Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Hear hear!

I agree with you with respect to Ireland providing weapons. With the UK there is no reason why they cannot do both the humanitarian part and the military part. Sending weapons is a small cost to them and obviously it is greatly valued by Ukraine. Taking care of people fleeing the war means actually inconveniencing the local population though, more demand for housing, longer waiting lists for hospital or GP, more crowded classrooms. Sending the weapons will only cost each citizen a few pound.

That's probably only the count of officers ! ... once upon a time casualties for officers v enlisted were reported separately.

Thought his comments on Ireland were odd to say the least. Don't know if it was a mistranslation, or he is confused and thinks we're still connected to the UK someway and have a larger arsenal than we actually do. The Are Corp had a flyover celebrating the centenary and there was less than 20 aircraft, no of which can fire a weapon. We have limited supply of anything Ukraine might need. Whereas France,UK Italy etc have much larger military resources. I'd bet they haven't scratched the surface of what they could supply. Maybe he should aim his vexation there.

We should be quite proud of what we have done as a state and a people and I hope his comments don't damage that goodwill.

Yes, but all were the result of dictators or those wishing to emulate. Ghadaffi, Milosevic, Saddam, Al Asad. None of those blokes should have ever had the opportunity to hold public office.

Yet you chose to make the comparison.

I acknowledge the 10,000 in Ireland and stand corrected. I responded to your stating that they were expected.

I've always made the distinction between government and people.

Actually, I hope EU (even people here on the boards) will realise what authoritarianism means and how a big threat it is. Most Eastern Europeans are very well aware of it and always were.

The far Right extremist parties from different countries were starting having meetings lately (in December and in January) hoping for a new world order after Russian invasion (and they probably assumed - a win). Luckily it has gone in a completely different way.

How lucky we are, that Democrats won last US election and Zelenskyy become a president of Ukraine. We would be in a completly different world now...

So the war is over?

Russia will be isolated from the west for the next few decades for sure, but Ukraine too will be utterly ruined. Their economy was largely based on low-value stuff like agriculture exports (wheat) and minerals, and most of their factories are now bombed to crap.

So many of their women and children have fled which will leave them with an even worse demographic crisis than they had pre-war. And this all gets worse as the war is prolonged and more and more people flee.

As for territory, Russia wont hold on to anything west of Dnieper but Ukraine wont be able to retake much of the land already taken either Melitopol, Mariupol, Berdyansk, half of Kherson will stay under Russian control unless the Russians voluntarily pull out in exchange for some Ukrainian compromises (neutrality/non-NATO etc)

Ultimately we as a country should provide humanitarian support because it is the right and moral thing to do. Not for thanks or gratitude.

I wouldn't expect them to end up with Crimea even after the war but their forces will be faced with a predicament if they somehow manage to cross the Dnieper at Kherson and push back that far. I really hope they somehow push as far as Crimea at least but maybe not into it. They need to get across the river and cut that land bridge to weaken the Russian's negotiating hand. That's why Mariupol holding out as long as it has has really helped the overall effort.

Crimea hasn't seen as much bloodshed and so opinions in that area have been slowly getting the old Ruskie propaganda on 11 since 2014. An officially recognised referendum for that area should be part of the negotiations. I think it might still align with Russia. The eastern regions might be slightly regretting aligning with Russia though but sure let them have a referendum too. If that's their want then Ukraine is better off rid of such areas.

If it's politically unpalatable to give weapons to Ukraine, let's just donate to Britain to cover whatever they're sending over to Ukraine. Alternatively, let's just sell them to some other intermediary and whoopsiedoodles if they just somehow managed to end up on some truck going over the Polish/Ukraine border.

It's not like any of this even matters to Russia. They made that clear when they staged their naval "exercises" off our coast and stuck us on the list of "unfriendly" countries. They're not complete idiots, they know our neutrality is a sham with no legal basis.

Another senior officer dead this time around the hands of his own men 🤣🤣🤣

Russias objectives in Ukraine has officially changed,no more denazification or demilitarization and regime change and liberation of the whole of Ukraine ,now it's only the liberation of the Donbas region