Feb 25, 2022 22:19:01 GMT c said:

Feb 25, 2022 21:04:40 GMT NATH45 said:

It still remains incredible, that there is a 'policy' stopping NATO and the rest of the world from stepping in.

Understandingly, if NATO did advance into Ukraine it would be Russia vs all of Europe and the potential for WW3.

But where is the line in the sand? Does Russia need to begin war crimes or incarcerating Ukrainian citizens / opponents to spark intervention?

What is stopping Ukraine employing private military?

Ok, answered my own question:

Contractors who use armed force in a war zone can be considered unlawful combatants, in reference to a concept outlined in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly specified by the 2006 American Military Commissions Act.

If NATO goes in, China will see it as the US imposing its will on the world, and they may step in to defend Russia.  Then we have a world war. 


Line in the sand would be a nuke.

I think the assassination/execution of the Ukrainian President might be grounds. And as reported.. that's allegedly the goal.

If that scenario did play out, and Russian forces do end up rounding up civilians and a blood bath follows... what does that say for The West? That we're happy to tolerate it as long as it's outside our agreement's border?

Ukraine is dealing with absolute evil in the form of the invading Russians. I'd hate to be on the wrong side of history 12 months from now as a world leader, knowing we could have stepped in (if we really wanted to) to avoid March 2022 being remembered for The Rape of Kiev.

The Ghost of Kyiv is a cool one. Unnamed, unknown Ukrainian pilot has reportedly shot down 6 Russian jets in his MiG-29 over the first 30 hrs of the war. Becoming an 'Ace in a Day'

The Ghost of Kyiv has been credited as a morale booster for Ukrainians, to bolster optimism in the face of Russian invasion, though the urban legend is likely not a deliberate creation, with the stories shared by regular Ukrainian people on social media before official Ukrainian media accounts alluded to the pilot in a regular update.

The Ghost of Kyiv could be one of dozens of experienced pilots of military reserve who urgently returned to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after Russia invaded.

If the US steps in Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom are all war due to the North Atlantic Treaty. We will not go in unless NATO authorizes action. And when Euro goes to war with Russia, China gets involved.

Now we move from a two party war, to a war that involves most of the world. China moves out, likely all of the Asian defense treaties will trigger as well as China will want to clear the waters in the South Pacific.

We would move from a war where thousands will die to a war where millions will die and sooner or later a weapon of mass destruction is used.

///

Ghost of Kiev is a call war time urban legend.  Rare to see a legend as it is forming.

War in 2022...

www.wired.com/story/ukraine-russia-cryptocurrency-donations-hacktivism/

Ukraine’s Defense—and Hacktivists—Have Raised Over $4M in Cryptocurrency.

That $4.6 million dollars may be just a small fraction of the total funds Ukrainian defense and hacktivism groups have raised by more traditional means. But the sudden rise of cryptocurrency within these global donations demonstrates how borderless, often unregulated crypto payments could fund organizations engaged in future conflicts, says Tom Robinson, Elliptic's founder. “Crypto is censorship-resistant, so there's no chance they're going to get their funds seized or their account shut down, like might happen with PayPal, and it's also more amenable to cross-border donations,” says Robinson. “It’s proved itself to be a robust way to fund wars.”

Have a feeling this is the end of Putin. Russian billionaires lost 39 billion dollars today. You do not take losses like that lightly.

More Ukrainian defiance.

A woman is being hailed on social media after she confronted a heavily armed Russian soldier and offered him sunflower seeds – so that flowers would grow if he died there on Ukraine’s soil. 'You’re occupants, you’re fascists,' she shouts, standing about a metre from the soldier.

'Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here'

Whatever happens, I love all you mofos.

Another interesting fact, the Mayor of Kyiv is Vitali Klitschko (45-2) former WBO and WBC World Champion boxer.

Sounds like Putin was not at all prepared for the economic backlash. He will take Kiev tonight but his own country is getting fucking hammered hard economically. Assuming he did not realize shit would this fast and his countries banks would start to get cut off from international trade.

It is very unlikely he will be able to retain power after this invasion. Gonna go down as one of the stupidest military moves in history.

Retain power?

You're forgetting how this dictatorship works. The man created a law allowing him to run two more times (originally a 2 term maximum) and prior to that, he pulled a switcharoo to get around that pesky consecutive term limit becoming prime minister again, but really (wink-wink) remaining as President.

He's all sorts of credible.

And the Russian election isn't for 2 years.

Feb 25, 2022 21:19:00 GMT Todd said:

It’s always tough to compare which scenarios are worse when all of them are bad, but NATO putting troops on the ground for a country not in NATO would be infinitely worse than what is being done at the moment. It is not going to happen unless it absolutely has to, and we’re nowhere near that.

It all depends on what happens from here I guess, if Putin stops at Ukraine, installs a puppet government and goes home. The world can totally live with that, it's just another Hong Kong.
But if Putin tries to take more of the Eastern Ex Soviet countries then history will remember the West as fools for not stopping him at the border of Russia and Ukraine. I think there's little doubt that Putin wants to put the USSR back together as his legacy, but it will all come down to whether he can keep the will of the people. The protests you see on Moscow is one thing, but Putins power comes from his base which are the older rural people who remember the Soviet days as a time. Of national pride.


Separate to all of this, I have been mulling over "human progress" the enlightenment was meant to mark the end of the dark ages as humanity escaped the clutches of superstitious religions, embraced science and began the evolution to the perfect race. It is pretty clear that this is a myth, whether you look at the Ukraine, Sudan, 911, Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath... Human nature is not evolving and it doesn't take much to see the emergence of the baser instincts. No, not everyone is like this, but not everyone has faced a freedom from consequences and had it come down to me or them.

Feb 26, 2022 4:10:15 GMT NATH45 said:

Retain power?

You're forgetting how this dictatorship works. The man created a law allowing him to run two more times (originally a 2 term maximum) and prior to that, he pulled a switcharoo to get around that pesky consecutive term limit becoming prime minister again, but really (wink-wink) remaining as President.

He's all sorts of credible.

And the Russian election isn't for 2 years.

Do not need an election.  When people become a problem in Russia they fall out of a window.  And Putin caused many of the most powerful people in Russia to lose billions.  The thing about a dictatorship, is when the rest of the powerful people no longer have a use for you, you are easy to get rid of.  

Feb 26, 2022 4:32:45 GMT iNCY said:

Feb 25, 2022 21:19:00 GMT Todd said:

It’s always tough to compare which scenarios are worse when all of them are bad, but NATO putting troops on the ground for a country not in NATO would be infinitely worse than what is being done at the moment. It is not going to happen unless it absolutely has to, and we’re nowhere near that.

It all depends on what happens from here I guess, if Putin stops at Ukraine, installs a puppet government and goes home. The world can totally live with that, it's just another Hong Kong.
But if Putin tries to take more of the Eastern Ex Soviet countries then history will remember the West as fools for not stopping him at the border of Russia and Ukraine. I think there's little doubt that Putin wants to put the USSR back together as his legacy, but it will all come down to whether he can keep the will of the people. The protests you see on Moscow is one thing, but Putins power comes from his base which are the older rural people who remember the Soviet days as a time. Of national pride.


Separate to all of this, I have been mulling over "human progress" the enlightenment was meant to mark the end of the dark ages as humanity escaped the clutches of superstitious religions, embraced science and began the evolution to the perfect race. It is pretty clear that this is a myth, whether you look at the Ukraine, Sudan, 911, Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath... Human nature is not evolving and it doesn't take much to see the emergence of the baser instincts. No, not everyone is like this, but not everyone has faced a freedom from consequences and had it come down to me or them.

Putin is out of places to move to.  He would not dare move through the Ukraine to another country as the rest are NATO sans Moldova.  He take a NATO state, then we go to war.   He moves into the Nordic areas we go to war.  Likely he even moves into Baltics and we go to war.   

Also Putin cannot afford a long war.  Russia is bleeding billions of dollars an hour.  Their tech is dated and they are taking pretty big losses.  He will purge the Kiev government then settle for peace.  Ukraine basically get a reset to before the Orange Revolution.  

US intelligence reporting that Russia is still finding progress hard as they close on cities as the Ukraine people are arming themselves. Now we are at the point where Russia is fighting the people of a nation. They may not be able to hold Kiev if they take it, and likely the people they want to take out already left.

Hard to say if this is legit or not with all the misinformation going around, but if it is, we got serious warcrimes.

Also something up with Chernobyl, radiation levels spiked and US intel thinks there are there are hostages there.  First theory is the radioactive dust was kicked up into the air, could be worse since a lot of military hardware moved through it.

///

Poles sending in truckloads of air-defense weapons, ammo, drones to Ukraine.  

We are ready to supply to Ukraine several dozen thousand rounds of ammunition and artillery ammunition, air defense systems, and also light mortars and reconnaissance drones

And this is why I loved my Ukraine family. They feared nothing and had such an odd worldview.

Feb 26, 2022 4:56:51 GMT c said:

Feb 26, 2022 4:32:45 GMT iNCY said:

It all depends on what happens from here I guess, if Putin stops at Ukraine, installs a puppet government and goes home. The world can totally live with that, it's just another Hong Kong.
But if Putin tries to take more of the Eastern Ex Soviet countries then history will remember the West as fools for not stopping him at the border of Russia and Ukraine. I think there's little doubt that Putin wants to put the USSR back together as his legacy, but it will all come down to whether he can keep the will of the people. The protests you see on Moscow is one thing, but Putins power comes from his base which are the older rural people who remember the Soviet days as a time. Of national pride.


Separate to all of this, I have been mulling over "human progress" the enlightenment was meant to mark the end of the dark ages as humanity escaped the clutches of superstitious religions, embraced science and began the evolution to the perfect race. It is pretty clear that this is a myth, whether you look at the Ukraine, Sudan, 911, Hurrican Katrina and the aftermath... Human nature is not evolving and it doesn't take much to see the emergence of the baser instincts. No, not everyone is like this, but not everyone has faced a freedom from consequences and had it come down to me or them.

Putin is out of places to move to.  He would not dare move through the Ukraine to another country as the rest are NATO sans Moldova.  He take a NATO state, then we go to war.   He moves into the Nordic areas we go to war.  Likely he even moves into Baltics and we go to war.   

Also Putin cannot afford a long war.  Russia is bleeding billions of dollars an hour.  Their tech is dated and they are taking pretty big losses.  He will purge the Kiev government then settle for peace.  Ukraine basically get a reset to before the Orange Revolution.  

Belarus unless Lukashenko is taken out and (rightfully) ousted which he should have already. Belarus has basically given Russia a golden ticket towards progressing through to Ukraine. 

Yeah Belarus already is Russia aligned, no reason to take it.

Lots of destruction in Kiev tonight as mortal or missiles are smashing into buildings. Ukraine military passing out weapons to people, and TV airing how to make homemade molotovs and how to use them for max effect. Those who wish to fight are staying and joining up with the military. The rest are fleeing.

Feb 26, 2022 4:48:14 GMT c said:

Feb 26, 2022 4:10:15 GMT NATH45 said:

Retain power?

You're forgetting how this dictatorship works. The man created a law allowing him to run two more times (originally a 2 term maximum) and prior to that, he pulled a switcharoo to get around that pesky consecutive term limit becoming prime minister again, but really (wink-wink) remaining as President.

He's all sorts of credible.

And the Russian election isn't for 2 years.

Do not need an election.  When people become a problem in Russia they fall out of a window.  And Putin caused many of the most powerful people in Russia to lose billions.  The thing about a dictatorship, is when the rest of the powerful people no longer have a use for you, you are easy to get rid of.  

This man hides a personal militia in plain sight as an outlaw biker gang. A gang that includes The Head of the Chechen Republic, Kadyrov. A man committing war crimes despite a lack of actual war.

Putin is an evil bastard. I doubt he has anyone to fear.

The problem with Putin is he always tries to walk it in.

///

Putin taking pretty heavy losses. Also gained no ground in the last 24 hours towards Kiev.

/photo/1

Feb 26, 2022 7:49:11 GMT NATH45 said:

Feb 26, 2022 4:48:14 GMT c said:

Do not need an election.  When people become a problem in Russia they fall out of a window.  And Putin caused many of the most powerful people in Russia to lose billions.  The thing about a dictatorship, is when the rest of the powerful people no longer have a use for you, you are easy to get rid of.  

This man hides a personal militia in plain sight as an outlaw biker gang. A gang that includes The Head of the Chechen Republic, Kadyrov. A man committing war crimes despite a lack of actual war.

Putin is an evil bastard. I doubt he has anyone to fear.

Putin only has power as long as he delivers.  When he stops it is Russian tradition to throw him out a window.  It is looking like he may not be able to take Kiev before the supplies get there.  He is taking a lot of losses as his armored transports are getting destroyed.  The people of Kiev are digging in for the siege, and this was not something he planned for.   If Kiev holds him off, he will have an accident so Russia can make new deals with the world and drop the sanctions.

I said RT was readily available in Australia.. not anymore.

tvtonight.com.au/2022/02/foxtel-pulls-russia-today-channel-off-air.html

RT is the international propaganda network of Putin, and believe you me, it became a joke this week with vile justifications for the invasion.


I was only talking about this today, wondering how long it would stay on air.

RT is basically what GB News is here. Awful propaganda machines.


I see Kazakhstan have refused to send troops in to help Russia.

Feb 26, 2022 7:53:53 GMT c said:

The problem with Putin is he always tries to walk it in.

///

Putin taking pretty heavy losses. Also gained no ground in the last 24 hours towards Kiev.

/photo/1

I don't really see this as good news, Putin is trying to avoid levelling Ukrainians cities but that's what he will do if he can't advance.
Russia. Is taking heavy losses because to date they aren't ready to level the country, but there will be a limit.

Pave paradise and put up a parking lot. 😳

Feb 26, 2022 12:25:47 GMT iNCY said:

Feb 26, 2022 7:53:53 GMT c said:

The problem with Putin is he always tries to walk it in.

///

Putin taking pretty heavy losses. Also gained no ground in the last 24 hours towards Kiev.


/photo/1

I don't really see this as good news, Putin is trying to avoid levelling Ukrainians cities but that's what he will do if he can't advance.
Russia. Is taking heavy losses because to date they aren't ready to level the country, but there will be a limit.

He starts to level cities China will be very hard pressed to continue to support him, and NATO can go in under the justification of stopping crimes against humanity.  

Putin will be offer a chance to withdraw all troops and end all aggressions within a couple of days. He falls to do it, he is getting kicked out of SWIFT. This is the economic nuclear option, as it would cut off Russia for most international banking. This was the same program the GOP is demanding Biden remove Russia from, despite Biden not having the power to remove them.

Also this has got to suck...

Turkey sees the writing on the wall and will no longer permit Russia to sail though their waters of the Black Sea. No new warships coming in that way for Russia.

///

Holy shit, 198 Ukraine dead.  3500 Russians dead.  Russia waging as effective of a war right now as I do in competitive Starcraft.  Street fighting in Kiev is said to be brutal with Russia taking heavy losses.

Russian supply lines are broken down as are their communication lines it seems with a lot of hardware broken down or disabled and troops having trouble getting to where they need to go.  Citizens are attacking convoys on the highways as well making deployment a nightmare.