Ukraine Watch...

[Default0ptions]

>>Agreed. I find the UK ... and most Western media ... simply dishonest and over-the-top in all this.

>>Sadly many/most fall for it.


The propaganda and hypocrisy is relentless and it continues to astonish me how well it works.

This Ukraine ‘thing’ is an entirely unnecessary and engineered conflict that we could all do well without.

The world needs to work together not against itself.

The blowback from our ‘sanctions’ have barely begun to bite and yet diesel is already at £1.78 locally, goodness knows what gas and electricity will be by next winter - and we have a huge fertiliser and an essential ‘adblue’ urea supply problem (modern Diesel engines will not run without adblue).

So far the courting of OPEC has met with a refusal by Saudi to even take calls from the US, and open derision from Iran and Venezuela - who, you will remember, were told by the US that Guaido was their real president.

Just not ‘the real president’ when Real Politik means the US needs heavy oil cos fracking don’t get you diesel.

The actions of the US freezing the foreign reserves of other countries and cutting them off from swift is a death knell for the dollar as reserve currency and the moves by Saudi Arabia etc to accept pricing in Yuan is the beginning of the end of the petrodollar.



Unless we as a world can focus on the genuine geopolitical issues we are in for a very hard time.

[Default0ptions]

>>One last time, do you believe the Ukrainians killed their own babies for propaganda purposes?

Since this seems to be your only point of contention, Stumuz, I’m just going to have to assume that I’m talking over your head and leave it at that.

[adam2]

"Russia refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons" but claims that such weapons would only be used in case of an "existential threat" to Russia.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60830013

Rather concerning.

[BritDownUnder]

"Russia refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons" but claims that such weapons would only be used in case of an "existential threat" to Russia.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60830013

Rather concerning.

An interesting problem for the West. Perhaps a statement by the West to the effect of if a battlefield nuke is used by Russia against Ukraine during this conflict then West will issue Ukraine with battlefield nukes to replace the nukes that Ukraine gave up in 1994 in return for guarantees of its territorial integrity, should suffice.

[clv101]

"Russia refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons" but claims that such weapons would only be used in case of an "existential threat" to Russia.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60830013

Rather concerning.

This is just a statement of their long term nuclear posture. No evidence anything has changed. Also note that this remains a higher use threshold than the US maintains. The US position does allow for first strike and nuclear response to non-existential threats.

[Stumuz2]

Since this seems to be your only point of contention, Stumuz, I’m just going to have to assume that I’m talking over your head and leave it at that.

I find that people who advocate massive global conspiracy theories, whataboutary, look over there not here, but are incapable of answering a very simple basic question, have another agenda to push.

[Stumuz2]

So, no, Zelenskyy is no saint, despite what the Western media try to say.

We need to realise that there is a deep back story to this horrific invasion.

Agree with most of that Vortex. But you have to remember that you observe this from a country with a 300+ year settled constitutional history. This means peace, stability, when the world changed and suffered the redrawing of borders by force, we were left alone, got on with changing the world via the industrial revolution etc.

What you have to remember is that Ukraine and eastern Europe have had totalitarianism, forced on them. It will take a long time to shake off.

Basically, do not look at Ukraine with settled peaceful spectacles. Look at it with strong man, corrupt, fiefdoms, spectacles. However, they are trying to change, but it's slow.

[mr brightside]

I caught an interesting article on the news last night. The basic cut and thrust of the report was that Russian troops, when attempting to capture a large town in southern Ukraine, had had their arses sawn off, varnished, and presented to them on plaques by a local uprising (including the town's mayor) featuring not a lot more than a rake of old tyres, some dynamite, and a gadger with a .308 rifle. It seemed like the script to an old spaghetti western. When i searched for more information this morning i found the wiki page for it, it's the battle of Vosnesensk, and it played out a bit different according to wiki. At one point the Russians captured the town, but were unable to hold it, and the battle was fought in two waves about a week apart during which a Russian attack chopper was downed; that must the the guy with the .308.

The reality to me is that the sheer weight of western hardware lavished upon the Ukranian forces made the town impossible to take and hold onto. The use of Javelins for tanks was key in getting the Russians to beat a retreat, during which they looted a village.

[Vortex2]

Interesting Newsweek article which points out that Putin is mainly aiming at military targets ... and has NOT bombed everything in sight, 'tho he could.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pu ... ar-AAVnuAJ

[Vortex2]

President Vladimir Putin says Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to “unfriendly countries.”

Interesting!

Who needs bitcoin if you have a suitcase full of rubles?

[Stumuz2]

Yes.
How is Germany going to pay for energy when they have sanctioned the Russian central bank?
Unless they have wedges of ruble down the back of the sofa.

[kenneal - lagger]

Interesting Newsweek article which points out that Putin is mainly aiming at military targets ... and has NOT bombed everything in sight, 'tho he could.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pu ... ar-AAVnuAJ

And so Mariupol is a mainly military target is it, having been 90% destroyed apart from the port are which by some strange quirk of fate Russia wants to retain and use.

I saw an article which said that the Russian air force is being held back by Ukrainian air and ground defences so cannot give their ground forces full support. They have therefore resorted to tactics used in Chechnia, Georgia and Syria of rolling artillery barrages to flatten and terrify civilians and their infrastructure. Russian incompetence, corruption and lies together with Ukrainian patriotism, fighting spirit and NATO armaments are what is holding Russia back.

That is the truth about the Russia which you have sympathy for, Vortex.

[kenneal - lagger]

Yes.
How is Germany going to pay for energy when they have sanctioned the Russian central bank?
Unless they have wedges of ruble down the back of the sofa.

That the thing, Stu. They don't have to pay for it yet as they can't pay for it through the banking system. As long as Russia continues pumping they can use it with a promise to pay later.

If the Russian want it paid for in Roubles I hope they have a lot of trucks waiting to load the cash into because a rouble isn't worth a lot anymore.

[Vortex2]

>> That is the truth about the Russia which you have sympathy for, Vortex.

I have no sympathy for Russia.

I am however rather fed up with the constant diet of "Ukraine good, Russia bad" we are being fed 24/7.

This whole mess has its origins 8 or more years ago.
It should have been sorted out at that time.

The public should be made aware of the back story.

[clv101]

I have no sympathy for Russia.

I am however rather fed up with the constant diet of "Ukraine good, Russia bad" we are being fed 24/7.

Absolutely. Such black and white narratives are little more than propaganda.