Russia-Ukraine War

I said pretty much I did not say definitely.

Yes, slavs are ethnic group with little difference between various nationalities. There is no homogenous group of certain nationality despite what you want to think as you simply do not take in account history of for how long they all lived together.

People on both sides are being forced to fight. While there are certain people who may want to go to war for the thrill of it or something else everyone who is normal in their head would steer clear from anything like that. Ukrainians in Ireland and all over the world who ran away are prime example of that.

Mercenaries and crazies who enjoy it tend to expire quite fast and the longer the conflicts last the less people are eager to volunteer. Forced conscription and increased emigration follow.

In case you did not notice there were protests by Ukrainians everywhere when they were denied consular services. None of the millions who left is packing his bags to go back to fight for your idealistic worldview.

"Both sides" again.

This is another attempt to put Ukrainians on the "same level" as their invaders by constantly drawing false equivalence.

Ukrainians are defending their country and homes, hundreds of thousands signed up voluntarily to do this.

Russia is invading, their men are doing it solely for the money or conscripted. It's completely different.

Ukrainians don't "enjoy" this invasion, they don't have a choice. Many have been killed, 10's of thousands have lost limbs, it's unsurprising there are difficulties with recruitment. Fighting at the front is absolutely brutal. Despite that (and difficulties) they are still going back, 10's of thousands have returned, I know multiple Ukrainians who have gone back this year to fight.

Note the sneering tone in this post, contradicting the "concerned" tone in the last few. We've seen this BS many times before in it's many forms.

Pat or, would like your opinion on what resources Russia was /is after in that part of Georgia and Moldova it occupies?

"I want peace" isn't a plan. The alternate you are proposing is to un-arm Ukraine, let Ukraine be over-run and let russian genocide occur.

That isn't an acceptable plan to anyone reasonable bar russians huffing down putins fumes (remembering that russia has barely made any progress beyond what they have been fighting in before 2022 anyway in the donbas and luhansk regions.

Most on here would arm Ukraine to the teeth with whatever weaponry they wanted (putin has proven impotent in stopping this), instead we're in a half-way situation where Ukraine is being given enough to defend itself and continuously grind russian conscripts into mincemeat.

From some country's perspective, that is fine, as russia is being de-fanged very cheaply with only Ukrainian lives on the line. russia in just over 2 years has rendered its armed forces inert, destroyed the remaining vestiges of its naval power and hollowed out its population which was already shrinking with unbalanced demographics.

But I'd be in the "Give Ukraine whatever they want and can handle" camp, which includes letting other country's patrol its airspace.

Calling it a civil war is also a very sh*tty thing to say, I doubt you'd be so happy if people proclaimed Slovakia as part of russia (maybe you would given your posting?).

I think you protest a bit much with that "man of peace" schtick.

You are following the war very closely from start and you seem to have always had a preferred outcome. That is a Russian victory of some type, with Putin achieving some or all of his original goals, a view most people in this country would find odious.

It's hardly "peaceful", a lot of people are going to suffer in that future. Far from certain there won't be another, maybe larger, war in Europe after Putin succeeds in Ukraine either. At this stage, way their leadership seems to have gone fullspeed back to a kind of Stalin era of constant aggression and expansion. I would say more wars are highly likely.

I don't believe wanting to see Russia's military fail + get a severe beating (which will unfortunately involve deaths of alot of Russians visiting with the "Slavic brothers" in Ukraine) makes one a warmonger.

I'm against war give Putin what he wants.

That will cure all future wars. I'm convinced of it.

Trouble in Georgia

You nailed it here even though you don't realize it.

As I said, war for the resources.

Both sides showed blatant disregard for wellbeing of their citizens with excuse of "protecting" them.

I do not care how it ends but the sooner it happens the better for everyone.

"both sides…"

Absolute nonsense. And dodging the question.

I got no opinion regarding Moldova. It seems that Romania does have plans to eat most of it as they claim Moldova is not a state but their breakaway province which they want to bring in the fold as soon as they can.

Abchazia is clear cut case as it share sizeable coast of Black sea along with proven untapped reserves of gas and oil. That is precisely the reason why Russia may try to go as far as Odessa region. Maybe that was their plan from the start, who knows. Thing is that while they were initially happy with Donetsk and Luhansk the longer war dragged on the more they added, Zaporozhia and Kherson actually with their respective coastline and access to gas and oil under the sea.

Some posters here argued that why would Russia want more when they are swimming in resources already. Why would McDonalds want a bigger share of the market?

You are perfectly free to air your views.

You are just being called out on what seems to be very blatant attempts to miscast an invasion of another country as a "resource war" or "spat" so that both sides can be blamed.

This is why Clare Daly and Mick Wallace were referenced earlier, they do the same, except they cynically misframe the invasion as being a mutual war between NATO and Russia as part of their badly hidden agenda of systematically blaming Western nations for Putin's decisions. Demanding Ukraine reward it's invader with land, at a table that doesn't exist, to a dictator who does nothing but breaks treaties. Then hand-wringing and shedding crocodile tears about peace in their own fictional version of this "mutual war".

Sound familiar? Sorry to say you are doing the equivalent, then playing the victim card when it's pointed out.

Breakup of countries is quite common and is happening all the time. … Catalonia case in Spain …

So by your logic, it would be perfectly acceptable for France to bomb the bejayzus out of the Iberian peninsula because the Catalonians in Spain identify more strongly with the Catalonians in France than they do with the Castilians, or the Asturians or the Galicians in Spain? And the world should let them get on with it because France has The Bomb?

Of all the out-of-whack reasoning I've read on this thread (and its ancestor) over the last two years, this has got to be the most desperate justification for supporting the Russians.

"I do not care how it ends" sums up your view which is at odds with most people here who would like Ukraine to defend its borders and throw Russia out. The end of Putin and his expansionist ambitions as shown by Russian sources would be desireable too as he doesn't intend to stop in Ukraine. 'Better for everyone' I think not.

You made the claim, the onus is on your to back it up. I'm not here to run off and try and find your answers for you.

One cannot simply "reject" another person repeatedly punching and kicking you.

You have made a completely nonsense statement.

You might as well "reject" breathing (or in your case, from the CT forum, the COVID p(l)andemic…).

Again these elaborate conclusions.

Dunno what prompted you to believe that you know what exactly I want when I said that the sooner it ends the better it will be.

I have no idea how it ends and while it may be hard for you to believe since you are firmly on one side in this conflict I genuinely do not care how it ends. All I want to see is for killing and bombing to stop.

It may end the same way it ended up for Americans in Afghanistan and Russia may pack up and leave. Or it can end up the same way it ended up in Syria where some parts of the country end up being occupied by Turkey and USA and their resources siphoned out as we speak. Or perhaps it will end up in similar fashion like Kosovo conflict, who knows. Only time will tell but I prefer less destruction and lives lost.

I actually thought it was the other way around.

Many in Moldova would like to combine with Romania, gaining access to EU, NATO etc.

80%+ of the country are Romanian ethnically with Romanian as first language.

But Romania see it as being too much risk and hassle, as they would also incorporate a smaller minority group of Russian and Ukrainian speakers (hence making it more vulnerable to Russian aggression/imperialism). Not much to be gained for the Romanians tbf.

I am quite aware of that this is no place for anyone who is not firmly pro Ukrainian. The question I have is how is that make me pro Russian? This idiotic reasoning is not uncommon as everyone who is not pro Israel and dare to call for end of Gaza conflict is immediately branded pro Hamas.

Simple minds require simple solutions and all they offer is inability to accept that someone may not be interested in taking a side.

Saying peace at any cost to Ukraine (and you have said the regions captured by Russia were valuable) and not condeming Russian agression and expansion is plainly pro Russian.

If you witness a bully beating up another person, and describe that as two people fighting…

That is plainly being pro-bully \ expressing a position favourable to the aggressor and doing a dis-service to the truth.

It is not. On the contrary Moldovans were rejecting unification attempts as they value their independence and want to join EU as independent state. Romanian push which started right after Moldova gained independence scared Russian minority and result was short but bloody conflict resulting in stalemate in Transdnistria.

There is a barrage of claims and proclamations which started right after breakup of Soviet union and while it was kept at a bay until recently there is expectation that reunification can be pushed through more easily now with Sandu elected. Btw she holds both countries citizenship and quite few people think that if reunification move forward she may be more capable leader than any Bucharest can offer.

There is whole different world out there if you want to get on subject starting with wiki page cataloguing every call for it and continuing with published scholar papers claiming how there is no difference between the two of them and how cool it would be if they would be together. It is slow process but it is there and gaining momentum. Ukraine conflict just accelerated it more. They even voted Romanian as official language and replaced every mention of Moldovan language in every official document constitution including as Romanian. Go figure.

I said the war should end and sooner it ends the better it will be.

Peace at any cost and not condemning Russian agression is something you added in order to put a label on me exactly in check with "if you are not with us you must be against" reasoning.