Is the UK in danger from Russia?

[hereforalongtimenotagoodtime]

Keep receiving conflicting information. I am sick to my stomach and quite simply hate the unknown. So a simple question - is it likely that the UK will be in danger from Russia? And if so what does that look like? Cyber attacks, bombs being dropped?

The thing with hybrid warefare is how it creates multiple crisis at the same time in an effort to overwhelm.

Its the overwhelming that compounds any single issue.

I agree. It would be absolute chaos.

why would russia invade anywhere else we had the same fear mongering over Crimea.

the area has history, US backing of Svoboda etc.

I agree. Nothing wrong with having an understanding of what might happen, but some posters seem to relish setting out worst case scenarios.

Another misunderstanding sadly.

No we don't 'relish' what might happen. But our jobs are actually to try and keep society actually continuing. That includes having back up plans in place in case of a cyber attack. It includes back up plans when some dickhead goes and screws things up and decides he wants to be a bully. But there's only so much that can be done, and not every area has good back up plans. We try, but that doesn't mean everyone does. And there isn't really a back up plan incase everything goes to shit, because no one aligns with other, they don't talk, there isn't enough infrastructure in place to help if it does all go tits up. It's a terrifying prospect that we know cannot be resolved easily and will screw up many lives, including our own. We don't want it to happen, we'll be having to work 24/7 to get it resolved.

But yes, we relish it.

Critical infrastructure like air traffic control has to have a backup system which is on a completely separate system with no interaction for precisely this reason.

This strategy is employed for some systems outside crucial infrastructure, but not all.

The NHS can switch to hand written systems and notes if it has to, to a certain extent. But thats time consuming and means that you cannot always have relevant documents to hand as they are in another location rather than immediately accessible on your screen.

I think in terms of how we deal with the threat, i think we can all do things to help. It might be as simple as having addresses and telephone numbers written down somewhere. Or thinking about who you have locally who you could use for support in a crisis (another parent from school even if you aren't close). Its hard to know what more you can do which is realistic and useful tbh. Everyone should have an emergency pack as a rule to a certain extent anyway.

They didn't need to take Chernobyl to do damage, they just needed to blow it up. They probably think they can use it as a bargaining chip though.

@youhadmeatjello people will start emptying their bank accounts

@JuergenSchwarzwald

They didn't need to take Chernobyl to do damage, they just needed to blow it up. They probably think they can use it as a bargaining chip though.

I doubt Russia want's any hassle here. It was just on the way to Kyiv.

Why does Clive Myrie say "Keev"? Everyone else (including Ukrainians) seems to say Kyiv or Kiev. Surely it's not pronounced to rhyme with Steve.

They are using cyber attacks on banks & hacking private accounts in Ukraine already I heard on the French News, the viruses created were developed in Dec 2021... he's been planning this for months/years.

Chernobyl is already in a danger zone & europe is checking for radioactive leak already, they have said they can't control the site if there are bombs falling, the technicians can't get access.

Putin is ruined if he doesn't "win" Ukraine, he will not back down

I think cyber is a threat but that's nothing new and the best people on our side have been preparing for cyber attacks for years.
Check your passwords, make sure you're secure personally. There are people on our side protecting the banks, NHS and so on.

@Iggly

It's complicated basically, and I don't think we have any business getting involved in this war. In fact I don't think we have any business getting into any wars that don't directly affect us, as sad as that is for people around the world who cannot protect themselves

As we are not anywhere near close enough to being self sufficient, we don’t have the luxury of not getting involved. We’ve sold most of our national infrastructure and assets to overseas companies, we have not invested in home grown technology and have just encouraged foreign investment which means we have little control over a lot of our economy.

That is why our government is so easily bought by the likes of Russian donors.

So sadly we are involved whether we like it or not.

I don't want to get into a partisan political argument, but this is the kind of thing that has fueled a lot of people's worries around globalism, and fed into culture wars in the UK, USA, and now Canada. I kind of hate to point to Trump as having a brain of any kind but the fact is that in the US, he was the guy talking about beefing up industry and energy independence, not Biden or Clinton. And in the UK it's sure not Labour who has been talking about that.

Now whether Trump or anyone else actually cared or it was just talking points I don't speculate, but it has not been the liberal left that has been talking about these things and security at the nation level in terms of supply chains, energy, food. Quite the contrary a lot of them seem to despise any talk of that kind.

Reassuring to hear the government saying we will not interfere by sending troops to fight the Russians, as that would trigger a world war. Whilst it’s heartbreaking to hear of what the people of Ukraine are going through, I don’t want to sacrifice the safety of my family on the alter of the Ukraine invasion.

Rosehugger - Kyiv (pronounced Keev) is what they Ukrainians call it. Kiev is how the Russians pronounce it.

@Tealightsandd

If not Russia, there's Long Covid. Despite rumours to the contrary that threat has not gone away.

A bit of tiredness that all the experts agree diminishes with time and the vast majority that 'suffer' appear to be a certain sort of person. A compare that with potential for nuclear strikes on parts of Europe if anybody interferes!

There are some that suffer the after effects of covid where they had the need for intubation etc but that's a completely different thing.

Mangy you make good points

I said yesterday the things that will really worry me on the physical danger front are if they test air raid sirens and if world leaders vanish to their bunkers.

If we hear air raid sirens then the shit’s REALLY his the fan because the UK hasn’t had a functioning air raid siren network for decades! There are sirens for flooding or chemical spill alerts around certain factories etc but the Cold War sirens have long since been removed and if still in situ almost definitely don’t work.

@AtomicBlondeRose

To be fair I think I'd rather have no warning than soend my last 20 minutes in a state of blind futile panic......

@Emmelina you might want to ask for that link to be removed as it says who shared it when you watch!

fghjk

On the point of consequences, I just found this 10 min video which highlights a point I hadn't even thought about: food production.

Thanks for the link to the video, really interesting. I knew about how much wheat Russia produced but hadn't processed the implications of removing their contribution from the supply chain.

There was a program on recently about war ships and submarines which showed our navy intercepting a Russian submarine which was very interested in our under sea cables. I don't think they resolved why they were there.
I think a cyber attack, an attack on those cables would proper screw us up!

You can read about it

See this is what I think of when I think of a cyber attack. These things would be annoying but it is not a catastrophe for a shop to need to accept cash only for a day or two until systems are back (which they quickly would be).

Something to think about - how much cash do you carry around these days? How much do other people? The vast majority of money now is electronic.

Also thinking in terms of having to replace a lot of hardware - where does computer hardware come from? Well a lot comes from Taiwan, this is part of the reason it's been such a struggle to buy new cars and such recently. There is a ton of mining that is important to the IT industry in Ukraine.

I am a bit of a luddite, philosophically speaking, and I'm feeling increasingly justified in having thought that so much dependence on infrastructure that is so fragile and dependent on international trade was pretty dumb. Both in relation to covid and now security.

Thanks @Emmelina and others.

It is not derailing to reply to someone else's serious misinformation....

of tiredness that all the experts agree diminishes with time and the vast majority that 'suffer' appear to be a certain sort of person. A compare that with potential for nuclear strikes on parts of Europe if anybody interferes! hmm

It is NOT a 'bit of tiredness'. It is, however, damage that often doesn't show up in routine scans but does in specialist ones. Vascular damage. Brain damage (including early dementia), lung clots, microclotting.

And again there's relevance wrt covid and war. If there were to be cyber or any other attacks, you better hope that our government has a better prepared and executed response than they have for Covid. If it's anything similar, it will be a case of half hearted pretence of protection with money spent in the wrong places, before rushing to downplay, dismiss, and minimalise. We'll then be told to 'live with it'...whilst senior government members and their mates get themselves airlifted out to somewhere safer (perhaps their NZ bunkers).