I disagree. In the time it could take for them to withdraw how many more civilians will die? How many more will be trying to escape the country - ironically to be stopped by Ukrainian troops, conscripted and sent back to fight? I don't think it matters where either of the two parties are before talks can begin, what matters is how soon talks can begin.
That's diplomacy under the gun. We all know that Ukraine is hardly a bastion of honesty and fairness but it is a sovereign state and that needs protecting. About 29% are Russian speakers but that is no excuse, more a hangover from Soviet policy... which is what is happening now. putin is not only a bad neighbour, he's a bully.
Call it what you will, but the point is that it is what the sovereign state is asking for. I simply don't see that outsiders have the right to try and stop it - especially when those outsiders are only interested in the countries resources for themselves.
I certainly don't know what the answers are, but rather like the Sudetenland it won't finish there unless it is stopped. I'm not convinced that there is an answer, for all the reasons previously discussed.
"China's President Xi urges Vladimir Putin to get to the negotiating table with Ukraine." Has China seen the action being taken from nations around the world, decided that Russia will be in a mess the longer this goes on, and wishes to make it clear in its own way that Putin is going nowhere? At the UN China did not support Russia?
I think it is a lot more complicated than is being presented to us. Ironically, Boris is probably given the true facts but I doubt if he reads them. In terms of bullies, I think it is the US that are the bullies. Yet again they provoke by proxy, then walk away whistling when there is a reaction. I can’t believe it was Ukraine that broke the Minsk agreements of their own volition - that would be a stupid thing to do. Was it something to do with their application to join NATO? Russia isn’t going to stand for a threat to their border, just as the US didn’t in the Cuban Missile Crisis. I see a lot of parallels with that situation here.
All a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. Ukraine wants to join NATO because it no longer feels safe as a neutral country. It knows it has nothing to fear from the West and putin is demonstrably a threat. Putin is an imperialist. The egg came first, btw, as chickens come from dinosaurs... and the old Soviet Union is the ultimate proverbial dinosaur. As to the US they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. tRump probably gave all the secrets away to putin... the US system is a bit like cricket in that if you don't play fairly, with honesty and integrity then it all falls apart. We know that many members of tRump's original government were in Moscow meeting with various high ranking Moscow officials way before they were elected ( "I don't recollect..." being the stock in trade answer before congressional committee) and we know how they cosied up to Russia, China (for a short while) and, for goodness sake, North Korea among others. tRump sold the Ukraine down the river. We know that tRump is in hock and in cahoots with putin, possibly not entirely willingly, but the ultimate Useful Idiot. President Biden has been left with the task of shutting the barn door after the horses and their hay have been stolen and with the barn rigged to burn down as the door is shut. It's a mess and putin is behind all of it, no mistake. The dots are all there, they just need joining.
Downing Street staff sprayed red wine on walls and were photographed sitting on each other’s laps at the No 10 Christmas party, it has been claimed. As Scotland Yard’s inquiry into the party scandal continues, insiders have revealed fresh details about the gathering on December 18, 2020. One source said drinks events regularly descended into “carnage”, including on that night. With all that is going on elsewhere it is easy to forget that Downing Street is still being investigated, and the person in charge of the country has been interviewed under police caution.
It's all a bit too 'incestuous' for me - Trump's daughter Ivanka was best friends with Wendi Deng - who happened to be the ex-wife of that aged scrotum Rupert Murdoch, who happened to have a close relationship with Donald Trump - at the same time that she was rumoured to be having an affair with Putin. If they were all forced to wear chastity belts I'm sure the world would be a better, safer place.
That probably explains why he had to spend a fortune redecorating the place - well, somebody, not him.
What he needs is one of these - a Henderson tool, preferably a rusty one. please log in to view this image
The French Foreign Legion has decided that it will allow its Ukrainian soldiers to return to Ukraine with their full combat gear. Having spent eight hours on a ferry to Corsica with a detachment of them, I would turn for home if I were a Russian conscript. Smiling seemed to be an unknown reaction to them.
EU announces it has agreed unanimously amongst all member countries to take in Ukrainian refugees for up to 3 years without asking them to first apply for asylum. What a difference between this humanitarian approach and that of the UK. I suspect that the UK will change its stance after the mauling every government minister has received on TV and social media today. Remember Johnson likes to see which way the crowd is moving, then jumps to the front and says follow me.
Yes, they seem like a pretty diverse bunch. I have never quite come to grips with their standing in the French forces.
