Président Macron's speech tonight. (with English subtitles, I hope)

This

It’s a concern of mine- a man who can be manipulated, not oniy as a vulnerable teen by a predator, but as a grown man by the same predator.

I have a solution, conscript all the illegal boat migrants given they’re mostly men of working age.

As they’re so keen to come to the UK perhaps they’d care to give something back to their adopted country.

The leftie warmongering is as terrifying as the lefty insistence everyone has a worse life to include trans/accept mass immigration/spend absurd amounts of money on the disabled and degenerate leeches, it would be fine if it was only your lives/tax money/freedoms infringed upon but you're dragging everyone into your foolishness. Take a look at the drone videos and ask if that's what you want happening to your young men over some minerals - the elites don't give a shit about Ukrainian freedom. I expect the attitude will sharpish change when they start sending women and people with mild disabilities off to be blown up instead of the fit and healthy, or start cutting state help to fund some pointless war. Macron has ruined his country and you all clap like seals when he drags us further into conflict as though he's some righteous man.

Well thank goodness France kept their nuclear deterrent, merci for saving our arses.

There was a question about casualty numbers. Various sources argue about the numbers.

The one thing that I know for certain is that a Sky news team was allowed into Krasnodar where they did various vox pop interviews. So many Russian soldiers have been killed that a new cemetery had to be opened up in Krasnodar. The war graves seemed to stretch quite a distance. Some sources claim 80,000 but I can't find a definitive number.

Oh do grow up! Wtf has his wife got to do with what is being discussed. Why do posters constantly derail serious threads with nonsense like this?

I don't think that Putin actually ordered the killing of Prigozhin, he is colder, more calculating than that, now the next mutineer won't surrender. I have read that the military leadership were far angrier with him than Putin was. I believe that it was the generals that decided to off Prigozhin and Putin was presented with a fait accompli, which neither pleased nor displeased him.

@ZebedeeDougalFlorence no it isn't, but equally we don't have a choice in wether we deal with him or not.

I don't think that is a reasonable question,

Who do you think could have told me? Wasn't 6 months the general sort of estimation when it all kicked off? That's the sort of time people who took in Ukrainian refugees in their homes thought it might be for, a year at worst? No?
As for 3 or 4 years, maybe I'm not interested enough, knowing whatever I might think has no bearing whatsoever on what happens next, I do tend to switch off. Well done you for paying attention. Do you have the number of deaths too for this shit show or is that beside the point?

I don't have an issue with the US telling us to step up and pay for our own defence. Most Europeans have now acknowledged that that's reasonable.

But that really isn't why we no longer consider the US to be a reliable ally.

Sadly this is all correct.

The 3rd anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was marked at the UN by a motion condemning Russia for the invasion – and the US voted against the motion and with Russia.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7435pnle0go

Does not surprise me

Who told you it was going to be wrapped up within 6 months?

Leaving aside that you can't even remember when Russia invaded (the full-scale invasion) Ukraine in February 2022 – the 3rd anniversary has just passed and was widely commented on and taken notice of by anyone actually interested.

But 6 months? Putin said he'd take Kyiv in 3 days.

Bit of a fail for him.

This thread has become completely batshit.

Why thank you for taking the time out of your day to make that face at me 🥹

🙄

As I said the US telling you that they will stop supporting you to force you start making the rights decisions doesn't make them not allies. If you truly valued the US as allies you would have done everything you can to work with them instead of taking the easy road and coasting while being subsidized by the US.

As the saying goes on mumsnet when a man lives in with a woman and expects her to do the chores and pay while he doesn't, we call him a "cocklodger"

As I said European leaders had lots of time and warning and they failed so you should be angry at them. No matter how much the US spent supporting Europe you would all still look down on them like they are beneath you and you are better than Americans. We see it everyday on sites like mumsnet, reddit etc so yes it makes sense for the US to prioritize itself.

And what are you going to do about it? That's the reality we have to deal with. Remember when this was all going to be wrapped up within 6 months? What's your solution?

I find it funny how you're all angrily stating that the US is no longer an ally because they don't want to keep paying for you

No longer an ally because of pallying up to Russia, slapping trade tariffs on former allies, saying they are going to take Greenland one way or another and trying to annexe Canada.

These are not trivial reasons to consider that the US may no longer be an ally.

I don't have an issue with the US telling us to step up and pay for our own defence. Most Europeans have now acknowledged that that's reasonable.

But that really isn't why we no longer consider the US to be a reliable ally.