Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Did we ever figure out why those Russian submarines were snooping around Ireland? We’re not NATO

They're not 'active participants'. Countries supply each other with weapons all the time (usually by means of arms sales, but there's nothing to say it can't be free).

How do people still not understand that NATO implementing a no fly zone will lead to WW3

Germany is a success story. It shed its shackles and is a fine democracy now. Surely there is hope…

I can't find it now, but days ago, there were images of a far distant naval ship with significant smoke rising from it, that was said to be a Russian naval vessel that had been hit with a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile.

We've no where to put 160,000 we are already struggling with the 10,000 asylum seekers we already have ,and the new plan that suggests asylum Will be housed permanently in own door accommodation (council houses) in 12 weeks from the time they arrive ,

We cannot house another 160,000 families when we already have 130,000 Irish families in dire need for social housing here

But we have to step up to the plate. It would be an absolutely terrible look for the country to announce we are "full" and cannot take refugees fleeing a nearby war zone in Europe and who desperately need our help. I don't think the figures will be as high as 160,000 but it may well be into the tens of thousands.

Germany was always a functioning country to the forefront of technology. Russia has spent centuries under the thumb of ruthless dictators. Culturally they're night and day and there's no chance of them changing any time soon.

Not 160,000 families - People. Obviously they dont know the max number yet, it will depend on the war.

Ukrainians will also be given a work visa automatically as soon as they enter. For clarity, that is a change in policy with respect to refugees.

They were talking about enacting emergency laws in order to providing accommodation for all these people.

Ukrainian farmers now have the world's 7th largest army

Do you think that would be because they are scared of being thrown in prison/ disappeared for 15 years for spreading “false information”?

It’s not as easy as being Russian automatically means being an aggressor against Ukraine! That’s a simplistic view.

The Americans have short memories, they wrote the book on invading sovereign states, overthrowing governments and interfering with elections. I watched a Condoleezza Rice interview yesterday where they were condemning the breaking of international law by invading a sovereign state, Absolute hypocrisy form them. What would the US do if the Russians threatened to join an organisation that allowed them to set up military bases on the Mexican Border? They would invade Mexico before the Russians had a chance, what's the difference?. Remember the Cuban Missile crisis? I have no love for Putin and I wholeheartedly disagree with the invasion and any form of war anywhere but the why is no one talking about the double standards on BBC, RTE or CNN?

A quick glance at this thread and I immediately see posters demanding links/proof regarding things that have been repeated ad nauseam on the mainstream news channels all week.

No one has time to spoon feed people the news.

I'm sure Putin is banking on this fact and the extreme strains it puts on any nation. In the last few years alone Europe has been the vent valve for Iraq, Syria, lybia and now Ukraine. The countries who started the conflicts were in the main unaffected.