Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

@timmyntc I can't quote you because I blocked you before, but if you want to voluntarily accept and use Russia's own terms of art + excuses for what they do, then okey-dokey but don't expect others to.

Indeed. Russia/Donbas will do whatever they want with POWs pretty much. They have fully lost in the court of international public opinion, so it really doesn't matter, their only issue is the domestic audience, but they have that sewn up pretty well with propaganda

I would agree that it is unenforceable and their captors are free to execute the prisoners tomorrow morning if they wish. It would play very badly in the court of international opinion though - formally executing prisoners of war by firing squad would be seen as a huge 'no no', especially when their only crime appears to be that they took up arms against Russia.

The quickest way to end the war and begin reconstruction, is for the West to desist supplying Ukraine. Their army and government would either collapse quickly: the government likely replaced via a military coup favourable to Russia; or the government would get serious about reaching a peace deal with Russia, in which Russia would dictate terms and likely take Odessa and leave a rump of Ukraine. I'm sure there would be additional terms that Zelensky wouldn't accept.

For Russia, at this point every citizen there is under no illusions and understands that this isn't a war with 'Ukraine', rather it's with the US and NATO. That gives Putin bandwidth as he could call for a general mobilisation and command industries to contribute directly to the war effort. Spinmeisters within the Kremlin probably have all the papers ready.

It strikes me as bizarre to believe that there is any 'winning' here for Ukraine. Russia are not going to just give up their gains. Ukraine will not have the manpower to force them to, and all the 'high-tech weaponry' from the west, is only going to make Russia take more territory, create escalation and at best, compel Russia toward general mobilisation.

From Russia's POV, they can't or won't be able to tolerate a Ukraine that is an enemy of Russia. It's either going to be a russian proxy state, or be totally dissolved and rolled into the Russian Federation, but I think the former is more likely as Ukraine is just too big a land area and there will be an insurgency that could drag on - though Poland may provide some utility in that respect.

Ukrainian Nationalism, or ultra nationalism would, from the Russian POV, have to be quashed or put in it's place in some way. The EU with it's open policy for Ukrainian refugees provides a release valve here - it provides a space physically and ideologically, for Ukrainian nationalism.

It's ugly, but this is what failed states look like and Ukraine is a failed state.

All the fake justifications cited on this thread as the reason for the war...

Putin comes out with this:

"During the war with Sweden, Peter the Great didn't conquer anything, he took back what had always belonged to us, even though all of Europe recognised it as Sweden's. It seems now it's our turn to get our lands back."

So, spare us any more lies about denazification, or protecting ethnic russians, or concerns about NATO or bases near the border.

This is what it comes down to. Putin sees Ukraine as Russian to do with as they please.

From my Ukrainian colleague (Kyiv):

That's the reality. Real stories from real people.

The Putin bots, trolls and provocateurs will be all banned for denial of genocide.

Czechia and the Baltic States now have a law which would land the trolls on the thread up to several years of jail. They're misusing the lenient approach taken in Ireland...

How long do you actually believe the government of Ukraine would last if the EU wasn't absorbing all the refugees and the US wasn't bankrolling them?

Was Britain a failed state in WW2 because it fought on against fascism with lend lease support from US or sent refugees to Canada? Nope. Neither is Ukraine.

And the premise of Ukraine as a failed state is an obvious Russian propaganda cue. It was invaded by Russia to ruin it. Trying to spin the narrative as Ukraine being a failed state, as it fights off an invasion is the kind of Orwellian abuse of language we've come to expect from Russia.

A failed state would have collapsed in days or weeks, it wouldn't still be fighting on against the illegal invasion by a fascist gangster state that needs to be stopped in Ukraine.

They aren't mercenaries. As individuals they signed up the Ukranian armed forces as a regular soldier. They are members of the official military of Ukraine and therefore are not mercenaries.

An actual group of mercenaries is the Wagner group. Perhaps you have heard of them?

This is the legal definition of a mercenary which trumps any dictionary definition.

A mercenary is any person who:

1. Is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
2. Does, in fact, take a direct part in hostilities;
3. Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
4. Is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;
5. Is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and
6. Has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/node/3383/international-standards

Opened the door to Russia?

It's amazing the linguistic and historic deceptions you have to resort to to somehow make Russia passive in this when it is an aggressive fascist gangster state that started the conflict with Ukraine by illegally sending its military into eastern Ukraine to start a civil war.

Was going to post this. Thanks for posting.

More here:

It's crazy, isn't it? 21st century Europe (supposedly - not! 🤮).

The Donbass will be like the NI Troubles or Beirut with bells on. The legions of Putin fanboys thinking their favoured regime invading Ukraine somehow "solves" the question of who controls Donbass are quite deluded. There is going to be a bad vibe there for decades to come, no matter what the outcome.

They have 1 month to appeal. Also I doubt DPR will execute this sentence, they're just bluffing and threatening. Demonstration performance. If they'd wanted to kill them actually, they could stage a murder during the usual fighting, and would keep silence... As befits hypocrites.

The Moroccan is so young... :(

The land in and around Kherson oblast is all sparsely populated farmland, much easier for gains on either side compared to dense and relatively hilly donbass.

Theres a reason the Russians took Kherson in 1 week, there is almost nothing but farms and small villages on the way there. Same thing is true on the far bank of the dnieper, beyond Kherson city its largely flat farmland and the occasional river. The only easily defendable positions are the cities themselves, if the Ukrainians hadnt fled Kherson the Russians might not have taken it at all given how exposed their positions outside it would have been.