Fair point. I'm probably a bit desensitized. Though I don't feel any shame about it. Putin brought this war to the Ukrainians and every single person who dies in this conflict and all the harm that occurs is his responsibility and shame alone.
I agree but the people that die have family and if reports are to be believed, most are there against their will.
Not having road signs got worse for the Russians....from CNN live "Google Maps suspends live traffic layer in Ukraine From CNN's Brian Fung Google Maps has blocked two features in Ukraine that provide information to users in real time, the company confirmed to CNN on Sunday. The disabled features include Google Maps' live traffic overlay — a feature some researchers have used to monitor the conflict from afar — as well as Live Busyness, a feature that displays how popular a location may be at a given time. Google made the change in an effort to help keep Ukrainians safe and after consultations with local officials, the company said."
Why shouldn't we? It's as if you're arguing that we shouldn't consider other countries for NATO because it upsets Putin. Let's remember, these are sovereign countries, not Soviet puppet states and they have every right to align with whom they want in their national interest.
Uh oh...Oligarchs getting hit again... "UK to crack down on "dirty money" from Russian oligarchs From CNN's Susanna Capelouto British leaders plan to introduce legislation in Parliament on Monday aimed at clamping down on money laundering and fraud following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The measure would strengthen law enforcement to go after corrupt oligarchs and create a so-called “Register of Overseas Entities,” where foreigners who own property in the United Kingdom must be identified by name, according to a government statement. “There is no place for dirty money in the UK,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the statement. “We are going faster and harder to tear back the façade that those supporting Putin’s campaign of destruction have been hiding behind for so long.” ... The registry will be retroactive for property bought up to 20 years ago in England and Wales and since 2014 in Scotland. The bill also includes a prison sentence of up to five years for anyone breaking the new rules."
I thought Putin might be doing some “saber rattling” to try and make Biden look weak. But that’s if this ended up being a bluff. That’s basically the same crap North Korea does with every new administration. I can’t believe actually committing to going forward with a major invasion like this was just to “help Trump”. His interest in taking Ukraine must be well beyond that. Make no mistake I think Trump was part of his long game to get back a corrupt puppet govt in Ukraine (after losing it in 2014), to minimize his own sanctions, to degrade the Zelensky govt (with Trump and Giuliani’s help!) and just move back in politically using heavy disinformation tactics to roil Ukraine politics. With Trump out of the way, he may have had to shift tact that it could only be taken with force rather than with coercion. If the rumors about his health has any validity, there may have been an artificial urgency rather than to wait and see if long games with U.S. politics and NATO disruption would play out.
EU looking to bring Ukraine in. Cnn live "Ukraine belongs in the European Union (EU) and the bloc wants them in, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a televised interview with Euronews Sunday. "We have a process with Ukraine that is, for example, integrating the Ukrainian market into the single market. We have very close cooperation on the energy grid, for example. So many topics where we work very closely together and indeed over time, they belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in," von der Leyen said. In a tweet Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke to von der Leyen about strengthening Ukraine’s defense capabilities and its membership in the EU."
I was (perhaps still am) not very optimistic about how much sanctions would stop Putin, but I am heartened about the many different countries taking the fight to him. Internally, this doesn't seem to be playing well with the Russian public either.
Trump was a tool used by Putin to try to weaken NATO. Trump created division among NATO allies. Putin miscalculated Biden’s ability to so quickly unite the NATO countries. Biden is being accused of weakness when, as a result of the run up to this invasion, Biden was able to unite the alliance and to move the reluctant countries to want to join. Putin erred in thinking that the alliance was too badly fractured. His error. Sad that Biden is not getting credit for outing Putin’s Oman’s so effectively and for what he has done to bring the alliance together. With a big assist from Putin.
Oligarchs...Russian mafia even...they love their money. And Putin is bad for business & a bad investment right now. So it only helps in that more folks would be willing to kill him.
Concur. I feel like ive seen this movie before. Perhaps two different movies. The last scenes of the Battle of the Bulge, and War and Peace come to mind.
I don't think NATO was going to invade Russia once Ukraine joined NATO, but the Monroe Doctrine applies. If Ukraine is at war, then so is the United States if Ukraine is part of NATO.
Looking at mil flight tracking, all the NATO stuff that has been flying over Europe with transponders on all week have gone dark and turned transponders off tonight.
Well...let me fix the argument for you. We shouldn't add foreign countries to NATO if we know adding them will provoke war, which in turn will result in mass bloodshed. The point of NATO was to prevent future wars. It doesn't make sense to provoke war, when the whole goal and purpose of the organization is to prevent war. JMO.
