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.
No idea what is going on now
If he uses nukes in Ukraine I think the US will respond, maybe not nuclear but there will be a response and it will have to be something that hurts the Russians. North Korea and China are watching very closely what is happening and if they see that the US do not respond to the use of tactical nukes they will interpret that as a major weakness.
What kind of feint could the speech be? Is he going completely crazy without announcement, or is he getting taken down?
I think you would be disappointed with the US response.
Look what is expected and how the reaction to that would be and then assess the situation based on that.
The world's gotten used to that
US isn't the only ones with Nukes, Russians can't even drive a convoy 30 kilometres.
I don't even think Russian Amy generals would trust a rocket firing from Russia to actually make it out of Russia
Never mind it having a war head in the rocket, they've probably all be sold by some soldiers for potato's.
Its about time someone stuck up to these bullies. Not that long ago they did the same to Georgia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War
I don't even think Russian Amy generals would trust a rocket firing from Russia to actually make it out of Russia
Never mind it having a war head in the rocket, they've probably all be sold by some soldiers for potato's.
Its about time someone stuck up to these bullies. Not that long ago they did the same to Georgia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War
Just let me know if swan lake is on the tv @harms
Yeah, but this just diminishes his own importance.
If Putin wants a way out, he just has to stick a Makarov to his bloated head and do us all a favor.
If we want the most optimistic view, no one has ever even tested their current delivery systems paired with the warheads. Meaning the US has never fired a Trident II loaded with a nuclear warhead, never done it with a Minuteman III, etc. Same goes for the Russians and everyone else really. The very few live fire tests conducted were in the 1960s, with platforms and warhead models no longer in use. Maybe none of it works for anyone!
How in the feck can one man make hundreds and thousands go to war for him.
Is there any chance of a massive collective feck you to Putler?
Is there any chance of a massive collective feck you to Putler?
There is a very nice essay on this topic at the end of War and Peace.
Who is, in your delightful phrase, shitting their pants? Military support has been steadily increasing, not decreasing, and that is pretty widely supported throughout the EU and Nato.
This! Most sensible post in about 500 pages.
The 'out' has always been there. Withdraw troops from Ukraine. His choice not to take it.
I stopped worrying about nukes in March/April. They haven't got the balls to press the button.
Neither would I, but it looks like it's happening. At least partially.
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." - Hermann Goering
That is not an option for him unless he can do it under the pretence of some sort of victory. This is an existential crisis for Putin.
Your last sentence is hubris.
Saying he has the balls to press the nuclear button is hubris to me. He would have done so ages ago when Kyiv was lost.
He can withdraw his troops and claim some sort of victory with the destruction of $400 billion of Ukraine's property. Then the rest of us can laugh while the poor Russian public laps up his macho man propaganda.
I think Putin's best bet is to consolidate his territories in the Donbas and continue whatever was going on in the last 8 years. Just drag it on longer and turn the conflict somewhat cold. Make the Western media forget about it. That 8-year Donbas conflict wasn't exactly front page news once the Crimea annexation coverage fizzled out.
But the flipside of the above scenario is that the sanctions won't be lifted. So he'll have to oversee years of Russian economic and military decline.
But the flipside of the above scenario is that the sanctions won't be lifted. So he'll have to oversee years of Russian economic and military decline.
What out is there to offer though? Ukraine isn't going to give up any territory.
What victory would you propose letting him have? Do you feel confident we won't be dealing with the same situation in a few years?
No he couldn't have done it then because they were fighting under the guise of a military maneuver rather than a war. If he does state publicly that Russia are now at war then that does make the use of nuclear and chemical weapons more likely.
I have no idea. Probably let them have the Donbas region and keep Crimea. God knows though.
We are still fighting under a guise of a military maneuver. If he has the balls to announce full mobilisation, then we'll see. But if he does, Russia's economy and politics will break faster than he can order a nuclear strike.
He's still struggling to find the balls for full mobilisation it seems. Partial mobilisation at best, I think.
It is not our problem to find an excuse for him to get out of this war. That's his problem. He has his own scriptwriters to help him save face.
I'm sure the Ukrainians will forget about the war crimes or the huge amount of gas and oil.
A single total petroleum system encompassing the entire sedimentary succession is identified in the Dnieper-Donets basin. Discovered reserves of the system are 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 59 trillion cubic feet of gas
Which is only 3% of Russias reserves apparently.
I fear you have quite a narrow and short sighted view of this.
I fear that you don't seem to understand that giving him an out or more territory, as we did in 2014, did not stop the war.
It's not that we don't want to give him an out. We already tried that. It didn't work.
Ukraine wouldn't accept that and so the West obviously shouldn't be telling them to.
Ukraine are never getting Crimea back, but they're looking quite likely to just go re-take Donbas on their own eventually. No way they're ever giving it up, and no way we should be telling them to.
There's no such bargain on the table. The Ukrainians want their stolen land back and will continue to fight until Russians are evicted from their territory.
Chechens protesting right now against sending more of their own to war:
The West can't give him anything Russia are fighting and losing a war to Ukraine and the Ukranians don't seem to be in the mood for peace talks any time soon and who could blame them.
If Putin comes out of this with anything he can spin as a victory especially gained territory it will only encourage him to do it again in a few years. The response in 2014 was to appease him and let him and Russia get away with stealing part of Ukraine. That emboldened him to launch this invasion. I hope this war ends with current/future Russian dictators getting the message that they can't bully their neighbours and steal territory when it suits them.
The west could also stop supplying weapons to them. They have more leverage over Ukraine than you think. Not saying this would happen but I perhaps have much less trust in the western leadership and their motives than some.
Its too late for that imo. By invading Ukraine and subsequently having the Ukrainians gain the upper hand, they are almost certainly going to reclaim all of Donetsk and Luhansk and if the Russian regime is sufficiently weakened, they will retake Crimea (especially if armed with US calibre weapons).