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16 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

At which point we should allow the remainder of Ukraine to join NATO, along with Finland and Sweden. Taunt Putin with his bellicose, bullying words. 

Their desire to join is the exact opposite of what Putin presumably intended when he claimed to the Russian people that one of the reasons for invading Ukraine was that "Russia is surrounded by NATO". That'll be a lot more true as a result of his "special operation".

I strongly suspect now that, apart from hypersonic missiles, which seem like the 21st century equivalent of the V2, the weaponry of the West is superior in every department to the Russians. Putin will be well aware of this. 

One thing that strikes me is that with very effective, long range and lightweight shoulder launched missiles, tanks are suddenly looking a bit dated and vulnerable as an effective battlefield weapon. Something a lot faster and more agile is needed.  

It's ironic that tanks were invented 100 years ago to end trench warfare in WW1 - now the Ukrainian forces are digging themselves into trenches in the Donbass, yet as you say, tanks are looking increasingly vulnerable and outdated.

 

 

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Sweden and Finland might have liked their neutrality in the past, but not being part of Nato has screwed Ukraine and so minds have been focused. I recall in the mid 80s when chatting to a Swede about Reagan's star wars program, he said 'We are neutral, but 90% of our forces face east". Not much has changed really, and that sadly out of necessity.

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Thanks for the suggestions folks. Google translate is where we ended up. It's far from perfect with quite a few hovercrafts, some self inflicted when the wife switches from English to German in mid-sentence, but also when you speak too fast, or maybe it can't cope with accents so well, as it produces garbage on occasion in both directions. But, it's workable, which is the main thing, and has comedy value to lighten the mood. Ah, the wonders of algorithms. :)

 

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An unbelievably great thing you and your family are undertaking…a huge inspiration to those of us who spend time moaning about our lot in life! 

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image.gif.0cec9c5a301322112fff0676e8c073c6.gif

A Ukrainian refugee rehomed under a government scheme has claimed she and her teenage son were left homeless after being manipulated by their hosts.

The woman, 45, who fled Bucha, north of Kyiv, came to north-east England on 16 April but said she was asked for money and told to leave after three weeks.

"I am fleeing the war and all of a sudden I am on the street," she said.

The government said Homes for Ukraine had helped more than 33,000 people, with very few unsuccessful cases.

The mother and her 13-year-old son - whose identities are being protected - are being helped by a Sunderland-based charity and are in temporary accommodation while waiting to be matched with a new family.

She told BBC Look North she thought her hosts would be kind and caring, but within weeks she "did not feel safe or secure".

"Our host approached us and said 'I need money'," she said.

She said the family told her: "We spent so much money on you - look how expensive you are, look how much you have cost us - I want money."

The hosts set up an online fundraising page purported to be for the benefit of the exiled mum and son - which raised more than £850 - although the woman says she never saw any of the money.

She added: "All of a sudden I am fleeing the war and all of a sudden I am on the street."

ReutersCopyright: Reuters
 
 
 
MAYBE THIS GREADY PERSON SHOULD HAVE TRIED BREEDING FRENCH BULLDOGS NOT CAREING FOR REFUGEES

, according to the latest opinion poll.

On 2/26/2022 at 9:35 PM, DaveG38 said:

 

 

Edited by copper123
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I had a feeling that the situation of a lot of female refugees with kids, being housed with British families, would end in tears for many.

For one reason or another............. 

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I have to say that I don't think we could have wished for more considering we took in someone with whom we have nothing in common for as long as it takes. She will have been here for 4 weeks this coming Friday. Language is a bit of an issue as it is proving difficult to find her work where there is minimal customer contact, but every day I hear a few more words used, so hopefully within a few months the communication problems will reduce. The first few weeks have been a bit labour intensive on my part carting her around to get the basics sorted such as signing on, registering with a doctor, taking her shopping, trying to teach basic English and write benefits logs and job applications etc, but that's part of the deal when there's no common language and will ultimately pay off when she is able to stand on her own feet comfortably.

Frankly, the above post where someone claims they have spent a lot of money on the refugee is complete b******s. Additional costs for taking someone in - a gas safety certificate and some energy, set against which the host will get £350 a month paid in arrears for the first year. There's no obligation to feed them at your expense, though most would at least until cashflow is established. The host would be quids in if calculated on an honest basis, even if food was provided. How much does a set of house keys cost for God's sake?

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21 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

I had a feeling that the situation of a lot of female refugees with kids, being housed with British families, would end in tears for many.

For one reason or another............. 

Surpose that if a male imagines hes getting a 19 year old and he ends up with a overweight 55 year old it could have something to do with it

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They just can't resist using performance enhancing substances.

img423.jpg.4536194b37728f275aa8d4345aac2390.jpg

Edited by Rob
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I'm so impressed with Ukraine. They are unexpectedly giving the Russians one hell of a pasting.

When the Russians first invaded back in February, I expected them to take Ukraine in a matter of weeks. But the spirit and incredible fighting ability of the Ukrainians, combined with advanced weaponry support from the West (especially the UK and USA) told a very different story. They didn't read the Putin script. 

But then Ukraine is fighting for its own territory and country - for its life. Russia is not, which perhaps explains the low morale of the Russian troops who probably wonder what they're doing there. 

I stand and applaud them. 

 

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I really feel sorry for the older and poorer people in ukraine they live from hand to mouth anyway the rich and mobile at least had the option of running away - some of the older ones even remember the nazis in the country in the mid 1940s such a shame that mans infumatitiy to man  comes back 70 years later

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6 hours ago, copper123 said:

I really feel sorry for the older and poorer people in ukraine they live from hand to mouth anyway the rich and mobile at least had the option of running away - some of the older ones even remember the nazis in the country in the mid 1940s such a shame that mans infumatitiy to man  comes back 70 years later

The desire to stay and protect your home is a strong feeling. Additionally it represents in many cases virtually the bulk of the family's assets. If you leave your home, it then costs money to live somewhere else, so you need considerable wealth to draw on given that you are also likely to have lost your main source of income.

A case in point is the person I am hosting. She lived in village just outside Kherson a few hundred metres from the end of the airport. This was hit on the opening day because it was a military base and fell to the Russians within a week, but most people stayed and lived in their cellars, keeping quiet so they weren't heard by passing Russian patrols and surfacing only when necessary. Most people assumed they should be relatively safe once the war had passed through, though best not to tempt fate. They lived like that until news of the massacres in Bucha got out at the end of March, at which point they decided they didn't want to hang around and be part of a repeat episode, so looked for somewhere to go - which is where we came into the equation. With no income, displaced and now looking for work in the capital, her husband had to keep the liquid funds for basics, while wife and daughter borrowed the money from a friend for the bus to Romania and two airfares on to the UK. It was only £400 for the pair, but that is an average monthly salary over there, and if you haven't got it to hand, non-functioning basic services makes raising funds 10 times harder. Moving isn't an option for many.

Half the people in this country have no savings, so what would they do in similar circumstances? Probably stay put in many cases.

 

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I rather think (on a hunch) that Putin initially pushed as far and wide as he could, hoping for a quick result. But he possibly didn't expect to succeed in that aim, and that he then concentrated on his primary strategic motive: to gain the separatist Dombass giving Russia a secure land bridge to the Crimea and the Black Sea. He seems to have achieved that, at least for now, and I wonder if that will be the final outcome?

If it is, Ukraine need a strong defensive border to the Dombass so that Russia wilil think more than twice before attempting a similar invasion.

Just as an added note - it now seems that Russia's biggest pop star (their female Paul McCartney if you like) has come out against the war. Whether it will have the desired effect or not remains to be seen.

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Smiles all round chez Rob today :)  Even bigger than the one when news of Stremousov's 'car accident' came through 2 days ago.

Hopefully get an update in the not too distant future regarding the status of her home (or what's left of it). A potentially big problem is that Chornobaivka was a main base for Russians and according to its own wiki page about the war was that Ukraine hit it on 39 occasions before they abandoned it a fortnight ago, so praying there weren't too many stray rounds. Hopefully there will also be a resumption in communication once Kherson is safe(r) so she will be able to check up on Mum too. She lives just off the other end of the airport.

 

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This is going to end in tears. So much for the CSTO. It looks like it's a Kazakhstan short of a full half dozen whatever the official position. Watch the video posted by Karl Bildt. It's clearly the reason for the Kazakh tanks moving north, and they aren't going to support Russia. https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1601900702862811136?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

 

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  •  
     
     
  •  
 

Another Putin critic died after falling out of a window

Rebecca Cohen
Tue, 27 December 2022 at 3:34 pm GMT·2-min read
 
 
In this article:
  •  
 
 
  •  
  • Vladimir Putin
    Vladimir Putin
    President of Russia (1999–2008, 2012–present)
 
 
putin armenia
 
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to the welcoming ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, on November 23, 2022.Contributor/Getty Images
  • A second Vladimir Putin critic has died after falling from a hotel window.

  • Pavel Antov, 65, died Sunday in India just days after celebrating his 65th birthday.

  • A June WhatsApp message linked to Antov's account was seen as critical of Putin's war in Ukraine.

A second critic of Vladimir Putin died Sunday after reportedly falling out of a window, Russian media outlet TASS reported.

According to reports, Pavel Antov fell from a hotel window in Rayagada, India, just days after celebrating his 65th birthday. He was visiting the state of Odisha in eastern India.

Antov was the chairman of the Committee on Agrarian Policy, Nature Management and Ecology of the Legislative Assembly of the Vladimir Region and was well known in the region, according to TASS.

"Our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist Pavel Antov passed away," Vice Speaker of the Regional Parliament Vyacheslav Kartukhin said on his Telegram channel, TASS reported. "On behalf of the deputies of the United Russia faction, I express my deep condolences to relatives and friends."

The speaker of the legislative assembly, Vladimir Kiselyov, called Antov's death a "difficult and irreparable loss" in a statement on the website of the regional parliament, TASS reported

These  people have no imagination

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It seems that criticism of Putin obviously affects the inner ear leading to a loss of ability to balance properly... :(

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Not much has changed in the past 10 months thousand years. They still have total contempt for anything not from Moscow/St. Petersburg and who doesn't believe in the complete superiority of that genetically inbred clique. Svitlana (our guest) had a message a couple days before Christmas from her sister bemoaning the Russians were hitting Kherson with phosporus (probably thermite), had closed down power and water, and that shelling had increased approx. 10-fold in the run-up to Christmas. From her brother - he had been rotated out of the grinder just in time for Christmas, but still the Russians throw live meat into the mix. Maybe a 1/4 million deaths in an attempt to satisfy the paranoid ego of a demented dwarf. It's incredibly sad.

On several occasions it has been said by Russians that the whole world is against them. This map suggests the world is more informative than the Russian Ministry of Disinformation.

 

FkRusIXXoAEKU8O.jpeg

Edited by Rob
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I got one of those Russian advent calenders this year you open a window every day and an oligarth/critic  falls out

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Same old, same old....  A French newspaper cartoon from 1854. Not much has changed.

wallachia 1854.jpg

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