Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

So it's probably going to set a forward base of operation at the front end of the covoy it's just at the limit of there logistic capability from the nearest base in Russia.

It is also close enough that the artillery can hit most of the capital.

Actual Russian company has called for the conflict to end. Probably unrelated : There website is now down

https://www.lukoil.com

Worth considering that AFAIK this is the first internal Russian company to specifically go against the grain of the Russian/Putin Regime

Ive seen a lot of journalists and other foreigners in Russia saying they are rushing to the border as the rumour is Putin will declare martial law.

The Ukrainians are behaving impeccably RE Russian Soldiers which is vital - It would be a blunder to miss treat the Russian Soldiers, and im pleased to see this. We really do have to hope that the word gets out.

The recent (last few minutes) statement from Putin, could be considered a rattled response - We really have to hope that something comes of this. Between this rambling Gobbels-esque statement from Putin, and the fact that oil company, Lukoil, has seemingly begun to condemn the war -

Putin is still talking as i type this - This is not EVEN REMOTELY credible -

Iv linked to the news article citing the actions of Lukoil above - now being covered by several news agencies including RTE, BBC and Sky - its a real story - i cannot find a specific link to what precisely was said - but seemingly

• A call to end the war
• The website is down - i find it unlikely a hacker group (such as annonymous) would take down a website of a company, moments after it has called for an ending to this conflict. I find it more likely it was taken down by the Russian state, in response to the aforementioned Act of defiance against the Putin Regime

I dunno, I think you are dealing with a dictatorship that's going full dictatorship..... knowing it needs to stay in control and this is a fight for their survival too.

I think a law like that if implemented could achieve the main aims of implementing it

1) Trouble makers disappear to the front line never to be heard from again......the best you could hope for imo is being thrust into the fighting with no back up/support and a malfunctioning rifle to be cut to bits....maybe as a strategic distraction...or when you get there they don't even bother giving you that chance, you step out of the transport and they make you dig your own hole.

2) anyone else thinking of protesting/spreading dissent thinks twice.

I think they couldn't care less if you fight well or not or surrender yourself...if implemented that would be about control and survival......but putin will probably come up with a snakier way to achieve it.....people might just not come back from their prison stay for protesting....especially if yhey have any history of posting anything anti putin on social media, membership of unapproved clubs/organisations a journalist etc

It's grim....but the stakes are high for Putins regime and they won't tolerate much in the way of dissent.....its their survival too.

This is good news although very complicated - Moldova has an enclave within its borders - A russian puppet 'Unrecognized State of Transnistria' - remains to be seen how this is greeted but under the current circumstances, this is a promising development - and underlines just HOW BADLY This has backfired

Seemingly Putin wanted // and has gotten

• End To Nato Enlargement // NATO discussions underway in Finland and Sweden
• End to European Union Enlargement //Ukraine applies, and now Moldova
• End to European Union hostility to Russia // EU supplying military aid to Ukraine

I think he fears both TBH - My own view would be that both represent a threat to his rule

• NATO threat is obvious - this man never evolved past the 1980s view in the USSR
• European Union - if the Ukraine joins and prospers he ends up having very little way of explaining how another Slavic nation is thriving, with a free press and democracy - while his stagnates and degenerates
• Other than that, there is clear reason to suggest this man is trying to create a New Russian empire. He has always felt the collapse/dissolution of the USSR was a disaster and a mistake -

I could provide any number of links to justify the above opinion, but in truth, we have all done so repeatedly. This thread is full of links, articles, docus, and interviews outlining this thinking - that said, if links are needed i can and will provide

Even if not enshrined in a defence treaty, I find it impossible to believe that EU powers would not intervene militarily should a fellow EU nation be in Ukraine's position.