Yeah, not much of a flex - Putin doesn't care about the contracts and Germany needs his gas more than he needs their euros.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Yeah, not much of a flex - Putin doesn't care about the contracts and Germany needs his gas more than he needs their euros.
So no more negotiations this year?
Plenty more bad faith negotiations probably
Do you think Ukraine has a plan to avoid encirclement?
Given that Mariupol is the only place where Putin seems to be making any progress, he will probably wind up only having that as a bargaining chip....which isn't much to go by if he wants to sell his "special military operation" as a win to the Russian public. I'd love to see the Ukrainians somehow regroup and retake Mariupol at some point.
Sure, but only so much you can do with the troops and equipment you have. They are up against a much larger enemy, and large chunks of the EU and NATO don’t want to involve themselves militarily or give them all the weapons they could.
Sadly, much of the leadership of central Europe was happy to write off Ukraine falling quite quickly and hasn’t been prepared at all for a long slog.
Can we even call Russia a much larger enemy now? With hardware maybe but available Ukrainian troops might outnumber Russia 2:1 now and the ratio is only increasing. Any so called "re-deployments" to the Donbas will be matched accordingly.
Attaboy, you fecking morons.
This part will have to come down as one of the most braindead moves in the history of warfare.
Award them Darwin medals
Everytime you say to yourself "they can't possibly be that dumb, can they"...
By the way this is going, if they have to launch a tactical, they will probably dial in Moscow coordinates somehow.
By the way this is going, if they have to launch a tactical, they will probably dial in Moscow coordinates somehow.
Probably just trigger the explosion while loading the bomb on a plane or whatever...
Let alone whether Russia can take Ukraine I’m starting to question if they can hold Russia at this rate! Who is running this operation 
Today's episode of Doomsday Watch touched upon this. Basically it's extremely difficult to encircle someone on that much land with a slow moving army.
Saw that earlier. I mean... I just cannot fathom how Russia, with the amount of archived knowledge they have on this catastrophe, can be this negligent. Every day sure brings a new low to the pit of dumbness with that army and government.
I can somewhat understand if all the soldiers are young conscripted kids who haven’t been taught about Chernobyl
True. And whilst they try to this - if they do - they have to worry about being attacked from the rear, because they do not control the areas that would be westward of them.
This makes all the more true the challenges the Russia army has with no NCO level in its ranks.
Yep, no command structure
"do not dig radioactive soil" seems like a pretty obvious message from central command. I wouldn't dismiss that their dosimeters might be limited to 3.6 Roentgen/hour as well.
Not great, but not terrible?
Perhaps the Chernobyl workers should have sent these soldiers to sleep inside the sarcophagus because it is warmer there.
Also let them take home a few souvenirs, like some awesome graphite rocks which are very valuable.
Also let them take home a few souvenirs, like some awesome graphite rocks which are very valuable.
I feel for the Russian soldiers in all honesty. The majority of whom are poor, young and have very little knowledge of whats going on. They're sent out to Ukraine badly equipped with clearly no idea whats going on and watching their mates die. There will always be a percentage of bad eggs in a group that size, but the majority don't deserve to die in this way. They're just as much the victims than the Ukrainians themselves.
fecking Putin.
fecking Putin.
I feel for the Russian soldiers in all honesty. The majority of whom are poor, young and have very little knowledge of whats going on. They're sent out to Ukraine badly equipped with clearly no idea whats going on and watching their mates die. There will always be a percentage of bad eggs in a group that size, but the majority don't deserve to die in this way. They're just as much the victims than the Ukrainians themselves.
fecking Putin.
Completely agree.
Ironically, whilst fascism, with its simplistic slogans, always draws most of its support from the poor and ill-educated who more easily swallow fascist lies, its always the young of such people who are sent off to die in the fake "glory and patriotism" of the wars waged by the likes of Putin.
I don't want to perpetually side-track this thread, so last message on this from me. But on the bolded: no, not really.
The war in Bosnia started on the 3rd or 6 of April 1992 depending on which event you take as as the starting point. It ended with the Dayton Peace Agreement signed on the 14th of December 1995. So basically the war lasted 3 years and 8 months.
Operation Deny Flight began on the 14th of April 1993 so only 12 months into the war. 14 months into the war began the Operation Sharp Guard, which was the naval blockade of the Adriatic to prevent weapons reaching the combatants. So basically NATO was actively involved for more than 2/3s of the duration of the war.
And arguably, NATO intervention was the reason it ended. When NATO decided they had enough and started actively bombing Serbian Bosnian targets in August 1995, at the rate of ~30 air strikes a day, the Serbs realised the game was up and it became a case of when not if they would sue for peace. So even if that was towards the end of the conflict, the role was not small as you originally claimed because it was literally what ended the war by means of overwhelming force. The war in Yemen is in its 8th year precisely because no one with the capability of overwhelming force (NATO or US) in interested in ending it. The conflict in Bosnia could and would have lasted a lot longer had NATO not got involved, that's pretty much certain.
I feel for the Russian soldiers in all honesty. The majority of whom are poor, young and have very little knowledge of whats going on. They're sent out to Ukraine badly equipped with clearly no idea whats going on and watching their mates die. There will always be a percentage of bad eggs in a group that size, but the majority don't deserve to die in this way. They're just as much the victims than the Ukrainians themselves.
fecking Putin.
Why are the Russian soldiers "as much the victims"? They are not, they are criminals. These are the same people who support Putin. And if there is no Putin any more, they will find another autocrat like him. If they had any brains they'd never vote for a KGB agent. The Russian population created Putin, they supported him while they knew that he killed and jailed all the opposition. They got the strongman they always wanted. They are not "victims" in my opinion, they are the enablers, they are as much responsible as Putin for all these deaths and destruction in Ukraine.
I feel for the Russian soldiers in all honesty. The majority of whom are poor, young and have very little knowledge of whats going on. They're sent out to Ukraine badly equipped with clearly no idea whats going on and watching their mates die. There will always be a percentage of bad eggs in a group that size, but the majority don't deserve to die in this way. They're just as much the victims than the Ukrainians themselves.
fecking Putin.
They are not as much the victims, because they happen to also be the perpetrators y'know. But yes they are also victims.
I do have a lot of empathy towards them. All of Russians to be honest. But that nation badly needs to start steering away from ultra-nationalism, authoritarianism and militarism and start embracing democracy and openness. The wounds are largely self-infliceted.
They are paying with their lives. Best way I can describe it is like when you feel sympathy for an addict who's destructive behaviour is harming themselves as well as everyone around them. It's still sad to watch. And it's sad to watch Russian society give in and embrace ultra-nationalism and authoritarianism.
I saw an ukranian soldier talking a few days ago and he said he had killed about 10 russian soldiers who were just kids, no older than his own daughter. He sounded a little heartbroken about it.
I guess it's like the Iraqi people being fools for voting for Saddam Hussian and being enablers.
No clue man. Just posting the report of what the mayor of a Ukrainian city said.
Where? Do you mean in Colorado? I hope the Russians will not bomb us, too!
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/100-year-old-veteran-attacked-in-longmont-dies