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[Politics] Russia invades Ukraine (24/02/2022)
- Thread starter vegster
- Start date
Taybha
Whalewhine
Buggers to catch and Morrisons have completely sold out.
- Aug 24, 2020
- 7,096
Indeed. But to be honest, I'm not sure what it means, nor this:
'Ukraine-Russia news – latest: Putin and Wagner group reach ‘boiling point’ in Bakhmut rivalry'
Putin and Wagner group reach ‘boiling point’ in Bakhmut rivalry – latest
Power struggle set against bloody backdrop of battle for city in Donetsk
www.independent.co.uk
herecomesaregular
We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
Strange conversation I had on London Rd yesterday (of all the places, haha). Sat outside with a coffee waiting for a friend. Got chatting to an old boy in a mobility chair about our cats. Approached by a youngish lad for a fag (I don't smoke but the old chap gave him one, to which he broke off the end, pocketed it, and smoked the rest, oddly. Seen people break the filter off and smoke unfiltered but not this way. Anyway, I digress). He was Latvian and started talking about the Special Operation in Ukraine. Turns out this lad was very pro Russian. I'm happy to talk to anyone about anything, aslong as they remain calm and polite (had to remind him of this a few times tbf, as he'd obviously had a drink) as imho unless you talk about things with people you can remain very narrow minded. Living in a country of free-ish access to information (not just from UK sources of course) and to hear somebody living here (I'm assuming from the state of him he was in a hostel) really convinced of the Russian viewpoint and propoganda was quite ....the eye opener. I informed him I felt he was horribly wrong but it wasn't really a discussion and again quite the eye opener when you meet someone with very fixed opinions about history and current events (and the American Evil etc) . With some you can feel they will not take any quibble over such things as facts, they are solidly stuck in their world view. I'm quite a healthy cynic (I've been in incidents, from work and personal life, that have found themselves getting into the newspapers with facts and viewpoints horribly wrong. So I do not trust the news blindly). Felt very sad afterwards because the lovely young girl who served me was from Ukraine, temporarily displaced here. Thankfully he moved on before she came out to collect up.
Shropshire Seagull
Well-known member
Did you ask him why, with such strong pro-Russian views, he was still in the UK and not out in Ukraine fighting alongside his special operation comrades?
Ooh, was he a spy?
herecomesaregular
We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
No, I don't like to go straight in with the "why are you here in the UK then?" when talking to an immigrant. It's a valid point of course but likely to lead to escalating things and I had no idea what his life has been/is like. It was quite obvious this troubled young man was going to vent to us regardless so I let him do so, for a bit anyway, while still making it obvious I massively disagreed. Also, I don't think he was a wannabeSpy... although he could have gone for a part as a goon in Johnny English.
Ali_rrr
Well-known member
I worked with a very strange lad from Latvia here in The Netherlands who ended up only lasting about 4 weeks. He was also very pro Russian and it stems from the USSR, where lots of Russians were forcibly moved around the Soviet Union. Lots ended up in Latvia and never moved back. They tend not to speak Latvian, nor consume Latvian media and tend to hold very pro-Russia viewpoints. Russia of course, only further fan the flames They are accusing Latvia of erasing Russian from minorities living in the country and according to my former colleague, are "committing genocide."
fly high
Well-known member
Was that going to be an excuse to invade or would they be to wary of attacking a NATO country? Think if NATO hadn't responded so robustly against invasion of Ukraine I think it would have been, don't think they would dare now.
AlastairWatts
Active member
Stalin did exactly that in Ukraine in the 1930s, when every bit of grain was exported out of Ukraine, leaving the population quite literally starving. North Korea has nothing on the death toll thus created, in the millions. I don't know how long memories there last, but I bet that this is not forgotten.
Weststander
Well-known member
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/fight-back-against-putins-war-criminals/
No surprise, I’m afraid. First hand accounts.
Russians are committing gang rapes in settlements they enter, children as young as four are orally raped, gang raping in front of children, electrocution in torture, a 5 and a 13 year old raped in front of their parents.
No surprise, I’m afraid. First hand accounts.
Russians are committing gang rapes in settlements they enter, children as young as four are orally raped, gang raping in front of children, electrocution in torture, a 5 and a 13 year old raped in front of their parents.
Interesting, but I'm not sure of their purpose for 'admitting' this
- Aug 24, 2020
- 7,096
Any response to that will seem woefully inadequate.
I just hope that the perpetrators will eventually be brought to justice.
I also hope and believe that Russia will be expelled from Ukraine, and rendered incapable of ever again carrying out such atrocities.
All would be good, but the last one seems an impossible wish, barring a nuclear war rendering all nations incapable.
A lot of the perpetrators of Bucha met their worthless ends when they were slaughtered near Kharkiv.
Nobby Cybergoat
Well-known member
- Jul 19, 2021
- 8,624
This is why the people of Ukraine have fought like hell. They know what awaits their wives and children should their cities fall. This is why we in the west must never look the other way, never let trivialities take over the news cycle, never leave unchallenged Russian propaganda and never elect those who would sell Ukraine out for an oil deal.
Nobby
Well-known member
- Sep 29, 2007
- 2,892
This is how it starts. Hitler justified
taking Austria and the Sudetenlandand then ultimately Czechoslovakia after claiming atrocities against ethnic Germans. Amongst other lies and “provocations”
Scary stuff
When you have dictators who have ultimate power (Putin and now Xi), what happens to their population matters little to them.
OhDearHowSadNeverMind.gif
Noises of a conscription of a further 400,000 Russians now.
That'll go down well in Russia. Who need a functioning economy, eh?
Russian army to be replenished with 400,000 new contract service personnel
That'll go down well in Russia. Who need a functioning economy, eh?
Russian army to be replenished with 400,000 new contract service personnel
- Aug 24, 2020
- 7,096
For me, the most interesting bit is right at the end.
'It was also reported that 10,000 people should be recruited for professional service in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk oblasts of the Russian Federation, and 9,000 more in the Perm Krai.'
Translated, it suggests that Putin is anticipating internal unrest in these areas to the north of Kazakhstan.