Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The west is already heavily involved in the conflict by providing arms.

I think we have gone past the point he mentioned the other day about anyone interfering will see consequences never seen in history. But maybe he's all bark and no bite when it comes to going up against NATO.

Looking at these Chechen soldiers, they all look to me like Barry from 'Four Lions' just with an assortment of beard colours.

Hmmm

Patriot missiles possibly on their way...

People in the central city of Dnipro wait to enlist...

Above source: BBC News website

Apparently there are massive queues of people in cities all over the Ukraine waiting to enlist. Whole families, mothers, grandmothers, even young teenagers. It brings a lump to your throat when you see folk - just like your own family - willing to lay down their lives in defence of their country.

Putin is well aware that his actions, and his actions alone, will be directly responsible for the needless deaths of many thousands of everyday ordinary folk, not to mention the suffering of the hundreds of thousands/millions displaced. A whole generation of people scarred for life by this despots cranky vision and butchery.

If Aladdin's Lamp were real, and I were fortunate enough to have a go and summon the genie, then my wish would not be for fame or fortune for myself, it would simply be to be magically transported to within two feet of Putin's back - with a dagger in my hand.

This is the thing. People are surprised by the equipment the Russians are using here. If you spend any time on the internet, you're bound to have come across some videos of the latest Russian super weapons. Su-57 being a great example. A fantastically capable machine, but there's less than a handful of them. Maybe two that are combat capable. And they probably don't want to use these either. There's some superb engineering, but a large part of what brought down the USSR was money for these weapons. They simply couldn't afford to keep up with military jones of the US. And again a lot of their capability even back then was completely fabricated.

China is the worry though. They've the money and are building like there's no tomorrow. Their ship yards will ensure they've a larger blue water fleet that the Americans fairly soon. And whatever the Chinese eventually decide to do with it, you cannot remove them for the global economy. It's simply impossible to replace their position in the global supply chain, and I'm not talking about iPhone production here.

The news of such a strong Ukrainian stand against the Russians is very heartening, even if it does transpire that they're ultimately doomed. Firstly because it's always good to see people fighting for the righteous cause. Secondly because the longer they hold their ground the more difficult it becomes for those in the west to ignore it.

It's a given that there are many figures in the political, business and sporting world whose ideal scenario was for Ukraine to be quickly crushed. They'd spend an hour giving platitudes about how dreadful that it's come to this, give a condemnation of "both sides" and a comment about refugees. Then they'd move straight on to "It's time we normalise relations with Russia again, this adversarial attitude gets us nowhere, time to reset the clock, diplomacy always works, if we do business with them they'll become a friendly happy nation, keep politics out of sport etc." Effectively the same bullsh*t that meant all the warnings about Russia were dismissed, so that they could continue making money.

It's also why it's important that, vacuous and facile as some gestures may seem, talk of standing with Ukraine can play its part. The clearer it is where the vast majority of people's sympathies lie and that it is anathema to be supporting Russia in this, the tougher it will be for these same figures to openly advocate abandoning the Ukrainians to their fate and get the money flowing again to and from Russia under the guise of "moving on".

Here we go. Hopefully will be as lacklustre as the previous few days.

From covid to this ffs