The War in Ukraine

I'd kinda stopped following, mainly due to it being repetitive images of burnt out buildings. But this has just turned a really grotty corner. When is Germany going to stop funding this? I get it, it would essentially bring the day to day national infrastructure to it's knees, but we've just been through lockdown. Surely sacrifices can be made further when genocide is occurring in Europe?

I don't know, maybe I'm being too idealistic.
 
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The stories of Bucha immediately reminded me of this extremely disturbing comic book Crossed by Garth Ennis which is about a pandemic that causes people to carry out their most evil thoughts. There's tons of rape, torture, killing, cannibalism, anything you can think of. I haven't read it myself but it's something I came across a while ago because the author is the creator of The Boys (a TV show currently running). It looks like the Russians have the same virus and their beloved Z symbol stands for "zombies" because that's what they are.
 
I fear there are crimes against humanity on a much greater scale yet to be discovered:


If I remember correctly, at the height of the invasion, Sumy was one of the cities that was most cut-off in terms of communication.
 
I'd kinda stopped following, mainly due to it being repetitive images of burnt out buildings. But this has just turned a really grotty corner. When is Germany going to stop funding this? I get it, it would essentially bring the day to day national infrastructure to it's knees, but we've just been through lockdown. Surely sacrifices can be made further when genocide is occurring in Europe?

I don't know, maybe I'm being too idealistic.

I'd be happy to abandon my fridge, heating and god knows what for a while if it made a difference - and I don't think I'm the only one.

I kinda get the feeling politicians are underestimating the people's willingness to act in solidarity after having going through some degree of "division" off of the back of the solidarity debates regarding covid/mask/vaccination. But for the majority of people, war still hits different than a contagious (and - make no mistake - deadly) virus, eliciting a much more primal fear.
 
Russia's permanent UN Security Council status is historical based on WWII.
This needs to be revisited in light of what has been happening and actually the past few decades and the direction of travel.
 
We're going to have to shut down the UN and establish a brand new international club called the United No Russias.
 
I'd be happy to abandon my fridge, heating and god knows what for a while if it made a difference - and I don't think I'm the only one.

I kinda get the feeling politicians are underestimating the people's willingness to act in solidarity after having going through some degree of "division" off of the back of the solidarity debates regarding covid/mask/vaccination. But for the majority of people, war still hits different than a contagious (and - make no mistake - deadly) virus, eliciting a much more primal fear.
It's not a question of individuals making personal sacrifices to heap pressure on Russia. The sanctions would have happened long ago if it were down to that. This is business that needs to keep going. The trouble is striking a balance between making things horrid for Russia and plunging Europe into a deep recession. A weak Europe is of no use to Ukraine, either. There are no easy answers here.

Behind the scenes, Ukraine is getting military help. This costs money. You won't necessarily hear about most of it and there may be some distractions on a political level by the Ukrainians as they don't need to inform Russia of what is going on militarily.
 
We're going to have to shut down the UN and establish a brand new international club called the United No Russias.
season 6 GIF
 
It's not a question of individuals making personal sacrifices to heap pressure on Russia. The sanctions would have happened long ago if it were down to that. This is business that needs to keep going. The trouble is striking a balance between making things horrid for Russia and plunging Europe into a deep recession. A weak Europe is of no use to Ukraine, either. There are no easy answers here.

Oh, fully aware that that individuals won't make the difference but I do think that people would be at least somewhat understanding if making decisions that are ultimately on the right side of history would lead to some wider financial repercussions e.g. in Europe. But I'm not sure many European leaders believe that.

But as you said, there are no easy and especially no quick fixes.
 
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's depute representative at the UN is now promoting the idea that the ethnic cleansing of Bosnians and Albanians during the Yugoslav Wars never happened.

There aren't enough :manson::manson::manson:

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I genuinely think those people are mentally ill. The amount of delusional thinking and paranoia and there is no way to reason with them. I actually literally googled if there is anything about this and an article on this topic came out a couple of days ago:

 
I think this societal paranoia thing is applicable to many societies. It may not be the majority but it's definitely out there and I feel like it's growing.
For example the antivax theorists and their following.
 
The Russian elite also seem to possess an uncomfortable level of national pride and with that a misguided superiority complex - moreso than America and probably second only to North Korea. The whole Mother Russia rhetoric seems to have been exploited into some awful Them And Us ideology and, like all such countries, embrace their isolation from the world and use it fuel fear and reinforce their power over the poor and naive majority.

I mean, let’s face it, most of the world employs that tactic to some degree; but Russia are masters at it.
 
Russia have destroyed their already fragile reputation in Western Europe.

The way things are going, they are in line to lose all the territory they gained in the 2014 invasion in the end. It's truly been an utter disaster for Putin.
 
Russia have destroyed their already fragile reputation in Western Europe.

The way things are going, they are in line to lose all the territory they gained in the 2014 invasion in the end. It's truly been an utter disaster for Putin.
Indeed. They have already 'lost' this war as they have had to withdraw from Kiev and will now be a international pariah for the foreseeable future - that was already more inevitable in 2022 in a way it wasn't after 2014 but the clear existence of the most callous war crimes puts it beyond doubt.

One aspect we are not hearing a great deal about, is what is happening in Crimea?
 
More horrors starting to get revealed...



“There was barely any room. We were living sitting up. We were sleeping sitting up. Not that we slept at all. It was impossible. So many shells were landing around here. It was unbearable,” she said. “During my time here, 12 people died.”

Mr Klymchuk added that the captives were forced to use buckets for toilets, which would often overflow.

“Sometimes Russians took people outside and used them as human shields,”
 
Watch everything is my motto. Every flagged Twitter post, every news report.
Yes. Watching what happened at Kramatorsk station is something everybody needs to see - one of the few eastern escape routes still available and Russia bombs it. Why should anybody have confidence in the so called security corridors agreed by Russia?

There also must be questions for those countries which are ostensible western allies but are refusing to condemn (or really do anything) - India being top of the list - a country which sees itself as an economic partner and is still happy to take western aid.
 
Watched one of the Twitter things of a mother identifying her boy's body down a well. Harrowing. Can't stop thinking about it.

I just wonder what we really gain from upsetting ourselves constantly over things we have no real control over. We know these horrors happen, we condemn it, anyone with a beating heart is disturbed by it, what else can we do? We could drive ourselves insane with upset over all the horrors of the world, for what though? It's fuckheads like Putin who need to see this, if he wasn't just a plain psychopath anyway
 
Watched a woman a little earlier who described she was raped while her husband got killed. She said most of the soldiers are either drunk or on drugs, and they're looting, killing and raping and that only some are not like that but they are very few.
 
I'm honestly at the point where I can't open the news anymore. Against my better judgement I did that today anyway and the first few articles were about 25 women being held in a basement and raped "so that they'd never want to have Ukrainian children again" and there was another one about an infant (!) getting raped with a mascara wand, a video of it used to be on Twitter as well and everything. I think it's VERY important that we know that these things are happening but I've also realized I need to find some kind of a balance when it comes to my own mental health.

Also what I found very disturbing were the comments on Facebook under these articles where people were describing the sadistic things they would do to those soldiers and their families followed by hundreds of likes. Like, I understand, you are angry and those soldiers are fucking horrible but you are no better if you stoop to their level.
 
You know, I think it’s okay not to bear witness to absolutely every part of this war in graphic detail. I’ve tried to stay on top of the broad events of this war, but there is really nothing to be gained from me seeing pictures and reading all the gory details of these atrocities.
 
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You know, I think it’s okay not to bear witness to absolutely every part of this war in graphic detail. I’ve tried to stay on top of the broad events of this war, but there is really nothing to be gained from me seeing pictures and reading all the gory details of these atrocities.

Agreed - no one's looking away but it's important to know what you can stomach, which medium you can digest to stay informed and what is likely to throw you off very badly. In my case, I can very much deal with text, even the dreadful details, pictures too, actually - but I stay largely clear of video formats because my rationale tends to go out of the window.
 
It’s not official yet but it looks like Magdalena will make the Socialdemocrats make up their mind and make this happen. You have no idea how huge this change is for both the Socialdemocrats and for Sweden.

Most of all it’s thanks to Finland who went ahead and weren’t going to wait for us.
 

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