Stop blaming them. NATO is a purely defensive alliance, designed to prevent another world war, it has nothing to do with Ukraine,Ukraine are an innocent democratic sovereign nation invaded by an aggressor without any excuse. The baltic members joined the alliance because they felt threatened by Russia. And Russia knows it even has nothing to do with NATO, it intended to invade its neighbour all along for its delusional empire building.
Yes, NATO is purely a defensive treaty organisation. I donāt believe NATO would ever be the aggressor vās Russia.
But the must have seen that for Putin to maintain respect and his position he would have to respond to eastwards expansion of NATO membership. They put Putin in a corner from where he has doubtless convinced his rich and powerful supporters and supporting bodies within Russia that they need to keep together and do something decisive. This of course is not to protect Russia from invasion, its to protect themselves from being deposed. NATO has pushed Putinās internal allies to support him.
I have been glued to the news for the past three days. I cannot comprehend the suffering of the Ukrainian citzens right now, especially the civilians.
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Me too. The news is slowing down my progress of doing my game programming workā¦ I have been struggling to sleep as well. And OP, please change the title to āRussia Invades Ukraineā, because it is an invasion.
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What do we think is the end game for Putin?
If he presses ahead and conquers the whole of Ukraine, he will end up with NATO tanks along his own border. Which is what he must have told his generals, cronies and party leaders he wanted to avoid. Sure, the border will be several hundred miles further west but with a troublesome Ukrainian population of 40 million behind it, will gaining Ukraineās farm-land be worth the long-term effort?
Isnāt it more likely he takes Kiev and then calls a halt? So Ukraine becomes East Ukraine and West Ukraine, two buffer states between Russia and NATO. Seems familiar - like the old West Germany and East Germany status of past times. On that point, will he accede to Kiev remaining part of West Ukraine, as berlin was to West Germany? Perhaps a divided city, with a new Checkpoint Charlie and a new Kiev Wall?
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Following a war on social media is so strange. But Iām feeling the same way.
In other news
EU membership talks right now seems like poking the bear, but it might be the time when EU members finally agree. The proposal was introduced by the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Slovak Republic, and the Republic of Slovenia.
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Just had a look at the USD/RUB chart. I have never seen a forex price chart that looks like that. Thatās quite a unique achievement for Putin.
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Hey lad 
Calm down now - āThis too shall pass !ā - have you noticed yet how there is ALWAYS another bright and shiny āThreat to humanityā presented by the hierarchy and the media to panic the Plebs into believing that āthose in charge know bestā ?
Ukraine was always part of the old Russian Empire and under Stalin 5,000,000 or more peasants were starved to death by Socialism in a very few years.
I have been watching the demise of the Western Civilisation from within through the mechanisms of Stupidity, āEquityā and Woke Culture which combined with our hysteria about āPoisonous Plant foodā was always destined to show those from other places (Russia, China, Islaam) that we were ripe for invasion in one way or another and arguably China nad Islam have already commenced their takeovers. Why should we feel worried about Russia wanting a piece of the action ? - Thereās nothing we can do about it and personally Iām not sure Iād rather be ruled by stupid woke weakling Control freaks of limited intellect, than by a guy who is clearly highly intelligent even if he too is something of a Control freak.
Furthermore we actually have no idea as to what is actually happening out there. The behaviour of the āLegacy Mediaā in itās protection of Trudeau from worldwide denunciation over the reasonable protests in Canada, shows that we have no real way of knwing what is the truth and what is just āGood for usā to āknowā !
I donāt know what youāre rambling about but you seem to be insensitive to the horrendous situation happening before us.
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"One death is a tragedy - 1 million deaths is a statistic "
Joe Stalin
Mate I was about 8 when our teachers were teaching us to hide under the desks - during the Cuba Missile crisis
And every day since there has been some existential crisis or another - youāll understand eventually - or not
Wont end anytime soon
This issue could rumble on as long as the original Iron Curtain.
Iām surprised the Russian forces have not pushed ahead with more energy. I expected if they attacked it would be a blitzkrieg campaign, with special forces on every airfield and tanks in Kiev within 24 hours.
Are the Russians going slow deliberately? Is this to minimise Ukrainian deaths and infrastructure damage? To allow time for diplomatic gaming? To allow time for Ukrainian opposition to depose Zhelensky? To avoid frightening NATO into a corner?
What are the odds that the bulk of the Russian military actively engaging Ukrainian forces doesnāt actually want to fight?
I think perhaps the logistical strategy didnāt pan out as expected. We did just see more intense shelling in eastern Ukraine, perhaps a statement from Putin that Russia isnāt going anywhere.
I think thereās a good possibility that the Russian army staff is holding back from forcing its soldiers to pull their triggers within eye-sight of flesh and blood Ukrainians. These are sister-states, and Iāll bet a lot of the Russian army will bear a long grudge - against Russia - if the fighting gets intense.
Perhaps Belorusian formations will become the spearheads.
If youāre interested in more information and videos from the ground, Reddit has been highly active. Many video uploads of locals documenting whatās going on.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/
I think youāre right. Iām seeing more videos of Russians in Ukraine, yelling at the Russian military as it moves through Ukraine.
Iāve seen those Ukrainian citizens doing that. Its astonishing, Its something that didnāt occur in Europe when the German army invaded under Hitler. its as if the Ukrainians know the Russians will hold back, and as if the Russian soldiers know their army is in the wrong. Soldiers arenāt robots, not even Russian ones.
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I have also been rather puzzled by the lack of air warfare. Usually the first stage is to use bombers, fighter planes and helicopters to take out airports and military infrastructure. But this has not happened as far as I can see.
Personally, I think you have spotted the answer. There are very strong historical and cultural ties between people in Russia and Ukraine and many people have family, relatives and friends in both countries. The Kremlin is presenting this āmilitary operationā as freeing the Ukraine population from its persecuting overlords. Therefore if there were many civilian deaths and property destruction it would not be popular āback homeā in Russia.
I suspect that Mr Putin thought that it would all be over very quickly, as it was with Crimea, but it hasnāt worked out that way. And now all the billionaire oligarchs are losing huge amounts of money due to the heavy sanctions and they are not happy about that. And, as always, money ātalksā, and I suspect Mr Putin has now been persuaded to get things sorted quickly with whatever means necessary. Hence we are starting to see heavier bombardments and civilian casualties.
There is bound to be a broad and fierce attack from Russia right now in order to provide pressure during the peace negotiations that continue tomorrow. It seems to be a universal aspect of negotiating skill to try and start from a position of strength compared with your opponent - and in this case Russiaās āposition of strengthā will be a total blockade of Kiev and the threat of total annihilation of the present government.
Belarus has now passed their constitutional changes which now allow nuclear weapons to be installed in Belarus and soldiers from Belarus are already reported to be inside Ukraine, joining the Russian troopsā¦
The world order is changing very fast and there is now no return to the former balance of fear. There is a need for some rapid changes and realistic re-appraisal of relations and security issues within Europe, including Russia.
What we do not need is any direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO since that would automatically, by definition, mean the US is involved and that is WW3.
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And then CHina would get involved
Quite probably - but in what way!!!
I doubt that China would want to see its major markets destroying each other - where would its wealth come from then?
No doubt they would further their interests in the Far East but I doubt they would want to physically participate in a war centred in the European theatre.
The difficulty in these kinds of scenarios is whether to, and indeed how to, include the use of nuclear weapons. Mr Putin has already mentioned these on several occasions but the rest of the world assumes these comments are more in the category of reminders and fear-mongering rather than any likelihood of actually using them. But when backed into a corner?.. who knows!
I think China is very commerce oriented and has great patience and long term vision, unlike the 4-year cycles of most democratic governments. They are already at par with the US in economic scale and if both the US and Europe start to shoot their own economies in the foot via the other side of sanctions imposed on the aggressors, then that will only serve to increase their economic power over all areas during the future recovery. The last thing they would want would be to āinviteā an escalation of military warfare into China itselfā¦
Well spotted Lads !
Perhaps you would like to hear the truth ?
From someone I have published a few times on these boards ?
A seriously intelligent and insightful man who actually moved to live in Ukraine some years ago and has been publishing from there ever since -