Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

What he is attempting to gain, is a buffer.

A good big wide chunk of sovereign Ukraine running from the northern border with Belarus around to the eastern border of current activity. Definitely including the City of Kharkiv and probably Kiev itself.

In time he will seek to make entirely Russian the Black Sea and Azov Sea coasts, linking up the annexed peninsula of Crimea with Mariupol and Odessa and perhaps ultimately the Russian puppet enclave of Transnistria, part of Moldova.

Do all that, and you get both the most strategic cities and ports, as well as reducing any potential direct border with NATO to just the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

I believe the troops in Belarus are there both to deter Ukraine from moving assets eastward, as well as closing any potential NATO corridor if things get too out of hand.

as much as the building of force on Ukrainian borders the Russians maintaining that Ukraine should not be allowed to be in NATO just shows how paranoid and actually pure mad Putin is,

is this WWIII… ? Not yet perhaps but it’s a grim precipice that Russia are staring over…. it looks like we have started down a road where there may not be a peaceful retreat…

Do they not effectively control the Crimea now ?

You think PUtin cares if people believe his justification for war in Ukraine.

he is probably laughing at the pathetic message from Biden.

I know what you said about soft young men may sound like hyperbole to some but tbh I think there is an element of truth to it.....

I'd wonder though if enough of the men in Russia want to get cut to pieces in a bloody war either or how long putin gets to persist before enough of the public in Russia turn on him that a competitor already sharpening the knife sees an opportunity.....

First I doubt that Ukraine / West will just hand over Ukraine. What ever the Russians take now by force they will have to hold with force,, plus while they hold all (or most ) of the military cards at the moment, the Ukraine's forces will only be getting stronger. And at some point in time, they will take back what is theirs, how ever long it takes. Vladimir lifespan is not unlimited, especially as he is pushing the 70's. In 2019, average lifespan for males was 68.24 years, and women was 78.17 years. And while Putin will not be personally affected by sanctions, you can be sure that the Russian people will be, even before the body bags start to arrive home to Russia

Yet so far, he has avoided setting foot in any NATO Country......doing so would make his whole plan unravel. He's not stupid, but conversely, NATO cannot step inside the Ukraine borders. Pity Ukraine had not joined NATO or the EU in the past.

They probably are in danger. Maybe not in any official way but I reckon they could by targeted by vigilante groups.

I'de be pretty worried if I was a Russian in Ukraine or the Baltics right now too. I'de say we will see hooligan style racial attacks

If a formal declaration of war does break out, Ukrainians in Russia will probably be rounded up and placed into internment camps for national security, like the Americans did with those of Japanese descent during WW2. Russia could even use these camps as leverage; yield the south-eastern regions to Russia and 3 millions Ukrainian citizens will be released unharmed.

Their jobs would be lost and their property would be utterly irrelevant, likely seized by the government.

That's before you get to the lower-level stuff as mentioned above, of Ukrainians facing violence and abuse both at work and out on the street.

Quote "And Putin knows many young people living in France Germany and the uk hate their own counties, they hate what they stand for. PC and woke BS have made Europe inc Ireland weak. Putin knows our leaders are weak and our young men very soft and feminine."

And you think that first, all of them are like that, and second, it will make them fall into Putins arms?? I doubt it very much. The so called "woke" brigade is not everyone.