Russia invades Ukraine

[Junaids]

Look at the world map or globe. Russia is huge, Russians will still survive, the nation will surivive but UK will be wiped out by SatanII nuclear delivery missile.



You hate Russia so much, you are hoping UK citizens are wiped out in huge numbers?

Why wait, with your Rambo rhetoric, please join the Salavation army right away.

Serious advice, put the hate in the closet. Look at this conflict in a neutral manner. You are not a white Brit whose grandad was Winston, you are here in the UK because your parents left Bangladesh for a better future for you and your children and your grandchildren. You should be promoting peace , a peace deal , a ceasefire not wishing a nuclear attack on the UK. Please think like a civilised human , you dont owe anything to Western warmongers, get out of this Uncle Tom mentality.

I see the world very differently to you.

For me, World War 1 ended with bad news for the European Empires - US President Woodrow Wilson made clear that we would have a world of nation states. Only the Russian Empire survives from then.

Since 1945 we have had seven decades of Pax Americana. Other than a Nixon-Kissinger interlude of propping up right-wing dictatorships, America has given us a world which is largely peaceful and in which democracy is widely available.

Putin’s wars in neighbouring countries are identical to Hitler’s. Claim your ethnic minority is persecuted in a neighbouring country, then invade and annex that land.

Zelensky came to power as the candidate of the Russian Ukrainians. Putin’s accusations against him are ludicrous and preposterous.

And now we are at a turning point. If Putin keeps his ill-gotten gains there are multiple lessons for tinpot dictatorships anywhere:

1. If you have nuclear weapons you can take what you feel like.

2. You can give your troops a green light to rape and steal whatever they feel like.

3. You can murder your domestic opponents.

We can’t let him win.

Ukraine has been given the oldest, most obsolete 1% of the USA’s weapons and it is enough to be pulverising Russia.

The secret now is to hold our nerve and to ensure that Putin loses.

 

[bones]

Remember when they celebrated with stamps and photo boards and everywhere online the Kerch bridge attack? Well today they will be celebrating electricity outages. Crazy decisions.

 

[bones]

Both sides accusing the other sides of preparing nuclear weapons. At this moment I would trust a robber in a bank more than the Biden administration. Seems like we are in the most dangerous month in our lifetime. Just how far will they go to save themselves in the mid terms? As it stands it is going to be a disastrous result for the Democrats, so the desperation is understandable. Talks of nuclear weapons are not.

For those who do not understand, biden's administration needs a distraction or a huge win in Ukraine to turn the mid-term around. Now a win in Ukraine at a local level may be possible because the Russians have still not deployed even a 5th of the mobilised forces, but the weather and soft ground is an issue. But a tactical nuke which seems absurd to say, would be the perfect false flag to distract the American public or even use as a basis to join in.

 

[Technics 1210]

Both sides accusing the other sides of preparing nuclear weapons. At this moment I would trust a robber in a bank more than the Biden administration. Seems like we are in the most dangerous month in our lifetime. Just how far will they go to save themselves in the mid terms? As it stands it is going to be a disastrous result for the Democrats, so the desperation is understandable. Talks of nuclear weapons are not.

For those who do not understand, biden's administration needs a distraction or a huge win in Ukraine to turn the mid-term around. Now a win in Ukraine at a local level may be possible because the Russians have still not deployed even a 5th of the mobilised forces, but the weather and soft ground is an issue. But a tactical nuke which seems absurd to say, would be the perfect false flag to distract the American public or even use as a basis to join in.

Yup, Biden only has the midterms on his senile mind, and only recently a poll showed that Amreekans care more about inflation that the Ukraine war.

Too bad, he doesn't realise the Democrats will lost the midterms anyway.

 

[Junaids]

[MENTION=135003]bones[/MENTION] is absolutely wrong about the US midterm elections.

There are absolutely no domestic votes to be won in Ukraine. Americans don’t vote based on foreign policy.

QAnon and MAGA fans associate the word Ukraine with Hunter Biden. The Republican leadership support Ukraine but don’t dare antagonise the MAGA/QAnon base.

The timing of the Russian Ukraine invasion is basically unhelpful for both parties.

 

[Junaids]

Traditional Republicans and Democrats support Ukraine and oppose Russia, obviously.

But Q-Anon nutjobs either believe that Hillary Clinton’s imaginary email server is hidden in Ukraine or that Biden, the Clintons and Obama are running a paedophile cannibal ring in Ukraine, and that Q, which is Donald Trump, has got his friend Putin to save the world from paedophile cannibals by cleaning up Ukraine.

Either way, there is no possible development in Ukraine which can earn Biden more votes. He is following the current Ukraine policy because it is the right thing to do, not because there are votes in it:

 

[Junaids]

Looks like Russia is planning a false flag attack on the dam outside Kherson, as a further war crime to damage civilian energy infrastructure but to claim to the Russian public that the evil Ukrainians tried to drown a Russian city.

 

[Technics 1210]

There are absolutely no domestic votes to be won in Ukraine. Americans don’t vote based on foreign policy.

Which is why Bush was voted into power in 2004 based on Amreeka's war on terror in response to 9/11 on the Replublican mandate. Reality now is simple, Amreekans do not care about Ukraine like you want them to.

It's time you start substantiating your feeble claims with logic or evidence, doctor.

 

[KingKhanWC]

I see the world very differently to you.

For me, World War 1 ended with bad news for the European Empires - US President Woodrow Wilson made clear that we would have a world of nation states. Only the Russian Empire survives from then.

Since 1945 we have had seven decades of Pax Americana. Other than a Nixon-Kissinger interlude of propping up right-wing dictatorships, America has given us a world which is largely peaceful and in which democracy is widely available.

Putin’s wars in neighbouring countries are identical to Hitler’s. Claim your ethnic minority is persecuted in a neighbouring country, then invade and annex that land.

Zelensky came to power as the candidate of the Russian Ukrainians. Putin’s accusations against him are ludicrous and preposterous.

And now we are at a turning point. If Putin keeps his ill-gotten gains there are multiple lessons for tinpot dictatorships anywhere:

1. If you have nuclear weapons you can take what you feel like.

2. You can give your troops a green light to rape and steal whatever they feel like.

3. You can murder your domestic opponents.

We can’t let him win.

Ukraine has been given the oldest, most obsolete 1% of the USA’s weapons and it is enough to be pulverising Russia.

The secret now is to hold our nerve and to ensure that Putin loses.

Yes very differently because you ignore the biggest state terrorism and attempted world domination of US and its allies. You are not so vocal when they destroy nations.

You are biased, I call out without bias.

Your claims of Russian war crimes once again mean nothing when the US, UK and other allies will never be held accountable. You also have no evidence but what you read on MSM.

The days of the west being the superpowers is gone. Its not 1850 but 2022, its best for all citizens of the west to demand a peace deal, stop the proxy wars and live in a fair world.

 

[Junaids]

Yes very differently because you ignore the biggest state terrorism and attempted world domination of US and its allies. You are not so vocal when they destroy nations.

You are biased, I call out without bias.

Your claims of Russian war crimes once again mean nothing when the US, UK and other allies will never be held accountable. You also have no evidence but what you read on MSM.

The days of the west being the superpowers is gone. It’s not 1850 but 2022, it’s best for all citizens of the west to demand a peace deal, stop the proxy wars and live in a fair world.

Iraq or Taliban Afghanistan are not democracies. And even the Palestinians had the opportunity with Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000 to get precisely what they were entitled to. It’s Arafat’s fault that he said no to his share of Palestine including East Jerusalem when it was on the table.

The USA is not perfect. But look at Russia and China, especially in terms of the treatment of their Muslim populations, and tell me whether you honestly prefer the alternative.

Zelensky was elected President on a platform of championing the rights of Ukrainian Russians, and he did.

But Putin only needs to convince propaganda-fed Russians, so he could lie through his teeth and say that this Jew was a Nazi and that this ethnic Russian was persecuting ethnic Russians and they were so brainwashed that they accepted these ridiculous lies.

I worry more that people in this forum accept that good is bad and that bad is good, and recite Putin’s propaganda lies.

Ukraine never had anything to negotiate over. They had a big evil neighbour which was determined to steal their land and destroy their towns because it could.

But Russia is just a military basketcase with lots of inherited nukes. They always lose conventional wars against any half-decent opposition so long as that opposition isn’t overcommitted elsewhere against stronger opponents.

And the Ukrainians know this, because the Red Army was just as much the Ukrainian Army as the Russian Army.

 

[sweep_shot]

The USA is not perfect. But look at Russia and China, especially in terms of the treatment of their Muslim populations, and tell me whether you honestly prefer the alternative.

Muslims aren't treated badly in Russia.

Check modern day Chechnya. It is doing pretty good.

 

[sweep_shot]

Iraq or Taliban Afghanistan are not democracies.

Who cares about democracy? Not every country needs to have democracy. It is for people of different countries to decide.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Iraq or Taliban Afghanistan are not democracies. And even the Palestinians had the opportunity with Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000 to get precisely what they were entitled to. It’s Arafat’s fault that he said no to his share of Palestine including East Jerusalem when it was on the table.

The USA is not perfect. But look at Russia and China, especially in terms of the treatment of their Muslim populations, and tell me whether you honestly prefer the alternative.

Zelensky was elected President on a platform of championing the rights of Ukrainian Russians, and he did.

But Putin only needs to convince propaganda-fed Russians, so he could lie through his teeth and say that this Jew was a Nazi and that this ethnic Russian was persecuting ethnic Russians and they were so brainwashed that they accepted these ridiculous lies.

I worry more that people in this forum accept that good is bad and that bad is good, and recite Putin’s propaganda lies.

Ukraine never had anything to negotiate over. They had a big evil neighbour which was determined to steal their land and destroy their towns because it could.

But Russia is just a military basketcase with lots of inherited nukes. They always lose conventional wars against any half-decent opposition so long as that opposition isn’t overcommitted elsewhere against stronger opponents.

And the Ukrainians know this, because the Red Army was just as much the Ukrainian Army as the Russian Army.

US policies have KILLED 4 million Muslims.

Please stop with your poor knowledge, you are not debating some Aussie rules player.

You SUPPORT Nato/US the worlds biggest terrorists. You have no credibility when you claim Russia is the evil and become an apologist for those you back.

There is nothing USA can do to Russia, they are only slitting their own wrists.

But please continue and looking for some window. By Spring you will perhaps want to fall out of a window yourself when Russia completes its victory and US is no longer the power it was.

 

[Junaids]

Muslims aren't treated badly in Russia.

Check modern day Chechnya. It is doing pretty good.

Are you joking?

Life expectancy of 54?

Infant mortality eight times worse than European Russians.

Muslim males aged 18-50 six times more likely to be called up to the Army than Christian Russians.

Political repression with all Kadyrov opponents murdered?

Muslims are treated appallingly in Russia.

Separately, by the way, even the supposedly elite Wagner mercenary soldiers are now dying in droves:

From Russian journalist Olesya Gerasimenko: "I'm talking to a contract [soldier], the life span of a new Wagner recruit is now a week and two days."

 

[sweep_shot]

Are you joking?

Life expectancy of 54?

Infant mortality eight times worse than European Russians.

Muslim males aged 18-50 six times more likely to be called up to the Army than Christian Russians.

Political repression with all Kadyrov opponents murdered?

Muslims are treated appallingly in Russia.

Separately, by the way, even the supposedly elite Wagner mercenary soldiers are now dying in droves:

From Russian journalist Olesya Gerasimenko: "I'm talking to a contract [soldier], the life span of a new Wagner recruit is now a week and two days."

I am not joking. It seems like you do not know enough about Russian Muslims. Check some of the stunning Russian mosques: https://traveltriangle.com/blog/mosques-in-russia/.

Also, you seem to bring up life expectancy very often. Life expectancy is not an indication of anything. God determines who lives for how long.

Please learn more about modern day Chechnya.

Infant mortality eight times worse than European Russians.

Any stat for this? Please provide source.

 

[Junaids]

I am not joking. It seems like you do not know enough about Russian Muslims. Check some of the stunning Russian mosques: https://traveltriangle.com/blog/mosques-in-russia/.

Also, you seem to bring up life expectancy very often. Life expectancy is not an indication of anything. God determines who lives for how long.

Please learn more about modern day Chechnya.




Any stat for this? Please provide source.

I’m happy to offer you the chance to withdraw this insane post.

You appear to be saying that the reason why Muslim Chechen Russians die 16 years younger than the average Russian is not because Putin and his cronies kill Muslims off early but because God does.

Look at any meeting of the Russian government. There is a bunch of white male Orthodox Christians and a single Fake Muslim, which is the murdering rapist warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, who pledged his allegiance to Russia after his dad was blown up.

Muslim Russians have no representation at all in the Russian government.

Apart from this sicko:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/kadyrov-chechen-putin-ukraine-chechnya-b2052357.html

 

[Junaids]

Usually in a war you recognise some opposing senior figures whom you respect more than your own leaders.

If you think of World War 2, I can pretty much guarantee that all English posters on this forum admire the German Rommel more than Bomber Harris, whom we suspect was a mass murderer who went too far. Or Dyer at Amritsar…

I’m glad that when Argentina invaded the Falklands we neither used nuclear weapons nor bombed the Argentine mainland, even though it was British people whose land had been invaded not by native South Americans but by an army of descendants of Spanish and Italian colonialists.

Barely any Americans think that the USA should have used nuclear weapons against North Vietnam, and rightly so.

But Ramzan Kadyrov is a stealing, raping, murdering sociopath. Surely there are not decent Muslims out there who admire him for pretending to be a Muslim?

Never forget, Kadyrov’s henchmen raped Muslim girls and women in Syria just as readily as they do Ukrainian women.

 

[Junaids]

Zelensky has told the European Council that Russia has planted explosives at the Kakhova Dam.

If Russia blows it up, Kherson floods and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station cannot be cooled and will eventually explode.

This is obviously why Ben Wallace flew to Washington DC three days ago. The defeated Russians look like they can’t avoid withdrawing from Kherson, but seek to use nuclear terror as revenge.

 

[Junaids]

On a lighter note, posted by @Eugene_Finkel on Twitter:

“ On some level it is hard not to feel for Putin.

So much time, effort and and money getting all your Orbans, Trumps, Berlusconis, Schroeders and Bibis in a row.

But it still all boils down to whether Pasha from Ulan Ude will or will not be too drunk to drive a tank”

 

[KingKhanWC]

Zelensky has told the European Council that Russia has planted explosives at the Kakhova Dam.

If Russia blows it up, Kherson floods and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station cannot be cooled and will eventually explode.

This is obviously why Ben Wallace flew to Washington DC three days ago. The defeated Russians look like they can’t avoid withdrawing from Kherson, but seek to use nuclear terror as revenge.

1. lol.

2. Ukrainians have been targetting,firing and attacking the nuclear plants for months now.

3. A defeat in your mind means to annex 4 regions, kill hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians , turn Ukraine into a warzone, turn European economy into bits. What is a victory for you?

 

[Technics 1210]

And now the WW1 and WW2 references are chiming in! Of course, little on Ukraine war today given the MSM feed have been about Trojan Truss.

As for democracy, it is well and truly overrated and a laughable ideology. Just take a look at how the next UK PM will be decided, by Tory MPs, and not the electorate.

Putin's style of leadership is way in front, and the Russian people worship Putin for pulling out Russia from economic hardship and into a global power - within 20 years.

 

[KingKhanWC]

NATO/Liberal bots are hurting today, their proud Zionist leader, Trojan Truss has resigned.

Spare a thought and pity for them.

I am sure Putin is laughing though! )

Same woman who said she is willing to use nukes against Russia. Nato bots talk of windows for Putin, but no windows needed for EU leaders. Senile Biden will suffer next in the mid terms but will forget the loss quickly.

 

[Technics 1210]

Same woman who said she is willing to use nukes against Russia. Nato bots talk of windows for Putin, but no windows needed for EU leaders. Senile Biden will suffer next in the mid terms but will forget the loss quickly.

View attachment 117481

Yup, totally bonkers.

Remember Truss also encouraged Brits to fight for Ukraine! We all know how that turned out to be. NATO scared of going to war directly with Russia, so Truss encourages British foot soldiers to go to war instead.

Biden out - Trump in
Truss out - Boris in

There is a real high probability this could happen.

Putin must be in stiches with laughter.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Yup, totally bonkers.

Remember Truss also encouraged Brits to fight for Ukraine! We all know how that turned out to be. NATO scared of going to war directly with Russia, so Truss encourages British foot soldiers to go to war instead.

Biden out - Trump in
Truss out - Boris in

There is a real high probability this could happen.

Putin must be in stiches with laughter.

Acc to them Putin was unwell while Joe was the next WWE star.

We have now seen protests in almost all nations in Europe. But you know its bad when even the Romanians are protesting. Meanwhile in Russia the reservists have nearly completed their training and are ready to finish of Ukraine.

 

[mazkhan]

Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the departure of British Prime Minister Liz Truss, saying she was a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered for her "catastrophic illiteracy".

"Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a social media post.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter in English: "Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce", referring to the British Daily Star tabloid's days-long livestream asking whether Truss' troubled premiership would outlast the shelf-life of a lettuce.

In a meeting with Russia's veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, she appeared to confuse two regions of Russia with Ukraine, triggering mockery by the Russian diplomat and across talk shows on Russian state TV.

He described the talks as like “speaking to a deaf person who listens but does not hear".

 

[Technics 1210]

Acc to them Putin was unwell while Joe was the next WWE star.

We have now seen protests in almost all nations in Europe. But you know its bad when even the Romanians are protesting. Meanwhile in Russia the reservists have nearly completed their training and are ready to finish of Ukraine.

You know what the most ironic thing is?

The British NATO/Liberals bots want Putin dead or overthrown, but since July and by October 28th:

UK will have had 3 PMs
UK will have had 5 Chancellors of the Exchequer
UK will have had 3 Home Secretaries

Putin still governs Russia.

) ) )

 

[Junaids]

Truss did not lose power because of her Ukraine policy.

She lost power because she wanted to borrow trillions to fund tax cuts for her rich cronies.

 

[Gilly]

You know what the most ironic thing is?

The British NATO/Liberals bots want Putin dead or overthrown, but since July and by October 28th:

UK will have had 3 PMs
UK will have had 5 Chancellors of the Exchequer
UK will have had 3 Home Secretaries

Putin still governs Russia.

) ) )

That is the difference right there.

People in the UK can change their leader and the Russians will be killed if they dare challenge their leader.

 

[Technics 1210]

That is the difference right there.

People in the UK can change their leader and the Russians will be killed if they dare challenge their leader.

Stability vs Instability.

And no, the British people didn't vote for change in the period above, the Tory MPs and members did, not the electorate. BIG DIFFERENCE.

 

[Blistering Barnacle]

The USA is not perfect. But look at Russia and China, especially in terms of the treatment of their Muslim populations, and tell me whether you honestly prefer the alternative.

Come now, don't be deliberately obtuse. We all know how well the West likes their muslims. Dead. The more killed of those brown barbarians the better. If we have to install a few dictators here and there and prop up their militaries or their theocracies to support out policies, that'll do.

Just stop with these statements.

As far as China goes, they've been a better friend to most countries than America, and more equitable as well. As far as their treatment of muslims, just look at the latest UN voting on it - as you seem to love the UN. All the muslim countries voted with China. America and the West are just using this as another attack on China, who they are threatened by just because China is a world power now with a system that doesn't submit the will of its people to corporate interests as in the West.

 

[Blistering Barnacle]

Look at the crackdown on corruption by the current chinese leadership, and look at the crackdown on privacy violations by corporations and their pursuit of profits, including companies like BABA and TenCent.

The west will paint China as a country that routinely violates privacy and engages in national espionage against its citizens, while all the while the West is doing that exact thing to an even greater degree. Companies like Facebook and Apple are routinely required to provide information to governments in the west. CCTV is a fact of life everywhere. Yet if China has cctv's and AI, suddenly it is such a huge invasion of privacy. The hypocrisy is astounding.

How many muslim countries has China bombed to hell, how many weddings in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan has China bombed to hell. It's a joke to try to paint china as some awful country harming Muslims when the clear devastation of Muslim countries at the hands of the west is right before us. And to dismiss it as "whataboutism"? Come on.

 

[Junaids]

Come now, don't be deliberately obtuse. We all know how well the West likes their muslims. Dead. The more killed of those brown barbarians the better. If we have to install a few dictators here and there and prop up their militaries or their theocracies to support out policies, that'll do.

Just stop with these statements.

As far as China goes, they've been a better friend to most countries than America, and more equitable as well. As far as their treatment of muslims, just look at the latest UN voting on it - as you seem to love the UN. All the muslim countries voted with China. America and the West are just using this as another attack on China, who they are threatened by just because China is a world power now with a system that doesn't submit the will of its people to corporate interests as in the West.

Last time I looked, I had Muslim family and friends in both the USA and UK.

Unlike a certain country, they are not sent to concentration camps for re-education and their mosques are not bulldozed.

Unlike Russia, they are not vastly more likely to be conscripted to military service.

Last time I looked, the Mayor of London was Sadiq Khan.

Naz Shah is a female MP in Bradford. Rupa Huq is a female MP in west London, and her sister is a much-admired TV legend.

I can’t help it if you feel that the British only like their Muslims dead. I have just listed three who are wildly admired, and in my home town of Manchester I could add Afzal Khan and Yasmin Qureshi.
[MENTION=141306]sweep_shot[/MENTION] has just questioned the value of democracy. But it turns out that Muslims are far better represented in the British parliament than in most Muslim countries, let alone Russia where Muslims don’t appear to be represented at all, other than by a sociopathic murderer from Chechynia.

 

[Gilly]

Look at the crackdown on corruption by the current chinese leadership, and look at the crackdown on privacy violations by corporations and their pursuit of profits, including companies like BABA and TenCent.

The west will paint China as a country that routinely violates privacy and engages in national espionage against its citizens, while all the while the West is doing that exact thing to an even greater degree. Companies like Facebook and Apple are routinely required to provide information to governments in the west. CCTV is a fact of life everywhere. Yet if China has cctv's and AI, suddenly it is such a huge invasion of privacy. The hypocrisy is astounding.

How many muslim countries has China bombed to hell, how many weddings in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan has China bombed to hell. It's a joke to try to paint china as some awful country harming Muslims when the clear devastation of Muslim countries at the hands of the west is right before us. And to dismiss it as "whataboutism"? Come on.

The muslim countries will always do whatever gets them the most money and they have very low morals, they use their citizens as pawns.

 

[Junaids]

Ramzan Kadyrov?

Read the earlier article, but in no particular order:

1. The husbands, fathers and brothers of the girls and women that he rapes.

2. The girls and women that he rapes, and there are dozens each year.

3. All his political opponents.

4. All independent journalists who attempt to report from or about the Chechen Republic.

5. Anyone who complains about being robbed by his goons, or raped by his goons, or having family members murdered by his goons.

I get that he appeals to your intolerant side with his anti-gay rhetoric. But nobody in the Chechen Republic is crazy enough to be out as gay.

The people Kadyrov murders are just anyone whose property he wants, or anyone who he wants to rape, or anyone who challenges him.

And never forget:

1. 90% of Kadyrov’s victims are Muslim.
2. 90% of Russian Muslims are not Chechens.

And no, Muslims can’t live freely in Russia. They are eight times more likely than Christians to be conscripted and to die in action.

 

[daytrader]

Ukrainians endure blackouts as power curbs follow Russian air strikes
People were urged to use less power as govt enforced nationwide curbs on electricity usage between 7am and 11pm

KYIV:
Ukrainians endured power curbs including the first blackouts imposed by grid authorities since the war began on Thursday to allow the repair of infrastructure destroyed by Russian air strikes as Kyiv's forces pressed on towards the city of Kherson.

Although Ukraine is advancing against Russian troops in the east and the south, it is struggling to protect power generating facilities and other utilities from missile and drone strikes that appear designed to disrupt and demoralise as winter approaches.

People across the country were urged to use less power as the government enforced nationwide curbs on electricity usage between 7 am and 11pm, the first such restrictions since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and including blackouts in some areas.

That followed a barrage of Russian attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said had struck a third of all power plants.

Meanwhile the northeast region of Sumy went without water as some Kyiv grocery stores reported sales of bottled water picking up in preparation for possible shortages there.

"There is much anger against Russian leaders and Russian people," Mikhaylo Holovnenko, a Kyiv resident, told Reuters.

"But we are ready for outages. We have candles, charged power banks. Ukraine is charged to win."

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using energy and hunger as weapons.

"Scorched earth tactics will not help Russia win the war. They will only strengthen the unity and resolve of Ukraine and its partners," Scholz told the German parliament.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said Scholz had "clearly forgotten the Nazi past of his country and the 30 million Soviet people who were killed or died of hunger and cold during the war."

Russia's defence ministry said it was again targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a strategy it has stepped up since the appointment this month of Sergei Surovikin - nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media - as commander of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told national TV that Russia had carried out more than 300 air strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities since Oct. 10.

He said the government was seeking a 20% reduction in energy use as a result.

"We see a voluntary decrease (in electricity consumption). But when it is not enough, we are forced to bring in forced shutdowns," he said.

Kyiv and Kharkiv announced curbs on the use of electric-powered public transport such as trolleybuses and reduced the frequency of trains on the metro.

"We need time to restore power plants, we need respite from our consumers," Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of grid operator Ukrenergo, told Ukrainian TV.

Iranian drones?

Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that the power problems would take time to resolve.

"We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones."

He was due to address a European Union summit later on Thursday.

Leaders of the 27 member states will discuss options for more support to Ukraine, including energy equipment, helping restore power supply and long-term financing to rebuild.

Much of the destruction has been inflicted by Russian drones, which Ukraine and the West say are Iranian-made, something Tehran denies.

European Union members had agreed on new measures against Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, the bloc's Czech presidency said.

On the ground, the Ukrainian military continued to try to press its advance towards the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russian forces have captured.

The Russian-appointed administration on Wednesday told civilians to leave the city - control of which gives Russia a land route to Crimea, which it seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro river.

Ukraine's military said in an early Thursday update on the Kherson region that 43 Russian servicemen had been killed and six tanks and other equipment destroyed.

The Russian defence ministry described a battle in the area which it said its forces had won.

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

Express Tribune

 

[Robert]

Come now, don't be deliberately obtuse. We all know how well the West likes their muslims. Dead. The more killed of those brown barbarians the better. If we have to install a few dictators here and there and prop up their militaries or their theocracies to support out policies, that'll do.

Just stop with these statements.

As far as China goes, they've been a better friend to most countries than America, and more equitable as well. As far as their treatment of muslims, just look at the latest UN voting on it - as you seem to love the UN. All the muslim countries voted with China. America and the West are just using this as another attack on China, who they are threatened by just because China is a world power now with a system that doesn't submit the will of its people to corporate interests as in the West.

Extraordinary of “the Muslim countries” given that China is committing a genocide of Muslims right now.

I guess it is all about money. China is carrying out its own form of neo-imperialism across the ME, Africa and South America. They have their corporate interests too. So “the Muslim countries” turn a blind eye while their leaders keep making money. In another few decades they will all bow to the unelected authoritarians in Beijing.

 

[captain.hansolo]

I see the world very differently to you.

For me, World War 1 ended with bad news for the European Empires - US President Woodrow Wilson made clear that we would have a world of nation states. Only the Russian Empire survives from then.

Since 1945 we have had seven decades of Pax Americana. Other than a Nixon-Kissinger interlude of propping up right-wing dictatorships, America has given us a world which is largely peaceful and in which democracy is widely available.

Putin’s wars in neighbouring countries are identical to Hitler’s. Claim your ethnic minority is persecuted in a neighbouring country, then invade and annex that land.

Zelensky came to power as the candidate of the Russian Ukrainians. Putin’s accusations against him are ludicrous and preposterous.

And now we are at a turning point. If Putin keeps his ill-gotten gains there are multiple lessons for tinpot dictatorships anywhere:

1. If you have nuclear weapons you can take what you feel like.

2. You can give your troops a green light to rape and steal whatever they feel like.

3. You can murder your domestic opponents.

We can’t let him win.

Ukraine has been given the oldest, most obsolete 1% of the USA’s weapons and it is enough to be pulverising Russia.

The secret now is to hold our nerve and to ensure that Putin loses.

I wont call the HIMARS system an obsolete member of the american armament, but if anything, that is an indication of the gulf between united states and russia or for that fact the rest of the world.

A single system, less than a dozen units of which, have been remarkable in reshaping this conflict. that should let any other challenges to american hegemony be settled in their infancy. if you fight us with a conventional army and occupation or nation building is not what our intent it, we will massacre you. FAFO. russia found out, and shall continue to find out as long as they remain in Ukraine.

On another point, Putin move should cause alarm for the Bangladeshis and the Sri Lankas and the citizens of Maldives: what would prevent a hegemonic despot like Modi from marching his soldiers into your country under the pretext of coming to the rescue of marginalized and oppressed hindus? what would prevent him from occupying a large part of say the jaffa peninsula and extending that into the territories of the india nation state? Same arguments could be claimed: this was always a part of india, has been a part of india till before it was colonized by the british, or that the hindus there are closer culturally and linguistically to india?

 

[Junaids]

Anyone who seriously thinks that the residents of Donbas or even Crimea want to join Russia should read @neil_abrams Twitter thread today.

He systematically shows that there never was popular opposition to Ukraine or support for Russia, but that in 2014 Russia manufactured the illusion of such support as a strategic response to Yanukovich losing power in Kyiv.

Crimea had the strongest support for Russia - roughly 42% pro-Russia and 58% pro-Ukraine.

Donbas and Kherson were roughly 25% pro-Russia and 75% pro-Ukraine.

In short, the last eight years have seen Russian aggression on the fraudulent pretext of anti-Russian Ukrainian action in Donbas which even the Ukrainian Russians accept was invented by Russia’s government.

 

[Junaids]

In particular, the Abrams thread destroys forever the Russian propaganda talking point that Ukraine somehow breached the Minsk Accord.

 

[Junaids]

More Russian mistreatment of Muslims emerging.

The two Tajiks who committed the massacre earlier in the week aren’t even Russian: they were students at university who were abducted off the street in Moscow and told they were being mobilised!

Similar stories from some new Kazakh prisoners of war today.

Basically the Russian Army abducts any random non-European and especially Muslim-looking people in Moscow and tells them that they are being sent to fight in Ukraine. If they resist, their visa to be in Russia is cancelled and they are sent to war anyway!

And if they are wounded or taken prisoner, Russia simply tells Ukraine to deport them back to their own (Muslim) country.

 

[Junaids]

The problem with the forced mobilisation of people who aren’t even Russian is that Russia is getting soldiers who are as unmotivated as they are untrained.

And it is turning Muslim parts of Russia into time bombs.

 

[bones]

Remember when our resident experts on Russian weapons claimed Russia had run out of missiles in June? Well it's been almost 2 weeks of non stop bombardment all over Ukraine. Take a look at social media this morning, Ukraine is getting pounded all over.

I remind you, this could all stop if the west stops their Ukraine project which has already failed.

 

[bones]

After November 8th when the Republicans win the both sides and stpp/cut funding to Ukraine, Ukraine will just collapse economically instantly.

 

[Junaids]

Remember when our resident experts on Russian weapons claimed Russia had run out of missiles in June? Well it's been almost 2 weeks of non stop bombardment all over Ukraine. Take a look at social media this morning, Ukraine is getting pounded all over.

I remind you, this could all stop if the west stops their Ukraine project which has already failed.

Where to even begin?

Russia has barely hit a single military target with a cruise missile since the Kerch Bridge was destroyed. They have been using Iranian drones to terrorise the public and to launch criminal attacks on civilian energy infrastructure.

 

[Junaids]

After November 8th when the Republicans win the both sides and stpp/cut funding to Ukraine, Ukraine will just collapse economically instantly.

That’s not how it works.

Putin’s assets are on the House, not the Senate. They cannot cut funding for Ukraine.

Plus Boris Johnson is about to regain the UK Prime Minister job. And with our party having messed up the economy, his best political advantage is probably from confronting the Russians on the battlefield.

The RAF has moved fast jets from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to Constanta in Romania, where they are just across the Black Sea from Crimea.

I think it’s quite likely that next time Russia shoots a missile at an RAF jet like they did in late September, a Johnson government would take out the Russian Air Force and Navy in and around Crimea.

There are strong political rewards for a British government, while no such rewards for an American one.

 

[bones]

More from the comedian Zelesnky - Russia are planning to blow up the Dam at Khakova. Well firstly if they blow it up it impacts the fresh water supply to Crimea and South Ukraine, one of the very first objective they had. Secondly they've controlled it since April, who's been shelling it since then? The Ukrainians have been using himars and other rockets to try and stop Russian supplies.

In other words - more lies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63341251

 

[bones]

Many parts of Ukraine are having energy blackouts. With just a few days of missiles/rockets/drones landing the energy infrastructure in Ukraine has been severely damaged. They can repair, but the Russians just keep hitting other objects. The Russians also control the NPP at Energodar, which supplies 20% of Ukraine's electricity. It's no wonder the Ukranians are so desperate to get it back and have failed multiple times already.

Yet - despite all of this, we still have MSM and their followers telling us Russia are losing and NATO and their proxy are winning.

 

[Junaids]

More from the comedian Zelesnky - Russia are planning to blow up the Dam at Khakova. Well firstly if they blow it up it impacts the fresh water supply to Crimea and South Ukraine, one of the very first objective they had. Secondly they've controlled it since April, who's been shelling it since then? The Ukrainians have been using himars and other rockets to try and stop Russian supplies.

In other words - more lies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63341251

We covered this yesterday.

Ukraine earlier successfully bombed the road on the top of the dam to prevent Russian crossings.

The UK Defence Minister flew to Washington earlier this week when intelligence was received suggesting that Russia was looking at destroying the actual dam in a false flag attack.

Russia is being defeated at Kherson, and by flooding Kherson this would allow Russia to get out more of its troops and material as it withdraws. It would also deprive the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station of coolant, causing a nuclear disaster which Russia would blame on Ukraine.

It has become clear this week that the Crimean Bridge is much more damaged than the Russians first admitted, and they are starting to understand that they are going to lose Crimea as well as Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk. So if they can blame Ukrainian “terrorism” for depriving Crimea of water it allows Russia to paint their withdrawal as the equivalent of Hitler’s “Stab In The Back”.

The problem, as so often this year, is that Russia’s plans were deciphered and publicised in advance, making it too dangerous for them to put them into action.

 

[Junaids]

The Americans have had world class intelligence officers in the field of Russia and Ukraine in the form of Fiona Hill and the Vindman brothers.

Donald Trump got rid of them because they rejected the Putin Talking Points that he swallowed whole, rather like Elon Musk does.

Of course for every argument that Crimea is historically really Russian, there is a counter-argument such as Belgorod being historically Ukrainian.

2022 is different because Biden has restored the experts whom Trump had got rid of.

That’s why the US correctly anticipated that Putin really would invade, while French and German intelligence failed to.

 

[mazkhan]

The Americans have had world class intelligence officers in the field of Russia and Ukraine in the form of Fiona Hill and the Vindman brothers.

Donald Trump got rid of them because they rejected the Putin Talking Points that he swallowed whole, rather like Elon Musk does.

Of course for every argument that Crimea is historically really Russian, there is a counter-argument such as Belgorod being historically Ukrainian.

2022 is different because Biden has restored the experts whom Trump had got rid of.

That’s why the US correctly anticipated that Putin really would invade, while French and German intelligence failed to.

Weren't ukranians and russians the same people they are like Scottish and English share same culture history and heritage .

Most of the able people the workers , industrialists engineers scientists during soviet time were the ukranians.

 

[bones]

Poroshenko: Ukraine is at war with Iran, not just Russia.

I can only assume because Iranian drones are being used. If that is the case then the Russians are at war with the collective west.

 

[sweep_shot]

Poroshenko: Ukraine is at war with Iran, not just Russia.

I can only assume because Iranian drones are being used. If that is the case then the Russians are at war with the collective west.

Yup. Good point.

You have highlighted the hypocrisy well here.

 

[ex-q-zit]

Russia Releases US Basketball Star Brittney Griner In Prisoner Swap: Report

US basketball star Brittney Griner has been released in a prisoner swap with Russia and is now in US custody, a US official said on Thursday.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Ms Griner, the official said, adding that she was in good spirits.

Joe Biden is to make remarks at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), the White House said.

The swap involved former arms dealer Viktor Bout, CNN reported.

NDTV

 

[ex-q-zit]

Wished US Basketball Star Good Luck At Prisoner Exchange, Says Russia's Arms Dealer

Viktor Bout, the arms dealer freed in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, said he wished her good luck on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi where they were exchanged last week.

Bout, who spent 14 years in U.S. jail for arms trafficking, money laundering and conspiring to kill Americans, was swapped for the basketball star jailed this year for bringing cannabis vape oil to Moscow when she arrive to play for a Russian team.

Russia's FSB security service released images of the two being led past each other on the tarmac at the airport in Abu Dhabi during the swap, although the video cuts away as they pass and there was no footage showing them interacting.

"I wished her luck, she even sort of reached out her hand to me," Bout said on Saturday in an interview with Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT.

"Again, it's our tradition. You should wish everyone good fortune and happiness," he said, adding that he believed Griner "was positively inclined" towards him.

Speaking to Maria Butina, who herself spent 14 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker and RT presenter, Bout praised President Vladimir Putin, whose portrait he said he had hung on his cell wall.

Asked about Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, Bout said he wished that Moscow had been able to launch it sooner.

"If I had the chance and the required skills, I'd join up as a volunteer," he said.

NDTV