Just around the corner from where live is a large (Ex-Soviet) community, lots of Ukrainians some of whom I know quite well. Some ex military, one is, or was a Colonel! "Hind" Helicopter gunship pilot in the Afghan war! ( I must add he is MUCH older than me) but, what I,m picking-up is that this has more to do with NATO expansion as Russian aggression.
Those two things are pretty firmly intertwined though. The biggest issue with NATO expansion, for Russia, is that it precludes their ability to either politically dominate or annex directly territory that they consider strategically or politically important. The incorporation of the Baltics (and Estonia in particular) into NATO still sticks in Russia's craw for that reason.
I don't know, Chilcs. Media I've been reading has been saying pretty much the same thing, to balance out the "it's going to be war" rhetoric, which seems to be mainly coming from the politicians (and reported by the media). What the opinion pieces are largely saying is more in line with the Ukrainian perspective, and very clear that for Putin it could be a disastrous move. William Hague's pieces in The Times have been very interesting on it all.
It'll likely be a long, drawn out campaign, akin to when Russia went into Afghanistan. The Ukranians are there and willing to fight, and would engage in guerrilla tactics, which leads to a high body count. Russia is a conscription army, and when things turn ugly and long-term, a conscripted army is absolutely what you don't want to have. Body bags coming back to Russia and angry Russian mums, basically. It's what happened in Afghanistan, and could well happen here if he goes in. Not saying it would, but it could. And that would spell the end for Putin. He's not daft, either, and though he has a planetary sized ego, he'll realise this.
Russia stopping Ukraine from being in NATO is like England telling Scotland that it can’t be in the EU. It’s just plain wrong.
No, but it won't be a clean fight. I mean the Russians have the firepower and then some to take territory, but it would get nasty pretty quick.
I’m trying to work out why republicans have claimed that. I think they are applying it to any kind of free speech / speaking out against vaccines type thing
Odd indeed if it's the GOP. "Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. He emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He is perhaps best remembered for his postwar words, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…” "The quotation and its variants express Niemöller’s belief that Germans had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of people. He felt this to be especially true of the leaders of the Protestant churches." Coming from:- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/cont...s variants,leaders of the Protestant churches.
The High Court rules that the appointments of Dido Harding and Mike Coupe were unlawful. Are there ANY rules that the government haven’t broken? https://goodlawproject.org/update/d...f6yM8Pe7iakl2cNv1kUyJWT9Z4Oel1ysrtNneY2t2hUeQ
New research, using official government data, shows there are enough empty homes, in the UK, to solve the homeless crisis THREE times over. Homelessness is a political choice. https://bywire.news/articles/there-...itCkVRWBr-tw1FnubEjC69lxo3iKXqk8awuclRWcp9Dw0
