What to do in the unfortunate event of an attack from Russia

Sounds

A few thoughts on the war in Europe, the situation in Ukraine and threats to our nation from Russian propagandist media.

When you walk into a store (for your coffee and breakfast roll) and see the front page of Irish news papers "Russia threatens Ireland with nukes" you should take those threats very seriously, I says to someone at the cash desk, have you seen the front page of the fff .....! they're like nah what happened?? I pay for me roll and say "have a read when you get a minute", might have freaked them out unintentionally, it definitely struck a cord with me.

Everyone knows Russian media are only good for two things, feeding their citizens with lies and spreading propaganda, but the Russian people are not stupid, this is the 21st century and everyone has WiFi. proxies and vpn's, the war in Ukraine is televised live to the World, the truth is there in front of your eyes, if you choose to see it. Anyone that trys to tell you any different, they're not worth the time of day. The sooner the good people of Russia get on the right side of history, the sooner these excuses for humans can be prosecuted at ICC, justice will be served and both neighboring countries can restore some form of peace.

Looking at advice on what to do in the event of a nuke, it seems ridiculous. Stay indoors until the radiation passes, don't lock yourself in your vehicle, like a concrete wall will protect you from radiation, who knows, we never had to deal with the aftermath of a nuke before. Not saying it will happen, they have no reason to nuke us, but Europe has a dictator that's more evil than hitler, trying to normalize what they are doing to the Ukrainian people, exactly as the nazi's did. These people are responsible for serious war crimes no doubt, murdering thousands of innocent people, and child abductions in Ukraine. If this was any other criminal on Earth, they'd be hunted down, locked up or executed for their crimes. This war is coming to Russia's front door, the people responsible for these crimes will face justice, one way or another, they can't go back and fix the evil acts they've committed in Ukraine, and the whole World knows it.

There hasn't been war like this in Europe since WWII, this war is far more advanced, considering the technology and artillery available today. You have to get on with your life, but saying that, the Ukrainian people can't get on with their lives, because of what Russia has done to them and their country.

Congrats to Finland on becoming the 31st member of NATO alliance, one for all and all for one, at the end of the day it makes sense, nations are stronger when they're united, from terrorists, regimes and evil dictators, if you attack one you attack them all, what support would we have, we're not in an alliance. I don't even want to elaborate on that one, but just my opinion on the current situation.

How can one man cause so much devastation and slaughter of thousands of innocent Ukrainian citizens and get away with it in the 21st century, they can't, until they face justice for their crimes, we have someone responsible for mass murder in Europe, walking around freely.

God bless Ukraine in their struggle for peace against their own neighbors 💛💙

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058291075/what-to-do-in-the-unfortunate-event-of-an-attack-from-russia

You say "When you walk into a store (for your coffee and breakfast roll) and see the front page of Irish news papers "Russia threatens Ireland with nukes"", I think the main threat from Russia at this point in time is

(a) Hacking.

Quote "Russian hackers linked to the cyberattack that brought the HSE to its knees have been sanctioned by the UK Government. A Russian Contigang targeted the health service, the Department of Health and TUSLA in May 2021."

A Russian Contigang targeted the health service, the Department of Health and TUSLA in May 2021. The attack saw hospital systems across the country shut down, with many hospitals having to revert to paper-based notes.

The Russians have form in that.

(b) Cutting / disruption of the undersea cables off our west coast. There are currently 16 cables running under the Atlantic off our west coast, connecting the USA with Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe.

What were 2 Russian cable investigation ships doing doubling back and loitering near our west coast only a few days ago?

Wouldn't Putin love to see communications seriously disrupted when we do not have a ship at sea and the US President here supping Guinness?

(c) Revenge attack against the UK for sending challenger tanks to Ukraine and training 10,000 Ukrainian troops recently? I remember in the 1980's Mrs T. allowed Reagan to launch an air strike against Libya from UK soil. Ghadaffi used this (and the claimed death of a son of his in the raid I think ) to help the PIRA years later by sending shipments of semtex / arms to the IRA. Would Putin / Russia attempt to help dissidents in the same way to get back at the British, as he could see it? Stranger things have happened, unfortunately.

 I think any of those 3 scenarios are more likely than the possible nuclear strike by Russia you mention, if for the only reason Putin know if he sends nukes then NATO will very quickly too.

the_amazing_raisin

When looking at Russian threats of nuclear attacks it's worth keeping in mind their own doctrine about the use of nuclear weapons

That doctrine permits the use of nuclear attacks in the event of a significant threat to the Russian federation or it's interests

There was an argument that Russia annexing the 4 regions of Ukraine last year would allow them to make retaliatory nuclear strikes against Ukraine. Clearly that hasn't been the case, the Russian government is not willing to use nuclear weapons over the regions of Ukraine that it has claimed

There's also a concept known as the nuclear taboo. It basically means that nuclear weapons are so regarded as a weapon of mass destruction that they effectively cannot be used except as an absolute last resort. Their main utility then is that they aren't used

Essentially countries don't go around nuking each other because that's not an okay thing to do. If the nuclear taboo didn't exist then it would follow that every country in the world would have to have nukes because they face the real possibility of them being used in anger against them

This clearly isn't the case, and if any country were to violate the nuclear taboo (say Russia nuking Kyiv) then the enormous threat to world security would make it necessary for other countries to restore the nuclear taboo. In our aforementioned case, this would either mean the nuclear bombardment of Russia, or a conventional invasion of Russia in an effort to destroy their nuclear arsenal

The Russian government knows about this and for now (and likely in the future) they know that the risks of using any nuclear weapons outweigh the benefits

You also need to be careful with headlines about Russia deploying nuclear capable systems, or increasing their force readiness or announcing some new wonder weapons

What happened in reality is that Russia deployed ballistic missile systems to Belarus (Iskander I think) which is capable of launching nuclear warheads. Funnily enough, pretty much most ground attack weapons the Russians have can fire a nuclear warhead, doesn't mean they're loaded up with nukes ready to go

One final thing worth remembering is that the Russian conventional military is much less of a perceived threat than a few years ago. In 2021 the Russian army was considered a peer on NATO, in 2023 they're pulling 60 year old tanks out of storage and pressing them into service

In that context, the Russian nuclear forces have to pull extra duty on the deterrence front

I think @Francis McM hit the nail on the head in that the biggest threat is more of their hybrid warfare. Russia's best bet at the moment is to try and freeze the war and get Western support of Ukraine to disappear.

Remember, Putin has been in charge of Russia for over 20 years, and isn't showing any signs of retiring. He's quite happy to play the long war and outlast his Western colleagues

In terms of how best to prepare, look at ways to insulate yourself against high energy prices, download copies of your critical data so it's available in case of an internet disruption and generally get good at verifying any news you read from multiple and we'll respected sources

Sounds

I remember that Libya episode, I was fairly young when Maggie T. was alive. I knew more about UK politics growing up than Irish, probably because we watched UK TV channels. Russia is the most untrusted nation on the planet right now and capable of anything. The only country that has been classes as a terrorist nation, by international government leaders, you can't get worse than that, it doesn't happen for no reason. International criminal charges brought against a nation's leader in 2023, that's insane, you'd have to be insane to have charges like that brought against you. Weather they take it serious or not, they're responsible for the crimes they committed in Ukraine, they know it and the rest of the World knows it. It must be so embarrassing for decent Russia people living in Ireland, the shame their nation's leader has brought their country.

I kind of hope putin gets a similar death to gadaffi, but I'm not that horrible, the chances of him appearing at ICC are slim, but it's not impossible, he's going to pay for his crimes one way or another, lets hope the good people of Russia find a way to remove this lunatic from power and bring peace to their neighboring country.

Luckily they haven't gone after our communications or caused any irreversible damage, they couldn't disconnect us unless they tried to wipe us out, nations across Europe are more united now than ever before, even if we're not all in NATO, I think most of us all stand for the same values. Obviously the people that caused this war have no respect for another nation's democracy or values.

Jizique

Mick Wallace, Clare Daly and Richard Boyd Barrett will be telling to relax and enjoy the attention of our new masters

Sounds

Very interesting, thank you.