Russian Invasion of Ukraine

lassassinblanc wrote: Trap junior wrote: From the makers of Covid 19 comes a tale of World War 3. This poxy decade is the pits. Ze Germans sending their Chancellor to Moscow on Tuesday to try to talk Zorin out of WW3 Zorin is German

Trap junior wrote: lassassinblanc wrote: Trap junior wrote: From the makers of Covid 19 comes a tale of World War 3. This poxy decade is the pits. Ze Germans sending their Chancellor to Moscow on Tuesday to try to talk Zorin out of WW3 He was still German (East German)  Zorin is German He was ex KGB

It is ridiculous how much Europe and US are stirring the pot on this one. It's coming from western politics and media versus Ukraine and Russia. 

Edited by t_rAndy - 15 Feb 2022 at 9:18am

Yes but I would liken that to our army entering the North and taking back nationlaist towns that consider themselves Irish and not British that were being forced to become British. 

Edited by t_rAndy - 15 Feb 2022 at 9:30am

Borussia wrote: t_rAndy wrote: Yes but I would liken that to our army entering the North and taking back nationlaist towns that consider themselves Irish and not British that were being forced to become British.  There were only 2 or 3 deaths, wasn't a full scale Military assault.  Not saying I agree with them invading or with supplying weapons and the country is hugely corrupt so they are not shining lights or anything, not my point.  However, I can empathize with the situation that they are seeing these actions as a way to protect themselves and people who consider themselves Russia/Soviet. I think we as Irish should even be more empathetic to the situation given our history.  There is literally conflict going on to this today. Your "hot take" on this situation seems way off the mark.

Borussia wrote: t_rAndy wrote: It is ridiculous how much Europe and US are stirring the pot on this one. It's coming from western politics and media versus Ukraine and Russia.  Ukraine have constantly called for calm.  Russia have said they are not going to invade.  It's reported as no more than a military exercise in Russia.  At the end of the day, in my opinion it's a show of force, Russia don't want NATO to expand further and be within 500km of Moscow. Which is for me understandable. Russia are generally the ones who have been invaded in past wars and have suffered enormously.  They just want to protect their country and having this major military force has been expanding eastwards and would be within 500km of the capital if they get Ukraine, that is a problem that is going to stoke tensions. Having the buffer of Eastern Europe is a good thing in my opinion and you can definitely argue that it is NATO's expansion eastwards which is actually the act of aggression We were giving out about a military exercise 250 miles off Cork. Imagine the next time it was 200 miles and the next time after that 50 miles. That's basically what has been happening to Russia with NATO's expansion efforts. Russian literally invaded part of Ukraine a few years ago.

Read a good book on this a few years back (Prisoners of Geography). Moscow has no natural defences, no mountains, rivers, seas to protect it from invasion. The main way Russia has protected itself from it's enemies is by having a huge distance between its borders and its capitals. So any invading army needs such long supply lines, it invariably fails. It's why Siberia was so important in defending itself from the Mongols, Ottamans, and more recently Greeks, Swedes, Napoleon and the Germans in both world wars.

t_rAndy wrote: Again no expert and it is a hot take but I think what is also a but different with Ukraine is that the people are so close from an ethnic and cultural perspective. So 'losing Ukraine to the west' too is a hard pill to swallow.

Edited by Het-field - 15 Feb 2022 at 11:50am