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.

Russia is ranked as more corrupt than Ukraine.

I think the only support comes from within our media, very very few around my area support whats going on, we just see our taxes being thrown away, all this "Aid" and "weapons" we are sending is fuelling the problem and who benefits? cui bono? Well what happens is when our gov announce 5billion in aid, they mean they are giving to their mates who will then supply the "aid" to Ukraine, when we supply weapons what happens is the arms dealers get paid not once but twice as what we send them has to be replaced. Our govt in the west all seem to have gone rogue and the blatant rip off happening right in front us beggars belief but for some reason people are too afraid to stand up and do something about it, instead relying on social media to control them, very very strange times we are living through.

I see the Russian bot farms also target MN.

Always good to have a high bar to aim at.

All the burning issues of the day, all the time ...

Robust diplomacy alongside the ongoing war could be extremely powerful. It is worth remembering that Russia's argument for annexing Crimea was that the population is Russian

And in the not-far-distant past Russia stated that Crimea was Ukrainian.

... half the Ukrainian population (including many who want Ukrainian independence) speak Russian as their first language

Yes, and they were fine with that. It was a happily bi-lingual land. Until Russia created strife in the Donbas after invading Crimea. You're aware that a LOT of the Ukrainian volunteers have Russian as their first language and still fight the invaders?

You saw the huge mass protests in Kherson, a Russian-speaking city, against the occupation?

The inhabitants of Ukraine may have spoken Russian. They sure didnt want to be invaded.

But through diplomacy it might be possible to find a way of persuading Russia they can leave with their integrity sufficiently intact for it not to be a total humiliation in the eyes of their people. E.g. they secure the place of the Russian language in education (Russian language schools were banned)

very, very recently. In the last 3 weeks. This is a distortion of facts and dishonest.

It might not work but failure to try is a lost opportunity.

To even bother trying, you'd have to have faith in Russia's ability to keep its promises. It promised not to invade Ukraine not two weeks before ... it did.
This information is freely available.

@BohemianBoho Thats my view too. I have read a report about weapons donated to Ukraine turning up in central Africa. It raises questions over whether they ever got to Ukraine or whether they were siphoned off after getting there. Either way, arms are generally a bad thing. They only have one purpose - to kill. War is chaotic and innocent people always die. So it is morally incumbent on everyone to at least try to be grown ups and find a non-violent route to a solution.

Who is more corrupt is just academic really, support for Ukraine is not exactly pure altruism is it, people knew as war broke out that Ukraine were on their own to some extent as NATO could not afford to get involved. But it us definitely in everyone else’s interest (and very much the UK’s) that Ukraine hold Russia back. The admiration is at least in part gratitude.

Really?

What would that have to do with us anyway?

I don't know about you but I am against standing up for and supporting nazi regimes. Nato broke its promise and has been creeping closer and closer to Russias border, Ukraine was the straw to break the camel back in spite of being warned what will happen, then we have Ms Merkel who said the Minsk agreement was only to buy time to arm Ukraine, our ruling elites are making a mint out of this "crisis" and pushing us closer and closer to WWIII, the doomsday clock is already only 90 seconds to midnight which is the closest we have ever been and lets not dwell on Seymour Herches new article which says it was the USA that blew up the nord stream. Payback is going to be a bitch as they say.

@Warriormum1 interesting point

When has he been travelling the world in private jets while the Russian genocide is going on

He's been abroad twice. USAF and RAF flights.

But I expect you're right. Those Globemasters are pure luxury.

When you live in a country that’s had six incompetent Prime Ministers in a row, meeting a leader with integrity courage and charisma gets pretty exciting.

You appear to have got a little muddled.

Please give us your alternative. What would you do, surrender to Russian control. Yes, you probably would as your only fight back is being detrimental to a person stature and ignoring what the people of the country want. You may not have understood everything that’s been leading up to this and the implications it has on the UK and other nations, so to simplify ‘you do you hun’.

So they should roll over and let Russia colonise them? Then Poland, Germany, Belgium, maybe France and the U.K?

So some people here would prefer that we had not supported Ukraine?

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

We should not be letting evil triumph

scatterolight · Today 21:22
He's a megalomaniacal shortarsed dickhead dragging his poor people through endless bloodshed. I don't know why most people can't see it. Surely the endless posing in military fatigues is looking ridiculous now

Surely the endless posing in military fatigues is looking ridiculous now

Perhaps he’ll take them off when the last Ukrainian soldier can finally come home and the country stops getting bombed.

I am sure they are all finding a year of being attacked by Russia a bit ridiculous, but there it is.

@CrimsonPostBox it is a shame that zelensky having risen to power on an anti corruption ticket is himself corrupt but sadly it is true.

I note that his visit to the UK follows hot on the heels of his erstwhile funder Kolomoisky being turned over by the state. This is typical of oligarch infighting.

I wonder if he's going to be staying in one of his mansions in Mayfair that he bought with the proceeds from crashing the national bank.

Probably not eh.

The government already spends 5 times as much on the NHS than it does on defence.

80% or more of your taxes are already going to fund the welfare state and education.

Don't be so stingy. Spare a little for those less fortunate than us.

I hate all this , it’s become a circus. And please I’m by no means a Russian supporter or in any way against supporting Ukraine ( up to an extend ) but I think we are doing it blindly . Ukraine always had massive corruption issues with it hun its politics and government organisations. So handing in cash and weapons this way seems very silly . I know putin is a freaking lunatic but even him at some stage will want peace talks and I think that’s what we should be pushing Ukraine too ,not the continuation of a war that will only kill more innocent Ukrainians.

Yay! Let’s do that, as the UK also have a short Prime Minister and according to one poster that’s enough to give away your country to the bloke who has the biggest tanks. Life would be so much easier if we were under the control of the Russians - would save a lot of time thinking about things. Probably wouldn’t be allowed Mumsnet so I’d get a lot of my life back to be spent toiling the fields, birthing, cooking, cleaning.

So, whereabouts in Russia are you? Are you concerned that the bot farm trolls are going to be called up to the front line?

for information about Russia saying it wasn't going to invade in Feb last year:

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-17/russia-tells-u-s-no-ukraine-invasion-planned-tass-says#xj4y7vzkg

Russia stating Crimea was Ukrainian:
On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR under Nikita Khrushchev issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The action was attributed to Nikita Khrushchev, then-First Secretary of the Communist Party
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea

Are you aware that Russia is banning all Ukrainian textbooks and books in schools in occupied Ukraine and burning them?

Schools teach in Ukrainian, which is fair enough since it's ... Ukraine. Russian is not banned until very recently in one establishment. It's very hard to escape the conclusion that this one banning is as a direct result of, yes, the invasion and the Russian statements that Ukraine should not exist.

The banning of Russian language:
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/speaking-russian-banned-leading-ukrainian-university Feb 3rd, 2023.

One institution.

As opposed to all the schools in occupied Ukraine being forced to speak in Russian and destroy Ukrainian books.

@randomchap Good men don't do nothing. However, doing something doesn't necessarily mean providing military hardware. So far it is estimated that 120,000 Russians and 120,000 Ukrainians have died in this war. So nearly a quarter of a million people who were going about their ordinary lives a year ago are no longer alive. Prime minsters and presidents never die in wars. They leave that to young men. So when they eschew diplomacy they are the people who are doing nothing.

I'm confused.

I didn't realise Ukraine was a satellite state of russia, and had to do what they were told

FFS. It's like clockwork

The barbarians propoganda projects ALWAYS crank up when zelensky gets attention. It's pathetic.

Have we had "shelling the Donbas for 8 years" yet