Russia Invades Ukraine

[Rogue219]

Assuming they will try NATO next?

 

[Valpodoc85]

Meanwhile, China is sitting back watching the west degrade our economies in useless wars

 

[MacIrish75]

Meanwhile, China is sitting back watching the west degrade our economies in useless wars

Hey now, we were doing just fine at degrading our economy before this useless war, thank you very much.

 

[ACamp1900]

Some poor intern who had nothing to do with this but is getting thrown under the bus is getting executed for this

FIFY,… most likely

 

[Irish#1]

This is pretty telling on how committed Russian soldiers are. Also sounds lie the talks didn't do much for now. Switzerland now sanctioning Russia, freezing accounts and prohibiting any flights from/to Russia.

From NBC....
In a powerful moment in front of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Ukraine's U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya read aloud the final text exchange that a Russian soldier had with his mother before he was killed.

The soldier's mother had texted asking how her son was, why it had been so long since he had responded and inquiring whether he was still in training exercises, Kyslytsya said, reading texts in Russian from a screenshot.

"Mom, I'm no longer in Crimea. I'm not in training sessions," her son wrote back, according to Kyslytsya.

When his mother then asked where he was, explaining that his father wanted to send him a package, the soldier sent what would be his last text "several moments before he was killed," Kyslytsya said.

"Mama, I'm in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I'm afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves onto the wheels and not allowing us to pass," he read. "They call us fascists, Mama. This is so hard."

 

[notredomer23]

 

[HouseofPain]

Guess this didnt work out quite so well as expected

 

[NDdomer2]

that article somewhat would have contradicted itself anyways right. states the purpose was to reunite USSR (ukraine, belarus, russia)
then goes on to say the purpose was to "show the era of Western global domination can be considered fully and definitively over. The new world will be built by all civilizations and centres of power, naturally, together with the West (united or not) -but not on its terms and not according to its rules."

gotta laugh at the "naturally" part

 

[Greenore]

This is pretty telling on how committed Russian soldiers are. Also sounds lie the talks didn't do much for now. Switzerland now sanctioning Russia, freezing accounts and prohibiting any flights from/to Russia.

From NBC....
In a powerful moment in front of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Ukraine's U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya read aloud the final text exchange that a Russian soldier had with his mother before he was killed.

I wanted to like this but there is nothing to like. Just sad. Thanks for posting Irish#1.

 

[Greenore]

When you finally piss off Switzerland you have to realize you are on the wrong side of history.

 

[greyhammer90]

I wanted to like this but there is nothing to like. Just sad. Thanks for posting Irish#1.

Thanks to the new website, you can always capture your dispair at the senseless loss of young life with a frowny face.

 

[Greenore]

Thanks to the new website, you can always capture your dispair at the senseless loss of young life with a frowny face.

Loss of life period. Bull$hit move by Putin but it sounds like there is a lot of collateral damage in unwilling, unparticipating Russians. My prayers are with the Ukraine and the innocent.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Check out some of these pictures of civilians fabricating ant-tank obstacles and making Molotov cocktails

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

 

[RDU Irish]

Ukraine is definitely winning the propaganda war. Really hard to say what is true or not - something like this is a perfect example. So easy to stage and make Russia look like a dirty player which plays right in to confirmation bias b/c it is so easily believable.

 

[PerthDomer]

Meanwhile, China is sitting back watching the west degrade our economies in useless wars

I'd have to think this changes their calculus on Taiwan. It will also lead to a huge power vacuum in Central Asia as Russia's influence will wane. China is also more exposed to high Oil/Commodity prices than we are.

Also, Russia's military has been shown to be incompetent. Anyone with Russian arms or relying on them as an ally will likely want to upgrade their military with weapons made elsewhere.

 

[Johannes]

Ukraine is definitely winning the propaganda war. Really hard to say what is true or not - something like this is a perfect example. So easy to stage and make Russia look like a dirty player which plays right in to confirmation bias b/c it is so easily believable.

Absolutely- here's a thread on that very topic:

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

Ukraine is definitely winning the propaganda war. Really hard to say what is true or not - something like this is a perfect example. So easy to stage and make Russia look like a dirty player which plays right in to confirmation bias b/c it is so easily believable.

No doubt but they literally have an entire planet of social media users behind them spreading it reagrdless

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

I'd have to think this changes their calculus on Taiwan. It will also lead to a huge power vacuum in Central Asia as Russia's influence will wane. China is also more exposed to high Oil/Commodity prices than we are.

Also, Russia's military has been shown to be incompetent. Anyone with Russian arms or relying on them as an ally will likely want to upgrade their military with weapons made elsewhere.

Exactly if China was looking to partner with Russia on an Asian Alliance against the west they are surely like this rn:

 

[Irish#1]

This is brilliant.

 

[Greenore]

Check out some of these pictures of civilians fabricating ant-tank obstacles and making Molotov cocktails

From mudpies to Molotov cocktails in a week. Honestly, I'm so sad.

 

[Greenore]

for context, the Ukraine has the largest amount of Ukraine citizens, Russia has the second most and Canada is third with approximately 1.3M citizens. The latter surprised me. Alberta and Saskatchewan have very large immigrant populations. Great people that contribute to Canada.

 

[ACamp1900]

Have to assume they will be too

 

[Greenore]

I'd have to think this changes their calculus on Taiwan. It will also lead to a huge power vacuum in Central Asia as Russia's influence will wane. China is also more exposed to high Oil/Commodity prices than we are.

Also, Russia's military has been shown to be incompetent. Anyone with Russian arms or relying on them as an ally will likely want to upgrade their military with weapons made elsewhere.

I think that China prematurely had the hand lotion and kleenex handy but they are re-examining the porn they thought they were watching. Still might not be enough to dissuade but...

 

[Old Man Mike]

I've not been reading this thread so please forgive repetition if I blunder into it.

I didn't know what to make of Putin's move, other than it reminded me of the insane almost panicky bonehead stuff that the North Korean guy would do, and the dumbass propaganda stuff the Iranian idiot used to say. All waving the idea of nukes around, and, with the exception that all three were/are at least partially nuts, there was only country economic suicide to be found at any step down that path.

I don't obviously have much clue how the deaths and the freedom of the Ukrainian people will shake out, but I wonder if we (the US and our buddies) should look at this like a combination incentive for a cold war starvation of the Russian Economy (causing some, but not great, inflation, and for us only temporarily) thus immediately screwing them up rather badly short-term, and then building out parts of our economy aimed directly at stealing world economic share on whatever is important to them in the longer run. We could arrange quite a lot in those directions even in the energy sector. We wouldn't have to aim at voiding out any of their bottomline --- significantly constricting it would be a huge pain in their pockets.

Both of these things would involve a little "sacrifice in the short term" for a getting rid of Putin and slapping Russia into joining the rest of the world without an aggressive bunch of hawks running it. I'd view it as a Marshall Plan and an economic "arms race" (call it symbolically "space race" to sound nicer) and we could smack the bastards down until they decided to become human ... I'm talking about their politicians not the Russian people, the vast majority of whom are quite nice (my brother is married to one.)

I'm no warmonger, but I would not mind sacrificing a little using a Big Money Club to end the Putin regime and get a group in political power that are thinking about their people's economic welfare and not how many guns they have stuffed into their shorts. Am I insensitive to the welfare of the Russian people? I don't think so. They can get rid of the dinosaur moron if they really want to, and pretty quickly.

 

[NorthDakota]

I've not been reading this thread so please forgive repetition if I blunder into it.

I didn't know what to make of Putin's move, other than it reminded me of the insane almost panicky bonehead stuff that the North Korean guy would do, and the dumbass propaganda stuff the Iranian idiot used to say. All waving the idea of nukes around, and, with the exception that all three were/are at least partially nuts, there was only country economic suicide to be found at any step down that path.

I don't obviously have much clue how the deaths and the freedom of the Ukrainian people will shake out, but I wonder if we (the US and our buddies) should look at this like a combination incentive for a cold war starvation of the Russian Economy (causing some, but not great, inflation, and for us only temporarily) thus immediately screwing them up rather badly short-term, and then building out parts of our economy aimed directly at stealing world economic share on whatever is important to them in the longer run. We could arrange quite a lot in those directions even in the energy sector. We wouldn't have to aim at voiding out any of their bottomline --- significantly constricting it would be a huge pain in their pockets.

Both of these things would involve a little "sacrifice in the short term" for a getting rid of Putin and slapping Russia into joining the rest of the world without an aggressive bunch of hawks running it. I'd view it as a Marshall Plan and an economic "arms race" (call it symbolically "space race" to sound nicer) and we could smack the bastards down until they decided to become human ... I'm talking about their politicians not the Russian people, the vast majority of whom are quite nice (my brother is married to one.)

I'm no warmonger, but I would not mind sacrificing a little using a Big Money Club to end the Putin regime and get a group in political power that are thinking about their people's economic welfare and not how many guns they have stuffed into their shorts. Am I insensitive to the welfare of the Russian people? I don't think so. They can get rid of the dinosaur moron if they really want to, and pretty quickly.

I like the reasonableness and optimism here. I dont know a ton about Russia. But they've had a strong man leading them for basically their whole history i think? I'm sure there are some folks here who got a much better idea.

We'll see what happens. We'll just have to continue to pray for this affected and for cooler heads to prevail.

Random aside: Don't know if I'm looking in the wrong places or if there is just a lot less combat footage coming out of Ukraine.

 

[NorthDakota]

I think that China prematurely had the hand lotion and kleenex handy but they are re-examining the porn they thought they were watching. Still might not be enough to dissuade but...

I think China can keep the lotion nearby. They have a giant economy and have a ton of influence. Easier to boycott Russian goods/services than China. But who knows.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

 

[Greenore]

I think China can keep the lotion nearby. They have a giant economy and have a ton of influence. Easier to boycott Russian goods/services than China. But who knows.

You may be proven correct. Russia is very reliant on natural resources for export. That is going to concern eastern and western Europe in particular. China has capitalized on rare earth elements but equally on discretionary items to the west. The latter is going to be in play. My opinion only.