A small scale nuclear strike sacrificing a few square miles of Ukraine and Belarus is the schizophrenic endgame for those who say we need to be strong against Russia.
I tend to think that this would be the limit of what is possible in this war without having the planet blow up around us.

Even if it were possible, in what kind of world would that be Ok let alone useful?

Not one, thing is when the situation gets too complicated politicians get scared and call for the military hammer, and for them buggers every problem looks like a nail.

What do you base that on?

The US don't (fully) count of course, that's an obvious case where your description is uncomfortably close to reality.

And as a little FU to Russia...:
Defense Minister: Ukraine to display fragments of Russian military equipment across Europe.

Apparently the National Farmers Union of Ukraine could also be invited to provide a motorcade of tractors towing Russian tanks that are still in one piece or still mobile with little damage as an opener to these exhibitions.



Anyway here's more on the exhibition.


War in History - Ukraine to launch touring exhibit of Russian tanks destroyed during ongoing war

I would visit that. The Ukraine is also crowdfunding ammo…. For a donation the soldiers will write your insult on a shell, fire it at the Russians and send you the picture. Don’t we live in interesting times?

Yes and to think it's exactly 40 years ago this month that the British were firing Sidewinder missiles at Argentine air force jets etched with 'Up Yours Gattieri' on them.

This has to be the most brilliant plan for Ukraine to 'win' the war against Russia

Once again, Europeans and Americans are being manipulated by Zelenskiy and his cohorts

Russia and Ukraine need to agree to a ceasefire, and begin negotiations.

In the meantime, every day innocent people are dying in Donbass (civilians, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers)

No idea if this is true, but funny it is.

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'Obese Russian general, 67, called up to fight in Ukraine as Putin 'scrapes the barrel'



https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wor...alled-27326346

In America, they would have elected him as a president

At least they're not writing "We've just killed your children, ha ha".

Oh... Zalensky is such a bad man. Manipulating poor old pressurised Putin into invading for no very good reason. Don't they realise Putin is a sick old man? Why must they bully him.

Some months ago, both were leaders of some of the most corrupt countries in the world. It's terrible what happened to Urkaine, and Putin is scum but Zelensky played his role really, really well.

40 years, how time flys.

Hmm, you always have some...uhm, interesting opinions, what do you mean by playing his role? I can agree he proved to be a better guy for the role of the president of Ukraine under these circumstances than many Ukrainians would have given him credit for, but other than that, implying stuff like everything is staged or provoked by Zelensky, it's just that old fake Russian propaganda we got used to and this forum abounds with.

Don't drop the bomb and run away like other trolls, explain what do you meant by this if you want a iota of credibility here. Are the destructions and other war crimes faked? Staged? Provoked? What exactly do you lot mean by Zelensky "played his role really, really well" or that he is an equally bad guy? According to your very old fashioned views disguised under the Realpolitik theory and plain old cynicism, maybe he should have just handed in Ukraine to Czar Putin? Is he responsible for this invasion, is this what you lot imply here?

The result of any negotiations will be a temporary ceasefire before Russia gathers more troops and weapon for the next phase of the war. What is there to negotiate if their main goal is to destroy Ukraine as a nation?

Thanks for calling me a troll Zelensky

Zelensky was a 13 in a dozen president of a very corrupt country only some months ago and also mentioned in the Panama papers for his offshore business.
Now he is the world's hero president and it seems like nobody is questioning the guy anymore. Again, he plays this role as president in this situation really well but we shouldn't be too naive about his motives.

Oh, don't mention it, it was my pleasure, but could you please explain which are his motives?

In peace time when influenced by all of the MANY corrupting factors in the politics of that area of the world, he was himself susceptible to corruption and indeed started to show the signs of authoritarianism with bans on political opposition and media clampdowns. That's a fact, that's what he did.

However, to say Zelensky now has any other motive than protecting/saving Ukraine from an aggressive invader is imo genuinely laughable. Existential threatstend to bring about big changes in people's motivations and this should be pretty clear if you are able to think with any shred of logic.

Being a wartime leader with such galvanised purpose and with the country facing such horror has clearly reforged Zelensky into something else, something seemingly much better, and making closer ties with the EU will likely further encourage future strong democratic tendencies. Ukraine is now changed forever and Zelensky along with it and if/when peace comes then he is very likely going to be staying in power to rebuild Ukraine and take it through the next phase of its transformation.

And the boring things started by the very gay West start to happen:

https://www.ft.com/content/28817b4e-...4-38b79e3da7f0

The missing payment is an "interest payment". Usually, on national debts, only interest is paid during the contract duration and the capital is returned until the end. Most contracts tell that if interest payment is not done, bondholders can request an early payment of capital.

Right now, Russian bonds are traded at 20 cents to the dollar. This means the people buying at this price think they won't see their money for some years. FT journalist speculates that some bondholder will probably wait given the current sanctions will make very hard to win any legal battle against Russia. So, better wait until Russians want to borrow more and they start paying old debts to attract new creditors.

Well, the important point is no more loans to Russia.

Also, waiting for the newsletter of Blooomberg's Matt Levine coming around 18h00. I'm betting more interesting gossip comes in today's newsletter.