The War in Ukraine

[Cassius_Smoke]

One thing about this war that strikes me is that on any 'normal' war coverage you see a city scapes getting blown to bits with air strikes. Now either Russia hasn't bothered trying to take out power, munitions and airports, or Ukraine has air superiority. I know they have SAM sites and Javelins. It seems that they are absolutely dead set on only taking the country on a ground offensive.
I'm looking forward to the analysis on this war in a few years.

[Cassius_Smoke]

The historically 'Neutral' Switzerland has sanctioned Russia and frozen Putins personal assets

[Anpanman]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...08287e9d2b7ef0
The EU has stated it expects an application from Ukraine will be received imminently and will be reviewed at speed

Great, that means he's going to nuke every EU member then.

We should have a referendum and leave.

[wheelaa]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60558048

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60551140

I think GB is on his radar though. Or not. Who knows.

[Anpanman]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...08287e9d2b7ef0
The EU has stated it expects an application from Ukraine will be received imminently and will be reviewed at speed

Gotta say, the reasons given as yo why Putin is a war criminal all apply to Tony Blair.

Yep.

Blair IS a war criminal.

I'd settle for him to be at least tried for it.

One thing about this war that strikes me is that on any 'normal' war coverage you see a city scapes getting blown to bits with air strikes. Now either Russia hasn't bothered trying to take out power, munitions and airports, or Ukraine has air superiority. I know they have SAM sites and Javelins. It seems that they are absolutely dead set on only taking the country on a ground offensive.
I'm looking forward to the analysis on this war in a few years.

It's an odd one for Putin, it's not Afghanistan where the country is completely different, Ukraine and Russia share a joint history so he can't simply carpet bomb them. I think he has completely underestimated how the Ukrainian's were going to react along with the populace back in Russia where we have seen demonstrations. I'm sure a lot of the Russian soldiers feel odd with the invasion too.

Been some nice things I've seen over the past few days like the farmer taking the tank and the old woman stopping the Russian soldiers and telling them to **** off.

[QualityChimp]

I think GB is on his radar though. Or not. Who knows.

Apparently, stuff Liz Truss said made Putin raise the nuclear weapons threat level.
Imagine instantly vaporising or watching yourself radioactively decompose from a bomb because we sent Truss over to smooth things out. FFS.

Embedded Tweet

These threads are always GOLD:

https://twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1498270373565157378

"19. To prove how admirable we are, we rolled out our world-class response to the refugee crisis
20. We started by refusing to set up safe routes for refugees
21. Then we stopped granting visas to Ukrainians
22. Then we issued guidance saying Ukrainian refugees who come here via a 3rd party country can’t claim asylum
23. But we also banned all direct flights, meaning it’s impossible to NOT come to UK via a 3rd country
24. Then Home Office minister Kevin Foster said he would help Ukrainians to escape death if they promised to pick fruit for him
25. Fruit-picking doesn’t begin until August, so I guess we’ll just have to ask Mr Putin to put his genocide on hold until the raspberries are ripe
26. Then the govt said asylum seekers need to pay a £95 fee and attend an in-person interview at a UK Embassy before being considered
27. And then we moved the Embassy
28. And then randy haystack Boris Johnson said Ukrainians could come here if they have family in the UK
29. But his definition of “family” didn’t include people over 18
30. Or the parents of people over 18
31. Or siblings
32. Not content with that, we then sent Home Office staff to Paris to turn back Ukrainians boarding the Eurostar to London
33. Then Johnson claimed “the UK is way out in front in helping refugees”
34. We offered £40 million aid to Ukraine
35. We also cut their aid to £0 last year
36. But we did shine the Ukrainian flag onto the front of Downing Street, for the virtue signalling fans amongst you
37. The 4000 refugees we grudgingly helped out of Afghanistan last year are still having to survive on £40 a week and living in B&Bs, whilst being legally prevented from working.
38. Not one of them – not one – has had their asylum application completed yet
39. This is mainly because Sauron's gnome Priti Patel has actively gutted our asylum system"

[Wools]

Unconfirmed reports that Putin has fired His General Chief of Staff Gerasimov.

Also, confirmed that the EU agreement to approve arms to Ukraine was unanimous.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Did you see the old guy punch an armed Russian soldier? The soldier fires shots and the ground and the old guy doesn't even flinch.

[MartyG]

It's an odd one for Putin, it's not Afghanistan where the country is completely different, [COLOR=#333333]Ukraine and Russia share a joint history so he can't simply carpet bomb them.

Putin can't carpet bomb Ukraine and claim he's liberating the Ukrainian people from the tyranny of a Western puppet regime. If they start using their heavy weapons and flatten the country, that thin veil of BS falls away.

[Wools]

The odd thing is though, they have used heavy weapons and killed indiscriminately. They just haven’t kept up that level and as Ukraine is such a large country, they need to.

But from all reports, their supply lines aren’t continuously backed up to support the front lines and Russia have been completely outclassed by the country who was meant to be a walkover.

Seriously, I don’t think Russia are sandbagging or keeping their powder dry. They’ve just been pounced on and haven’t had the planning ready. All they’ve got now is diplomacy or nuclear or biological weapons.

[Dogg Thang]

They have precious little to gain by levelling the country. Damaging enough to get them to fall in line? Sure, but it doesn't look like the Ukrainians are about to do that. But full on destruction gains them nothing. Remember that in WW2, as the Soviets made moves around Eastern Europe, they often took control of their armies (I know this because my grandfather was in the Estonian army). They absolutely used fear and threat as part of this but, even then, they couldn't just level a country. They wouldn't gain from it. One thing they'll want here are the very people they are fighting against.

[Anpanman]

The odd thing is though, they have used heavy weapons and killed indiscriminately. They just haven’t kept up that level and as Ukraine is such a large country, they need to.

Also it appears they are using cluster bombs, naughty.

Scumbags.

[Wools]

Also it appears they are using cluster bombs, naughty.

Scumbags.

It may already have been seen here, but it's worth repeating.

NSFW

->Open Spoiler<-

[Cassius_Smoke]

Bear in mind that China exports most of its goods to Europe. If Russia nukes a European country and disrupts china's export industry with a full scale war, they'll be pretty pissed off at Russia.

[MartyG]

I highly doubt China's exports will factor into Putin's decision-making should Russia's strategic options become limited to nuclear strikes. Besides, the entirety of the northern hemisphere will be turned to ash, so exports will be the least of China's incoming problems.

If it gets to that point the planet is ****ed.

Also ...