Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I did not expect Ukranian resistance and fight back to be so successful. I've heard of a counter offensive in places.

It's genuinely encouraging, but under no illusion that Putin had a lot more forced and weaponry to call upon.

Russia are only starting the Big War...after Ukraine is finally Bulldozed with a couple of hundred thousand dead Ukrainians - it will be Poland or Finland next up.

At what stage will the world say enough??...or do we just keep looking on ?

There are senior people in the U.S. that are trying to think outside the box to find ways to implement a no-fly zone.

In some ways implementing it will hinder the Ukrainian defenders because they are setup to take down short range aircraft and helicopters. They also have the use of the skies currently and have been very effective with drone strikes. A no-fly zone means that anything that goes up will be shot down irrespective of what side it's from. Introducing a no-fly zone means that the Russians can fall back to firing cruise missiles from within Russia or Belarus and the Ukrainians are not equipped to counter such weapons.

If they find some way to get a no-fly zone approved by the U.N. then I think it shouldn't be enforced by Europeans. There's too much at risk, it's virtually guaranteed that Russia would use it as an opportunity to engineer an incident. It could be something as simple as drawing an aircraft into Russian or Belarus airspace in an engagement - imagine the field day that Putin would have with that for his next televised address.

The job of enforcement could be delegated to the Chinese air force supported by U.S. AWACS - they are both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and are the best equipped non-European air forces. If this unlikely scenario came to be it would totally mess with the perceived dynamic between China and Russia. If China were to refuse the opportunity then the next best alternative would be Israel.

Two things to note. A huge number of protestors came out to protest the Iraq war. Berceuse the war was sold on a lie (a believable lie given that Saddam had used WMDs) the initial invasion and for a few weeks later, was reluctantly supported by many because of the perceived threat. Hence why you didn't see the same reaction. Also we were not living in a social media age. Social media puts massive pressure on corporations and entities to 'act'.

These are not the same conditions as with Russia and Ukraine.

If I'm a Russian soldier and I've been told Ukrainians will greet me with flowers, and I see this. I'm turning around and walking home. I'd need to walk because I'd be out of fuel, obviously.

I've gone from a far right,neo Nazis, transphobic , woman hater , warmonger,CIA agent , Blue shirt to a sheep ...

Deadly I've come full circle

The Ukrainian people seem to be saying fairly unanimously that they do not want the Russians there. To be honest, the Russians should have guessed this when the pro-Russian leadership was booted out of power. Even the ones who were more pro-Russian have to be looking at the constant bombardment of Ukrainian cities and going, 'Eh, actually...'.

in fairness no surprise , the only thing those scumbags are good at is digging mass graves (and sadly filling them) .

I know its CNN. But Admiral William McRaven view on how the war will go. Good listen.

At this stage Vlad should climb into his bed and not come out for a week ...

The Ukrainians are giving a world class performance in delivering uplifting stories on social media.

You were wondering out loud why people were not displaying an emblem of support for Iraq ie. a dictator who brutalised and murdered his own people.

Looks like reports that Russia is sending it's strategic bombers TU22M to hit Odessa and other Ukrainian targets tonight ,

It would be massive if the Ukrainians can take several of these down

Just turned sky news on there to see doctors trying to save a toddler who dies there and then (filmed yesterday in Mariupol I think). Its hard to think logically and not want to see Putin taken on with the full force of the west. Tragic needless loss of innocent lives.