Russian invasion of Ukraine

This guy looks like Thanos. The jaw is same as steroid or HGH users.

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There’s a real danger of readers becoming indifferent to such images due to over exposure to them.
By now everyone has seen corpses.
More pictures don’t achieve anything.
You don’t want to have people see a dead person and just go “Yeah whatever”.

Not really sure what talking to him has achieved to date. Square root of fuck all as far as I can see

Dialogue is always important even if it's only paying lip service initially. The Tories spent 10 years secretly meeting with the IRA (and Corbyn gets shit for doing it not in secret). It helped pathe the way to the good friday agreement.

Similar dialogues happened more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, with different outcomes and objectives.

Pretty sure you won't be able to find a war that ended without initially futile diplomatic efforts.

No surprises here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/world/europe/ukraine-chernobyl.html

Boris apparently in Kyiv currently

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1512793357902307339

Can't say I'm too surprised as Johnson tries to divert attention from the shit show that is post Brexit Britain

Politico has an interesting follow-up to the announcement that Nato will supply heavy weapons:

Western officials are scouring for tanks and heavy weaponry to send to
Ukraine as they grapple with a dawning reality: They may need to
supply — and resupply — the country’s military for months and even
years to come in its battle against Russian invaders.

In the short term, countries are earmarking equipment Ukraine can
easily use. The Czech Republic, for instance, is reportedly sending
Soviet-designed tanks already familiar to Ukrainian forces.

In the longer term, officials are fielding Ukraine’s fresh demands —
and determining what allies are willing to provide. The U.K. is trying
to enhance coordination among countries giving supplies, holding a
donor conference last week with 35 participants. And the U.S. is
seeking partners that can deliver long-range air defense systems,
while reportedly accelerating its own production of anti-tank and
anti-aircraft missiles.

Meanwhile, in Germany, officials are tussling over whether to hand
over 100 tanks, which would also require training for the Ukrainian
forces.

“The conflict,” said British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, has “entered
a new and different phase with a more concentrated Russian offensive.”
As a result, she added following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers,
there was support to “supply new and heavier equipment to Ukraine.”

Looming over everything, however, are supply crunch fears. Some
countries are already warning that they are simply tapped out. And
military specialists say production lines are difficult to pivot
quickly.

And although the war may last long, Western and Ukrainian officials
are also concerned that if they do not move quickly, Russia may be
able to make significant gains on the battlefield, particularly in
eastern Ukraine, despite early defeats.

“Two weeks ago, it was enough to say what will be given,” Ukrainian
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after addressing the NATO
ministers. “Today, it’s more important to know when it will be given —
and this is something that allies have to sort out and to find
appropriate solutions.”

Whatever decisions the West makes will be critical in shaping the
war’s next phase. Russia has pulled back some forces from around Kyiv,
Ukraine’s capital, and is now plotting a punishing offensive in the
east likely to begin in a matter of weeks, according to Western
officials.

Ukraine’s appeal Kuleba arrived Thursday morning with a
straightforward request for NATO members.

“My agenda is very simple,” he said. “It only has three items on it.
It’s weapons, weapons and weapons.”

Kuleba ticked off a few of the specific items Ukraine is seeking:
Fighter jets, more missiles, armored vehicles and heavier air-defense
systems.

Some of this equipment, like jets, has been ruled out by the U.S. as
too escalatory. But other items, like tanks and more robust
air-defense systems, are now on the agenda as the war enters its next
chapter.

“It was a clear message from the meeting today that allies should do
more and are ready to do more,” NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg said Thursday, following the foreign ministers’ gathering.
“They recognize the urgency.”

The NATO chief declined to offer specifics about that “more,” however,
only saying it included “both Soviet-era systems but also modern
equipment.”

So far, Western allies have focused on funneling light weapons to
Ukraine, as well as other equipment like body armor and medical
supplies. A week into March, a U.S. defense official told CNN that
allies had sent Ukraine roughly 17,000 anti-tank missiles and 2,000
anti-aircraft missiles, a number that has certainly risen since then.

But the thinking is transforming as Russia shifts its military
tactics.

Initially, Western officials assessed that Russian President Vladimir
Putin expected his forces to swiftly encircle Kyiv and other key
cities in the hopes of toppling the Ukrainian government.

Having failed at that, officials say Putin is now shifting his
battlegroups to Donbas, an eastern region in Ukraine where Russia had
already been fomenting unrest for eight years, perhaps aiming to grind
out an offensive that claims more territory there.

Russia’s mutating strategy has raised the prospect of a more
conventional, long-term ground war involving heavy fighting into the
foreseeable future. It’s a war Western allies weren’t exactly
expecting, leaving them without a premeditated plan for arming
Ukraine’s forces in such a scenario.

Ukraine’s “needs are obviously evolving,” said one Western official.
“The appetite from allies to meet those needs is very high, but
there’s plenty more work to do to make sure they’re getting what they
need.”o the announcement about Nato supplying heavy weapons.

I wasn't referring to this thread - I was referring to my social media feeds, some of which were deliberately curated to be mostly bikes and synths so as to take a brake from horrors of the world over the last six years.

The point I was making though, is that the US has been flattening entire cities in the middle east for as long as these social media platforms have existed, yet I can count on one-hand the number of brown bodies I've seen in photos about those events, yet I can't turn over a fucking rock without seeing photos of dead Ukrainians right now - it makes the lack of censorship feel like a deliberate attempt to stoke anti-Russian sentiment because the leadership of countries like the US desperately need a boogieman to take attention off how badly they're treating their own citizens currently.

The big difference here is they (Ukrainians) are fighting for us and our freedoms, i make no excuses for how this conflict has focused many minds and others haven’t.
Its so intertwined with our own politics, daily lives and that of out neighbours.

(maybe that’s just my take, my partner is Polish and remembers martial law and tanks in the streets, they (Poles) are acutely aware of how the russians operate)

The big difference here is they (Ukrainians) are fighting for us and our freedoms

I'm not sure I follow - the bodies we're seeing photos of are mostly civilians caught in the crossfire, not Ukrainian soldiers.

Do you not think that there is some anti-Russian sentiment because they invaded another country?
Is that a valid reason to be anti-Russian?
My ‘friend’ sends me mad texts showing how many people the USA has killed over the years.
My ‘friend’ seems to have a similar opinion as you, I think he is mental but he could be right - time will tell.

Do you not think that there is some anti-Russian sentiment because they invaded another country?

To clarify my point further - Russia is doing something the US has been doing non-stop to various countries in the middle east and the global south for more than half a century - yet Russia's actions are being presented as uniquely morally reprehensible and there's political incentive for the US to spin it that way.

Are you my ‘friend’ in disguise? You have the same opinion as him. I disagree and I will leave it there before I say something I will regret.

Shocking you could meet two unrelated people with viewpoints different from your own, I know.

To put it in even smaller words for you: my point isn't that Russia isn't doing anything wrong, my point is all the western powers are guilty of the same crimes yet Russia is being spun as being uniquely evil for it because it benefits said western powers to frame it as such, and relaxing censorship on images of horrific civilian death is an effective tool to perpetuate that false narrative.

i was commenting on the images coming out of Marioupol/Bucha etc compared to Aleppo and the reaction from westerners.
one is somewhere most would have difficulty finding on a map, the other is closer to home.

Thank you for the clarification.

Your opinion, in my opinion, is wrong. But each to their own.

one is somewhere most would have difficulty finding on a map, the other is closer to home.

About 300 miles closer to London. But a few shades lighter, if that's what you mean?

To put it in even smaller words for you: my point isn't that Russia isn't doing anything wrong, my point is all the western powers are guilty of the same crimes yet Russia is being spun as being uniquely evil for it

That is true, it can come off as whataboutism when talking about how we are equally (if not worse) as bad as Putin.

So which countries has US annexed - can anybody remind me?

That is true, it can come off as whataboutism when talking about how we are equally (if not worse) as bad as Putin.

True, but in the context of the rest of what I said I would hope less-so.

Also these comparisons only work if you think any society is exactly the same and forget history.
So if you think life in any country is the same then maybe the west wins the body count top trumps.
From experience I can say life in West Germany vs CSSR is indeed better.

So which countries has US annexed - can anybody remind me?

Don't be obtuse. We'd never call it "annexation" we'd call it "spreading democracy." Much like we've not declared "war" on another country for quite some time; we've simply had "armed conflicts."

The difference in wording is deliberate, not only in the context of propaganda, but for legality.

Also these comparisons only work if you think any society is exactly the same and forget history.

I'm saying all of them roll into other territories and murder civilians with impunity and treating Russia's actions as uniquely evil is propaganda.

Perfect example in history is West vs East Germany. USSR turned their side into a shithole. Imagine the level of incompetence it takes to turn a part of Germany into the GDR, same with most of the other Eastern European countries that were highly industrialised before the war and after 1989 just plugged straight back into Europe and left Russia in the dust.

Seems to have only produced failed states like Japan and Germany, you are correct.