Should we be worried about war

[Seasidesand76]

Seen a lot in the news about Ukraine using USA missiles against Russia. I've been thinking more along the lines that it won't start a WW3 and will resolve at some point without the UK getting directly involved in war. But there seems to be more and more tension and threats of an all out war recently.

Should we be worried about WW3? I haven't been prepping or anything but does make me wonder if I should start getting a few days worth of food in case. At the same time I don't want to go down the prepper hole and start getting over the top.

Assuming you mean russian then how tragic.

Did they mention anything about the numbers of Ukrainians being murdered while defending their country from these poor russians?

@DogInATent Well said:

Oh yes, nice Mr Putin hasn't done anything wrong...

Biden is a bit late with this. Russia has been fighting all-out and is now bringing troops from North Korea as well as the materiel it's been importing from N. Korea and China. Ukraine has been fighting with one hand tied behind it's back unable to reach into Russia to effectively strike against Russian rear areas. By holding back US permission to strike into Russian territory it also prevented the UK releasing permission for Stormshadow because it relies on US technology to work. And with Scholz being a wet blanket the whole NATO response has been dampened for too long.

Ukraine gave up its Soviet era nuclear arsenal and adopted a position of neutrality for the promise of security and sovereignty. Russia violated that in 2014. Ukraine has had territory occupied by Russian invaders for a decade. Too right Ukraine wants to push the Russians off its territory, and give up on neutrality in favour of the EU and NATO.

Yet you manage to be a Putin apologist, and now we have Putin's puppet about to take office in the US. How do you justify holding your position? Are you Russian?

People in Ukraine are being bombed, tortured, executed, and we're cowering in our comfortable homes worrying about a potential WW3.
If we capitulate to Putin's demands to resurrect the USSR - starting with the sovereign country that dared to live as a democracy on his border - because he's threatening nuclear war where does that end?
And as DogInATent points out Ukraine transferred all its nuclear weapons to Russia in 1996 as part of the Budapest Memorandum. A document that was signed by the leaders of Ukraine, russia, the U.K. and the USA, that guaranteed Ukraines independence and sovereignty. How do you think we are doing with those guarantees?

Sorry , wrong terminology. Thanks for the correction.

it was just a snippet I heard.

Please tell me what choice does a Russian conscript have?

Does that matter/is it relevant?

Yes, of course it does. Because Putin is spinning lies and deception to his own people. Conscripts have no choice and the mothers who are watching their sons go off to certain death have been sold a lie. Ukrainians are not the only victims here - Putin also has the blood of his own people on his hands.

How many of the dead russians are conscripts?

How many are criminals released from prisons?

How many are signed up to a private military company?

How many voluntarily murder Ukrainians for the money paid by the russian government?

I'll save my sympathy for the victims of this savage invasion

Also, Putin does not send conscripts to fight "abroad"

Unless ......shock horror.......he's a lying piece of shit 🤷🏻‍♀️

Most of them are not conscripts, they're contract soldiers - kontraktniki - so they absolutely have the choice. Of course, if like many of them you're very poor and from an extremely poor region (for context, about a quarter of the Russian population has no indoor toilet), then the prospect of a huge salary is going to look irresistible.

@herecomesautumn I am not pro Putin or anti Ukraine.

Never mind, it's a terribly sad thing.

I completely agree that Europe isn't spending nearly as much as it should on defence, but it is at least mostly moving in the right direction, and I expect that to continue. 75% of members are spending at or above the 2% of GDP guideline. That's a huge shift from 5 years ago.

It is, though what's happening to the Russians who choose to go to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians isn't really as sad as what's happening to the Ukrainians who've done nothing more than exist in their own homes and are being raped, tortured, and murdered for it.

It is a huge shift and very welcome. Now they have to spend more efficiently. There's no reason why they can't standardize on one MBT, for example.

You’re not wrong but probably the only way you’re going to get one European MBT is by dividing up the work between all the major European AFV builders..so you’ve got to get (from memory) BAe, Rheinmettal, KNDS and I think Iveco on board with the idea and all agreeing to play nicely…

Well there was the Warsaw statement the other day promising greater cooperation and integration...

I do not believe europe and or Nato has ever had a standard MBT, just as they don't all use the same rifles or artillery, having standardlised ammo is essential though, the uk needs to get on with this.

Building a new MBT would take many years and eat up budgets that would be better spent on more effective weapons that we already have, Putin is here and now, not in 10 years time.

Imho Europe needs to rapidly increase production of shells, missiles, air defence systems, planes/pilots & of course somehow, this is probably extremely difficult, get people to join the armed forces.

My understanding is that lots want to join but recruitment is such a mess that they drop out

@MagicFox

My understanding is that lots want to join but recruitment is such a mess that they drop out

UK? Yep, apparently recruiting now done by Capita rather than directly by HM Forces/MOD and many reports circulating that it’s not going at all well for quite some time now,

committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/98547/army-and-capita-must-share-blame-for-soldier-recruitment-failures/

Yes Crapita!

@WarProf

I completely agree that Europe isn't spending nearly as much as it should on defence, but it is at least mostly moving in the right direction, and I expect that to continue. 75% of members are spending at or above the 2% of GDP guideline. That's a huge shift from 5 years ago."

Whilst I agree it's a step in the right direction, it really is too little too late. And certainly too late to make any difference on the outcome of the Ukrainian conflict in 2025.

These countries need to have been spending 3% or more for the last 20 years to make any real impact.

I have no allegiancies or history or family connections but really I don't think those young kids are choosing to go to Ukraine and be killed.

Mostly they aren't young kids and yes, they are choosing to go. Conscripts (aged 18-30) aren't supposed to be sent to Ukraine - though of course many of them are pressured or tricked into signing contracts and then sent. Contract soldiers are mostly older - sometimes a lot older. A report last month found that half of the contract soldiers from Moscow are now at least 45; some of them are in their 60s: The Russian army is increasingly relying on older recruits — but frontline soldiers say ‘grandpas’ aren’t fit for war — Meduza

Does anyone find the bomb threats/ controlled explosions over the last few days, with no ongoing discussion afterwards on the news as to who was behind them, a little concerning?
Or does this sort of thing happen all the time and the media is making a big thing out of it?

Well said, spot on.
Putin has put boots on the ground from another country - imagine if a NATO country did decide to fight alongside Ukraine, what response would Putin have to that? Allowing Ukraine to strike Russian and NK troops/military targets in a confined area of russia is a fairly mild response to the Kremlin's blatant escalation.

Happens on and off on a regular basis, has done for years e.g just recently:

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/manchester-airport-bomb-threat-emirates-b2432233.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/east-croydon-station-bomb-suspicious-package-metropolitan-police-b1183293.html

We’re probably not going to get a detailed explanation from the authorities about what goes on with a lot of these incidents since doing so may give away details such as (in the case of airports) what can be detected by screening and what the response might be if item x is found verses item y being found.

Worth being aware though that in the Gatwick case yesterday the two individuals who in some way triggered that alert were eventually allowed to continue on their travels.