Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Podge_irl

Is it better to be passively subsumed into Russia or actively subsumed into Russia?

The Ukrainians have quite clearly made a decision on that matter.

By your logic the major world powers should just play top trumps to take over every other country in the world.

QuestioningStuff

Well, they're probably conscripted soldiers - and of course they're pawns. They're literally the very thing pawns on a chess board are supposed to represent.

By the looks of some of the interactions with locals they haven't a clue what's going on other than following orders.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709891#Comment_118709891

Asking me why Putin didn't do this or that is a nonsense deflection.

Are there neo-nazi militias operating in Ukraine with the explicit support of the government? Yes or no.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709850#Comment_118709850

Exaclty. Carpet bomb the cremlin into the the abyss.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709869#Comment_118709869

There are people out there who will lap up any excuse, any pretext for war. They say they hate war yet find themselves online making excuses for those who launch it. They say they hate fascism yet provide comfort to the greatest fascist threat of the 21st century playing out on our television screens and in the cities of Ukraine. They are empty vessels for propaganda, they appear to think values are a horsetrade.

They are to be pitied.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709906#Comment_118709906

Even if it was fake, it ties in with what we are hearing overall - many of the Russian soldiers had little awareness of what was expected of them and some even thought they were going in as a peacekeeping force. It's a deeply corrupt regime and regards even its own troops as dispensable.

Northernlily

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709906#Comment_118709906

The Ukrainians are on the good side here. The Russians have been gaslighting and manipulating the entire world in the run up to the attack. And frankly, patience and trust is not there with pro Russian posters or those obviously trying to downplay absolutely everything that is happening to get control of the narrative. It's not going to work.

I know what side I'm believing. As we speak that statement is being researched and investigated with a fine tooth combe. He would have had to do his dillegence before putting it out there.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709928#Comment_118709928

I don't disagree.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709918#Comment_118709918

A bit pot-kettle-black here. Weren't you just parroting a lot of jingoistic tripe about how you are glad Ukrainians are fighting (futilely) to the death?

And you have the gall to talk about people out there who "lap up any excuse" for war? I'm sure your praise is a real comfort to those who are losing and will continue to lose family members due to this conflict - but sure at least they didnt negotiate with the Russians eh?

circadian

Here's the thing, people are saying if the Russians attack a NATO state then it's over but I don't think it is. NATO would have no desire or need to launch nukew, they could annihilate their army by conventional means. Russia would be the ones launching nukes as a last ditch attempt and by that point you'd expect the likes of Putin to be removed and negotions started.

Basically once NATO roll in all bets are off and anyone with any desire to keep living will prevent a Russian nuclear strike.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709915#Comment_118709915

You tried to peddle they were in government. This, not coincidentally, has been used as casus belli by the far more dangerous fascist sitting in the Kremlin. It was and is a lie. It's an attempt to get the Russian people to buy into his war of national extinction he had long planned for Ukraine.

A side benefit for Putin is that some absolute low-IQ roasters in the West will repeat it. Sound familiar? You've been hijacked by propaganda. You may have been sold on the lie, but don't try to get me or anyone else to buy it.

gandalf

Joke trending on Russian social media today

"Don't drop your iPhone, because it's going to be your last"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709869#Comment_118709869

I don't support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only a person of very low intellect should think that an attempt to understand the conflict is tantamount to support. Elsewhere I have seen Wibbs referred to as a Russian troll for similar reasons.

The question asked was what Putin was talking about when he refers to ridding Ukraine of neo-nazis. He is talking about groups like the Azov Battalion. He is talking about members of the Ukrainian government - past and present - and Western handlers who supported and armed these groups and set them loose on Donbas.

DontHitTheDitch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709939#Comment_118709939

Would you ever f00k off with this. They fought their previous government for the right to self determination and now you want them to just submit to foreign aggression? I thought imperialism went out in the 19th century but here we are in 2022 with limp wrists saying they should just take a beating if they know what's good for them. Utterly pathetic.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709929#Comment_118709929

Anyone can fake texts on a phone is all I'm saying. I am pro-Ukrainian but dispassionate about it. Ultimately you/others should be careful about becoming a consumer of anything the Ukrainian government puts out. You are a faraway Irish person not a Ukrainian nationalist (I assume?)

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709939#Comment_118709939

I never ever said I was glad, I said that Ukrainians are doing what they deem necessary to preserve their country and democracy from fascism. So put words in someone else's mouth.

You're obviously of the ilk that would crumble in the face of forces that would take fundamental rights from you, or else you're a Putin sneaking regarder. I don't know which it is, nor do I really care.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709954#Comment_118709954

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with one neonazi member of the Ukrainian parliament (not government) and it would take quite a naive fool to think it does.

Miadhc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709954#Comment_118709954

XVII

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709772#Comment_118709772

yes, found that unusual too. He also funded Aidar and some other very questionable battalions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi

the dude is a character apparently, been chased by both Russian and US forces, as well as Ukrainian, while he was a governor... and that's just tip of the iceberg I think, total can of worms if you ask me.

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709954#Comment_118709954

It's a pretty weak point to make when they're shelling cities and civilians to achieve their grand crusade. Is Zelensky a Nazi drug addict? Because I'm pretty certain Putin claimed the Ukrainian leadership was.

Regardless of the neonnazi element in Ukraine, that can be dealt with. It's just a **** excuse like nato expansionism and whatever other weaksauce **** he's come up with the last few weeks to justify invading a country and having his own economy driven into the ground.

There's a neo nazi element on the rise in America, is he going to sort that out too?

Focusing on one, single point in the face of cluster strikes, civilian killings, a string of war crimes and sending young russian men unknowingly into the meat grinder. Are you being obtuse for the sake of it or are you unable to see the bigger picture?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709939#Comment_118709939

It's a large scale resistance against an invading force. That's not actually jingoism which relates primarily to foreign policy. Eg one wouldn't refer to resistance during WW2 as jingoistic, it might be futile but they're very much so the victims of a jingoistic force. It's pretty clear you have an agenda based on your posts in this thread.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jingoism

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709858#Comment_118709858

It's funny watching the world fall for it, yes.

Special mention for the broken glass on the phone screen, so that we know it was definitely involved in a fight.

road_high

i wasn’t even born when Ronald Reagan referred to Russia as an “empire of evil”-fcuk me, he wasn’t wrong really was he?

Also can totally see now where he was coming from with “Star Wars”- these “people” are fundamentalist military despots.

hirondelle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709954#Comment_118709954

I don't claim to know how the Azov Battalion continues to exist as an entity (possibly being used as a willing buffer to Donbass and as a way of containing some people who need watching), but it is telling that their venture into politics as the National Corps- in an alliance with the other rightwing parties in Ukraine garnered precisely zero out of 450 seats in parliament in the 2019 election- 2.15% of the vote. As pointed out elsewhere this is a lower percentage than the National Front gets in France, so hardly indicative of mass support for national socialism in Ukraine.

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118710012#Comment_118710012

It was read out by the Ukrainian representative to the UN, go search it on YouTube if you like, I just watched it. But keep spouting your pro-Putin nonsense - we all see you for exactly what you are.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709877#Comment_118709877

I thought for a while that here you were providing a useful counterpoint to the "nuke the Russians" hysterical sillyness that some posters were coming out with. I guess you fooled me for a while. You are just a Putin apologist.

The genuineness of the text is irrelevant to be honest. It is absolutely plausible that this is the kind of message an 18 year old conscript would send his mother. Even if this isn't true, you can be damn sure that thoughts like these are pretty close to the final thoughts of these, quite frankly, boys.

It's tragic, it's shameful and you should be personally ashamed of your "lol". Absolutely heartless.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709969#Comment_118709969

The purpose of the invasion is to replace the West-installed regime with a Russian-installed regime. He cannot do this (have stability) without defeating/removing militia groups hostile to Russia, which includes a number of neo-nazi groups that have been armed by the West with the knowledge approval of the Ukrainian government.

I will reiterate - to explain events is not the same as to condone them. Only a naive moron would think his neo-nazi claims are entirely without merit. Western publiciations have been writing about the rise of the far right militias in Ukraine for years.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118709915#Comment_118709915

The tense is important. Are there nazis operating in Ukraine with the support of the government today? Yes or no. And it's not a deflection. If Putin is claiming one of the big reasons he invaded the country was to clear it of nazis then why didn't he do it when there were and with the support of the government? The nazi BS is more spin from the Kremlin.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118710027#Comment_118710027

It is a Ukrainian installed regime

Longing

Russian football banned at all levels.