Around $7 million.

A lot of civilian vehicles around, maybe not near a front line and it was the work of Ukraine's special forces.
Certainly a world height record.

I wonder how high you can get a turret to fly?

For instance a nazi is one who doesn't believe other nations have the right to exist and cherish their own culture which they believe to be different from other cultures and unique to a specific group and territory. Putin and his clique seem to fit very well this description. A nazi is also someone who starts a war of destruction and promises he will bring to oblivion that group, of which he believes is inferior to his own group and simply deserves to perish. Again, Putin and his clique fit pretty well all the nazi and fascism definitions.
Seriously now, are we still on the old accusations of fascism coming from Russia? Because it's just ridiculous and it's rich coming from their side. Not only since the invasion of Ukraine.
This war is about other things and you probably know it very well. Power. Greed. And many other things.

You better wish this war to be over and sooner than later, not to insist on the alleged fascism of a country which is being systematically destroyed as we speak.

In August 2013, Putin said to David Cameron (while Cameron was try to get Putin to join with the UK and US in condemn the use of Sarin in Syria - only to be let down by Ed Milliband and Obama).

Lenin said: “You probe with bayonets — if you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw” have been quoted many times. They describe Putin’s thinking perfectly. In August 2013 he probed the West with a bayonet and encountered mush, not steel.

The civil war in Syria, orchestrated by Putin, became bloodier; in 2014 he invaded Crimea; this February, it was Ukraine.

(Taken from this article in The Times - paywalled - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/p...-war-hq537zrlb

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

inconvenient facts = posts deleted for "trolling"

In the free world of Twitter, Russia's foreign ministry shares your sharp analogy. Also on Twitter, some right wing nutjobs allege that the Buffalo shooting was an FBI false flag operation.

https://twitter.com/Dpol_un/status/1...Dm_-NF4EQ&s=19

That activity from the right wing nutjobs is a problem on its own, the bigger problem is the people who believe such rubbish and then spread it.

The law of unintended consequences strikes again.

People here supported the Russian claim that they struck Ukraine to hinder NATO's eastward progression.
As the result, today Finland formally applies for Nato membership so doubling the length of NATO's eastern land border with Russia.

Michael Caine: 'Not a lot of people know that' when Kazakstahn joins NATO then Russia's border with NATO would be five times longer.

Ukraine Is in Worse Shape than You Think

https://time.com/6176748/ukraine-war-economy/

For the nth time

The "West" gave Ukraine security guarantees when they gave up their nuclear weapons.

And Russia guaranteed sovereignty.

At least we're keeping to our side of the bargain. In the meantime Finland has formally requested NATO membership. Russia says 'that's a mistake'.

Er no. Invading Ukraine, that was a mistake.

Economically Ukraine was a basket case (I think I mentioned this a few hundred pages ago) and perhaps this war will turn out to be the best thing to happen to Ukraine ever. Think about it, you can draw parallels to Post war Germany, everything in ruins, a "Stunde Null" situation, then you get massive foreign investment into new infrastructure, new factories, a new society. The country was remodeled to the western ideology and was built up to be a buffer between "the west" and a belligerent Russia.
Losing WW2 was the best thing that could happen to Germany because they did great afterwards, so why can´t the same thing apply to Ukraine?

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Back in Bavaria, god´s own belly button.

Maybe. But careful with the Germany parallels. Otherwise some twisted minds might even think Ukraine needs to be de-nazified.

At that point Germany was de-nazified... They all joined the CSU.

Compare Eastern and Western Germany and you understand why loosing a war to Russia is a bad thing.

The mind boggles at the sheer level of inane and ignorant garbage that spews forth from your fevered mind to your keyboard and then onto our long-suffering screens. How anyone can think thousands of people being killed, major cities being razed and millions of people being turned into refugees as "the best thing ever to happen to a country" can imo only described as somewhat unhinged and delusional.

fully agreed. not just for Ukraine but for Germany as well at the time

Well, Germany managed to get almost all of its debt wiped out (and nullified all pre-war loans both internal and external), didn't have to pay reparations (except the money we wire to Israel of course), lost a lot of people drawing a pension fund and could thus start from a clean slate.


Of course, it all came with a price-tag. But you have to wonder what some politicians these days would be willing to do if they could start again with such a clean slate?

I don't believe any comparisons can be drawn between Ukraine and post war Germany. Germany finished the second world war with the highest levels of education in the world. Remarkably, despite the allied bombing campaign, close to 95% of industry was still in tact. Germany had little war debt, Marshall aid was rolling in and there was currency reform that was introduced in a way that it wiped out people's saving but preserved business capital. One couldn't ask for a more recovery/business friendly environment.

Compare that to Ukraine, which is (comparatively) low educated, low developed country, which also had the unattractive tag of being one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.

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Thou/Thee