Russia broke all Minsk agreements with Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022.

When dealing with Russia, the "guarantees on paper" are worth less than the paper they are written on.

The West needs to understand that this conflict needs to be resolved militarily not only in Ukraine.

As long as the Russian regime is not defeated, this aggression will continue in other countries.

Russian military needs to be defeated, Moscow needs to be captured, and all Russian nuclear weapons need to be disarmed and deactivated.

That's absurd. The commodities being stolen don't belong to the state, be it Ukraine, DNR/LNR, or Russia. Does the "recognition" now imply forced nationalization of all private property?

BTW grain is being looted in Kherson region and other areas not part of DNR/LNR.

And of course the "liberators" try to steal money as well, because why not:


... except the video shows what looks like IBNS theft protection dye. But that's not stealing because DNR/LNR amirite.

Actually they did help. Russians were pushed out and weren't able to take Kiev.
At this point the more Russians die in this war the better for Ukrainians and the numbers keep growing. If a weapon can add to that number it's always good to have it.

This is a good piece. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIZIspwem2s

I was amazed how young squad commanders are. This guy was a total newbie and apparently finished one of the best military schools in Russia.
His superior's vehicle was hit and he didn't know what to do, what date it is, how to proceed.
-shit they are shooting at us
-shoot them
-the gun is stuck
-let's run away and hide

Javelins and bayraktars are a waste of money here. These guys just want to get drunk and sleep in a warm bed.

US officials have in recent weeks been meeting regularly with their British and European counterparts to discuss potential frameworks for a ceasefire and for ending the war through a negotiated settlement...Ukraine is not directly involved in those discussions, despite the US commitment to "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine."

They control southern areas where a large part of Ukrainian grain production is. And there are many reports of Russians loading and transporting grain to Crimea, if you bothered to look outside of your bitchute safe space.


Nonsense, global markets LOL, you just post random words now. The ship goes from Mariupol to "Russia proper". They're taking something that doesn't belong to them AKA stealing.

Ukraine Accuses NATO's Turkey Over Stolen Grain Before Lavrov Visit

...
What do you suppose would really happen to Bitcoin globally, if the U.S. were to impose Chinese-style laws?  Or even a fraction of that?  For one thing, you can forget about rooting for $100k...  For one thing.

I myself will continue using Bitcoin no matter what—as long as there is anyone else using Bitcoin.  I have advanced technical expertise, and I am ideologically motivated to use Bitcoin regardless of its market value.  How many are like me?

Following the China mining ban, what proportion of the global hashrate moved to the U.S.?  How many of those miners would continue to operate under adverse regulation?  Under an outright ban?  In other plausible scenarios?

Bitcoin is resilient.  But a major part of its resilience is in its people, not in technology.  There are no technological solutions to some problems.  Complacency when the writing is on the wall is one of those problems.  I am doing my part right here, right now, to try to help solve that problem.
...

Super-funny the comment of the Mediterranean being connected. I guess then Taiwan is connected as well both on the east and the west, north and south through different oceans so all fine.

Some legal opinions state that selling weapons to a party in conflict is a legitimate trade according to international law and does not make you a party in the conflict.  It does not remove your "non-belligerent" status no matter the precise weaponry, quantity or use - much more questionable to call that "neutrality". To be honest, I think that the RF would not want the US to be officially a belligerent party.

https://lieber.westpoint.edu/ukraine-neutrality-co-belligerency-use-of-force/

In general, Ukraine is seen as a country unlawfully invaded and defending its territory from an aggression. Most legal opinions would claim that selling weapons to Ukraine is helping restore international legality rather than taking part in a conflict.

My personal view is that selling material that will be used to defend the Ukrainian territory is legal and does not remove "non-belligerent" claims, as long as it is not used to strike in Russian territory - again IMHO even that would also bee acceptable if targeting troops or means used for the invasion. That is why US and UK have been very reluctant to send their versions of MLRS (the HIMARS) which have nothing to do with the RF MLRS - much longer range, technologically advanced munitions.

So, for now, even M777 that are used within Ukraine are perfectly acceptable IMHO. The switchblades, Javelin, etc.. are pretty much defensive weapons just to provide infantry with a fighting chance against armoured groups.

On Iran closing Ormuz, I do not see how that could be a defensive act. Attacking or blockading ships would be an act of war and it would justify a strong response.

Well, under that premise, you could argue that this war is actually helping US do so.

The US is not the only country in the world and, as far as I know, has until now only frozen assets when faced with very serious hostility. Freezing assets is not for free - the US is also getting a reputation hit on this.

https://ontheworldmap.com/oceans-and-seas/atlantic-ocean/north-atlantic-ocean-map.jpg

Turkey, Italy and Greece are connected to the Atlantic ocean through the mediterranean sea.

Countries that support Russia (Africa, Middle East, South America and some asian countries) have a low quality of life, have a low level of education which means their society is less educated, have a low-quality healthcare system, have a high level of corruption, have a high level of nepotism, have a high level of crime.
Soviet Union closed borders to its countries to make them live in swampland, to not let them see a high quality of life that was outside the USSR, once the borders were open, people started to travel and started to experience new life, they analyzed the difference in the quality of life between the USSR and West. Do you know where emigrants from post-soviet countries go to work? In western countries, they send money from western countries to their countries, they have increased their wealth, built new houses and increased their quality of life. That's why they are afraid of Russia, they don't want to go back, instead, they want to join the western family.

On regards to the RF becoming a dictatorship "in the future", I think that Moskva has sailed.

I think you have depicted the problem, but there is a solution. It is difficult for the RF to assume that its influence is in decline. It is not just the US, it is that all the world is moving ahead and the RF is not keeping the pace. Among other things, if you have the GDP of Italy and spend 11% of it in military you need to take it from schools, doctor, civil research, ... It is a problem of mindset.

This is some free consultancy for the RF:

Your objective is competing in a world that is growing fast. If you are left behind your people and the nation as such will not do well, no matter how many wars you fight.

- Develop the east. The territory is immense, the opportunities endless, you do not need to look further. I understand that as of now, there are political reasons why Moscow / St Petersburg would rather not do that, but long term it causes tensions.
- Attract investment, both local and foreign. You cannot do without it. See next point on how to enable that, but, as a hint, you should be seen as a pacific partner and stable on that regards.
- Put in place the enablers of growth: Rule of law, fair and speedy justice. This implies you need to get rid of the Cleptocrats and local despots, no way around that.
- Keep your strengths: good universities, good research, ability to manage complex projects, ...
- Use wisely the money that is coming from exporting natural resources. Try to build up the chain of value (e.g. do not export crude oil, but refined products).
- Do not enter into unnecessary wars. Your territory is quite protected and other than that your real threat is terrorism (the real one, not the guys with the "tatoos").
- Do not spend 11% of your GDP in weapons - it is not needed.

Life could be very different in the RF.

Heck Yeah, A few months ago, they banned Bitcoin trading, Mining, etc.

Now, Bitcoin is open for international payments in Russia.

Yes, It's happening. It's turning Orange BTC



Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/russian-central-bank-open-to-bitcoin-and-crypto-international-payments

#Hodl #Bitcoin-is-Freedom

I see that this voluminous and categorically important topic has been raised again.
After all, the argument about the denazification of Ukraine is one of the main factors in the support of the Russian population, which increased even more after the publication of videos showing Ukrainian soldiers installing military equipment in residential areas, and Russian war prisoners being tortured.
This support for Putin was confirmed even by the Russian opposition.



Against the backdrop of current events, the rhetoric of some experts has intensified that Hitler's Nazism is only about anti-Semitism, and that the presence of Vladimir Zelensky, who is a Jew, in the presidential post in Ukraine, shatters Putin's argument about denazification.
However, if we turn to the origins, then according to the book of Adolf Hitler, his goals concerned not only the Jews. Hitler was going to take over the living space in the East and considered the Slavic peoples to be an inferior race. During the Second World War, millions of Soviet citizens were exterminated in the death camps, mostly Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Consequently, Hitler's Nazism manifested itself not only in relation to the Jews, but also to the Slavs. Moreover, the authors of modern Ukrainian textbooks call Ukrainians one of the oldest agricultural civilizations and allegedly are "Slavicized Germans". At the same time, the Russians are supposedly not Slavs, and are of Finno-Ugric origin.
By the way, residents of Ukraine in social networks and on forums often call Russia - "Mordor", and Russians - "orcs". Judging by this logic, Ukrainians apparently consider themselves like elves or what?

Now we need to answer the question, was Putin's statement alone enough for Russian citizens to believe about the struggle of the Russian army against Nazism in Ukraine? Did ordinary Russian people have reason to believe that the modern Kyiv regime condones the spread of Nazi ideology, or, to be more precise, its offshoot in the form of Russophobia? Undoubtedly, there were such facts, and this was actively promoted by the ruling Ukrainian elite, which, in a decade and a half, was able to kindle the fire of Russophobia, unprecedented since the time of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (1942-1956).

1. In 2017, NBC News released a video about Ukrainian children's military camps, where kids were taught military training and Russophobic chants like "Death to the Muscovites!" and "Beat the Muscovites! Pile up the dead!"
2. There were other Russophobic chants from schoolchildren and young men, such as "Muscovite on a branch!" and "Muscovites on the knives!"
3. The torchlight processions in honor of the Nazi Stepan Bandera.
4. The names of the streets in honor of the SS division Galicia.
5. The neo-Nazi Azov battalion in the National Guard of Ukraine.
6. The positive attitude of President Zelensky and a large number of Ukrainians towards Stepan Bandera.
7. After 2014, the use of the Russian language In Ukraine was methodically limited at the legislative level. In May 2022, people who spoke Russian began to be beaten on the streets in Western Ukraine.

Before 2022, various Russophobic actions were widespread in Ukraine, under the guise of allegedly "trolling in the direction of the Kremlin propaganda".
Examples of such frenzied Russophobia in Ukraine, which they call "jokes". Links are given only to Ukrainian sources.
- Compote "Blood of Russian babies"
- Cake in the form of a baby, lying on the Russian tricolor
- "Colorado beetles in Odessa style, baked" (note: in 2014, 42 people who protested against the Maidan were burned alive in Odessa)
- "Separ in sour cream in the sauce of Russian-speaking babies" (the date on the banks 06.10.1942 apparently refers to an agreement on supplies from the USA to the USSR during World War II).
- "The last shelter of a separatist with the aroma of the Donetsk morgue". This is about predominantly Russian-speaking Donetsk, whose citizens the Kiev government has been bombing since 2014 and is still bombing. Ukraine from April 2014 to February 2022 is conducting a so-called anti-terrorist operation against residents of eastern Ukraine who protested against the illegal overthrow of the president and wanted to receive a special legal status within the country.



To those who say that this is just trolling and never Nazism - if you replaced the word "Russian" with "Jewish" or "African" in the name of these products, then the world society would instantly harshly criticize such "jokers". This is the most natural Nazism, no matter what words they try to cover it up with. And the fact that in Ukraine no one has been sued for this shows proving that these actions were encouraged at the highest levels. In fact, this is not trolling at all, but years of incited hatred broadcast in Ukraine against Russian-speaking people. It looks like a well-planned action to pit two neighboring peoples on ethnic and linguistic grounds. The purpose of these events is to introduce into the minds of Ukrainians literally a *cannibalistic rhetoric* that Russian and pro-Russian minded people are subhuman, whose deaths mean nothing. The consequences of such a policy can be seen in the way Ukrainian nationalists torturing Russian war prisoners and terrorized civilians in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

If someone sincerely believes that the incitement of an ethnic conflict in Ukraine against Russia is natural and only Russia is to blame for this, then these people most likely forgot that during the Cold War, the US Central Intelligence Agency didn't hesitate to cooperate with Ukrainian Nazis for subversive activities against the USSR. In 2014-2021, the Western media saw Ukrainian nationalists as a serious threat (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), but then this topic has been carefully muffled and it was called as Kremlin propaganda. And it looks very much like the current US government is following a 70-year-old pattern, taking advantage of nationalist groups in Ukraine.

- Cold War Allies: The origin of CIA's Relationship with Ukrainian Nationalists
- Background: The West collaborated with the Nazis to carry out the coup in Ukraine in 2014
- CIA‘s Use of Nazi Strategy on Ukrainian Right-Wing Nationalists Unabated since Cold War

Who started the war? Russians, without a question. Why? Because Ukraine wants to join NATO and you are afraid of NATO, is this right or do you really believe in the military operation motives that Putin said days before the war?

You have to seriously ask yourself some questions. Why is it always Russia that has problems with bordered countries? Georgia - 2008, Crimea - 2014, Ukraine - 2022.
Why do Polish dislike Russians more than Germans? I know three languages, German, English and Russian. I had no problem in Poland when I was asking someone a question in German and English but when they were hearing Russian (I have a great Russian accent, I have lived in Moscow too), sometimes they were ignoring me or weren't bothering.
Do you know why? Because Germany changed and Russia didn't. Germans don't worship Hitler but Russians worship Stalin. Germans dislike what Hitler did but Russians like what Stalin did and some people even pray for him. Russia hasn't changed a single, it still has imperialistic goals.

Ask yourself, why post-soviet 1. Joined 2. Are joining and 3. Want to join NATO but don't want to return back to the USSR?
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. Have you heard about these countries or do you know from your history that some of them were part of the Soviet Union and some of them were satellite nations of the Soviet Union?

You guys better ask yourself why Putin and other guys are rich, have multi-billion dollars, palaces and you have a low quality of life outside the Moscow and Saints Peterburg, dream to get higher education abroad.
Visit Norway and see how Norway spends its income on its citizens. Then ask yourself, why Putin doesn't do the same.

You have an unhealthy obsession with Hitler.

Here is what Ukrainians were up against besides Hitler:





Sounds eerily familiar these days.

Fun fact: Russia's glorious forever-president is a former officer of the KGB (the agency was known as NKVD at the time when the above atrocities were committed). But that's probably just a coincidence, nothing to do with him being a genocidal psychopath like the decades-worth of other NKVD/KGB agents.


Gotta love Putin's copypasta boys accusing others of "propaganda".

Here,how about this one? More nazi collaborators listed for "hero" status. If you proudly and shamelessly embrace their legacy without any care about what they did to Jews and other ethnic minorities then that makes you a NAZI sympathiser by default. Are you a NAZI sympathiser light_warrior ? I myself am Jewish and want my tax money and donations spent to help peaceful refugees and provide medical assistance but not to aid and abet anyone who makes light of the fact these "heroes" slaughtered our people and many others. Also stop using the typical russian sympathiser slur against anyone who dares question your "heroes" war criminal past crimes as it only makes you look like a thug and we already know there are plenty of thugs on BOTH sides of this conflict. Thugs never apologise or show remorse for what they do or have done. Thugs have no place in a civilised world.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/08/04/controversy-as-ukraine-mulls-giving-hero-status-to-alleged-war-criminals

Seventy-eight Ukrainian lawmakers from all sides of the parliament have proposed to give the title ‘Hero of Ukraine’ to controversial figures such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.
...
The proposal also asks the Ukrainian Parliament and the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to commemorate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA, operating from the 1940s and into the 1950s, on their 80th anniversary in October next year.
...
he is not arguing against the atrocities committed by members of the UPA towards Jews and Poles. However, he argues that Bandera should be remembered for his fight for independence.

“They are controversial; I agree with that,” Yurash says, “(But) they said that we don’t want to be a puppet or an instrument. We want to be an independent state. The story here should be remembered, but we should also not forget all the problems. However, their goal was very clear - an independent Ukraine. And it is worthy of giving stamps and coins for.”

Yurash says that it should be made clear that Bandera and the UPA aren’t receiving the honour due to the atrocities committed but for their role in the Ukrainian fight for independence.
...
“I do not disagree that we should remember, examine and acceptably apologise for horrible deeds done, but so did the other side.
...
“He is one of the people who defended Ukraine’s freedom,” Zelenskyy said in 2019.

“He is a hero for a certain percentage of Ukrainians, and it’s normal, and it’s cool.”

“Ukrainian nationalist groups including the Azo[v] Movement are actively recruiting racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist-white supremacists (RMVE-WS) to join various neo-Nazi volunteer battalions in the war against Russia,” the report said.

In a recent Washington Post interview, the head of the battalion, Andriy Biletskiy, said the group “completely” rejects Nazism. The Post noted that he has been quoted previously making white supremacist statements, and now denies having made those comments. The article quoted Bellingcat’s Michael Colborne, who has written a book on the battalion, saying that “there are clearly neo-Nazis” within the Azov movement’s ranks.

To those supporting the war, to those who have friends joining the army, to their families and relatives: Make an informed decision when you sign in:

https://youtu.be/5OQbIEKbZyc

The war is senseless, the leadership cares little for the foot soldier and Russia is not at risk. Joining the Russian army is not easy money nor a way of life, it is a way of death.

The US has been sending weapons to Taiwan for almost 50 years.

Some highlights from the past couple years:

40 155mm M109A6 Paladin Medium Self-Propelled Howitzer System and related equipment. ($750 million)

100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems (HCDS) consisting of up to four hundred 400 RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II Surface Launched Missiles; and four 4 RTM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II Exercise Missiles. Also included are four hundred and eleven 411 containers, 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense System Launcher Transporter Units, 25 radar trucks, spare and repair parts, support and test equipment. ($2.3 billion)

135 AGM-84H standoff land attack missile expanded response (SLAM-ER) missiles, 4 ATM-84H SLAM-ER telemetry missiles, and 12 CATM-84H captive air training missiles (CATM), including 151 containers, spare parts, support and test equipment, operator manuals, technical documentation, training. ($1 billion)

108 M1A2T main battle tanks, 14 M88 recovery vehicles, 16 M1070A1 transporters, 16 M1000 trailers, ammunition. ($2 billion)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_arms_sales_to_Taiwan

I can tell how much you're concerned about Taiwan by all the threads you've started on the topic, and even that is not enough since you need to derail this one.

Meanwhile in the real world, Russian nazis have outdone themselves again. Well, they did it a month ago, I just came across it now:

One can claim any stupid shit, but Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine did not invade Russia. Same in 2022. No amount of strawmanning/whataboutism can justify feeding parts of sovereign countries to the fascist Moscow regime just because Putin is stuck in his imperial delusions.

You forgot to mention China's nuclear weapons in Mexico, you're slipping.

Oh, sweety, those were instigated by FSB and the Russian military.

There was no problem in Ukraine until Russia started its terrorist operations.

Russia is a terrorist state.

You are lost and definitely on the wrong side of history.

The EU is probably keeping 500 euro notes as legal tender because they know it's going to cost that for a McDonald's meal in the future.

The Biden administration will ban Russia’s government from paying bondholders through American banks starting Wednesday morning, the Treasury Department said.
...
“OFAC can force Russia into default at any time. OFAC is still in the driving seat,” Ash said.

Welp, let's just throw another crisis onto the pile (Texas school shooting). During an election year no less.

Gee, what are the odds.  

Bandera was not near the massacres in Volhynia. You are attributing these atrocities to him instead of Mykola Lebed because you are a zombie who can only consume pro-Russian propaganda. Bandera was in the concentration camp when these atrocities were carried out.

I don't think you will find many Ukrainians today who would approve of the massacres of Poles during WWII. Of course, what happened was
deliberate, brutal ethnic cleansing. You will not find many Ukrainians today who are for the extermination of ethnic groups in Ukraine or elsewhere. That is just insane to suggest that the WWII massacres are somehow related to the invasion of Crimea and Donbas by Russia in 2014.

But on the other hand, Russian soldiers and Rosguardia have been given direct orders to annihilate the Ukrainian nation.

If you are truly against ethnic cleansing, you would be against Russians committing war crimes in Ukraine.  You would be against this war.

Instead, you are supporting a genocidal maniac who turned Russians into Z-ombies who think that bombing schools, hospitals, and civilian infrastructure somehow makes Russia great again and is just.  

All because Ukrainians consider Bandera their national hero?  That is just insane. But I repeat myself.

That wedge that Russians were always trying to stick between Poles and Ukrainians will not work. Polish people hosted millions of Ukrainians
fleeing Russian tanks in THEIR homes.

Here is the Polish president talking about the Polish-Ukrainian relations, current and past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpaz22R2WBw

Russians lost the social media war, lost the economic and political wars, and soon they will lose the military war.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda has decided to sign the law On Institute of National Memory that envisions introduction of criminal responsibility for propaganda of the Bandera Ideology and hand it over to the Constitutional Tribunal.

Google Translate
The ambassadors of Poland and Israel criticize Kyiv and Lviv for their historical policy
Diplomats explained that on December 24, the Lviv region council adopted a resolution on the allocation of public funds in 2020 to commemorate the Nazi collaborator Andriy Melnyk, as well as "xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Polish writer" Ivan Lypa and his son Yuri Lypa, creator of the "racist Ukrainian theory" race ".

The ambassadors also pointed out that on January 1, a banner with the image of Stepan Bandera was displayed on the building of the state administration in Kiev.

"Bearing in mind our innocent brothers and sisters murdered in 1939–1945 in the occupied territories of Poland, which are now part of Ukraine, we, the Ambassadors of Poland and Israel, believe that glorifying those who actively promoted ethnic cleansing is an insult that is counterproductive in the fight against anti-Semitism and in the process of reconciling our nations, "reads the statement.

...

A bit of time travel. And then teleportation?


You know what they say about extraordinary claims.

Perhaps you should have settled on "controversial" instead of trying to prove Putin's fantasies with fake information and lots of fallacies.

For his refusal to rescind the decree, Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo and on 5 July 1941 held under house arrest.[6] After January 1942 Bandera was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp but kept in special, comparatively comfortable detention.[7][8][9] In 1944, with Germany rapidly losing ground in the war in the face of the advancing Allied armies, Bandera was released in the hope that he would be instrumental in deterring the advancing Soviet forces.