 2 years max before revolution / or Putin deposed

So we keep on turning off the financial taps ( including All oil & gas imports from Russia) and wait for it to implode

He will need to spend $ billions to keep the Ukranians in line - and we hold into a big chunk of Russian money to.pay for the eventual reparations

We are arming the Ukrainians. One of the flight tracking websites showed a huge number of cargo planes landing at the airport in Eastern Poland yesterday where it is all flying into.

Ukraine probably has more weapons then they know what to do with. Getting them to the front line where they are useful will be more of their problem
 
Are they really that ‘intellectual’ and ‘well-versed’?

The idea that their military police can completely suppress any dissenters and Ukrainian culture is utter utter bullshit.

Just like it was impossible for Russia (and the USA/UK) to completely suppress the mujahideen in Afghanistan.

40 million people in Ukraine. I don’t even think NATO could ‘conquer’ that if they wanted to.

Is the right answer. Occupying the place will be a mare.
 
Are you serving in the military? Itll be absoloutely devestating if we put boots on the ground. British sons and daughters will die by the thousands and itll drag on for a decade. It is not a light decision.
It isn't a light decision but we won't be dying by the 1000 and it isn't Iraq the Ukrainians want us there. Christ they want to join the EU. Plus sorry but it is the armed forces job, this will end in defeat for Putin by Ukraine or a shooting war.
 
Overall I’m not sure it matters too much as the EU and US are being far more aggressive. Overall it’s been suggested they could lose up to 90% of their wealth. A lot of EU countries are already confiscating assets

It's as much what is says about our corrupt Government as what it does to aid the Ukranians. We're always brining up the rear.
 
It seems that now US intelligence is suggesting the 40 mile convoy was less of a strategic invasion force and a number of different Russian troop movements that were falling over each other due to issues.

There were gaps in the convoy that may have made it look like they were staggering to avoid attack. But maybe just different units bunching together

 
Is the right answer. Occupying the place will be a mare.
Ukraine is 40 million people so I guess he is banking on using the same tactics he does to “occupy” Russia which is 140+ million.

I don’t think he will succeed and it won’t work but he will be thinking of doing the same in Ukraine. Arrest and murder opponents. Give money and power to enough factions that he can claim to have some support.

Resorting to arresting kids now:
 
Overall I’m not sure it matters too much as the EU and US are being far more aggressive. Overall it’s been suggested they could lose up to 90% of their wealth. A lot of EU countries are already confiscating assets

It matters because of the billions (if not trillions) of Russian money that is in London.

Theres a reason that Russians refer to our capital as Londongrad.
 
With the amount of Russian money here (as I said the other day 60% of all russian GDP is offshore, much in London) he's actively sabotaging the war effort and potentially sending millions of Ukrainians to their death, all for 10k a year.

Always shocks me just how cheap it is to bribe our politicians.
I always get the feeling there are on the books bribes but also money being funneled outside our ability to see. Such as inter cayman island transfers
 
Well if he goes straight down from Kiyv now he is basically taking 2/3rds of Ukraine plus all the coastal areas.

Being who it’s from it would be foolish to rubbish it. Split Ukraine into the equivalent of East and West Germany and push Zelensky back to governing in the West only.

No way do Russia not intend to take all the country and probably Moldova too. They won't leave a western Ukraine that will get a quick route into NATO. Now the Russians have felt the economic sanction pain they may as well complete their objectives.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top