Are we going to end up having a war.?

[sqiudgames]

All this going on - do I need to be worried about a war coming ? With Russia ?

We’ve sent weapons, trained troops, I assume we are providing support with intelligence and logistics etc. i think we have pledged 0.5 billion in financial aid to Ukraine as well. Honestly Boris is a complete and utter twat but the UK and the USA the baltics and poland were the only people taking it seriously. The fact that the UK government didn’t even bother asking the Germans for permission to use their airspace to transport weapons to Ukraine is just really telling. I was reading reports on western europeans eye rolling at the UK and the USA and acting like they were just getting their knickers in a twist. Diplomacy was never going to work.

If they take ukraine I’m worried they will go for the baltics as well to link up Kalingrad at which point the Nato will have to respons and the UK will have to directly intervene as part of Nato. I can’t believe I’ve just said that.

@Raisinsun,

You seriously think we should send troops to Ukraine?! Firstly, you massively overestimate our military, it would be a slaughter.

Secondly, supposing a proper military country like the U.S sent troops and managed to turn the war around, what next? Chemical shells or tactical nukes? And Ukraine would cease to be the theatre of war, Poland would become a legitimate target.

And if we responded with tactical nukes, will Russia up the game with strategic nukes, maybe on London or N.Y?

Russia has more legitimate claim to Ukraine than the U.S ever did to Iraq (not that either are legitimate). It is a terrible tragedy that it has come to this but I cannot see why what happened to Russia in the 90s was not seen more clearly as a ‘Versailles Treaty’.

Gazprom, if I remember correctly, was substantially foreign owned when Putin nationalised it. The West welcomed the end of the Cold War but then treated Russia solely as a medium sized emerging nation, rather than integrating her properly into Europe, with full rights and respect.

Historians may come to see this as a terrible error.

(And, no, I am not a Russian BOT, merely someone who clearly remembers the Wild West days of the emerging market bubble of the 90s and investment bankers bragging of how much they were making out of Russia).

@sqiudgames

Should I be scared? I've got kids I don't want to let them leave the house

Are you in Ukraine? If not am sure the kids will be ok at school today 🙄

We must all respond surely and stop this genocide surely?

When did the West tried to stop the genocide in Rwanda when over 1 million people were hacked to death?

When did the West care about their invasions Iraq, Afghanistan or arming contra rebels in Syria and Lebannon with the destruction of those countries and the millions of civilian casualties and displaced?

The whole Russians are bad, we (the West) are good, it's so disgusting is beyond hipocritical. China has never invaded a country, the West and the Japanese, not only did, they caused massacres in their country but they are the baddies in the our press. WW2 will never haven been won by the allied forces without the Soviet army and the catastrophic amount of millions of lives lost to stop the Nazis.

It's incredible the amount of people who still believe what a Western press in the hands of the Murdochs who control them are "free" instead of looking after their own interests like any other oligarchs in Russia.

This war is about resources, fencing and controlling those resources like all wars have been since beginning of time. Russia has had enough of believing promisses of the West.

TooBigForMyBoots

Watching at the minute. This is so sad.sad Vladimir Putin is a cunt of a man.angry“

We’ve been discussing this a lot recently. Reached the view that whilst power hungry, Putin was not insane, would stop short of invasion after getting mighty concessions and lifting of existing sanctions.
That bizarre speech on TV a couple of days ago blew that idea out of the water. Sounded like a raving madman.
Was worrying to hear a Russia expert on PM programme saying exactly the same thing
Though the world was pretty much united in condemning The Taliban, lots of big talk and now that seems to have been forgotten.
Who knows? Maybe some way of stopping this escalating while saving face for Putin will be negotiated behind the scenes? Can only hope.

You are scared to let your children out the house? Where do you live!

As well as feeling sorry for Ukrainians, maybe take a moment to feel sorry for the Russians too (not Putin and his cronies).

It is not a democracy. They cannot vote Putin out.

After years of living under communism, they had a few years in the sun where they could travel, make money and live normal lives. Now they will be sanctioned to hell and impoverished again.

The wealthy have their money well integrated into the system and will hardly be affected, probably through blind trusts based on IOM amongst other places.

Putin is a despot and a bully, but these people don’t emerge from a clear blue sky, they are products of what came before them.

If we get involved with boots on the ground, it'll end up as nuclear. Then nobody wins.

Unfortunately the governments are being sensible not getting to involved. This isn't like Iraq - this would be game over for the world.

Russia is now invaded Ukraine.

I knew it was happening in the night, and woke to see that Putin and his bunch of cronies have gone ahead, what a despicable and shocking action.

I look at Ukraine, a peaceful, beautiful contented country - entirely innocent of any wrong doing apart from wishing to be independent.

I am heartbroken for the families, for the children, for the babies lying in the cots right now - it is a sickening action. Unforgivable.

**has now

@HeddaGarbled

Our troops are there to send a message about protecting the NATO member states nearby, who aren’t under genuine threat. It’s for show.

Ukraine are on their own. Sanctions and hand-wringing are all they can expect from us.

I know this is going to be controversial, but actually, Russia have a point. Their security is threatened by the growth of NATO member states on their borders, and we should have followed through on the Kiev agreement.

It's not controversial, it's complete tankie bullocks. There is nothing 'threatening' to Russian 'security' in NATO or the Baltic and other NATO states. You are defending a war of aggression as residential tower blocks are being shelled in a European capital.

Fathomless wickedness.

Putin has lost his fucking mind.

Seriously someone needs to remove him.

Be aware of the trolls that are bound to be in full force today

Highly unlikely we'll go in on the ground. Russia has nuclear weapons as well as a huge army, and a Soviet style president.The stakes are far too high.

The Donbass has an ethnically Russian population. Stalin made it administratively part of Ukraine, as he did Crimea. Many of the people living there want to be part of Russia.

I really don't know what the solution is, or where Putin plans to stop, but I do think the EU needs to stand firm with the likes of Poland.

@Keepyourheadscrewedon

Putin has lost his fucking mind.

Seriously someone needs to remove him.

And do what? Who do you replace him with? It's been done time and again in the past and the puppet leaders and governments don't work in the long term. It just leads to civil wars, etc.

Financially how badly could this affect U.K. individuals? I’m thinking from a rising petrol and energy prices point of view? Oil prices have already increased due to this. Russia is a major gas supplier to Europe. How bad could this get?

@Keepyourheadscrewedon

Putin has lost his fucking mind.

Seriously someone needs to remove him.

That’s not possible and would trigger WW3. He was elected in but Russia is under authoritarian rule.

We will go in on the ground if they approach a NATO region. We are obliged to fulfil our commitment to that.

Sanctions at the moment is otherwise all that can be offered. The Ukraine president has issued a list of requests on twitter to increase those sanctions / blocking financial payment systems for example for Russia to cripple their economy.

But Putin isn't an economist, he's a tyrant. He will go all out war on Ukraine with no consideration for loss of life or liberties. He wants it,end of. The question is where will he stop.

For some reason I can't paste a link but this is worth a read: Daniel R. DePetris' opinion on nbc. worth ik.not balanced and there are hardly any articles fairly analysing the root causes of this. Yes Putin should not be invading Ukraine but this Russians are bad the West is good just shows much the West will never change or negotiate in good faith. And it's citizenry hardly ask why is X happening like this.
The worst have used and sacrificed Ukraine in its games and old age desire to subjugate Russia

Yes it is just worth saying it is not worth arguing with them or giving them any air space whatsoever.

Ukraine will not just fall, it is a country of 44 million and won't just surrender - this will be I imagine a very long and bloody war.

One of the worst thing I read is the fact the Russians have a mobile incinerator to evaporate the corpses of Russian soldiers. Can you imagine having that thing following you as you invade a perfectly innocent country? Why don't they defect ffs?? Putin doesn't care for them, he won't even be sending their bodies home to their mothers.

The whole thing is like a sickening nightmare.

What worries me is he says he’s doing this because of Ukraine nato ambitions and he doesn’t want Russia to be next to a nato or eu country. But if Ukraine becomes part of Russia then Russia will be next to Poland and Romania. So where does he stop?

Russia only fought with the western allies against the Nazis after they invaded Russia. I doubt they'd have been involved without that.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60485766

Good answer to this question here

feel worried for my dd, she is abroad, in fact she went to Russia two years ago and was talking about going back there, i did say not now