Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Id assume he wants a land bridge to his Crimea base. But also to shore up how strong he is at home. Show of strength to his mafia friends who's money is probably big enough to topple him.

He's a murdering scumbag but is also invading a neighbouring country. But hey ho here you are defending that action and claiming a little invasion is grand sure he's not going the hole hog. Isn't America so stupid for thinking its the hole hog he wants haw haw haw America look at how silly they are. Putin has them eating out of his hand haw haw haw.

Or some other shite....

The Crimean land bridge already exists - its called the Kerch Strait Bridge. Opened for rail traffic in December 2019. Next?

As for the "show of strength" motivation for a conflict - if that is the reason, who do you think is more desperate? Putin with near dictatorship control of Russian elections? Or Biden, facing into a mid-term election with disastrous looking projections for the Democrats and Biden personally?

Lets face it. We are really in "Wag the Dog" territory here. A weak US president seeking a foreign conflict to distract from domestic weakness.

The best card for Vlad to play now is to not do anything. Say those pipelines were not blown up by Russia and they don't believe Ukraine did it either. Throw the direction at the Americans and false flags.

There will be a lot of anger around Europe if the gas supplies are hammered and prices skyrocket. Accuse the Americans. Create a rift between Europe and America.

I think you're an Irish nationalist on some other threads. It is weird to see you on a thread where there is a discussion about a possible invasion of a weaker country by its nuclear armed, former Imperial master and you chose to support the imperialists.

one of the many words I'd use to describe it... but it's not about me..

if you're happy to conclude Sky is just propaganda, maybe you should look at the other sides equivalent

Lol 🤣

An invasion of the little avenue behind the best chip shop in Kiev is unlikely.

Next week you'll be saying that they will take the front of the chip shop but not occupy the cooking space.

He still has every reason to think Germany will be there when needed down the line.

Why wouldn't he. Nothing in action has indicated otherwise, cheap words like the above tweet this do not count for much.

Because they've no interest in further damaging EU solidarity post brexit.

If what Biden said last week comes true, that we will see a full scale invasion against Ukraine in the next few days that will include an overwhelming attack on Kyiv the capital, then I'll take back everything I said and I'll be on here ruthlessly condemning Russia. I'm just saying I don't believe either him or Boris Johnson.

Although I do think some sort of agreement will eventually have to be made in regards to the pro Russian territory like Donbas and Crimea, the situation in Crimea and Donbas is far more similar to the Chechen situation than the Irish situation.

By extension you are pretending the US is not an imperialist power?

The reality is Ukraine is a multicultural state. Ethnically Ukrainian in the west and north. Ethnically Russian in the east and south. That is a broad generalisation, covering language and heritage. The ethnic Russians see a connection with Russia in their best interests. The ethnic Ukrainians see a connection with "the West" in their best interests. A responsible Ukrainian leadership would steer a middle course, trying to avoid forcing either group into a hard choice. That is not how things have panned out - in 2014 there was a violent overthrow of a democratically elected Ukrainian government by pro-Western factions. This has forced a hard choice.

The pro-western Ukrainian government has followed this up by various repressive measures against the ethnic Russian minority - outlawing education in Russian, outlawing media in Russian and placing ethnic Russian politicians under arrest for treason. If you want to make a comparison to Irish nationalism, the Ukrainian treatment of their ethnic Russian minority who found themselves in Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union reminds me more of how the Northern Irish government treated Irish Catholics who found themselves on the wrong side of the border after the partition of Ireland.

Let us be serious now. Unless the solution is ethnic cleansing (something I have seen proposed by more rabid supporters of Ukraine) then the solution to the conflict needs to involve Ukrainian recognition of the ethnic Russian minority and their right to be educated in their own language, to enjoy their own media and elect their own political representatives with some autonomy from a hostile Ukrainian government. A Good Friday style agreement would go a long way to resolving the issue.

What are you talking about?

I don't see much evidence for a full scale invasion against Ukraine apart from the troops on the border, which should be noted that there were a similar amount of troops there last year in spring and years before that as well.

There is a realistic possibility they could invade the pro Russian territory of Donbas like they did Crimea but little to no possibility of them trying to take the whole of Ukraine like the US are claiming.

They won't be going alone,to varying degrees Austria, France and the Dutch are there as well.

Germany will undermine these sanctions same as it did after Crimea. The Germans are pragmatic, often to a fault.

I gave you a one line response? You're projecting a relationship that doesn't exist. Stalker much?