I don't think (and hope) that anyone has lost sight of that, Kaito. There's any number of amazing stories of the human spirit coming out of this awful scenario. But people are always going to speculate on things in this day and age. Particularly on a message board, because people want information.
For those interested this is the city my GF's family are 30km away from: Its been under siege since the start of the war and they have heard on and off shelling and sirens. But other than blowing up a couple of schools and killing children, the Russians don't seem to have made much progress as far as they can tell. The Ukrainian army has blown the bridge between them and the city.
It was a genuine question. Because your post was in regards to what was happening in the conflict itself I assumed you were comparing the UK's military aid rather than humanitarian. As far as I'm aware the UK has supplied large amounts of military equipment, medical equipment and monetary sanctions. Maybe not as much as the EU but as a single nation I think we have done our bit in that regard and I don't think we have been slow to act either. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-sending-more-weapons-to-ukraine/ The Prime Minister said: (before the invasion started) “In light of the increasingly threatening behaviour from Russia, and in line with our previous support, the UK will shortly be providing a further package of military support to Ukraine. This will include lethal aid in the form of defensive weapons and non-lethal aid.” The UK has already sent anti-tank weapons to the Ukrainian military to help counter Russian forces. Last month, the bulk of Britain’s C-17 transport aircraft fleet was involved in carrying thousands of NLAW anti-armour systems from Britain to Ukraine. With regards to humanitarian issues, you are probably correct but I don't know what other countries in the EU are doing themselves. Countries closer to Ukraine would surely be the first destinations as a place of safety? As long as they are being cared for and we are allowing families to join each other in the UK then what is the problem? As I said it was a genuine question, I don't have every bit of information.
I think some of the stuff on here by some of the usual political point scoring suspects is nothing short of a ****ing disgrace, made me sick to my stomach. Posting **** memes about Meerkats plus poking fun at other stuff to get little digs at the Tories - he should hang his head in shame at the least. ****ing rat, not a badger.
Nobody is questioning this is a tragic humanitarian crisis and a very, very serious situation for Ukraine and quite possibly the rest of Europe. Everyone is aware of this. But this is a forum for discussion and you can't tell people what they can talk about. There have been some very interesting comments from people who have different views on this crisis and they are worth hearing (especially Ian's, nothing wrong with an opposing view imo). Some people have made comments they do know something about, or at least know someone who does (LTL) and are speaking from an informed position. When a country's head of state orders preparations for nuclear weapons, I think we should be able to have a chat about it, don't you?
Interesting that Lebedev, the Russian owner of the Evening Standard, has used today's front page to print an open letter to Putin telling him to stop.
I may have mis-heard, or misunderstood, this, but I'm fairly sure that it was reported on the BBC that Switzerland will also apply financial sanctions to Russian oligarchs. If true, this will effectively freeze any money, and/or other assets (gold?) held by Russians in Swiss banks. I've never known Switzerland to take sides in any previous conflict, so (If true, I'm still not sure) this is a definite ratcheting up of financial sanctions against Russia. (Edit) I have probably got hold of entirely false information here: Having heard the latest financial news, the reporters were discussing the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system, not the Swiss banking system. Serves me right for not checking first!
The EU is sending a combined €500 million worth of military aid. €100m of that is from Germany, which represents almost double their entire defence budget. The EU has prevented Russia Today broadcasting in any of the member states. The UK? Oh, Nadine Dorries has asked OFCOM to review the RT licence. I’m not trying to knock our own efforts, but it’s hard to argue that Britain is taking a leading role, as our government keeps telling us.
She is an easy target but the Russians will say anything that puts the blame on the west. They use everything they can to try to convince their people and the wider world they are reacting to provocation. The starting point for me is that the Russians are proven liars and nothing they say can be believed. This is not derived from patriotism but from real events such as their denial of using Novachok where they were basically laughing at us after using a military grade nerve agent on British soil. Then the "we will not invade Ukraine" bullshit and "reacting to Nato threatening their safety". This episode of events has shown that you can't live with Russia in an uneasy relationship as I naively thought we could but that they are a real enemy who should be ostracised from the rest of the world. But that's me being naive again.
And let’s not forget that the invasion started with a claim that they were sending “peacekeeping” forces into the newly declared independent regions. Within something like a day they were marching on Kiev
Speaking of old Joe. People should really read up about Holodomor if they want to understand the depth of feeling of Ukrainians against Soviet Russia... 7-10 MILLION dead.
