Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I’ve honestly noticed this myself. Any site that allows comments is riddled with pro russian rubbish. I wondered if that is the general view of ordinary Europeans/Irish and came to the conclusion it’s not, as anyone I know, both here and abroad has nothing but disdain for the kremlin.

I just don’t believe it’s purely about imperial expansion. This has been very costly for Russia, I’m not sure if taking eastern Ukraine would be worth it for them.

Generally with wars, I’d follow the money trail, I just can’t see how it’s beneficial for Russia.

I think it is possible to have Ukraine as a member of nato but with no nukes. After all, Russia has nukes and is right beside Ukraine. So a non nuclear Ukraine seems fair to me, provided people are willing to be growed up and responsible. No more dictators for Russia. They need a senate.

UK lost almost every plane it sent up during the battle of Britain but they had far less losses in pilots than the Germans because they floated down over England or the English channel. Brits got their men back but the Germans didn't. The very same thing is playing out in Ukraine. When those soviet tanks are hit they all die inside 99% of the time no survivors. all these new tankers sent in are rushed through like all the others hence the column that was massacred a few days ago.

Even if by some miracle they could conjure 1000 t-90s would the hell could use them efficiently in 6 months

Ah will you ever just go hang yourself ya pathetic slave

Vladimir Putin has described Crimea as Russia’s “center of spiritual unity.” In reality, it has been home to more than 100 nationalities, and was brutally “Russified” by Joseph Stalin in the 1940s.

One of those nationalities, the Crimean Tatars, have called the peninsula home for many centuries. They remained there even after Catherine the Great’s victory over Ottoman forces in 1783.

But in 1944, Joseph Stalin formally ordered the deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar community (roughly 200,000 in number), falsely accusing them of collaborating with the Nazis. Stalin’s government forcibly loaded most onto freight cars bound for Central Asia, where they were to be resettled. Reports suggest that nearly half of the deported died during the ordeal. Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Canada have all formally recognized Stalin’s brutal deportation as a crime of genocide or cultural genocide.

During this same period, the Soviet Union adopted a policy of “Russification” for the peninsula. Crimea was “Russified”: Any study of the Tatar’s native language was banned, ancient Tatar names were erased, Tatar books were burned, and their mosques were destroyed.

The next chapter in the saga occurred in the 1950s when Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine, ostensibly for administrative reasons. Tatar families were formally permitted to return to Crimea in 1967, and a few hundred families did over the following decade. They began moving back in larger numbers during the 1980s and 90s. In fact, by 1991, more than 150,000 Tatars had returned. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea was suddenly a part of a new, separate country, to which several prominent Russian politicians vehemently objected.

Tatar fortunes took yet another dark turn when Russian forces moved to occupy Crimea in 2014. The occupiers immediately began a campaign of persecution against the Tatar community, “outlawing” the Crimean Tatar representative body (the Mejlis) and shutting down a Tatar television channel. The State Department subsequently has cited numerous human rights violations against the Tatar population, including torture, disappearances, and psychiatric abuse. Moreover, since the Russian occupation in 2014, about 10% of Tatars have fled to mainland Ukraine. Many of them have settled in Kherson—another Ukrainian city currently under threat by Russian forces.

Given the legacy of brutal treatment of Crimean Tatars and other nationalities by the Kremlin, President Putin’s reference to Crimea as Russia’s “spiritual holy land,” serves as a chilling reminder of what President Zelenskyy is up against.

fairly sure the factories and lend lease couldn't catch up with the losses

It's a cesspit of lies. As is Stormfront. Accessing them likely gets them revenue. Why do you want to access them? Both are firm backers of politicians and ideologies that would destroy your life in Ireland, given the chance.

I agree, Putin definitely underestimated both the Ukrainian an the Wests response to the invasion. Putin seems happy enough for Belarus to remain a puppet state and had probably planned for the same in Ukraine. He must be awfully misinformed, even if Russia did take Kyiv, Russia would have partisan warfare on their hands for decades, to me it just doesn't seem like a logical move.

You can do that with Google....

There's currently not much more capacity to pipe gas into China, and China is an economy I can see shrinking in the medium term. Losing the EU has been terrible for Russia.