kyle04

An insult rather than a counter argument, is that the best you can do?

I think the events of the past fortnight have fortified the need for a continued nuclear deterant. Anyone who says that ditching our only military ace will placate a lunatic like Putin is at best naive, and if in a position of influence downright reckless. Corbyn would be more than happy to be ruled from Moscow, his puerile ilk are the epitome of "useful idiots", thank God the bastard never got elected. Just imagine that no European country had nukes right now, Putin would have us all by the balls. Sure the whole scenario is not very palatable, but that's the world we live in. As for being self-sufficient for our energy needs, something has to give, windmills and solar panels are never going to be enough. Meanwhile in Ukraine the Russians continue to take quite heavy losses, if the US can agree with Poland to backfill their MiGs with F16's they have a chance.

Sounds entirely credible, shame Russia no longer have Twitter. It seems quite clear from many first hand testimonies that the rank and file either weren't told what they were about to do, or told it would be an anti-Nazi crusade largely welcomed by the Ukrainian population. The soldier in the video does seem to be the name-rank-serial number type, but his shame and embarrassment at his country's actions will hopefully be shared by many Russian servicemen. If NATO are serious about stopping this, they need to send the Ukrainians aircraft. I get the no-fly-zone apprehensions , probably the correct move right now. A few dozen re-badged MiG 29's might make a difference, although with regard to Trump's cunning plan of sticking a Chinese flag on F-16's, I'm surprised he didn't go further and add something like ".. and get this, we'll only use Chinesey looking pilots in case some have to bail out and are captured".

I think any Russian general who still inhabits the real world must now know, if we take on NATO, we're fucked, despite our Lord Hawhaw Alex's reservations. Russia may well continue with their cowardly shelling of towns and cities, but their military will continue to suffer disproportionate losses in the field. Who will crack first - certainly not Ukraine, they have little else to lose now .

I think Putin's fucked up by invading the whole country. If he'd have occupied the Donbas region alone, securing his "buffer zone" he might have got away with it. The territory could be described as "disputed" at a stretch , with a strong pro-Russian populace in the midst of a mini civil war, together with historical ties to Russia. He might have gained control of both Crimea (2014) and Donbas with very little fighting and perhaps not so much of a backlash from the outside world, then played the long game while the West worried about his next move. Instead he's managed to unite most of Europe, probably expand NATO if Finland and Sweden join, expose his military as poorly lead and maintained, condemned thousands of soldiers and civilians to their deaths, regressed his own country decades with Soviet era crackdowns on freedom of speech, crashed his own currency on a par with Zimbabwe and shown himself to be a ludicrously paranoid cold war caricature whose words count for nothing. He even has to sit 20 feet from his own top generals now.

Good points. I would add that at present a no fly zone is not necessarily needed, thus far Russia has generally refrained from an all out aerial bombardment, although that may well change. They're losing a lot of stuff daily, particulary tanks and APV's, much of which appears to be pre-1990 Soviet equipment, although their more up to date armour is still being destroyed or captured with the modern weapons available to Ukraine. The Russian body count must be over 10,000 by now, despite the ludicrously low figures issued by the Kremlin. As for Putin blaming NATO for supplying weapons, NATO did so after the invasion so again a laughable stance to take, and I hope Europe continues down this road as it's the only hope for Ukraine.

Kosovo ethnic cleansing/genocide, although stray bombs did hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Notwithstanding, the Serbs are probably the only nationality from the former Yugoslavia sorry to see Tito go.

Yeah, they interupted their mass murder campaign.

Twitter and Facebook now blocked in the motherland it's been reported. Saintsweb may be next so be careful what you post. Putins paranoid ramblings continue, parroted by his diplomats. Meanwhile in the UK our dear leader dithers on sanctions, with emergency asset seizing powers to be rushed through parliament - er, sometime next week.

Jogging back to his own half after another worldy?

Russian independent radio stations shut down, or rather stop or face 15 years in jail. Putins taken the country back 60 years in just a week. Surely there must be some fucker high up in the Russian command willing to do the right thing ?

Devastating bowler and very handy with the willow as well, remember his 1st test wicket(?), clean bowling Mike Gatting, who was very good v spin. His anecdotal humility dosen't surprise me, being an Aussie. Genuinely shocked at the sad news. RIP Shane, a true one-off.

Saw one last night I think, may have been pulled by now, if so it's taken WW3 to get rid of the blighters!

All bought and paid for, or kompromat. the "draw" takes place hours earlier, and is repeated over and over until the desired outcome is achieved. This is the version that is then presented as "live". It must be true, David Ike told me.

And yet, despite all and sundry piling in with sanctions, those fucking meerkat adverts are still running.

...Mark Hughes did a god job keeping us up - give him a chance

It's true the regular Russian army is estimated to be around 900,000, whilst Ukraine, with reservists estimated at 500,000. However if you count non military personel now taking up arms the numbers stack up heavily in favour of Ukraine, since Russia so far has deployed around 150,000 in the assault. They're heavily out-gunned in terms of weaponry, but the stingers and Turkish drones have proved very effective and more weapons are being sent daily. The whole world (nearly) is backing Ukraine, sanctions, weapons, medical supplies, hackers disrupting Russian systems, an Oligarch offering $1M for the head of Putin, Anonymous offering cash for every Russian tank crew that surrenders, ths list goes on. The game changer will be air power, something Russia has used very sparingly thus far. What can't be quantified is the human spirit, Ukrainians will fight to the last for their homeland, Russian soldiers are losing morale and many don't even know what they're doing there. In 1996 Ukraine handed over its nuclear arsenal to Russia, in exchange for a guarantee of never being threatened or invaded.

Probably because we haven't been bothered to keep track of the Russian dirty money flooding into this country, now having to account for it in a hurry.

He featured in a recent mini series on BBC2 recently about Hilters Barbarossa campaign against Stalin/Russia. Very knowledgable man.

That's OK then, Putin's a stickler for the law obviously.

Cannon fodder, as one captured Russian put it. Little wonder that that so much Russian armour has just been abandoned/captured, much more than has been "destroyed" according to verified accounts in the oryxspioenkop link posted earlier. It seems an odd strategy when your aim is conquest/regime change to send in so many conscripts first, maybe the thinking was that they are more expendable should all not go to plan initially, which it obviously hasn't. Unfortunately for Ukraine, there will shortly be around 150,000 Russian troops in the country, although estimates vary. Putin will not back down now, he's backed himself into a corner where he either cuts his losses, the architect of a miserable and costly failure, or wades deeper into the mire and secures for himself the mantle of modern day mass murderer, the like of which even the scum in China may start distancing themselves from (once they've done the same to Taiwan of course). How on earth did western Europe let itself become so reliant , economically, on two of the most oppressive and repugnant regimes on the planet?

... " Even Pornhub is denying Russians access." So Putin won't be able to spend his money or crack one off !

Hitler would have looked on in envy : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/27/analysis-what-weapons-is-russia-deploying-in-ukraine-invasion?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB What next, chemical weapons, nukes? Regardless of the outcome of this invasion these war crimes will haunt Russia for decades to come.

Буча є Буча. Тут окупанту смерть неминуча! "Bucha is Bucha. Death is inevitable for the occupier!"

Shame the Ukrianians don't have a few of these : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOyRh17lzJU