From CNN live..I'll recap some: Diplomats at UN Human Rights Conference walked out in protest when the Russian Foreign Minister began his speech. It was prerecorded because he couldn't be there but still. President Zelensky got a standing ovation before & after his speech to them, where he asked to join the EU. There's talk of formally naming Ukraine as a candidate. China still won't call it an invasion nor say outright Russia was wrong, but they're organizing evacuations of their citizens and are considering sending aid to the region (my personal guess is they can justify humanitarian aid like food & medicine to themselves).
Oh yeah...THAT'LL encourage future investing LOL. Aren't something like half their commercial planes beingrepossessed, too?
Cnn: " At least 10 dead and 35 injured in Kharkiv strike as search continues, says Ukrainian official From CNN's Hannah Ritchie, Olya Voitovych and Esha Mitra At least 10 people were killed and 35 injured in rocket strikes by Russian forces on the center of Kharkiv Tuesday, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko. “Freedom Square was hit by a cruise missile. There was a second hit by a similar rocket that hit the building after the rescuers arrived (in 5-7 minutes). One third of the administration building fell," Herashchenko said in a post on Telegram. The rubble is being cleared and there will be even more victims and injured,” he said. ... "Rescuers are working on the scene. The stairs and partial corridors on all floors are completely destroyed,” the post read. Indian student killed: An Indian student was among the dead after Russia's shelling of the city, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Tuesday. "
An underappreciated benefit of the Russian sanctions: The Russian troll farms have been knocked off of social media. No more BetsyJo458340580349589430 on Twitter professing she "much has love for Trump" from her supposed home in Indiana.
From CNN live "Economic wars quite often turn into real ones," former Russian President Medvedev says From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio in Moscow and Xiaofei Xu in Paris Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has lashed out against remarks by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who earlier said that France was waging an economic war against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. “Watch your tongue, gentlemen,” Medvedev, who is the current deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council tweeted on Tuesday. “Don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones.”" That's not a threat. They just really want to be allowed to steamroll through Europe at will.
It seems that Putin and his advisors had pre-prepared news releases (propagandthat do a good job of revealing Putin's goals and intentions for his invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately, for Putin, these items were released prematurely - before Ukraine was completely conquered. But they seem to indicate they wished to conquer Ukraine and make it a vassal state of Russia. Brave new world of Putin: An article by the propaganda publication RIA Novosti, which was to be published after the occupation of Ukraine Did anyone in the old European capitals, in Paris and Berlin, seriously believe that Moscow would give up Kyiv? That the Russians will forever be a divided people? And at the same time when Europe is uniting, when the German and French elites are trying to seize control of European integration from the Anglo-Saxons and assemble a united Europe? Forgetting that the unification of Europe became possible only thanks to the unification of Germany, which took place according to the good Russian (albeit not very smart) will. To swipe after that also on Russian lands is not even the height of ingratitude, but of geopolitical stupidity. The West as a whole, and even more so Europe in particular, did not have the strength to keep Ukraine in its sphere of influence, and even more so to take Ukraine for itself. In order not to understand this, they had to be just geopolitical fools. China and India, Latin America and Africa, the Islamic world and Southeast Asia – no one believes that the West leads the world order, much less sets the rules of the game. Russia has not only challenged the West, it has shown that the era of Western global domination can be considered completely and finally over. The new world will be built by all civilizations and centers of power, naturally, together with the West (united or not) – but not on its terms and not according to its rules.
False dichotomies for $1000 Alex: Oppose the Russians in Ukraine and you are somehow a "nazi". Oppose the Trumpists in the US and you are somehow a "commie". Not a slippery slope at all . Right out of the playbook.
It's a little more complicated than that. They lease them and they are in default on the leases because of the sanctions. The last time I flew into Moscow I booked an aeroflot seat because it was 300 bucks cheaper than flying delta. Scratched my head when I got on a delta flight with my aeroflot ticket. lol I never will understand how airline logic works.
Another under appreciated irony - in October Poland hastily approved a $402M border wall with Belarus to stop the flow of migrants into Poland. Now, there are almost 200,000 refugees from Ukraine that have poured into Poland. Probably glad they spent that money on the wall now??
. Note the evil. If this was about the building and it’s capabilities, they could have hit it at night. They wanted to kill civilians.
Anyone read any part of that where it blamed Ukraine joining NATO? No? How about liberating the people? No? Anyone read the part where his plan all along was to reintegrate Ukraine as a Soviet...oops...Russian state? Yep.
Strange. Seems like Left and Right poles have been crossed in this thread/ on this issue. Usually it's the left thay disses America for propping up dictators, not supporting democracies, only caring about our interests, and the Right that inclines towards displacing tyrannical authoritarians... Here we seem to have the Left clamoring for intervention, and the right, seemingly lamenting a tyrant actively self destructing. Weird. Im just enjoying the show. Especially the self destruction part, where Stalin's legacy peters itself out In a final spasm of death throws. FWIW, in terms of the end game, i hope and expect Ukraine to hold serve, preserve its independence, and that the international community will actively help her rebuild. As for Russia, i optimistically hope and expect Putin to deposed and ostracised, and with him, Stalin's legacy finally buried--and that we help Russia recover like with Germany and Japan in the wake of WWII--something that was never done, in the wake of the cold war--not to my recollection anyway (which is prolly a lot to do with why Russia has remained *Russia*).
Difference between legal immigration and illegal, though. Poland agreed to receive Ukranian refugees. They don't have to receive refugees coming through from other places without prior agreements. Although now that Belarus is joining this action that wall may be of more benefit now.
These are the early days of this war. To me, it appears that Russia sent in less experienced smaller units to test Ukrainian resolve and defenses and is now pouring in larger units.
Rubio is spot on, however, I don't think Putin much cares about the Russian economy or even popular support at this juncture. He's set for life and probably doesn't have much life left as he turns 70 years old this year. All he cares about is Kyiv and having Ukraine in Russia's sphere, the people be damned. His belief is that Kyiv is more important than a couple years of pain at grocery stores and banks for ordinary Russians. That said, much like he underestimated Ukraine's will to fight back (they obviously want nothing to do with Russian control), he is underestimating his own people, because Russians will rise up and oust him. My feeling is that if this "40-mile convoy" takes Kyiv and Russian military begin to arrest Ukrainian officials (perhaps Zelensky himself), you'll see the sanctions ratchet up even more. NATO can still target the Russian central bank in ways it has not yet. Germany can withstand higher gas prices as the weather warms, curtailing imports from Russia. There's still much more economic damage the world can do to Russia that it hasn't deployed yet. Biden can also rubber stamp the drilling permits and bring America back to energy independence. The game plan should be regime change by the hand of the Russian people.
