Jimmy_D

A huge part of Russia’s soft power has come from people believing that Russia’s conventional military capability is far more potent than it’s been shown to be in Ukraine. That’s partly down to Zelensky, and the resistance he’s helped inspire. It’s given the West enough time to react, and belief that it’s worth reacting. Even if Russia ultimately manage to gain military control in Ukraine, losing that is something Putin won’t have been counting on. They’re likely to find it almost impossible to maintain that military control long term, with the people being so clearly against it, which seems to be something else Putin miscalculated. Yet another thing he seems to have miscalculated is the unity shown in sanctions against Russia. They appear to have already gone further than Putin expected, and there seems to be a will for them to go further if needed, especially if Russia remain in Ukraine. He does still have nuclear capability of course, but Putin can’t use that without consequences for Russia that make anything else in history pale in comparison. I don’t think it’s likely, but still have to hope that he never gets to the point that he doesn’t care about those consequences and no-one stops him. It’s difficult to really tell exactly what Putin went into this expecting to achieve, and even more difficult to imagine that anything he expected to achieve is possible now, with the way events have unfolded so far.

Thought that was going to be a ‘what if’ game for Middlesbrough. Fantastic result for them, goals like that are what every kid that wants to be a footballer dreams of growing up.

Great finish!

It’s like they’re chucking darts at a list of ‘excuses’ at this point. Even if that’s meant for a domestic audience, it’ll be failing to add up for more and more people.

Everyone is aware of what Russia said. The question is why you’re blaming Truss here, given you’ve already admitted you don’t think the response was justified.

So, if you think Putin has acted irrationally in response, why are you blaming Truss for not foreseeing that?

So you think Truss’ comments justified threatening nuclear war then?

So there are no other words or actions by NATO leaders that Putin would have used as an excuse then? It was purely Truss’ comments that made Putin announce that their nuclear readiness level had been moved up to the highest level, from previously being at, uh, the highest level?

I see Switzerland are adopting EU sanctions against Russia now. Not even the Nazis managed that.

So Liz Truss controls Russia’s nuclear readiness level then?

So what is it about Liz Truss’ comments that’s making you blame her, and not the bloke using comments on breakfast news about a defensive alliance as an excuse to ready nukes?

Indeed, he replaced a keeper that was probably MotM with an outstanding clean sheet and several incredible saves, conceded against every single Liverpool player, and then missed his own kick. Every single one of his teammates scored. They literally couldn’t have done any more in the shootout, and it wasn’t enough because the keeper literally couldn’t have been any worse. You could write it, but it’d be considered a terrible and overblown storyline that was too unbelievable.

That’s the reason I said ‘in the running’

Subbed on, fails to save 11 penalties in a row, and doesn’t get a chance to save another one because he has Chelsea’s only miss in the shootout... ouch. That’s in the running for worst sub of all time.

Well there are two teams that have conceded more than 9 in one match

Seems to be going too early every time.

Not sure why they’re changing the keeper after the game he’s had. MotM for me.

Been a decent game that, really not sure how it ended up 0-0 after 90 mins.

Think that was the correct decision for offside there, VvD definitely interferes with the defender.

Got to think this is a decent chance for us, extra rest, in good form, at home, and West Ham may well still have one eye on the top four race.

Added to that the sanctions are hitting them now. Also most Russians don’t see Ukraine as an enemy. A lot of the fighting is between Russian people forced to be soldiers told to attack people they don’t see as an enemy, against people fighting for their home.

Putin’s put Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces on the highest level of alert. For everyone’s sake that needs to be a bluff, or everyone loses, including Putin. And now there will be peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border without the precondition that Ukraine lay down their weapons. That’s taking bad news/good news to an extreme. Ukraine might just have made it cost enough that even though Putin has the military strength to win, he doesn’t have the political capital to win a long guerrilla war, or perhaps more importantly, the peace afterwards.

Honestly, I don't know. I guess the threat of other banks being added to the same sanction would deter unbanned ones from aiding Putin, and they can actually be added if required.

Sounds like some Russian banks are about to be removed from SWIFT, and Russia's Central Bank, holding Putin's warchest, will have its assets frozen. That's going to have an effect.