Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Jeff from TX]

My dad just got off the phone with my uncle. He is in his early 70s and is not very mobile due to health issues, so basically watches TV all day. Generally, he is a fairly sensible, skeptical guy. The propaganda in Russia for the people who do watch state TV (a minority but a significant one) is STRONG. My uncle is convinced that the fact that Kiev is being bombed and people are hiding in shelters and the metro is staged and that Ukraine are the aggressors. Oof.

*Sigh* It (propaganda) works everywhere to some degree. Of course, a country with 40+ million people and an vastly outnumbered, outfitted army would attack a much larger, superior force far better equipped. What where they going to try to do, take Moscow?

[Fastbackss]

Third night this week couldn't sleep, so spent it watching "daytime" coverage from Ukraine.

Bank interest rate already has doubled.

Sounds like the "meeting" is underway on the Belarusian border, however the aggressor did not send folks truly capable of enacting change.



Also they referenced a meeting of the UN - the only country who "supported" the invasion was the aggressor themselves. China abstained from voting. I wish they had gone through all who abstained.

[Suliso]

Putin should be careful in his conflict with EU and NATO. Even without counting USA the size of EU/NATO economy is 9x that of Russia. As we all know in the long term size, resources and technological sophistication matter the most.

Germany just provided extra 100 billion euros to upgrade their armed forces. It would have been unthinkable 2 weeks ago.

[the Moz]

This conflict has jostled Germany out of its post-war role as pacifist bystander on the world stage. Amen, it was time.

[mmmm8]

My dad just got off the phone with my uncle. He is in his early 70s and is not very mobile due to health issues, so basically watches TV all day. Generally, he is a fairly sensible, skeptical guy. The propaganda in Russia for the people who do watch state TV (a minority but a significant one) is STRONG. My uncle is convinced that the fact that Kiev is being bombed and people are hiding in shelters and the metro is staged and that Ukraine are the aggressors. Oof.

*Sigh* It (propaganda) works everywhere to some degree. Of course, a country with 40+ million people and an vastly outnumbered, outfitted army would attack a much larger, superior force far better equipped. What where they going to try to do, take Moscow?

The idea is that they were attacking those areas that declared themselves "independent" and Russia is coming in to save them from Ukrainian occupiers.

[meganfernandez]

My dad just got off the phone with my uncle. He is in his early 70s and is not very mobile due to health issues, so basically watches TV all day. Generally, he is a fairly sensible, skeptical guy. The propaganda in Russia for the people who do watch state TV (a minority but a significant one) is STRONG. My uncle is convinced that the fact that Kiev is being bombed and people are hiding in shelters and the metro is staged and that Ukraine are the aggressors. Oof.

*Sigh* It (propaganda) works everywhere to some degree. Of course, a country with 40+ million people and an vastly outnumbered, outfitted army would attack a much larger, superior force far better equipped. What where they going to try to do, take Moscow?

The idea is that they were attacking those areas that declared themselves "independent" and Russia is coming in to save them from Ukrainian occupiers.

Has anyone ever staged that kind of operation? It defies logic. I'm sorry for your uncle, though.

[ponchi101]

This conflict has jostled Germany out of its post-war role as pacifist bystander on the world stage. Amen, it was time.

I understand that the world would have been weary of an "armed-to-the-teeth" Germany, but that phase is gone. As you say, the time has come for them to also recover, at least, a modicum of military power, for deterrence purposes.
The next country to do that has to be Japan. They are also in a tough part of the world: China is a behemoth, and N. Korea is simply run by a lunatic. When China goes for Taiwan, Japan will have too much on the table to remain neutral. And they better be able to project some power regionally.
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I am surprised that Switzerland has also abandoned their famed neutrality to join the world in blocking Russia from the international bank system. That might work (I am sure they have billions parked in Geneva/Zurich).

[JazzNU]

Also they referenced a meeting of the UN - the only country who "supported" the invasion was the aggressor themselves. China abstained from voting. I wish they had gone through all who abstained.

Wasn't sure if you were asking or if you were saying you wished the news had gone into more depth about why each country took their particular stance. If you were asking which countries, the abstentions were China, UAE, and India

[JazzNU]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[mmmm8]

Seeing a lot of private accounts and some videos of Russian soldiers who were told they were being taken to training and are instead taken to the front lines, given a pep talk about how they are going to get greeted as liberators (sounds familiar) and then being sent off with little strategy.

[JazzNU]

[ti-amie]

[JTContinental]

Seeing a lot of private accounts and some videos of Russian soldiers who were told they were being taken to training and are instead taken to the front lines, given a pep talk about how they are going to get greeted as liberators (sounds familiar) and then being sent off with little strategy.

I've been hearing about this, too, many of them without their families being informed as to their whereabouts