War in europe?

[Bender]

Woman in ukrain her Russian son was captured after bombing ukrain and being shot down, she was pretty annoyed with him to say least, probably glad he's still alive though. 

[fastbob]

3 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

We are looking at offering our spare room for a family. My concerns are that we live miles from anywhere with no public transport and no mobile reception. I work six days a week mainly from home but usually long hours including most evenings. My wife works in Chester so is out all day. 

 

Anyone in a strange place is going to be pretty cut off and isolated living here. 

 

On the other hand it's pretty quiet and peaceful with plenty of rural walking.

 

I'm just not sure how much support we can fit someone due to our work commitments. Or they may be happy being left to their own devices?

Its a wonderful thing to do but I can understand your reservations . There is a natural tendency for displaced persons to want to remain together for mutual support . Being isolated in a foreign land might have a negative impact on mental well-being . 

[bonio]

6 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

We are looking at offering our spare room for a family. My concerns are that we live miles from anywhere with no public transport and no mobile reception. I work six days a week mainly from home but usually long hours including most evenings. My wife works in Chester so is out all day. 

 

Anyone in a strange place is going to be pretty cut off and isolated living here. 

 

On the other hand it's pretty quiet and peaceful with plenty of rural walking.

 

I'm just not sure how much support we can fit someone due to our work commitments. Or they may be happy being left to their own devices?

We've thought about it, but decided probably not: I can't imagine a mum and with her children stuck in our small town with no-one local to talk with in their own language. The homesickness, the sense of loss, the need to come to terms with what they've been through - they'd need more than we can offer them here. If it turns out that a load of families are settling the town, that will be a different thing.

[Mr Fro]

I looked in to it too but the organisations running it prefer placing people in child free homes (or at least not little kiddiwinks). Besides, we've got family in the Czech Republic who will probably want to come over if Putin starts shuffling West.

[Bender]

Over 80 thousand have signed up to take ukrainian families. 

 

The woman who protested on a live news broadcast was  incredibily brave, another working for a state broadcaster has left the country and put her notice in. 

 

Reports of a Russian drone entering Polish airspace and being shot down by Ukrainian Air defence, if correct that could be the sort of stupid thing that triggers escalation. 

 

I'm not convinced nato would do anything other than defen a country's border. 

[S-Westerly]

See Putin is upset over being called a war criminal by Biden. Diddums. You invade another country and have your barbarous thugs deliberately target civilians I'd say being called a war criminal is about right.

[Bender]

He's now saying if you think like West and have transgender views your a traitor and not a Russian, he's trying to set the Russians against themselves. 

[husoi]

For those who still think EU is a good thing:

"Um terço dos Estados-membros da União Europeia (UE) exportou armas para a Rússia depois do embargo de 2014 que o proíbe, segundo dados do grupo de trabalho, que regista todas as exportações militares dos 27, analisados pelo Investigate Europe."

Source: https://24.sapo.pt/atualidade/artigos/ucrania-um-terco-dos-estados-membros-da-ue-exportou-armas-para-a-russia

 

The text read:

a third of the EU countries have exported weapons to Russia after the embargo from 2014 which clearly forbids it. According to the work group which register all the military exports from the 27. Analysis from the Investigate Europe.

 

I'll refrain from further comments.

[Marino]

Eu is just big pussy, bullying small countries but licking arse to USA Russia and China 

mostly what benefits Germany 

Vlad knows that and doing what he wants

[Marino]

Germany is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and still import it

how do they pay?

[S-Westerly]

2 hours ago, Marino said:

Germany is heavily dependent on Russian gas, and still import it

how do they pay?

Sberbank is exempt from the SWIFT sanctions and surprisingly its how Germany pays for its gas (with others) to the tune of 750 million  dollars per day into Vlad's warchest. Nice eh?

[Gerontious]

48 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

Sberbank is exempt from the SWIFT sanctions and surprisingly its how Germany pays for its gas (with others) to the tune of 750 million  dollars per day into Vlad's warchest. Nice eh?

I doubt much of it is going into his war chest, the vast majority of this money is going into his and his chums pockets. You don’t become the wealthiest man on the planet by spending on arms and munitions. You do it by robbing from the economy and spending on your mates in the hope they won’t turn against you.

[S-Westerly]

True  you are spot on there. Never understood the mindset though. Its not as if he can enjoy his wealth and spend his later years basking in the sun somewhere. Nor could he retire without having a fatal heart attack shortly afterwards.

[Bender]

1 hour ago, S-Westerly said:

True  you are spot on there. Never understood the mindset though. Its not as if he can enjoy his wealth and spend his later years basking in the sun somewhere. Nor could he retire without having a fatal heart attack shortly afterwards.

Hopefully one is on the way

[Fozzie]

There's rumours running around that Putin is in poor health, which is likely conspiracy, although some stuff looks to have some kind of merit. There's been claims of poor mental health, right through to rectal cancer, which has gone terminal.

 

Guess this is the reason you don't wish some things, even on your worst enemy. Especially with ones with insecurities around legacy, and a big red button.

[Gerontious]

Who knows. It looks like the talks via the Turks are going well. However he is making some demands that might be difficult for the Ukraine to accept. The permanent loss of Crimea and the breakaway Dombas region. And I wouldn’t put it past him to try to hold on to as much of the Black Sea coast he’s already grabbed as possible. Obviously if he could make Ukraine a landlocked country surrounded on 3 sides by Russia and its allies that would be a massive win.

[S-Westerly]

According to my Ukrainians the Crimea wasn't tradionally theirs anyway so they don't really care. As to the Donbas regions they aren't happy about their loss but they haven't been theirs since 2014 and most "real" Ukrainians have left if they could and the population has been turned Russian predominantly. They wouldn't accept the loss of Odesa or any of the bits Putin has chewed up recently.  Certainly relations between the two have been poisoned for decades probably.

[Bender]

It's not just the donbas bit they have though, they want everything east of the river which is a huge chunk. No foreign help, no foreign arms, no nukes, no eu, no nato and be nice to Russia probably all sanctions to be lifted too. 

[KiwiBob]

Interesting articles from 2014.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/ukraine-russia-explainer

[Marino]

16 hours ago, Bender said:

It's not just the donbas bit they have though, they want everything east of the river which is a huge chunk. No foreign help, no foreign arms, no nukes, no eu, no nato and be nice to Russia probably all sanctions to be lifted too. 

At the end they will get most of it as EU doesn’t have balls to do anything. Beside small or no balls EU industry is very dependent on Russians. And Vlad knows it.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I think the sanctions are going to be long term. One of Putin's miscalculations was how the West would respond. Trump and Brexit led him to believe the West was weak, which it is, but not as weak as he thought.

[S-Westerly]

My last Russian will be signing off tomorrow. Sad to see him go as I've known him for over 10 years and he's a good man but like so many he's brainwashed into believing  Putin's bullshit. Or at least he claims to. At least we'll be able to publicly rip Russia apart during coffee breaks! At the moment company is holding the line that the Russians' jobs are safe and I know of a couple who've just joined ships. It all depends on how bad things get in Ukraine I guess.

[Bender]

Russia has upped the stakes and sent a warning to everyone, its successfully used one of its hypersonic missiles 10 times the speed of sound, not only do we not have them but it appears we can't stop them either..... 

 

While the west was busy worrying about   being too woke or not woke enough, Russia and China were building systems beyond anything the west has. 

[Fozzie]

On 19/03/2022 at 09:02, S-Westerly said:

My last Russian will be signing off tomorrow. Sad to see him go as I've known him for over 10 years and he's a good man but like so many he's brainwashed into believing  Putin's bullshit. Or at least he claims to. At least we'll be able to publicly rip Russia apart during coffee breaks! At the moment company is holding the line that the Russians' jobs are safe and I know of a couple who've just joined ships. It all depends on how bad things get in Ukraine I guess.

 

I'm curious, does he not see the glaring issues in Putin's statements?

De-nazifying a place that is run by a jewish president, where the total far right wing vote share in 2019 made up 2%. And what of the extensive coverage of Russian's essentially blind firing rockets into residential areas? 

 

It's almost on the level in my mind as Boris Johnson claiming America is under the grip of a secret, extreme socialist regime that needs combating... While Trump was president. I can only assume we are missing something, as there's being mislead by your government/media, and then there's not spotting blatent issues. Are they saying Zelensky is a fake jew?

 

[KiwiBob]

14 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

 

I'm curious, does he not see the glaring issues in Putin's statements?

De-nazifying a place that is run by a jewish president, where the total far right wing vote share in 2019 made up 2%. And what of the extensive coverage of Russian's essentially blind firing rockets into residential areas? 

 

It's almost on the level in my mind as Boris Johnson claiming America is under the grip of a secret, extreme socialist regime that needs combating... While Trump was president. I can only assume we are missing something, as there's being mislead by your government/media, and then there's not spotting blatent issues. Are they saying Zelensky is a fake jew?

 

Too much western interference in 2014.

 

From 2014  ... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict