Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Jacob]

Not sure - but weirdly the Taliban did issue a statement calling for calm and encouraging peace talks.

Well I can see Afghanistan and the Taliban being sympathetic to the notion that big countries shouldn't invade smaller countries to change their government...

[mongers]

Flipping through the news channels this evening, notice RT is not broadcasting on it's freeview terrestial channel; when did it get banned?

It hasn't been I don't think - Ofcom reviewing a number of complaints. I think a number of companies that do the broadcasting, including Sky, have removed it.
...

Thanks so they just removed it from their MUX?

edit:

Wiki has this:

On 2 March 2022, RT UK's Freeview channel went off air in the afternoon, with RT HD on Freeview channel 113 following an hour later at about 4:45pm. Both channels were replaced by a placeholder message saying that the service was unavailable.[31] On the same day, Sky removed channel 511, which hosted RT, due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine.[32]

[The Brain]

I won't be surprised if the beginning of the end for Putin takes the form of army unit mutinies in Ukraine. Refusals to attack at first. Then more serious stuff.

[celedhring]

Not sure - but weirdly the Taliban did issue a statement calling for calm and encouraging peace talks.

I was curious about Venezuela abstaining, and then I found out they lost their voting rights because of unpaid dues (so did Iran). 

[mongers]

I won't be surprised if the beginning of the end for Putin takes the form of army unit mutinies in Ukraine. Refusals to attack at first. Then more serious stuff.

At this stage that's pretty much our only hope of Putin being toppled short of WW3.

[Syt]

Not sure - but weirdly the Taliban did issue a statement calling for calm and encouraging peace talks.

I was curious about Venezuela abstaining, and then I found out they lost their voting rights because of unpaid dues (so did Iran). 

Wait, isn't the US famously behind on paying their dues? How bad did the other two fall behind to get banned?

[Jacob]

It hasn't been I don't think - Ofcom reviewing a number of complaints. I think a number of companies that do the broadcasting, including Sky, have removed it.

Separately a new batch of Bayraktars have just arrived from Turkey - so no doubt we'll hear that ear worm again soon.

I didn't catch it the first time, but I just listened. They called the Russians "Orcs"...

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I was curious about Venezuela abstaining, and then I found out they lost their voting rights because of unpaid dues (so did Iran). 

From what I see, Iran cast an "Abstain" vote, but Venezuela didn't cast a vote at all.  In total, 52 voting members of the UN either voted "Against", voted "Abstain", or just didn't vote.

[Berkut]

What is to stop the US from giving Ukraine a bunch of drones armed with Hellfires?

I mean, of course they are being controlled from Ukraine, and most definitely and absolutely not from Minot, ND....

[OttoVonBismarck]

I won't be surprised if the beginning of the end for Putin takes the form of army unit mutinies in Ukraine. Refusals to attack at first. Then more serious stuff.

A military mutiny is no small thing, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[garbon]

Flipping through the news channels this evening, notice RT is not broadcasting on it's freeview terrestial channel; when did it get banned?

It hasn't been I don't think - Ofcom reviewing a number of complaints. I think a number of companies that do the broadcasting, including Sky, have removed it.
...

Thanks so they just removed it from their MUX?

edit:

Wiki has this:

On 2 March 2022, RT UK's Freeview channel went off air in the afternoon, with RT HD on Freeview channel 113 following an hour later at about 4:45pm. Both channels were replaced by a placeholder message saying that the service was unavailable.[31] On the same day, Sky removed channel 511, which hosted RT, due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine.[32]

I thought I had read something like Sky had their access to RT through somewhere in the EU and with it going dark there it was then going to go dark on Sky.

[Admiral Yi]

This sounds very much like the

Devils advocating for a second and assuming there's validity to the talk of Russia being scared of NATO surrounding them, controlling a large swathe of the European plain, etc...
And no doubt that ship has sailed since the invasion...
But would a Finlandised Ukraine not have been a viable and politically tolerable compromise on this?
A beefed up Budapest memorandum to say NATO members and Russia all guarantee Ukrainian independence (in reality of course this means NATO protecting it from Russia but in Putin's head who knows), it promises not to be part of any military alliances (thus the EU remains open).
I have to suspect somebody must have mooted this. It can't have been a black and white union state or NATO. Obviously its about gas really.
But strange there's not been much mentioned of this middle way.

This sounds a lot like the arrangement Ukraine had before Russia annexed Crimea and aided the Donbas rebels.

[mongers]

I thought I had read something like Sky had their access to RT through somewhere in the EU and with it going dark there it was then going to go dark on Sky.

You could well be right, I think RT comes via one of the 'european' satallites?

[garbon]

I thought I had read something like Sky had their access to RT through somewhere in the EU and with it going dark there it was then going to go dark on Sky.

You could well be right, I think RT comes via one of the 'european' satallites?

Found it:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/01/russian-backed-rt-channel-to-lose-sky-tv-slot-in-uk-within-24-hours

The Russian state-backed television channel RT is set to disappear from Sky TV in the UK within the next 24 hours, irrespective of the outcome of an investigation by the media regulator Ofcom into its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

The plug will be pulled as a result of EU sanctions, which will target the company used to broadcast RT across the continent.

Sky receives its RT broadcast from a satellite operator based in Luxembourg, which will be instructed to remove the news channel formerly known as Russia Today, as soon as the EU sanctions are officially approved on Tuesday night.

RT's broadcast slot on Sky will initially be blank but the channel will eventually be removed from its programme guide altogether. Representatives of British broadcast platforms Freesat and Freeview were initially unclear as to whether the decision to block the satellite signal would also result in RT vanishing from their platforms.

[crazy canuck]

It hasn't been I don't think - Ofcom reviewing a number of complaints. I think a number of companies that do the broadcasting, including Sky, have removed it.

Separately a new batch of Bayraktars have just arrived from Turkey - so no doubt we'll hear that ear worm again soon.

I didn't catch it the first time, but I just listened. They called the Russians "Orcs"...

When I was is Finland in 89 they had a live production of Lord of Rings in the old fortification in Helsinki.  I didn't get to see it myself but my friends told me it was very popular.  They explained the Orcs were the Soviets.