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 ?

He was elected in but Russia is under authoritarian rule

Just to be clear Putin was NOT elected, they haven't had a proper election in decades!!! He is a dictator of an autocratic Russia that stop even pretending to be a 'democracy' years ago.

Someone with balls in Russia needs to remove Putin. Urgently.

@Keepyourheadscrewedon

Putin has lost his fucking mind.

Seriously someone needs to remove him.

As you did many presidents in Africa, Asia. Latin America, Middle East, .... To what end?

We need to understand the root causes of this conflict before jumping to the knee jerk reaction of replacing leaders that the West has always used

No one in Russia wants this war, they have families and deep cultural connections to Ukraine.

Russia is a terrified and muzzled nation and has no chance of even holding a protest against the war without being immediately arrested and thrown into jail or killed.

The root of this conflict lies with Putin and his ego and his misguided attempts to reinstate the USSR.

@WeAreTheHeroes

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.

Donbas is and has never been a part of Russia, Stalin did not make it a part of Ukraine, it’s nothing like Crimea! Get your facts right. I was born and lived half of my life in Donetsk Ukraine - have you??? If not, jog on and stop spreading lies! Yes these is a lot of Russian speaking people there myself included. Yes a lot of them have ties with Russia. Before the war, it was a thriving industrial region where a lot of people from all parts of the (ex ussr) lived. They were invited to live there to help build and develop coal mining and other industries. The lands themselves are ethnically Ukrainian, all my grandparents and their parents etc are Ukrainian and the language they spoke was always Ukrainian.

@Keepyourheadscrewedon,

Ukraine will ‘fold’ within a couple of weeks.

They have already been denied air power. Every modern war starts with the domination of the skies and then it is game over.

The best the Ukrainians can do is fight a bloody ‘asymmetric’ war in the cities, building by building.

I just hope Putin is not ruthless enough to bomb cities, or that his army will refuse. It must be hard to bomb your brothers who speak the same language.

The west has no desire for WW3 over Ukraine, very sensibly.

The best we can hope for is an internal revolt in Russia, but that would be scary with an uncertain outcome.

@TooBigForMyBoots

It's snowing where I am.🙃

Here too⛄️

''Glory to Ukraine''.

Why is that not possible but him invading a neighbouring country is?

we have already had cyber crime, we will have this again.

I am not sure Ukraine will 'fold' in a few weeks. Why would they? They have nothing left to lose. Ukraine will not longer exist unless they fight to the death. I don't think it is cut and dried at all. Ukraine have been planning this for years and years, do you really think they will just give up? I don't.

those interviewed on the news were certainly quite confident

I think war is likely, if not now then within the next few months or years. It all feels a little too reminiscent of the late 1930s to me. Western nations turned a blind eye to German aggression and expansionism for years in order to avoid war before they realized that the aggression was not going to stop and would eventually affect them.

Who here thinks Putin will be satisfied to sit back once Ukraine is his? He has vaguely threatened nuclear war this morning if anyone tries to stop him. That is the speech of a man who thinks he holds all the cards and can do whatever he likes. He will keep doing what he is doing if he thinks there will be no serious repercussions.

Thinking of all those in Ukraine today. And the families of Russian soldiers going in......
To quote from the wonderful song by Eric Bogle about the First World War, "The Green Fields of France"
".....To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.
.....the sorrow, the suffering, the glory , the pain, the killing and dying, it all done in vain.
.....It's all happened again, again and again and again and again....."

.

The cold war never really ended. Russia doesn't have the resource to fight the West militarily but it'll chip anyway at anything it can.

They want to undermine our faith in democracy so that Russians don't demand real democracy either. That's why they funded brexit and trump, both of which have eroded my faith in democracy tbh.

Putin is getting on a bit and he's a total prick, for him it's now or never.

What IF Ukraine are much more ready that Russia expects......what if this is ending is not given....I have a deep suspicion that this not going to be straight forward for the Russians at all.

We are rooting for you Ukraine. Find your strength and don't give up.

Sorry for phone messed up that message.

I wonder if Ukraine are prepared.....
I am hoping that they are.

[quote TheReluctantPhoenix]@TooBigForMyBoots,

I think you may underestimate our own hackers. We could respond, and U.S would help. If it were a hacking war, it would be Russia against the world.

Putin could pretend lots of things, as could we. But a Russian hack would have his signature all over it.

I don’t think Putin wants to destroy the World either but, if it ever does get destroyed, it won’t be ‘on purpose’, it will be brinkmanship going over the brink.

What does Putin want? What will he get from Ukraine apart from the massive expense of occupation. As soon as Russia takes its troops away, the Ukrainians will take their country back.[/quote]
No it would not be .Russia has China as its back up. So it’s really scary. They have also started cyber attacks against USA that you are not hearing about yet .

@Keepyourheadscrewedon,

Of course they won’t ‘give up’, but what can a rifle do against a tank?

Russia will take the air, the power stations and the communications arteries.

Then, as I said, war gets confined to house-to-house in cities, which is where Russia will run into trouble if they really want to occupy Ukraine.

They may just leave the cities alone, though, and offer an election with a puppet government on offer, with both carrots (financial aid, trade) and sticks (no power, no free travel).

Then, when puppet government installed, just leave a light military presence to ‘aid the transition ‘.

The hardest thing is to understand what Putin wants. Is it glory? Is it to regenerate the USSR? Or is he genuinely scared of NATO and is this his Bay-Of-Pigs moment? And, of course, the scariest option, that he is genuinely not entirely sane.

You are very naive if you think Putin will be scared of sanctions. I'm ten years in UK, spend my childhood in Eastern Europe.All what I can say-British people don't have a clue about Eastern attitude, especially Putin's attitude. Nightmare is coming.
There are zero humanity or international law. They have their "own" rules.

The west will condemn it all and make impressive statements saying how wrong it is and make threats about sanctions (they are highly unlikely to send troops in because unlike countries they have sent troops to in recent decades, Russia is more than capable of beating the shit out of them and taking the fight over to their countries and they know it)
Putin will remind the west that Russia supplies a large percentage of natural gas to europe and say in that case, we'll divert it. Let's get China on the phone.
They'll all slap their dicks on the table and measure them.
Some sort of compromise/stalemate will happen.
Everyone will retreat and claim victory and make big speeches about how they solved the problem and the other side has been put in their place.
Russia will be left to take the Ukraine if that's what it wants because the USA and UK and Europe know they've got a lot to lose if they wade in and nothing to gain.

Troops in to fight the Russians that should read

@Unsure33,

Russia and China are not allies.

China has a symbiotic relationship with the West. They produce goods that we buy, and this generates economic growth. It is the growth that allows the dictatorship to remain in power.

Maybe in 50 years, China will be strong enough to go it alone, but not yet.

China has been very quiet on Ukraine.