Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Put it this way - Russia have already shown a willingness to go to war over the paranoid pretext of something a country might do, i.e. to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. On that form, they wouldn't need Poland to allow Ukraine to base aircraft there in order to have reason to declare war with Poland - they'd have already done so on the basis of Poland, and other countries, supplying Ukraine with weapons.

My thoughts are that it will take direct intervention by an EU/NATO country for Russia to declare war, there. The last thing Russia would be wanting to do at the moment is open up a second front considering the meal they're making of the present one.

Besides, Belarus are offering support to Russia, allowing their country to be used as a base for the invasion of Ukraine, but I don't think they're necessarily at war with Ukraine. At the very least, I have seen no involvement from Lukashenko other than his offering to host peace talks in Minsk.

so Putin is basically doing as he pleases while the EU and NATO stand by and watch. I think everyone understands the severity of the outcome should anyone intervene however do we just standby and let him do what he wants, where will he stop? Serious question but could he not just be killed? I don’t think any of his party would continue on this war without him.

He could be killed, but I think he's budgeted for the idea that he's an assassination target and probably takes every precaution it is possible to take.

If there were any credible hint of involvement by the West in his assassination, that could escalate rather than de-escalate.

@MeepMeep2021 wrote:

I suppose makes a difference from white people looking at wars in Africa and thinking: this is just some crazy African sh1t.

It's a tough one. Obviously it's wrong, it shouldn't be happening. There are reports that black refugees are being sent to the back of queues at the border and told that "Ukrainians" have priority - even if that person is Ukrainian.

Ukraine and Poland are still largely homogenous populations like Ireland before 2000, and we know that with that comes a lot of ignorance and assumption.

But how do you deal with those issues in the middle of a war? An EU order to Poland to treat all refugees equally? Great. That'll be really helpful when it gets passed in 6 months' time.

I would hope that Polish & EU leaders are hearing these reports and putting pressure on the military to sort it out, but to a certain extent it feels like a distraction during an emergency.

Like you say though, there is the potential for an easy win here; get some North African nations on board in condemning Putin, perhaps even getting involved in sanctions, and you've got a level of unity that the world hasn't seen in centuries.

I live beside one of the main border crossings from Ukraine into Poland.

I have interacted with both Indian and Africans.

Language is most notably a major problem.

At the moment any males in respective of nationality and are of able-bodied are not given top priority they are given food clothing ect but can wait till frail ingered sick woman children old are looked after.

At least see with my own eyes they have all been treated with respect and dignity.

Red Cross are trying to help them directly now.

As problem aroused with some males trying to force there way onto shuttle buses transporting woman and children to designated areas of support.

I believe all Indian students persons have be evacuated as private buses from England and persons dealt with them.

I actually saw that. He did try briefly but eventually just let him ramble on and then the link was dropped. When someone wants to make an idiot of themselves you just leave them to it!

No surprise that people tend to feel more for their own tribes. This is human nature. The guy is basically saying that he's emotional seeing his own kind getting butchered. The Arabs are just the same in Arab media when they talk about M.E conflicts. They even differentiate which kind of Arab i.e shia/Sunni.

And like it or not, there is more shock at this happening in Europe. We're used to the M.E countries fighting it out.

There's a level of heightened anxiety and panic in chaos of trying to get out of Ukraine. Women and children first is the de facto policy in such a sea of people and even at that there can be delays of up to 30 hours getting across. That kind of scenario must be unbelievably stressful and it is perfectly natural to think that other people are being favoured regardless of what tribe you are in.

It's up to Putin to challenge it as such, which he really won't but it will feed his paranoia even more.

Good idea about the Google Reviews (if it's not blocked in Russia) but maybe people should be using Google translate to put them into Russian before posting? Not sure how the review algorithm works but assume it displays reviews in Russian to people in Russia first (like here the english ones are displayed first vs. other languages)?

Worrying to see/hear about this convoy. Agree with the consensus that Putin has gone too far now to back out. Really horrific, heart goes out to all the brave Ukrainians and their families.