Russia - threadbanned users in OP

zerosquared

So where are all the Tucker Carson fans hiding now, why they quiet about these journalists

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/04/28/7453356/

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070280#Comment_122070280

Not verboten at all. It's been debated plenty on here before. It's just that you sing one tune and have been called out on it countless times, with no comeback other than "they should be forced to fight to the death". Your arguments are less than persuasive - that's discussion for you… people can air their opinions but equally others will call nonsense, nonsense. They'll call disguised xenophobia, xenophobia. They'll call small mindedness, small mindedness. They'll call keyboard warriors, keyboard warriors. It is interesting to see that you're about the only person in agreement with that poster though, everyone else seems to see them as a pro-Russian troll.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076182#Comment_122076182

It's not possible to comment sensibly on this matter. All I'll say is that I mentioned it about 3 times over several months but funnily those like you were quick to shut down that line of thought. Maybe you & others have skin in the game, so to speak.

zerosquared

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076415#Comment_122076415

The subject of conscription of young men in Ukraine (and those now outside) is a tricky one, but here is where Ukraine is different to Russia, in Ukraine the subject and its pros and cons is debated in civil society and free media with politicians being held to account as it’s a democracy

While in Russia you get an email and off ya go to die for dear leader in the mud fields of another country to give up your life so the largest country in world may gain another few square meters with your blood.

This was discussed on this pod

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5meemYNlvDG9hHXUjttDp3?si=DIxfnA3NRSiA2zsMMThaSw

It sounds like Ukraine will extend conscription to all adults ages this year and pressure will be made to get those who left to return

At end of day they are fighting an existential war and these young men have to realise that their parents and extended family back home will meet a very bad ending of Russia wins.

The above pod made a point that military service shouldn’t be viewed as death sentence and we in west can help with more training and equipment, so parents don’t fall for the Russian propaganda which is trying to create rifts in Ukrainian society again

My 2c

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076518#Comment_122076518

I fully agree.

I.am.Putins.raging.bile.duct

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y12WsjuNnbk

The War Of Russia's Elites Has Begun | THE SILOVIKI vs THE ARMY vs THE OLIGARKHS

Russian Minister of Defence Shoigu's right hand man is arrested! This is the declaration of THE WAR OF THE ELITES that will topple Putin

Very insightful video from the perspective of a russian who fled after the invasion of Ukraine. He explains how the arrest of Timur Ivanov once though untouchable is the start of the collapse of the house of cards.

Paddigol

If Ukraine wants to forge closer ties with the EU and NATO, it is perfectly entitled to as a sovereign nation. If that is the will of the people, Russia can go f**k itself.

If Ukraine wants to resist Russian military oppression, it will and we in the West, who share a value of democracy, should support it by providing whatever financial and military equipment support we can.

If the Ukrainian people want to support their government's continued military resistance, they will. If they don't, that is their choice. The great thing about democracy is that it values the individual's human rights. Yes, there is a quid-pro-quo, and if you live in a country and avail of the benefits of doing so, you should comply with its laws. But choosing not to put yourself at risk of death because you believe there is more to life - or for whatever reason you may have not to sign up to fight - that waging war, even if its a war against an oppressor - that's a fundamental, basic human right. We don't get to sit here at our desks and decide who gets a free pass and who doesn't. If some decides that they would prefer to wake up to a new sunrise every morning, even if its one in poverty, living on charity and handouts, that's a basic human right that any democratic nation should support.

If Ukraine decides to withhold consular services from people eligible for conscription who have fled the war, then that is Ukraine's right and I'm not going to criticise that. But it's a whole other ball game for Westerners to demand that people fleeing a war that is being fought for the benefit of the West be deported home and forced to fight.

I'm constantly hearing how important it is for the West that Russia be stopped in its tracks. I don't see a long line of people in the West looking to volunteer to fight for that result.

It's a matter of conscience for everyone, whether they pick up a gun or not. If they choose not to, they will have to deal with that on their conscience themselves. They alone know their reasons. Some, undoubtedly are more noble than others. But equally, those in the West rabidly cheerleading the rounding up and deportation of Ukrainians who have made the difficult decision to uproot themselves and often their family to flee to another country, with no possessions and an uncertain future - they also need to examine their own consciences and ask why they are so invested in this war and what entitles them to make demands of others.

That's the very last I'll say on this issue, because these discussions rarely stay civil and sensible for long.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122077569#Comment_122077569

It's not our war, for the moment anyway. We are taking a hit, every one of us in various ways, but it is necessary to support or it could well become our war. No need for us to sign up to defend Ukraine at present except on a voluntary basis and we should honour anyone who does.

As to the rest of your point, it is a primary duty of citizens to defend their own groups/ states. Thus it has been since the days of our own Gaelic kingdoms when you joined a hosting to battle neighbouring clans. Through to major world wars. If my ancestors thought like you, we'd be speaking German now likely. They didn't sign up in 1914 or 1945 but in 1916 and 1942, when they clearly saw they would need to do their bit at whatever cost. You, I and anyone else in this position would do the same basic duty as a citizen. Love your country and be prepared to suffer for it.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122076181#Comment_122076181

Not to mention Elon Musk and his extremely narrow definition of FREE SPEECH

zerosquared

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122077701#Comment_122077701

Who needs free speech in an innovative country like Russia, have you seen this great Russian invention?

Wow pure Russian genius, Much amaze 😂 why no one else think of it!

10/10 keeps the homeless from stealing trolleys

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122077569#Comment_122077569

The question of whether there is a duty of the individual to fight for the State has been debated by philosophers and ethicists for some time. Suffice it to say that there is no set answer to the question, so let's say we'll go with 'individual right to choose' for the sake of it. Not that most people are thrilled about getting shot at in the first place, mind, I haven't met many who are, but 'not wanting to fight' is a slightly different question to 'duty to fight'.

There is far more to the question, though, than picking up a rifle and going to the front. Even the US makes such accommodations: I had a medic refused to carry a rifle (Part of his job is the protection of wounded). We found him a spot in a base hospital, and I got a different medic. And of course there are cases like Desmond Doss. There are a slew of things which Ukraine needs to get done in order to survive the war other than just fight or even go near the front lines, from stringing power lines knocked down by Russian strikes to water delivery to civilians in areas with outages. Whether the Ukrainian government is taking such factors into consideration, I'm not sure, but even working in a western Ukrainian farm would be helpful. And the country's not yet at a point that regular work has ceased: My civilian employer still has a large development studio for video games operating in Kyiv: The economy still needs to function in addition to the war being fought. Indeed, the economy needs to function for the war to be fought: The Ukrainians say that they have more theoretical domestic capacity to build weapons than they are using simply because they haven't the government revenue from taxes to spend on it. Refugees living in other countries are not contributing to that economic base.

There is also the note that whilst there can certainly be debate in third countries about ejecting those who are avoiding the fighting and sending them back to Ukraine, and I think most people would say that is not a course of action to go with, it's also worth noting that there was no requirement to accept them in the first place, and that was a choice which could have been made differently. I'm not sure if any nations set up any basic screening. "Are you a family with children?" "Is your home within 100km of the front line or in occupied territory? If you're a military aged male, are you the only child of the family?" That sort of thing. If a nation is hosting refugees from, say, Lviv right now, the question should be "why?" Or did all the nations just fill up their refugee quotas on a first come-first served basis?

Unlike the case of, say, Canada providing refuge for Americans avoiding the Vietnam War draft, there are very direct consequences to the outcome of the fight in Ukraine for European nations hosting refugees, and ultimately a nation needs to act in its own self-interest. The West is spending billions of dollars and Euro keeping Ukraine in the fight: Obviously it is perceived as being in European, American and a large part of Pacific Oceanic interests to have Ukraine exist as an independent country, or at least prevent Russia from being a successfully expansionist country either for its own sake or as an example for other nations. Why are we doing this at the same time as we are enabling the denial from the Ukrainians of one of the most critical resources that they have in order to achieve this: Their own personnel? The sooner that the Russians are defeated, the sooner the global economy can get back to normal, the sooner all the refugees currently being hosted can go home, and the sooner we can get back to spending money on things we want domestically instead, right?

There is no long line of people in the West lining up for various different reasons, but there is also a reason why Macron openly observed that having Western troops in Ukraine should not be ruled out. If the Ukrainians are not capable of doing so, then we'll have to do it. Honestly, there's a bit of real-politik involved. We had no problems going to help Kuwait, but Iraq didn't have strategic nuclear missiles. So, the overall safest course of action for the world as a whole is that Ukraine manages it with only its own manpower. By denying Ukraine that manpower, we are increasing the risk to our own nations both in terms of the human capital we are going to expend if they fail, the dollars/euros we are going to expend doing it, and possible larger risk of greater destruction over more places than we otherwise might have had to do.

jmreire

Another opinion on Russian so called successes …..

https://twitter.com/ian_matveev/status/1784632412623798513

jmreire

Russians looking ahead to the future….

https://twitter.com/i/status/1784943849451725090

nigeldaniel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122072042#Comment_122072042

I tend to be suspicious of any Russia related news/pr lately. So many naff story's coming from a verity of outlets that can turn out to be fabricated yahoo. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be some lousy PR gig of some kind. Those Ruskkies mahhh

jmreire

And now, we come to the hard facts and figures….how many Ukrainians do we need to kill?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1656917992041508866

JimmyChew

I've asked myself a few times down through the years "Would I die for Ireland" or along those lines questioning my commitment to my country and in all honesty and particularly since I became a father I'm not sure I would. At least as i sit in my comfortable office, in my well paid job with food on my table and kids in school. perhaps I would feel differently if my neighbourhood was within missile strike range. I haven't been challenged in this way and I'm very grateful for that. I hope i or my children realistically never have to make these choices. My grandfather and his brothers are probably turning in their graves but we're from a different generation, we live in the "developed west" generations before afforded me this life and I intend to enjoy it and fully intend to pass things over to the next generation in better order with a better standard of living (without having to die for Ireland). It's at the fore front of my mind as i work for my family. Give them benefits & experiences I didn't have.

I or my children are not rotting away or getting blown to pieces in some mudhole because the leaders of nations believe the solution is war! Would I high tail it and seek refuge in some other country and start all over again, I would think its likely.

We should but didn't learn the lessons of the past, WWII anyone? The writing was on the wall with Putin and it was ignored. Terrorist organisations were & are allowed to build within vacuums created by government greed and mismanagement. International courts are idle while despot leaders are allowed gather momentum and build hate and when it all boils over men women and children are packed off to war to fight the battles which are none of their doing?

The war and peace cycle should have been interrupted in the last 70 years and we as a race should have evolved but we didn't. Were back to WWI tactics but now with lasers and drones instead of cannon balls and horses.

And I'm not down for dying in no mud hole because the leadership of the world cant evolve. That's my perspective as I sit in my comfortable office while my kids are happy & healthy. I cant speak for others who are within missile range. Would i still feel the same if we were the target? Can't say for sure but I hope to never find myself there…

housetypeb

The enemy is anyone who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122078535#Comment_122078535

Up to you what you believe (or not) Dan, but I believe it happened and it is a regular occurrence. I remember funerals in Chechnya only too well from the time I was there.

zv2

Not like WW2 for sure-

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1784860717159477315

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122078558#Comment_122078558

Wars are pretty inevitable, sadly. There are a couple of reasons for this which I can think of - one is that war is a product of when a particular country's power level or ambition isn't matched by the existing power structures in the world. The other is that people, or maybe I should say societies, seem to have a primal need to fight. As horrible and bleak and brutal as war is, and no matter how much individuals seem to recognise that fact, it seems to remain that groups of people still have that deep-set tribal 'us vs. them' thing going on and get swept up in a desire to test their mettle in pursuit in some kind of ideal.

It isn't so much that we don't learn the lessons of the past, but that they recede from memory as more base human tendencies come to the fore.

People talk about wars being concocted by power hungry old men for personal gain, but I think that's a little bit simplistic, although I believe there's also a strand of truth in that in the sense that they're guilty of beating the drum, but people in general are guilty of picking up the weapons to wage the wars, and if they didn't do that, the old men at the top could do nothing about it, so I think it's a case of one hand washing the other.

Lastly, it seems that peace is a reliable precursor of war because some grievances build up which are never addressed due to fears of open conflict being renewed. Some nations grow complacent and others sense an opportunity and use the fear of war to agitate with little blowback until their actions can no longer be tolerated.

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122078998#Comment_122078998

The trouble in this case with Putin is here you had an individual gratifying past wars constantly and politely people would call him a history buff. Modern western politicians in dealing with him would say he was living 100 years ago in the past and had no modern values that don't involve calling for 100's of thousands to die at his whim.

jmreire

For all folks who are caught up in Russia's endless reserves of manpower and weaponry, here is a copy paste of an article on current housing problems in Russia:-

Quote:- Russia doesn't have 4 trillion rubles to repair dilapidated housing in the country but has no problem spending billions of dollars on destroying homes in Ukraine.
News from Mordor:
“The volume of dilapidated housing in apartment buildings is increasing every year. By 2030, Russia will have 40 million square meters of uninhabitable housing. This statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.
According to Khusnullin to repair this housing will cost 4 trillion rubles, and now there is no money for it.
"We don't have 4 trillion, so, colleagues, we need to take a very serious look at the ways to approach this," he said.
According to Khusnullin, in order to solve the problem, it is necessary to find a balance between the repair and the sources of its financing. The politician added that more investors should be attracted to this investing in this area. Unquote .

This is just one of the problems facing Russia, housing. Now include all the other problems that years of under investment are showing up ..bridges and dams collapsing, city heating infrastructure not working, hospitals and schools falling apart because even if the cash was there, the skilled manpower is not…
No matter what Putin's propaganda make about victories in Ukraine, he is not victorious on the home front, quite the opposite in fact.

highpitcheric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122079180#Comment_122079180

Genghis Cant.

zerosquared

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122079492#Comment_122079492

Genghis can’t took over a good chunk of the known world (and successfully invaded and destroyed Russia) using horses

Putin is three years into his three days war bogged down in mud twenty miles outside their border after losing a good chunk of the enormous Soviet era equipment pile

So yeh good name 😄

Meanwhile word of the day is “income mobilisation” aka we took your son and now we take your money too now via more and higher taxes and runaway inflation

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/29/2024/putin-eyes-first-tax-hike-in-a-decade-to-fund-war?utm_campaign=semaforreddit

rogber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122078998#Comment_122078998

War is inevitable because of men and their stupid need to assert dominance. Some are old, some are young, but almost always men are the problem. Get rid of men and put women in charge and yes (before someone mentions Thatcher or that awful Russian propagandist off the TV) there'll still be some war and violence but a hell of a lot less. So it's not inevitable, but we need total overhaul of power structures to change the situation.

Sadly it's unlikely to happen

zv2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122079491#Comment_122079491

If Ukraine destroys the oil refineries the non existent tradesmen will not be able to even reach the house that is falling apart.

zerosquared

Another one caught

https://www.dw.com/en/german-army-captain-admits-spying-for-russia/a-68946494

scottser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122080125#Comment_122080125

Arguably, Ukraine should be aiming for Russia's weapons and munitions factories. Taking a couple of those out would put a serious dent in Putin's war effort.

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122080220#Comment_122080220

they are everywhere

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122080125#Comment_122080125

Believe me when I say that "falling apart" in Russia, unlike Ireland, it literally means "falling apart" as in the brickwork turning into dust..All this frenetic bombing and attacking that Putin is now engaged in is to me anyway, signs of sheer desperation. He absolutely needs some kind of "win" in time for the 9th May Great Victory Celebrations, and of course for Ukraine to bring down the Kerch bridge anytime would be a propaganda boon of unimaginable value to them, but to bring it down on the 9th,,,would be shattering for Putin.