Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Rawr · 28-11-2023 10:22am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426215#Comment_121426215

I suspect the Russians might have banked on the Dnipro river to do much of the heavy lifting of defending this area and left a token force while the bulk of thier troops were sent to defend Tokmak and engang whatever Donestsk battle Putin is obsessed with on that given day.

My guess is that blowing the dam was also part of trying to prevent an AFU landing, without using any decent troops in the attempt. If I'm right, the Russians are being quite foolish in not focusing on this Ukrianian foothold. If the AFU can establish a permanent crossing that can support tanks & APCs, then a whole new front will open up here, which can threaten Crimea. Even worse for them once Ukraine start operating F16s too.

Brief_Lives · 28-11-2023 10:50am

So, a question, how corrupt is Ukraine..?

I definitely want Russia to shag off.

(Also iam a big fan of this thread)

pixelburp · 28-11-2023 11:34am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427372#Comment_121427372

It was/is corrupt, but has been making clear & public reforms: EU accession and NATO membership ain't gonna happen without severe economic and institutional fixes or reforms to any existing problems. The country has been grappling with post-Soviet corruption since independence no more than any other country of that ilk (culminating in a Russia crony President fleeing the country when finally ousted), and perhaps if there's one weird "benefit" of the war, is that it has allowed Zelensky to really clean house in Kyiv.

They're certainly less corrupt than Russia, and we can track their improvements with the broad-strikes Corruption Perception Index: I'd not be surprised if for 2023 we'll see Ukraine creep up while Russia slides further down.

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022

zv2 · 28-11-2023 11:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426475#Comment_121426475

Sounds like the wave of propaganda to destabilize Ukraine that we have been warned was coming in recent weeks.

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 11:57am

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1729420388768120996

I don’t understand why the Finns had the border open in first place, if I were a citizen of any country bordering Russia i be lobbying my representatives to ensure anything that moves over border from Russian direction is shot at first and questions asked second

zv2 · 28-11-2023 11:58am

Budanov's wife poisoned

https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1729431932939722777

rogber · 28-11-2023 12:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427637#Comment_121427637

There are still some very malicious actors within Ukrainian top circles clearly

28-11-2023 12:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427782#Comment_121427782

Apparently a number of people were poisoned at the same meal but only she took ill initially because the others were of bigger build. Presumably men in that case, she may not have been the target. The others are now receiving treatment.

Could be Putin or could just as likely be an internal dispute within Ukraine. There's been a large amount of dismissals recently.

rogber · 28-11-2023 12:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427860#Comment_121427860

Who knows. I wish her a speedy recovery though she's probably no angel. Scary how these things happen even though I'm sure security around the inner circle is very tight

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 12:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427782#Comment_121427782

Ah yes of course it’s Ukrainians and not the Russian regime next door with a long history of poisoning people

/s

Sleepy · 28-11-2023 12:52pm

As if Budanov needed more motivation... he's not a man whose wife I'd like to offend, never mind fail to murder.

Fighting Tao · 28-11-2023 12:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427876#Comment_121427876

What makes you think she’s not an angel? Is that what Russian propaganda is telling you? Or will you admit that like I, you know nothing about her?

ZX7R · 28-11-2023 1:05pm

Air raid sirens going at the moment.

Western province of Ukraine on border with Poland.

Haven't heard them in a while.

josip · 28-11-2023 1:30pm

Not surprisingly the Russians don't seem to be issued winter camouflage. Maybe the VVD do get some, but none of the soldiers in this video have. Maybe the Ukrainians don't get winter gear either, but they don't make frontal assaults across open ground like the Russians do. From a drone's height and perspective, it's a turkey shoot.

NSFW and viewer discretion is advised.

https://twitter.com/BlogXam/status/1729402243961569390

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 1:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121428095#Comment_121428095

Good notice how combatants who are getting paid to be there are being methodically eradicated which is what war is about until this sorry lot turn around and go home

On the other hand the resident self confessed Russian higher up the page doesn’t care about his countrymen but instead bizzarely chose to spread scutter about an innocent woman who got poisoned in what is now the traditional Russian criminal way

Paddigol · 28-11-2023 2:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426817#Comment_121426817

Which this thread, and its hoards of experts, is testimony to. It's gas the way one person's narrative is objectionable to another person, not because it's probably from a biased source, but because it's not from the correct biased source.

Be biased away all ye like, on both sides, but stop dressing it up as anything else. 90% plus of people on this thread want the same outcome to this war, banging on about bots and biases is just boring for the rest of us. It's telling that it's always the same posters at it, whereas the few informed and informative posters don't feel the need.

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 3:21pm

Oh no all that death was for nothing they lost the slag heaps today

https://youtu.be/Vkjwa3hNrhM?si=5Kv8i_Lt21o4jSsd

28-11-2023 3:21pm

We have a guy from Latvia who started working where I work in the last four weeks or so. Absolutely fascinating discussing political/historical stuff with him and getting his perspective. He was born in 1985, so he remembers the Russian occupation ending in 1990. Said his mam was involved in the campaign to get them out.

Not surprisingly he despises everything Russian and is utterly baffled why so many in Western Europe, especially on the Left, have a blind spot when it comes to Russian aggression. Also reckons that Latvia getting into NATO was more important than getting into the EU. Again not surprising considering the carry on of Russia.

rogber · 28-11-2023 5:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427888#Comment_121427888

If Russians are moving in top Ukrainian circles so as to poison people then there's something very dodgy going on anyway. One way or another, it's a bad security lapse

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 5:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121429337#Comment_121429337

A security lapse is your chef driving tanks at head of army to depose your ass and in process shooting down a handful of air assets and taking over a city

Poisoning innocent people is a national pastime in Russia with a long history of poisoning opponents including previous Ukranian and Russian political figures and innocent people in UK

zv2 · 28-11-2023 6:11pm

You probably know this already but no harm in repeating it

https://twitter.com/SarahAshtonLV/status/1729134654782136558

Field east · 28-11-2023 6:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427372#Comment_121427372

I do not understand why corruption in UKr is being constantly brought up in this thread. Suffice is to say that corruption/ having to pay bribes was ‘the name of the game / the MAIN business model’ in the USSR when UKr was part of it. I hope that you are not of the opinion that the day UKr became An independant state that an end came to corruption /bribes the following morning.

Corruption is acknowledged as a problem in UKr by the government and it is very actively working on it to get rid of it. It has no option to get rid of it anyway if it wants to join the EU. Corrupt gov officials involved in ‘high positions’ in relation to administering aspects of the war have been relieved of their duties over the last year or two and probably will be brought to court

m2_browning · 28-11-2023 7:02pm

It’s been almost exactly 10 years since whole think kicked off precisely because Ukranian people got sick of Russian corruption

Putin can’t afford yet another example of a successful non corrupt democratic country on his borders in case his own serfs get any ideas

Field east · 28-11-2023 7:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427876#Comment_121427876

‘———— she is probably no angel’. What has that opinion got to do with she being poisoned? Also , what is it based on?

macraignil · 28-11-2023 7:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427860#Comment_121427860

"could just as likely be an internal dispute within Ukraine"

Would have thought myself that such action against Ukraine's security services personnel would have been much more likely to have been taken by the neighbouring country at war with them that has repeatedly poisoned people rather than it being an internal dispute leading to the poisoning. Any particular evidence you would like to share indicating that it is likely to have been an internal dispute motivated poisoning?

28-11-2023 8:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121429730#Comment_121429730

I said it was as likely. Meaning one or the other.

For sure Russia have the motive to do it. Whether Russia has the capability to poison an SBU family member is another question. They'd be under very tight security. The Russian agents/assassins we've seen recently - the Salisbury case etc - have been bumbling.

Equally there are people in Ukraine with the motive. Zelensky has been purging a lot of people for corruption, incompetence or other reasons. And the SBU has been his instrument, doing investigations, arresting people, probably killing people. There is a growing list of people with a grudge against them. A Ukrainian official recently dismissed might have more capability to do a poisoning than a Russian agent, they might have more insiders or knowledge of movements etc.

Without more info that's about all we can say. I wouldn't dismiss either possibility out of hand.

Manic Moran · 28-11-2023 8:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121429492#Comment_121429492

If the US weren't a member of NATO, and of other bi-lateral and multi-lateral defense treaties, that may make sense. Even at that, in the 1950s, the Army's Pentomic structure was premised on the idea that nukes would be used quickly and liberally. Most countries, however, decided that nuking their own territory for defense against hostile action (or in retaliation for nukes on enemy territory) was not a preferred course of action, and preferred that US guarantees of safety be provided by more conventional methods.

Either way, most European nations are not nuclear powers, and don't have that option.