Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The only explanation is that the guy has been playing medieval total war for a week straight

Any authoritarian country only has one strategy when it comes to this stuff. Stick to the story. If they say they are fighting nazi's, then they stick to it. If Israel says no, it doesn't matter. Just stick to the story. If you question the story, you must be a nazi. If you say you're not a nazi, then you're a nazi. Russian people may doubt it, but they can't express their doubts, because then they'd be "nazis".

Editing to add: BTW, all of here are either Nazis or brainwashed by Nazis. That's just the way it works. Think Hitler saying that people were under the influence of a jewish plot.

This is the worrying thing.

How many of us truly believe that he would "gracefully" accept defeat? Or declare war and throw millions of inexperienced conscripts to their doom?

My worry is that frustration will get the better of him, and to get a solution of some kind of victory of sorts - to show the Russian public - then he may turn to either chemical weapons or a tactical nuke or two to bring about a rapid conclusion to the resistance in Eastern Ukraine.

Just a single nuke could possibly start a chain reaction that would catapult the whole world into catastrophe.

He needs to be taken out, and quick. There should be crack mercenaries after his head on a silver platter, and special forces assassination squads on the job.

The longer Putin is alive the greater the feeling that this whole scenario is gradually building up into a very sinister finale.

This war isn't ending anytime soon, but I think we all knew that.

The logic is extremely simple -- Putin wakes up in the morning and decides to live another day. If he declares the war as lost, he is dead. If he admits that his plan was pure baloney, he is dead. On the other hand, if a few hundred more Russian soldiers die, but he himself is still alive, that is a good day for Putin. And if any number of Ukrainians die or raped or maimed, that is no skin off his nose.

Putin is just a sad little old man who needs to be put out of his misery as soon as possible.

The scariest bit of speculation about Putin that I've heard is that his inner circle has gradually dwindled down to only a few people, and they're all either as paranoid as he is or even more so. In this circle, he's actually the moderate voice. If this is true, it would necessitate a few heads rolling in order to ensure that someone even madder than Putin does not get the reins of power in Russia.

But Putin and his "inner circle", however small it is, seem to have absolute power and control. There appears to be no-one in a position to override his reckless decision making. He has used his 20 years in power to make himself omnipotent.

I hear what you're saying but the bottom line is that's a chance you take when a new head of state takes control. As you say, they could be madder. But that's worth chancing because one thing we do know for certain is that Putin IS power crazy, mad, and very, very dangerous. I think it would take some doing for anyone to actually be worse than him.

If I remember correctly, 200 is code for dead, and 300 is code for wounded.

No, only the Russians steal things, The UKr only take things on a permanent loan. There is a subtle difference

IMHO, Ukr should definitely NOT accept an agreement with RU , no matter who ‘oversees it’ and also agree that ALL sanctions be lifted. Why ? Because RU CANNOT be trusted and could start off again immediately while holding UKr to account . Or come up with a concoction of a reason where UKR broke the agreement. I would insist that all sanctions are left in place for at least five years until the conditions attached to the agreement are bedded down and are then al, lifted on a phased basis over the second 5 years SUBJECT To rU behaviour

Don't really agree with either side of this but we do live in an open and free democracy which doesn't randomly ban things.

IMHO, Ukr should definitely NOT accept an agreement with RU , no matter who ‘oversees it’ and also agree that ALL sanctions be lifted. Why ? Because RU CANNOT be trusted and could start off again immediately while holding UKr to account . Or come up with a concoction of a reason where UKR broke the agreement. I would insist that all sanctions are left in place for at least five years until the conditions attached to the agreement are bedded down and are then al, lifted on a phased basis over the second 5 years SUBJECT To rU behaviour

Absolutely the sanctions cannot be turned off immediately. It has to be gradual inline with the Russians removing their ability to threaten other nations around them. They're nuclear weapons need to be decommissioned.

The Russians will also have to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine and for compensation of the victims of their criminal endeavour.

Whatever the outcome Russia's relationship with the West will take a long long time to repair. Their relationship with Ukraine will never be the same.

We're talking about Ireland, not elsewhere, and we generally tend to be tolerant of people organising and marching up and down. Most of the time we ignore such protests anyway. There are people outside the Dail most days protesting about something or other.

I think the "correct" way to handle this is to have a counter-protest organised which celebrates Ukrainian resistance against Russian aggression. It's a good opportunity to highlight the freedoms these Russophiles enjoy in a western style democracy whilst showing them their views are not really welcome here.

I think any Russian person living in Ireland who is openly and unrepentantly supportive of what their mother country is doing in Ukraine, should be made to feel as shunned and isolated and unwelcome as possible as it is legally allowable to do so by any right-thinking Irish person, but unless support of said actions in Ukraine is made a hate crime, I don't see how it's a basis for revoking visas at this time. If it could be proved that they're actively working to undermine the Irish state in some way, then absolutely boot them all the way back to Moscow, but if they're just someone with an opinion we find abhorrent, it's a more difficult case.

Decent people would be self aware enough not to hold "rallies" this year.

It's the fúcking bare minimum really.

Tells you what you need to know about the organisers though.