Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

[A380]

tbf if i thought this website was frequented by lots of young able bodied gung-ho types, i'd not have linked to it.

I'll have you know that my being significantly overweight gives me a greater resistance to nerve agents.

 

[editor]

It makes me wonder who you pro-war, bring on the glorious dead types think you are.

Take a day off this thread. I insist.

 

[NoXion]

I'll have you know that my being significantly overweight gives me a greater resistance to nerve agents.

A few more seconds before you double over and cramp every muscle in your body to death and suffocate might prove useful, I guess.

Too dark?

 

[scalyboy]

Yep.
Putin pretending to be human.



They have enough to feed the city for 2 weeks underground if necessry.
Last time I was in Helsinki was in 2006.
Everyone was wary of Russia. They grow up wary of Russia.

Yes, and having to comply with ‘Finlandisation’ during the Cold War, whereby (among other things) the Kremlin had some influence over Finnish politics. Don’t know if this is still the case though

 

[A380]

A few more seconds before you double over and cramp every muscle in your body to death and suffocate might prove useful, I guess.

Too dark?

I've long planned to eat a KitKat in those extra few minutes.

 

[Aladdin]

Yes, and having to comply with ‘Finlandisation’ during the Cold War, whereby (among other things) the Kremlin had some influence over Finnish politics. Don’t know if this is still the case though

I dont think the Kremlin has had influence there politically for at least 45 years?

 

[likesfish]

They did kind of bully Finland into being Neutral but Finland was armed to the teeth and prepared to fight it wasn't Unarmed neutrality. Much like Sweden won't be surprised if both Join Nato simply to give two fingers to Putin

 

[platinumsage]

 

[DaveCinzano]

I'll have you know that my being significantly overweight gives me a greater resistance to nerve agents.

Every entrenchment needs good sandbagging

 

[bimble]

yesterday this happened. Zelensky on screen streaming to various cities including Prague

& Tsbilisi Georgia.

 

[teqniq]

Paywalled.

This is not

 

[MickiQ]

I was thinking about this and how it could end if the west got involved in the fighting.

Russia does not seem to have the best of equipment for on the ground fighting. They are relying on their threats to deploy nuclear warheads to prevent NATO countries getting involved on the ground.

Does the world know where Putin is right now? Is his bunker conpletely impenetrable ? Even if a nuclear bomb or three was dropped on it?

Is there any non NATO country in the world who has nuclear weapons?

China, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and of course Russia itself. (South Africa claims to have had them but dismantled them) I wouldn't be surprised that after this a few more will be thinking about acquiring some for themselves. There are plenty of nations in the world who could build some fairly rapidly if they put their minds to it. It is 80 year old tech when all is said and done. Wouldn't surprise me if Taiwan doesn't decide to build one in the next few years.

 

[Crispy]

Quoted.

In case you delete after googling.

Incidentally, Behind the Bastards did their 2-part Christmas "not a bastard" Special on Mujica and the Tupamaros. Great listen.

 

[scalyboy]

For me, this war has been characterised by the Russians largely saying the opposite of the truth when speaking of external (of Russia) affairs. It's all very 1984 Orwellian.

It certainly is

Re. Orwell: Was looking at a map of Dugin’s geopolitical conceptualisation of Russia and the rest of the world for the C21st.

The world map divided into 3 areas:

1. The Heartland (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Mongolia, the ‘stans, parts of Afghanistan)

2. The Rimland (Western Europe, India & other south Asian countries, SE Asia and China)

3. The rest of the world (USA, Central & South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Australasia etc)

Apparently this conceptual map wasn’t designed by Dugin, but he adopted it. Originally done by Sir Halford John Mackinder in 1904, the one I saw has areas 1 & 2 designated ‘Eurasia’!

Not true:

Myth 03: ‘Russia was promised that NATO would not enlarge’

www.chathamhouse.org

Exposing the myth of Western betrayal of Russia over NATO’s eastern enlargement

Thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is still peddling the old myth of Western betrayal of Russia by expanding NATO eastward after the end of the Cold War. Both Vladimir Puti…

blogs.lse.ac.uk

I did not know that. Thanks for posting this, an informative read in other aspects too (assuming Chatham House is a reputable source; LSE I would think reliable, it’s hardly a Tory / establishment university)

So if I understood the article correctly, although there were some verbal assurances of no eastward expansion, none were legally binding.

Interesting quote from this article:

“NATO’s Kosovo campaign in 1999 did far more to shape anti-Western attitudes in Russia than NATO enlargement did. Coinciding with a period of extreme weakness in Russia, it represented a crushing defeat for Russian diplomacy”

Didn’t Russia itself asked to join NATO but was rebuffed? (Just after the collapse of the USSR if I recall correctly)

 

[Pickman's model]

No surprise there

 

[dilute micro]

China, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and of course Russia itself. (South Africa claims to have had them but dismantled them) I wouldn't be surprised that after this a few more will be thinking about acquiring some for themselves. There are plenty of nations in the world who could build some fairly rapidly if they put their minds to it. It is 80 year old tech when all is said and done. Wouldn't surprise me if Taiwan doesn't decide to build one in the next few years.

Still, there's no way of knowing what the Ukrainian farmers have in the way of nuclear weapons.

 

[MickiQ]

Still, there's no way of knowing what the Ukrainian farmers have in the way of nuclear weapons.

There was another video of them on twitter (sadly I failed to save it) of them nicking yet armoured vehicle, this one was so big they needed 2 tractors to tow it off. Clearly the Ukrainian farming community are people it is really not a good idea to get on the wrong side of.

 

[A380]

China, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and of course Russia itself. (South Africa claims to have had them but dismantled them) I wouldn't be surprised that after this a few more will be thinking about acquiring some for themselves. There are plenty of nations in the world who could build some fairly rapidly if they put their minds to it. It is 80 year old tech when all is said and done. Wouldn't surprise me if Taiwan doesn't decide to build one in the next few years.

And, of course, the Ukrainian’s used to have them as part of their legacy of the USSR. They gave them up under the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and sent them to Russia.

I remember thinking how brilliant that was…

 

[cupid_stunt]

Translation for the link in that tweet...

The website Charter97.org has become aware of the reason why the Belarusian troops still, despite orders “from above”, do not participate in ground military operations against Ukraine. Most of the rank and file of the Belarusian units, which were prepared to be sent to Ukraine, are opposed to participating in the war.

The officers report to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus that if they cross the border, the lives of the officers will be in great danger, because the soldiers will take up arms against them. A mass surrender of Belarusian servicemen is also predicted.

A number of small units of the Belarusian army had already crossed the border with Ukraine a few days ago, but were returned due to the refusal of the servicemen to participate in hostilities.

Charter97 is a pro-human rights news site, based in Belarus.

 

[two sheds]

I've long planned to eat a KitKat in those extra few minutes.

your last action will be to support a multinational corporation that helps poison babies?

 

[scalyboy]

I dont think the Kremlin has had influence there politically for at least 45 years?

Since the 1970s, then? Although even if Finlandisation is now historical, I still think such memories linger on in a nation’s collective memory and to some extent are factored into current foreign policy).

Re. long memories , see also the UK’s obsession with WW2: ‘Dunkirk spirit’ ‘Blitz spirit’ etc, evoked by cynical politicians who weren’t alive at the time…

I once had a German girlfriend who lived in London. One evening we were looking at the TV schedules; she asked me: why are there so many programmes about WW2?

Oh, I naively replied, but doesn’t German TV feature a similar amount of WW2 dramas or documentaries?

No, of course not, she answered

 

[A380]

Translation for the link in that tweet...



Charter97 is a pro-human rights news site, based in Belarus.

I wonder about the scale . Could be just a few very brave individuals or could be significant numbers. Unlit to be completely fabricated as I can’t image the whole Belarusian armed forces are raring to get fed into the mincing machine of a slow war of attrition…

 

[Pickman's model]

And, of course, the Ukrainian’s used to have them as part of their legacy of the USSR. They gave them up under the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and sent them to Russia.

I remember thinking how brilliant that was…

It seemed like a good idea at the time

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'll have you know that my being significantly overweight gives me a greater resistance to nerve agents.

As many nerve agents are lipid-soluble, this is sadly not the case.

 

[A380]

your last action will be to support a multinational corporation that helps poison babies?

I’d nick the KitKat off the body of a slimmer comrade in arms: so I wouldn’t be paying for it. I have given this some thought you know.

 

[A380]

It seemed like a good idea at the time

So did Salt-n-Pepper.

 

[Bingoman]

The Foreign office is urging UK citizens living or are in Russia to leave

 

[SpookyFrank]

The Foreign office is urging UK citizens living or are in Russia to leave

Always ahead of the curve those lads.

 

[dilute micro]

Translation for the link in that tweet...



Charter97 is a pro-human rights news site, based in Belarus.

As history is being written right now - this will be one hell of a story. I hope so much that there's a good outcome.

 

[A380]

As many nerve agents are lipid-soluble, this is sadly not the case.

It’s their lipid soulibity that makes it the case. Most nerve agents have a greater propensity to bind with fat cells than with the cholinesterase in plasma and between the nerve endings.

It would be a four fingered KitKat, and not one of those funny flavoured special edition ones.