Ukraine's Zelensky sacks ambassador to UK Prystaiko after criticism -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66267136
Thanks for the update. The sacking is a bit unnecessary IMO ... should have just let the issue drop (points were made and reacted to in a difficult and stressful situation) and everyone move forward together.Ukraine's Zelensky sacks ambassador to UK Prystaiko after criticism -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66267136
Bit hard to judge Zelenky's political actions from here. He seems to get most things right, so i'm assuming he has his reasonsThanks for the update. The sacking is a bit unnecessary IMO ... should have just let the issue drop (points were made and reacted to in a difficult and stressful situation) and everyone move forward together.
Could be, could be... Russia heads toward entropy.
I can't get my head easily (or emotions more likely) around a possible outcome yet...but I'm feeling a bit negative this week so here's an alternative take that I hope doesn't happen but...
The west DOES get tired with the length of the war (could be ano 2 years or more), especially if the Republicans win the next US election (Trump, please God no...).
Ukraine regains another 25% of occupied territory but then there's a stalemate.
Putin (yes, still Putin) proposes peace talks again. Ukraine is pushed into compromises by the west. Agreements are made (that will be broken within 3 years...and the cycle will continue......)
Zelensky resigns and is replaced by a leader more accommodating toward the flakey agreements.
I float this scenario because friends of ours living in Zaporizhzhia city are very tired of the war, and it's not suffered like Kherson or Kharkov. She and her son have lost their jobs. Many stores are closed in the city and getting fresh food is increasing difficult....yes, supply lines are open but that's their reality. The city council doesn't clean the streets (although basic rubbish collection happens) and many services are closed.
Air raid sirens every night. Many people selling some of their belongings or veg from their dacha on the streets.
These friends and their neighbours say they wish Ukraine had accepted last year to legally lose Donbas and Crimea.
They were lucky, they weren't in Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin etc....but they still feel exhausted.
Where our in-laws live, South East of Energoda power station, every farming village has had trenches, tank traps, minefields dug on their northern semi circle....many villages like this on or near the road south to Melitopol. It's a HUGE task for Ukraine if the Russians defend.
I haven't given up hope, my wife neither, but our Ukrainian friends on the ground (well some of them) have.
It'll take a major capitulation of Russian troops or supplies, and of course we're still hoping that happens.
Ok, I'll post this and run. When I have a more positive week I'll try again @Eric the meek
BBC are reporting that the Kerch bridge was closed for a while following the ammo dump exploding. This is a schoolboy error for Russia to put people's safety before propaganda. The culprit has been arrested.Reports of another ammunition dump exploding in Crimea. Seems that Crimea is increasingly becoming a focus of attention.
The Ukrainians prepared – militarily, politically, financially – to carry out months and potentially years of these attacks to penetrate 1914-18 style defensive belts of tank traps, barbed wire, minefields, bunkers and trench lines? The UK Ministry of Defence has described these Russian fortifications as ‘some of the most extensive systems of military defensive works seen anywhere in the world’.