I stand with Ukraine

[Serb]

Your whole West is living in a parallel universe.

[Serb]

So, make a supply of pumpers - you would need them, when we will come.

[Wezil]

It's not just the "west". Russia's unprovoked aggression has been quite the unifier.

[Serb]

Unprovoked?!!!

Read the first post of this thread, started at Feb 19 - FIVE DAYS BEFORE the so-called "Russian invasion":

https://apolyton.net/forum/miscellaneous/off-topic/9430017-serb-s-hot-manlove-dating-thread#post9431054

fkn

[Geronimo]

This invasion has unexpectedly brought back a lot of the feelings I had in August 1995, March 1999 and especially March of 2003. In those occasions I felt terrible unease in the public discussion and political and military buildup to the military attacks and as I observed them unfolding through media coverage and impacted acquaintances I found myself increasingly non-interventionist and less hawkish in general as a result.
.
Putin's invasion obviously parallels each of those military acts in a variety of ways, especially with his chosen rhetoric.

I'm sure most Russians will remain supportive of the decision to invade regardless of how this finally ends but I suspect that at that point, if they could really see for themselves the overall before and after impact of the decision they would disavow any support entirely.

[Serb]

Nope, Ger!
We had no choice.
So we will fight to the end!

[Serb]

And we will win!

[Geronimo]

And we will win!

Russia may achieve its military objectives but Russia and Humanity in general will be worse off for it.

State sanctioned ethnic cleansing seems to have ended in the Balkans as the NATO decisionmakers desired but it's obvious the campaigns they waged towards that end were far more destructive than the activities they set out to stop.

[Serb]

We will achieve our military objectives. And we will deal with the rest later.

[Serb]

Look at Grozny of 2022:

The second Chechen war was officially over in 2009.

Then look to Baghdad, the USA have invaded in 2003 or Kabul or whatever capital of the country you have invaded an then left. Wherever you came you leave only the ruins!

If you could only spend a 1/10 of the money you have wasted on bombs to conquer and pacify the countries you have invaded to building-up the peaceful life in those places, to build-up an infrastructure, to make life better for the locals, you would not run away beaten!

[BeBMan]

So Vlad activated his nuke forces. Afterwards there is not much to escalate for him. Which means this could turn into something like the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It should be noted that he also was doing similar when he annexxed Crimea in 2014, but it was IIRC not public back then (as he himself admitted later - old article - https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/16/e...ear/index.html)

Let's hope there are some friendly reminders behind the scenes that Russia is not the only nuclear power. I also doubt his Chinese buddies would like to see the everything going down completely...

On the plus side there is some movement on the diplo-front regarding Ukraine-Russia negotiations.

To me it looks like he's not in a great position as he basically already lost the information war and did not make significant progress in Ukraine so far. Which could still change horribly in the next days tho.

[Egbert]

The French pointed out that NATO has nuclear weapons.

The Chinese have been saying the situation in the Ukraine should be resolved by negotiation. They have not spoken in support of Russia and they have not actually spoken against Russian actions. They show no signs of doing anything at all, apart from encouraging "negotiation".

India has been very quiet. I guess they wish to preserve their good relations with Russia and perhaps they do not care what happens to Ukraine.

This appears to be going badly for Vlad the Bad. I am hoping this costs Vladimir Putin his job.

[Wezil]

Canadian airspace is now closed (finally) to Russian carriers.

[Egbert]

Australia has also put sanctions on Russia but we have very little trade with Russia. We are simply supporting the efforts of the international community. The only countries capable of sanctions that have any impact on Russia would be USA, European Community, United Kingdom, China and possibly India who buy Russian weapons. China and India appear to have no inclination to do anything, or even say anything meaningful. Russia is dependent on energy sales to Europe, particularly Germany, but Europe needs the Russian gas. There are vast sums of Russian money in London but the UK needs to be seen as a "safe place" for investors.

[Wezil]

It's like climate change where we all have to do our part. Putin is a threat to world security so any/all efforts are needed.

We need as few "leaks" in the sanctions as possible.

[EPW]

The apparent value of Russian weapons is dropping rapidly...maybe India will come around.

[EPW]

So Vlad activated his nuke forces...

He activated all 3 inches

[Wezil]

With things not going well for Vlad I've been thinking about the Mike "Clausewitz" Tyson quote that's been going around - "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth".

[Donegeal]

In the Army we always said "The plan never survives first contact with the enemy."

[Wezil]

That would be the "Clausewitz"