To think the adoration of Zelensky in the UK feels very wrong?

[WarWhatIsItGoodFor]

Exactly that. Why are UK politicians lapping it all up and hanging on to his every word? The laughter from MPs when he said he enjoyed English tea but now wants English planes… in what sense is that funny? He is wanting war planes to cause more bloodshed, death and destruction. I hope this doesn’t lead to Russian retaliation.

Zelensky's doing what any leader of a borderline third-world country would do if they were invaded by a much larger neighbour which happens to have on of the largest nuclear-armed military forces on the planet. Ask for help.

I don't know much about the man, he seems like a bog-standard leader of a minor country (in terms of global standing). I certainly don't "adore" him and I think our support should have been limited to humanitarian and military aid in Ukraine itself, we shouldn't have taken in their refugees.

On the other hand, Putin is a prize cunt. Possibly the biggest cunt the world has seen, certainly the biggest since Stalin died. If we just ignore him and let him steamroller through Ukraine, what do you think will happen next? I am pretty certain he'd think about reclaiming more former-communist territory - Poland, Romania, Albania, eastern Germany. At what point should we stand up to him? Better help the fighting whilst keeping it at arms length than allowing him to get too close.

Definite, a Freudian slip. I disagree with you about Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, they've always wanted to be Russian and held referendums won by huge majorities which Ukraine considered illegal and never recognised. They've been territories in an effective civil war since Ukraine independence. This is where the Azov regiment, its brutality, have been infamous for in these regions. Their population have been brutally repressed for supporting their Russian ancestry.

But you won't read anything about it in our newspapers or hear it on TV..

I read a lot about the Azov regiment in our newspapers last year.

I also read Amnesty and ECHR about brutalities in those years after Russia annexed those regions, and saw there were both Ukrainian and Russian crimes - but more Russian. I also know that after annexing Crimea Russia moved in mercenary soldiers, and Russian regional rulers.

Here is a map image of the 1991 referendum:

I also know that after annexing Crimea Russia moved in mercenary soldiers, and Russian regional rulers.

They also deported a lot of the people living there and moved in a lot of Russians. Between 50,000 - 200,000 Crimeans left and Russia moved in between 100,000 - 300,000 Russians.

fpc.org.uk/crimea-deportations-forced-transfer-civil-population/

It's amazing how you can get a pro-Russian referendum result when you bus in hundreds of thousands of Russians.

It's very, very far from the first time Russia's deported native Crimeans btw. In 1944 more than 191,000 Crimeans were deported to very harsh places within Russia. Tens of thousands died. The Crimean Tatars remained in Central Asia for several more decades until the perestroika era in the late 1980s, when 260,000 Crimean Tatars returned to Crimea.

@Alondra You still have t said when Ukrainians and their tanks had crossed into Russia

Be a dear and answer, would you

About the disinformation war:

Twitter exec says 'hundreds of thousands' of Russian disinformation accounts still active on Twitter

Twitter's former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth told Congress that "counterfeit" Russian accounts targeting the US are still active as part of an "ongoing campaign.
weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/twitter-exec-says-hundreds-of-thousands

And to be very clear, "disinformation accounts" doesn't mean "accounts saying something the reader didn't agree with."

It means accounts traced back to entities in Russia.

“I still remember the rage I felt when I saw accounts with names like ‘Pamela Moore’ and ‘Crystal Johnson’ — accounts purporting to be real Americans, from Wisconsin and New York, but with phone numbers tracing back to St Petersburg, Russia,” Roth recounted. “These accounts were operated by agents of a foreign government, and their mission was to stoke culture war issues on social media to try to further divide Americans.”

As regards Azov, do watch this excellent interview with Bohdan Krotevych, Tavr - Chief of Staff, First Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment, after his release from Russian captivity:

I don't normally watch 2 hour sub-titled interviews but this one is riveting. The intelligent, carefully thought out and measured responses to very probing questions from the interviewer are believable. There is a rational and humane person in the interview chair who has clearly been through a lot. He is still thinking of his country and his people. His job is not yet done.

blueshoes You still haven't answered my question as to why you want to know if English is my first language, and if I was in the UK when Iraq was invaded.

@ellyeth because I do not believe a word you say and neither do you and if you did, it is pitiful. This talk about shills and bots went over your head? The answer is to your question is yes.

BashirWithTheGoodBeard
some Westerners trying to sound anti imperialist completely ignore any Ukrainian agency, discount the idea that the people might actually want self-determination and have the same right to choose a (flawed) leader as anyone else.

I think what is interesting is that while it was apparently OK for Russia to own the Ukrainian president outright (and for him to have a palace with gold bath-taps, $100,000 chandeliers, and all the other vulgar and ostentatious garbage, paid for entirely by theft from the Ukrainian people), the idea that the USA might have been in favour of the outraged popular uprising which deposed him is completely unacceptable.

It a very selective viewpoint to hold. A bit like balancing naked on the point of a needle, in terms of comfort.

(Incidentally, where did the deposed Russian-backed ruler Yanukovych end up? I know he high-tailed it to Russia via Crimea initially, but where is he now? Still loitering in Sochi? And is he still claiming to be president of Ukraine, or is he now wanting to rule only the Donbas – always the region he massively favoured over the others, to which he gave 46% of available nationwide grants while he was in power; one might almost think he was preparing it for the Russians to take over and run....)

👏👏👏

I disagree with you about Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, they've always wanted to be Russian and held referendums won by huge majorities which Ukraine considered illegal and never recognised.

As others have said the Russian backed separatist referendums in 2014 cannot be taken seriously. Various surveys in 2014 in eastern Ukraine paint a different picture to your claim above:

“A poll released by the Kiev Institute of Sociology, with data gathered from 8–16 April, 41.1% of people in Donetsk were for decentralisation of Ukraine with powers transferred to regions, while letting it remain a unified state, 38.4% for changing Ukraine into federation, 27.5% were in favour of secession from Ukraine to join the Russian Federation, and only 10.6% supported current unitary structure without changes.[18]

“According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre from 5–23 April, 18% of eastern Ukrainians were in favour of secession, while 70% wished to remain part of a united Ukraine.[

“Another poll, taken by the Donetsk Institute for Social Research and Political Analysis, found that 18.6% of those polled in the region opposed changes to the government structure, 47% favoured federalisation, or at least more economic independence from Kyiv, 27% wanted to join Russia in some form, and 5% wanted to become an independent state.”

Thank you, really useful information.