The terrible problem with this is that some nations, somehow, are more bonkers than others. Nuclear weapons in North Korea are just a lot more worrying than Portugal, even given Portugal’s not too distant history. The populations of some nations seem to genuinely be persuadable that their humans are a cut above other humans, somehow. And then there are other nations where it seems a shade too easy for a whack-job to become top dog.
I get the logic, but I dunno, Bolsonaro facing off Argentina with a couple of nukes because he thinks some idiots might support him. Streuth.
“No flights for aggressor planes in the freedom sky!” is such a fun rallying cry. It belongs in a JRPG spoken by some chipper 2D anime portrait. That’s the kind of no-fly zone we can all get behind!
-Tom
Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich (who is Russian and close with Putin) just announced that he is turning over control of the gajillion dollar club to Chelsea’s board. Pretty huge.
And of course, English footy fans, who are fucking savages are already having a go:
Thrag
3672
To follow up with the official announcement of Germany’s pledged supplies.
Yes well that purchase ranks with the logistics foresight coming out of Belarus.
Dejin
3674
Another UK Ministry of Defense Update:
First: I am SOOOO in awe of Ukraine and all of its people right now.
I have to ask, though: is it possible that the Russian military leadership fucked this up deliberately to throw Putin under the bus?
vyshka
3676
I think it would’ve been much easier for them to just kill him if that is what they wanted
Aceris
3677
I’m imagining more:
Putin to generals “How many trooops can we have ready to go on the Ukrainian border” in February.
staff officers tell chiefs of staff 60000
chiefs of staff tell generals 80000
generals tell top brass 100000
top brass tell Putin 120000
Putin orders military to put 150000 troops on the border.
Deployment is a clusterfuck.
vyshka
3678
Considering there are 18-20 nations that field either Leopard 1 or Leopard 2 tanks, and at least 6 of those are outside NATO it is a flat out lie by those people that it has been the German policy. Journalists should’ve been calling them out on their bullshit. Glad to hear that it sounds like they’ve finally relented though.
It’s really good to see all the aid flowing to Ukraine, I just hope we have some sense of where they’re going so it doesn’t bite us in the ass at a later point, when those weapons are still around and bad actors are willing to pay for them.
ISIS types can do a lot of bad stuff with a stinger.
Yes, it genuinely seems German politicians lie less flexibly than others. Routinely caught looking like tools.
I agree the SWIFT cut-off is largely irrelevant, and potentially unproductive, since it may drive Russia, and other rogue states to using crypto (which is bad for a host of reasons). Never-the-less for political and PR reasons we should do, since it is of minimal cost to the west.
Ukranian Air Force numbers, so treat with a grain of salt:
Alstein
3684
No, because they would likely be cashiered/jailed along with Putin.
If we drive Russians to crypto, then the US response should be a cyberattack to destroy all crypto markets- take down the NFTbros alongside the Russians.
“Freedom mud for aggressor wheeled convoy!”
jsnell
3686
The policy has nothing to do with NATO. As far as I understand it’s been about about selling German weapons to conflict zones, either directly or indirectly via third countries.
