Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Tamas]

OK so first of all having a tiny point right doesn't validate a long article of traitorous shit.

Secondly, you demonstrate that a reputable medium giving a platform to fake crap has an influence, since you feel obliged to defend a most outlandish claim, namely that Putin had the political and diplomatic option from his own point of view, two months into the war, to say "ok actually, we haven't achieved anything but we'll go back". No fucking way that was ever seriously offered.

And that's ignoring that even if it was offered, it would have been absolute INSANITY for Ukraine to accept it. What is there to gain? The enemy with his initial plans thwarted, is given a reset button, in exchange of the defending side to guarantee not to improve its own situation before the next round of fighting. Have you actually thought this through for 10 seconds?

I am sorry I am angry at Jenkins and not you but please apply some critical thinking.

[garbon]

Does the Guardian have any opinion columnists worth reading beyond John Crace, Marina Hyde and maybe Zoe Williams?

I don't think so but there is being uninteresting and there is giving a wide platform for a Russian collaborator.

Isn't the Guardian regularly on about the ill effects of social media? Well, when they publish crap like this based on fake "news" they get a far further reach than "deepstate69" being allowed by Facebook to post some utter BS.

Well I was thinking this by Simon Jenkins, any piece by Owen Jones and as you identified recently, Arwa Mahdawi, who all are out to lunch with potentially harmful opinion pieces.

[Josquius]

OK so first of all having a tiny point right doesn't validate a long article of traitorous shit.

Secondly, you demonstrate that a reputable medium giving a platform to fake crap has an influence, since you feel obliged to defend a most outlandish claim, namely that Putin had the political and diplomatic option from his own point of view, two months into the war, to say "ok actually, we haven't achieved anything but we'll go back". No fucking way that was ever seriously offered.

And that's ignoring that even if it was offered, it would have been absolute INSANITY for Ukraine to accept it. What is there to gain? The enemy with his initial plans thwarted, is given a reset button, in exchange of the defending side to guarantee not to improve its own situation before the next round of fighting. Have you actually thought this through for 10 seconds?

I am sorry I am angry at Jenkins and not you but please apply some critical thinking.

My first sentence was about how he had one thing right for completely different reasons to what he suggested.

The rest was pointing out how completely backwards his claims were. Russia supposedly offering a great outcome for Ukraine and the west that completely flies against its own outlook.

[Zoupa]

Macron in Prague - Reuters

France's Macron urges allies not be cowardly on Ukraine
By Jason Hovet
March 5, 20247:03 AM PST

PRAGUE, March 5 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron told expats in Prague on Tuesday it was time for Ukraine's allies to step up, adding that a moment was being approached "in our Europe where it will be appropriate not to be a coward."
Macron has faced a backlash from many Western allies after he discussed the idea of sending Western troopsto Ukraine at a Paris-based conference on Ukraine on Feb. 26.
But during a visit to Prague on Tuesday, Macron said he stood by his comments, and that a "strategic leap" was necessary.
In a reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Macron said that France and the Czech Republic were "well aware that war is back on our soil (in Europe), that some powers which have become unstoppable are extending every day their threat of attacking us even more, and that we will have to live up to history and the courage that it requires."
Macron's Feb. 26 comments, made after he hosted a meeting of Western leaders to rally support for Ukraine, fit with his reputation as a diplomatic disruptor who likes to break taboos and challenge conventional thinking.
French officials later explained that Macron's intention was to stimulate debate and that ideas under discussion involved non-combat troops in roles such as demining, border protection or training Ukrainian forces.
AMMUNITIONS
Macron also stressed on Tuesday his support for plans announced last month by the Czech Republic, backed by Canada, Denmark and others, to finance the rapid purchase of hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries to dispatch to Ukraine.

A little bird told me that Macron has been urging for boots on the ground since early 2023 (!). Apparently he's been calling and sending colonels to talk to anyone who would listen in NATO, and getting nothing but no.

I think the last 10 days he's reached a breaking point and went public. It could also be the reason why the Ukrainians never complain about French assistance.

[Josquius]

I agree with this

NO CHANCE OF TAURUS NOW

The Russians knew what they were doing when they leaked the Luftwaffe commander discussing Taurus deployment to Ukraine. Stupidly discussing secret information over an unencrypted WebEx channel, the German communications services should be ashamed of themselves for letting this happen.
Yet the leak, letting everyone know the Russians listened in and how they did it is unusual. They gave away their source and revealed it because the value of doing so totally outweighed the value of keeping quiet.
The Russians called in the German Ambassador to dress him down over the comments. They have painted themselves as they alyways do, as the victim of NATO aggression. The revelations that British servicemen may be on the ground in Ukraine are probably no surprise to the Russians at all. In their place I would have assumed it was so. They would do the same thing and have in the past, so their outrage is entirely contrived.
However it has sent left wing news sites like the Guardian into a panic and outraged right wing pro Russian sources as irresponsibly moving towards war.
For Chancellor Sholz however, it's made his decision not to supply the missiles even more solidified. Everything he wrings his hands over - the possibility of adding to the crisis, the fake outrage of the Russians, the dangers of 'direct' involvement, have all been confirmed - if you want to believe that theory as he does.
But Russia scored big with this, because they were terrified of Taurus. It's the one thing that could have wrecked the Kerch bridge and any number of deeper command and control centres, ammo dumps and the like. Keeping it out of the war is a victory and worth the price of revealing a few fleeting comms intercept secrets. There are plenty more.

Also increased chatter about Ingush uprisings and unrest with the Bashkirs.... Probably nothing but let's be hoping.
Some saying it's IS in Ingushetia which isn't Great, but trouble for Russia is needed.

[Barrister]

Simon Jenkins chips in with an article that shall have no trouble being published in Russian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/nato-ukraine-russia-germany-military-leak

One of his chief arguments was that the West stopped Ukraine from agreeing to a peace deal in April(!) 2022 where Russia would have retreated to the February front lines and in exchange Ukraine would have vowed never to enter NATO. And thus, using a website I never heard of with the "military industry complex" as one of its sections for his source, he concludes that this is proof that Ukraine is a mere plaything in the West's dangerous toying with Russia.

Seriously I know opinion pieces are opinion pieces but it's not like Nazis are given an opinion platform in the Guardian so why does this Quisling shithead?

So I know there were some peace talks in the early days of the war.  I'm pretty sure Ukraine would have taken a deal that returned Ukraine's territory in exchange for no entering NATO.  But it's not clear to me that deal was ever actually on the table in a meaningful way.  Russia didn't want to give up its land bridge.  Russia never fully complied with the Minsk agreements about the Donbass.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I agree with this

NO CHANCE OF TAURUS NOW

it's amazing how successfully the west lets itself be contained. Afraid of our own shadow it seems.

[Tamas]

Simon Jenkins chips in with an article that shall have no trouble being published in Russian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/nato-ukraine-russia-germany-military-leak

One of his chief arguments was that the West stopped Ukraine from agreeing to a peace deal in April(!) 2022 where Russia would have retreated to the February front lines and in exchange Ukraine would have vowed never to enter NATO. And thus, using a website I never heard of with the "military industry complex" as one of its sections for his source, he concludes that this is proof that Ukraine is a mere plaything in the West's dangerous toying with Russia.

Seriously I know opinion pieces are opinion pieces but it's not like Nazis are given an opinion platform in the Guardian so why does this Quisling shithead?

So I know there were some peace talks in the early days of the war.  I'm pretty sure Ukraine would have taken a deal that returned Ukraine's territory in exchange for no entering NATO.  But it's not clear to me that deal was ever actually on the table in a meaningful way.  Russia didn't want to give up its land bridge.  Russia never fully complied with the Minsk agreements about the Donbass.

Jenkins didn't claim returning all of Ukrainian territory was on the table. He claimed the return to the February 2022 frontline in Donbass was on the table and Ukraine didn't accept because the West forced/convinced them to continue the war for the laughs.

[Grey Fox]

I agree with Macron. Cowards all around.

[Admiral Yi]

Why is the Taurus the only weapon that can take out the bridge?

Tamas I agree Jenkins is an idiot.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Why is the Taurus the only weapon that can take out the bridge?

Tamas I agree Jenkins is an idiot.

I'm guessing it has the range and payload to take it down,unlike its  anglo-french counterparts. The Americans also have the tools, but didn't provide any. And probably never will now they've allied with the russians

[Josquius]

Reading this morning Ukrainian artillery has suddenly gone into overdrive.
The ammo supplies starting to reach the front?

[Duque de Bragança]

And now, a Belgian intermezzo, courtesy of everyone's favourite KGBist sociopath:

https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium-exists-thanks-to-russia-putin-claims/

Belgium exists largely 'thanks to Russia,' Putin claims
Spoiler: No, it doesn't.


BELGIUM-EU-RUSSIA-SUMMIT
Putin made his false claim on Wednesday in response to a question asked by a Belgian at the World Youth Festival | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images
MARCH 7, 2024 6:57 AM CET
BY SEB STARCEVIC
Russian pseudo-historian-in-chief Vladimir Putin has delivered his latest twisted history lesson: Belgium owes its existence to Russia.
According to the Russian president, Belgium first "appeared on the world map as an independent state, largely thanks to Russia and Russia's position," though he didn't specify how.
Unsurprisingly, given Putin's track record, the truth is almost exactly the reverse.
When Belgium rose in revolution against the Kingdom of the Netherlands in pursuit of independence in 1830, Russia was fully on the side of the Dutch and was planning to send troops to crush the Belgian rebels, fearing any kind of action against Europe's great monarchies.
The czar ultimately had to change his plans for those troops — many of them Polish — because of the November Uprising in Poland. After that was defeated, fleeing Polish officers headed to Belgium where they strengthened the country's fledgling armed forces.
While Russia ultimately accepted Belgian statehood at the London Conference of 1830, it would make more sense to credit the anti-Russian Polish revolutionaries of 1830 than the Russians for the country's existence. Britain and France were seen as the leading powers at the conference.
Putin made his false claim on Wednesday in response to a question asked by a Belgian at the World Youth Festival, a gathering of young people from Russia and around the world, held near Sochi.
The withering comments may be no coincidence, and there is good reason why Putin is getting hot under the collar about Belgium. The West is locked in heated debates over whether to use Russian assets to help fund the war in Ukraine, and the vast majority of those assets are kept in Belgium, in the security depository Euroclear.
Putin has often been accused of revising and weaponizing history to justify his imperialist ambitions.
He has repeatedly claimed Ukraine historically belongs to Russia, devoting almost the entirety of the first 30 minutes of his two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in February to a rambling tirade on the subject, and ordered high school textbooks be rewritten to reflect his revanchist ideology.
The first noteworthy contact between Russia and what would one day become Belgium took place when Peter the Great — the Russian ruler whose bronze statue stands in Putin's cabinet room — visited the southern Netherlands in 1717.

Also reported by le Figaro for the francophones :

https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/la-belgique-est-apparue-sur-la-carte-grace-a-la-russie-estime-vladimir-poutine-20240307

Le maître du Kremlin n'a cependant pas précisé la manière dont la Russie a participé à l'indépendance de nos voisins d'outre-Quiévrain.

[Zoupa]

The moskal patrol ship Sergei Kotov was sunk off the Kerch bridge 2 days ago.

One of the Ukrainian naval drones involved was the Nafoleon Blownapart, crowdfunded by NAFO lol.

Get wrecked katsaps.

Memory Eternal to Nafoleon Blownapart. Your life was short but awesome.

[Jacob]