When I was a young strap, an old Republican in Mayo tried to impart some wisdom to me.
“What happened in the past here when I was your age is still here” was his sage observation.
I had to think long and hard about what was said as he put a bit of turf on the fire.
Of course, he was dead on.
As Putin’s tanks head towards the Ukrainian capital it is reasonable to think about where this all started.
My thoughts over the past couple of days have stretched back to an event in 1989.
No, not the fall of Die Mauer, CQN Issue 16 June2013 Berlin Wall, but something that happened in another part of Germany only a few weeks later.
It was 8.30 am on Thursday 30 November 1989 when Alfred Herrhausen, the Chairman of Deutsche Bank, set out from his home in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe.
He was travelling in an armoured convoy with armed bodyguards.
At the precise moment his car, the middle one of three, passed by an abandoned bicycle it exploded.
The device was triggered by an infrared beam and fired a shaped charge at the only part of the car that could have resulted in the death of the banker.
It was an operation that required a stunning level of precision.
The attack was believed at the time to be the work of the Red Army faction-aka the Baader-Meinhof Group.
Someone had gone to a huge effort to eliminate Alfred Herrhausen.
Cui bono?
Well, the banker was very close to the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Moreover with German Unification a real possibility Deutsche Bank was about to go head to head with Dresdner Bank for the newly available spoils in East Germany.
Soon after the assassination, a Stasi officer called Matthias Warnig was employed at the Dresdner Bank.
It is widely believed that Herr Warnig was, from his early days in the Stasi, a close associate of a certain KGB Officer there.
His name was Vladimir Putin.
It is the firm view of several investigative journalists that the order for the Herrhausen operation was issued in Dresden by the man who now leads Russia.
Anyone who thinks that the events unfolding in Ukraine have dropped out of the sky like a Russian paratrooper has some learning to do.
Since the USSR was defeated in the Cold War chaps like Putin have wanted a re-match.
Ironically these vanquished warriors for Communism have shown themselves adept at being capitalist robber barons in their own right.
The beleaguered government of Ukraine want the rest of the world to give Putin and his criminal cronies a SWIFT kick in the financials.
For the avoidance of doubt, that will not stop this aggression.
Sanctions against Apartheid South Africa took a decade to have an impact.
In the meantime, it took a risen people and uMkhonto we Sizwe to take the war to the white supremacist enemy.
The British Prime Minister is fond of flaunting his knowledge of the Classics.
Then he will be aware of Cicero’s observation:
“Endless money forms the sinews of war.“
As fighting moves on to the streets of Kyiv a key battleground is the Square Mile.
Putin’s power play would be impossible without the contribution of the Londongrad Laundromat.
In the first Cold War, the USSR was undone by the engineered collapse in the world oil price after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
It took time as the Saudis opened the spigots and, quite literally, flooded the world markets.
However, it did bankrupt the Russian state which needed the price of a barrel of crude to be set at a high enough price to sustain their military machine.
Rember what the aul fella in Mayo said?
Well, when Herr Herrhausen was assassinated in 1989 there was a nine-year-old boy in London called Evgeny Alexandrovich Lebedev.
His daddy, Alexander Yevgenievich Lebedev, was an officer in the First Main Directorate of the KGB and rezidentura in the Soviet Embassy in the UK.
If you had said to me at the time of the Herrhausen that the Russian nipper would one day, be Baron Lebedev in the British House of Lords I would have scoffed at the very notion.
Actually, his full title is Baron Lebedev, of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation.
Catchy…
Some journalists in Britain have been warning of these associations for years.
One of the most prominent is the brilliant Carole Cadwalladr.
The inconvenient truth is that the British Conservative Party have been bankrolled for years by Russian Oligarchs.
It then becomes rather difficult then to impose meaningful sanctions on them.
The always brilliant ByLine Times nailed it today.
You can read it here.
Brexit, Trump, and Boris have all been beneficiaries of Russian generosity.
It’s a new form of warfare, that could only be imagined by a career spook.
There have been many warnings about this covert offensive against the European Union states.
They now seem darkly prophetic.
So much of this was hiding in plain sight.
Britain was particularly welcoming to Putin’s charm offensive.
Here is Nigel Farage, then the leader of UKIP and an MEP in March 2014, only one month after the annexation of Crimea.
It is little wonder that Putin thought the West to be weak and disunited.
Now we Europeans have to answer this question that Guy Verhofstadt puts to us all.
In 2019 I was brought up to speed on how other small European countries see the Russian question.
I was in the Latvian capital Riga wearing the Green Jersey at a European writer’s conference.
There were several delegates from the Ukraine at the conference.
I doubt that Brits fully appreciate the welcome that Irish people get in such gatherings.
They know our scéal and our British problems.
Then I was then invited back later that year by a local literary group in Riga.
Many of them were people born in the same decade as myself, the 1950s, and had lived under Soviet rule.
Writers are always in the frontline of any resistance.
It was like listening to my grandmother in Mayo telling me about life under the Brits.
It wasn’t a happy story.
The level of ignorance in some quarters to the threat posed by the Putin regime has surprised me.
A few months ago spoke to a senior member of the SNP in Fair Caledonia.
In the course of our conversation, I raised the issue of the Baltic beachhead that used to be part of Prussia.
Dewar reader, he hadn’t even heard of Kaliningrad!
I was, momentarily taken aback by this admission.
So I then tried again with “Königsberg”.
Nothing.
“ Immanuel Kant”.
There wasn’t even a brief glimmer of recognition.
I gave up.
Of course, the Poles and the folks in the Baltic states know EXACTLY here that particular Oblast is.
When I was in Riga the big story in Latvian journalism was the scandal around Swedbank.
It was alleged that billions of Euros had been washed through Swedbank’s Estonian branch between 2010 and 2016.
Much of the money came from the Saint Petersburg’s mob.
Anyone who thinks that these chaps operate without the approval of the Russian state is seriously naive.
Especially given it is the hometown of one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
Given that the Brits are fond of basking in their imagined World War Two heroics they might want to actually look into what they DID do once their army had been beaten in the field by the Wehrmacht in 1940.
The much-maligned Neville Chamberlain was already thinking ahead and ordered his Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax to prepare for an occupied continent.
At a meeting in the Foreign Office on 23 March 1939, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was born.
The SOE’s first political master Hugh Dalton wrote a famous letter to Lord Halifax about this new organisation whose task was to take the war to the Third Reich in the countries Hitler had acquired in the Blitzkrieg.
The missive stated:
“We have got to organise movements in enemy-occupied territory comparable to the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland…”
Two of the original SOE chaps was one JCF Holland (Royal Engineers) and Major-General Sir Colin Gubbins.
Both had been friends since their time as young officers in Dublin in 1919 when they had witnessed the success of Michael Collins in paralysing the British intelligence effort.
It was the, well, intelligent way to take on a superpower.
Geography is, ultimately destiny.
The people of Ukraine fully realise that they are next door to a large predatory neighbour who wants to eradicate them as a people.
Older folk there will have been told as children about the horrors of Holodomor.
One interpretation was that it was a manufactured famine directed by Stalin to eradicate the Ukrainian independence movement
Using starvation to break the will of a people who want to be free of their larger neighbour.
Well, that does sound rather familiar to this Irishman.
In his brilliant book “The Deluge” Adam Tooze examined how the newly established Bolshevik regime viewed with horror the prospect of an independent Ukraine.
Putin’s stated casus belli apropos the need for “de-Nazification” in the Ukraine is locked ward content.
Is it necessary to point out that the current Ukrainian President is Jewish?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government asked the Western powers for military assistance as Putin manoeuvred his invasion force into position.
The Germans sent some helmets.
Helmets…
Insert your own joke here.
In fairness to the compromised Brits, they did send some gear that was actually useful.
If Putin’s army does take Kyiv as they are currently trying to then the fight will become asymmetrical very quickly.
Man-portable anti-tank weapons are just the job in urban guerilla warfare when you’re faced with unwelcome foreign oppressors.
I had sought out that old man in Mayo almost fifty years ago because I had an idea that he had soldiered with my grandfather in the war against the British.
Time spent in a rather select hedge school taught me an essential lesson for the life that was in front of me.
Resistance to British rule in Ireland wasn’t ever futile it was essential.
Even in the days of the Fenians when Britain was a superpower fighting the Russians in Crimea, it was necessary to oppose the stranger.
Listen to Dan Breen here at 02.00
To resist is to deny the invader their final victory that only capitulation can bring.
I know that my sisters and brothers in Ukraine will feel the same.
It is a heartbreaking prospect to know what is in front of people who just wanted to be left alone.
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The US UK AND EU all have blood on their hands , no point trying to point blame for the past.
The EU seems to be the laggard In implementing sanctions now though.
As bombs drop on Ukraine the EU is sending 700m a day to putin for oil and gas.
For all trumps fault he did call out the EU for not spending their fair share on NATO and funding putin with oil and gas payments.
And why is India siding with putin, I didn’t expect that, they must be looking for investment
India is sceptical of supporting sanctions and condemnation of Russian invasion as it’s arch enemy Pakistan is a US ally. Even in the gravest situations my enemy’s friend is my friend.
There’s are many who don’t trust people like Boris, Biden, Macron, and the warmongers within NATO. It doesn’t mean they support Putin. On the contrary. It’s important to oppose both Russia, and The West. Otherwise their won’t be anything left of Europe. Each of the aforementioned figures are a danger to humanity. Suffice to say, Britain and America are using this conflict for their own ulterior motives.
Phil, for the Germans to send only helmets has to do with the German law. After WW2 they made a law, that Germany can not send any weapons to other countries. So the best sollution for them are helmets. Since the crisis started, Germany is trying to remove this law. It even looks like they will be able to send weapons monday. Well that is the latest update.
For the rest does this whole situation give me WW2 vibes as well. With Ukraine being Czechoslovakia. What is next? The annexation of Belarus? Invation of Moldova or Georgia?
And how much do these sanctions hurt Russia? So far, not much, Russia was prepared. Some economist even predict that it will hurt only after 5 years. That’s long.
As for weapons which are send by the Brittish and French. These are given to civilians to create a partizan movement. So far these civilians killed more Ukrainian people. You can’t give civilians weapons and expect them to become partizans over a day. They need to be trained and need to know how to fight a guerilla war.
Just reading this Forum is a cause for alarm. Ireland could one day be sleepwalking into NATO, if some of the contributors on here are anything to go by. They would not only lose neutrality, but their soul. Aligning themselves with war criminals who turned Iraq into a desert, joining with a rogue superpower that contaminated Vietnam with napalm, getting hooked up with an institution that turns a blind eye to Israeli atrocities in Gaza, potentially signing up with fools who’ve made Libya ungovernable for the last decade. The list goes on. The one hope is that Sinn Fein are elected soon. They could at least prevent such a calamity. Unlike the two other mediocre parties that’ve monopolised the country for decades.
NATO membership would be a step too far for many here in Ireland.
However, given the Brits are no longer in the European Union then ROI participation in EU Battlegroups will probably now increase.
Interesting article Phil, I do not condone war, but I fully understand the rationale behind the decision to draw a line in the sand regarding further encroachment eastward by a hostile military alliance since the implosion of the Soviet Union. I listened to Putin’s speech the other day, it was a bit of a diatribe, it took me back 40 yrs to the cold war rhetoric of the central committee. I hope that this is not a harbinger of things to come as we don’t really need to be returning to major military defence exercises in Germany. In the west, we like to kid ourselves on that Russia is not such a big deal, regularly belittled and vilified by our politicians and political commentators. Russia is a major world power, it was a major continental power since tsarist times and has been a major wold power militarily since 1945 which has now decided enough is enough! if we were as critical of our own military interventions as we are of those of non allies then I could concur with the faux outrage on display at the moment. Since I am on a rant, can I just say that some(most?) Tories just don’t think before they speak. One honourable member recently referred to a “whiff of Munich” regarding the current crisis. I couldn’t help but think that there would be no way he could get a whiff of Munich as the stench of Kabul must still be overwhelming the nostrils of all right minded folks.
Thanks for the many great articles over the the years Phil.
Phil writes: “In his brilliant book, “The Deluge” Adam Tooze examined how the newly established Bolshevik regime viewed with horror the establishment of an independent Ukraine”. Tooze is toitally wrong in this.
In his address to the Russian nation, Vladimir Putin declared that “Lenin created Ukraine”. There is a grain of truth in this in that it was the October Revolution that liberated the peoples oppressed by Tsarist Russia (the “prison of nations”, as Lennon said).
The Bolshevik programme included the right of peoples to self-determination, which made possible the victory of the October Revolution and the subsequent creation of the Soviet Union. It was Stalin’s counter-revolution from the mid-1920s, culminating in 1928-30, that revived Great-Russian chauvinism, which is ironic given that Stalin was Georgian.
Putin has made it clear that his model is the Tsarist Empire, Great Russian nationalism and the oppression of peoples, not Bolshevism under Lenin and Trotsky.
Similar to the Russian gas connection, excuse the pun, the UK allowing China access to its Nuclear programme smacks of insanity. Teresa May questioned it then retreated. I also believe we do not own three-quarters of our water supplies. Don’t these people ever think of their children or maybe the old saying is true. ” The English hate their children” that’s why there are boarding schools, so why would they worry about future generations.
Firstly, I wish the Ukrainian people well. But, how do you conclude that because someone being Jewish somehow prevents them from being neo nazis.
I offer the actions of the the Israeli government over decades and the Israeli citizens who repeatedly vote them into power as a huge example.
So, let me see if I’ve got this straight? The Russians were supposed to allow NATO right up to their borders? Remember Cuba? I doubt if I’ve read anything so misinformed re events in Ukraine than appears here. No mention of the US backed coup in 2014 that saw the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Ukraine, to be replaces by one more aligned with the west. A government that was unacceptable to the ethnic Russians who make up the vast majority of people in the Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk) and Crimea. The latter peoples voted in a referendum to join the Russian Federation, while the people of the Donbas were content to ask for greater autonomy from Kiev. The response was a Ukrainian attack on the Donbas, which saw the Ukrainian army being soundly whipped by militia drawn from the local people (was that one of those asymmetrical thingies?) . The ethnic Russians in Odessa did not fare so well, with a brutal massacre taking place there inside a trade union building. (No mention of that here???)
As for Putin being an old KGB hand, this is an old saw peddled by the west. He was, in fact, a lawyer, who worked in the KGB bureaucracy . Not the kind of ‘hood’ one would expect to wash up in a Le Carre novel. And as for the pooh-poohing of Bad Vlad’s denazification claims, ever heard of the Azov Battalion? They are an avowedly Nazi battalion who sport SS insignia, fly the Swastika, and are prone to giving Hitler salutes. They are also an official part of the Ukrainian army. Credit to the one correspondent here who referenced Ukraine’s unsavoury WW2 activities. They were killing Jews long before the Germans——and those ‘little Baltic states’ are best not scrutinised too closely when it comes to persecuting Jews
Zelensky, the former TV comedian turned president, is indeed Jewish. So what? Who better to deflect from the anti-semitism that has long flourished in the eastern part of Europe. And what about the closing down of all Russian language TV stations? And the eradication of the the Russian language in official documentation. It’s not hard to guess what follows on from attempts to eradicate a language.
No mention of the Minsk Accords? That was an agreement brokered by France, Germany, and Russia, and approved UNANIMOUSLY by the UN Security Council ( The UK and the US included ) which obliged the Ukrainian government to negotiate a new constitution which would grant the Donbas the autonomy they wanted. For eight years, Ukraine has reneged on Minsk
Oh, and one cannot pass comment on Ukraine without some reference to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Sleepy Joe effectively ran Ukraine during the Obama years. He actually chaired cabinet meetings. Meanwhile Hunter got a seat on the board of energy company Burisma, on a salary of $80,000 a month. No one can say what Hunter knew of the energy sector to justify such a monthly wad–except, of course, if one includes the type of energy that is ‘coke fuelled’. And when the head Ukrainian law officer wanted to investigate Burisma, Sleepy Joe not only had him sacked, he openly boasted about it.
No one in their right mind want’s war, and the carnage it brings. But events in Ukraine cannot be blamed on Russian aggression. That analysis simply does not stand up to scrutiny. The blame lies in the west. And as for the lethal weapons being supplied to the Ukrainians, and which seemed to have been approved of here, let’s hope that not one single innocent person is killed by them.
Well said! A rare voice of reason among the army of Colonel Blimps who appear to have infested the site btl on this subject – so many anti-Russian rants I thought I was reading the Daily Mail comments section!
What a slavering lickspital response from a Putin bum boy ! Ask the Hungarians or the checks,Slovaks,Finns or checking etc etc etc hoe cuddly a friendly are the Russians ? Shame on you !
Simply a brilliant, impassioned piece of writing. Bravo.
When I was a young chap, just 7 years old, I remember clearly reading about Russian tanks rolling into Budapest. In my youthful naivety, I believed the Americans would come to Hungary’s aid. Well the west complained, stamped their feet then sat back in their armchairs and watched it unfold. As the years went by, I saw the same thing in Prague, Poland and East Germany. More feet stamping, no action. When a civilian aircraft was downed over the eastern Ukraine breakways by a russian missie, more foot stamping. And now, the same old foot stamping by the gutless leaders of the west. Let a bully smack you once is bad enough but over and over again just encourages him to do it again. Just like Hitler did. General Patton is reputed to have said we are going to have to fight them sooner or later. Later is now but it wont happen. Ukraine will have to learn the lesson we Irish did. We rely on ourselves alone. Putin is a bully and dreams about restoring the USSR. Tonight we saw russian tanks openly flying the hammer and sickle not the russian flag. Threats have been made against Sweden and Finland. Funnily enough, neither are in NATO. God help Ukraine, no one else will.
You might want to go Google Operation Orbital which has been ACTIVELY put in place since 2015.
The U.K. Military have been training Ukraine Forces for over 6 years in how to deal with a possible invasion by Russia.
There are 4 NATO Nations who Border Ukraine (Who are also EU Members incidentally) who are currently being used to Supply Ukrainian Forces and who’s Borders are in the process of being reinforced by NATO.
You might want to consider why NATO has taken the steps they have?
It seems fairly obvious Russia have called their bluff and have seriously underestimated and miscalculated NATO’s response.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_192489.htm?selectedLocale=en
“We have met today to discuss the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades. We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabled by Belarus. We call on Russia to immediately cease its military assault, to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine and to turn back from the path of aggression it has chosen. This long-planned attack on Ukraine, an independent, peaceful and democratic country, is brutal and wholly unprovoked and unjustified. We deplore the tragic loss of life, enormous human suffering and destruction caused by Russia’s actions. Peace on the European continent has been fundamentally shattered. The world will hold Russia, as well as Belarus, accountable for their actions. We call on all states to condemn this unconscionable attack unreservedly. No one should be fooled by the Russian government’s barrage of lies… We have met today to discuss the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades. We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabled by Belarus. We call on Russia to immediately cease its military assault, to withdraw all its forces from Ukraine and to turn back from the path of aggression it has chosen. This long-planned attack on Ukraine, an independent, peaceful and democratic country, is brutal and wholly unprovoked and unjustified. We deplore the tragic loss of life, enormous human suffering and destruction caused by Russia’s actions. Peace on the European continent has been fundamentally shattered. The world will hold Russia, as well as Belarus, accountable for their actions. We call on all states to condemn this unconscionable attack unreservedly. No one should be fooled by the Russian government’s barrage of lies…
… In light of Russia’s actions, we will draw all the necessary consequences for NATO’s deterrence and defence posture. Allies have held consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty. We will continue to take all measures and decisions required to ensure the security and defence of all Allies. We have deployed defensive land and air forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, and maritime assets across the NATO area. We have activated NATO’s defence plans to prepare ourselves to respond to a range of contingencies and secure Alliance territory, including by drawing on our response forces. We are now making significant additional defensive deployments of forces to the eastern part of the Alliance. We will make all deployments necessary to ensure strong and credible deterrence and defence across the Alliance, now and in the future. Our measures are and remain preventive, proportionate and non-escalatory.
Our commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty is iron-clad. We stand united to protect and defend all Allies. Freedom will always win over oppression.
Extraordinary virtual summit of NATO Heads of State and Government – Brussels, 25 February 2022
As the old Bolshevik saying goes …
Экскременты вот-вот попадут в аппарат воздушного охлаждения Владимира.
What is the operational title of the British logistical and training support for the ongoing genocide in Yemen?
Lest we forget…
I don’t think it has a title per say but yer favourite Irish American uncle Joe’s Country is baw deep in that too.
Edited to remove your racism.
Any further comments from you will automatically go into the bin.
Thankfully I won’t have to see them.
Geography is,ultimately destiny.
A few we pointers if I may Phil ?
The Ukraine is bordered by no less than 4 EU Countries :
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
Romania
The EU has recently voted to spend no less than €35bn on a European Border Force
This money of course is coming by way of the Central Bank in Frankfurt.
That aside I see you bring up the fact that the U.K. has sent Anti Tank weapons to the Ukrainian Defences but have managed to ignore the fact that the U.K. has had a military presence in the Ukraine since 2015 under the banner of Operation Orbital.
The reason for said Operation was to train the Ukrainian Forces up in case this exact scenario unfolded.
The Germans meanwhile as you say have sent them Helmets and no doubt a wee card instructing them how to kiss their Arschlöcher goodbye.
Like THEY DID in 1945 after executing 6 million Jews.
You may remember that date from the countless white crosses dotted all round Europe with British names on them?
Trust me when I say that if the detritus really starts hitting the cooling device (Mad Vlad is already wheeling out his ICBM’s btw ) British Boots will hit the ground in defence of those in the Ukraine same as they did in flanders and the beaches of Normandy.
Try looking at the bigger picture with both eyes open rather than one eye shut.
Prayers for the Ukraine 🙏🏼✝️🙏🏼
There are very few British boots available these days.
They couldn’t even mount Operation Motorman now.
British involvement in WW1 & WW2 was all about maintaining their imperialist hegemony rather than anything altruistic.
The Brits are now a second rate power with notions.
“The Phoney Victory” by Peter Hitchens should be required reading for all Brits.
I’m personally delighted they’re no longer in the EU.
We’re better off without them.
Interesting response to the Situation by Irelands elected Political Leader …
TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has described the situation between Russia and Ukraine as “serious”, as he confirmed that Irish people are now advised to avoid non-essential travel to Ukraine.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Martin said Ireland was “not politically neutral but militarily neutral” and that Russia’s massing of troops on the border with Ukraine was not justified.
Militarily Neutral 🧐
Which is an odd situation altogether given the fact the Russian Navy have been supposedly conducting Naval exercises off the West Coast of Ireland 🤷🏻♂️
Has your boss man shat it Phil or is the threat of a Lighthouse not put the Russian Navy off as much as it did the USS Montana a few years ago ?
At least a German Helmet has its purpose in the climax of battle (as does a well aimed Javelin) 😉
https://www.thejournal.ie/training-exercise-russia-ireland-5664154-Jan2022/
There is a debate here about whether or not ROI should be in NATO.
The obviously stumbling block is that would be a military alliance with Britain.
However, like our stance during the Emergency, the US access to Shannon airport is very much an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
Now that the Brits have left the EU then Irish involvement in EU battle groups is a more acceptable avenue to take part in, say, defending the Baltic States.
It is undefinable that this state does not spend enough on defence-once more I’ve written about that subject here over the years.
Guess Ukrraine will just have to rely on Neutral Ireland saving them from Adolph Putin then ?
If you believe the old racist trope that the Irish Free State was genuinely neutral in WW2 then you are seriously misinformed.
Articles on this subject are easy to find on this site.
How did US respond to Russian weapons being deployed in Cuba? With great alarm.So they did a deal, if US withdrew their missiles from Turkey, the Russians would do the same in Cuba. After the reunification of Germany, the US\ NATO assured the Russians that NATO/ US had no intention of moving eastwards into Hungary, Poland etc. and certainly not Ukraine! Imagine the uproar if Mexico invited Russia to strengthen its defences, and send over some nuclear weapons How tragic , the deaths and destruction could all have been avoided if NATO/US had kept their word.
It would be naïve to imagine The West cares about Ukraine. Their sole motive is to get that country into NATO. It’s been their long term objective. Russia was never going to accept such a scenario. People in Kiev shouldn’t be blinded by guys like Biden. A war criminal, who supported the carnage in Iraq. Who needs friends like Boris? Someone who doesn’t even care about the poverty stricken in his own country. Let’s genuinely hope for peace in Ukraine. It can’t be assisted by the ghouls in Whitehall. An institution that’s orchestrated bloody war after war, for an eternity..
FFS !weaken up and smell the coffee sunshine ! Nato has been holding back membership for Ukraine for fear of this happening. Putin is the villain here and no one else ! Pathetic arse lickers like you revolt me!
Poor Fred. Firstly, try to articulate your point. Secondly, get an education. Your ignorance is appalling.
Lets pray for the good people of Ukraine, they don’t want or deserve this.
Very eye opening and educational.piece.
I honestly learned a few things there.
Thanks phil
What needs to happen is hackers, like anonymous to break the Russian military systems like air defence. To hack their backs and clean them out & generally just muck up all their online systems.
I know under the Geneva convention it would be allowed, but I would get hackers to target hospitals treating Russian soldiers and incapacitate them. Same with their power grids.
Thats the thing with everything being online these days, hackers can destroy them
Anonymous have said they will hit them today.
A mostly brilliant piece Phil, but keep in mind the old saying, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
The vast majority of Ukrainians in WW2 were pro-German. The fact that they were fighting the Russians made them okay. People clapped and cheered in Ukrainian towns and cities when they heard in the distance machine gun fire that was Jews being slaughtered and piled into mass graves.
But that was then, and this is now. Ukrainians, like the Germans have learned, accepted, understood and moved on. The WORLD must stand behind them now. If the Russians are bombing civilians, that is a war crime, and those responsible must be held to account. That’s that’s the complete chain of command, right down to the guys who pulled the triggers or pushed the buttons. The, “I was only obeying orders!”, excuse, just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Oh aye. Should probably have also mentioned the old very obvious maxim. “Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history, are destined to repeat it.”
The Ukrainians have learned, the Russian hierarchy haven’t!
A mostly brilliant piece Phil, but keep in mind the old saying, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
The vast majority of Ukrainians in WW2 were pro-German. The fact that they were fighting the Russians made them okay. People clapped and cheered in Ukrainian towns and cities when they heard in the distance machine gun fire that was Jews being slaughtered and piled into mass graves.
But that was then, and this is now. Ukrainians, like the Germans have learned, accepted, understood and moved on. The WORLD must stand behind them now. If the Russians are bombing civilians, that is a war crime, and those responsible must be held to account. That’s that’s the complete chain of command, right down to the guys who pulled the triggers or pushed the buttons. The, “I was only obeying orders!”, excuse, just doesn’t cut it anymore.
What exactly do you mean by: “But that was then, and this is now’? There’s evidently still a hardcore Fascist element within Ukraine’s military. The British media wouldn’t have shown soldiers with Nazi insignia on their helmets/uniforms etc. Or even guys making Third Reich style salutes. It doesn’t fit their narrative. It’s important to be transparent. Still, no sane person would condone Putin’s action in recent days.
Why do you believe that ? On Putin,s say so ?
So by your deduction, the Ukranian president is a nazi or fascist ?
Yet he is Jewish!!!!
How does that one work out ?
I would argue that there’s a hardcore fascist element, though not necessarily an organised one, in ANY army! Especially an army that relies completely on people volunteering to join it, as the British Army does.
Fascists and Fascism in general have a fascination with all things military. That’s why they dress up in daft wee uniforms and march up and down making complete arses of themselves in public. Tell me, off the top of your head, can you think of any organisation in Scotland that fits this description? I can!
I’m no apologist for Putin but I think you may have skipped a few historical points here Phil.
The Donbas region has been shelled by Ukrainian state forces for the last 8 years as separatists there were unhappy when the West supported the ousting of the democratically elected former president of the Ukraine.
The denazification slur but Putin has a number of meanings, not only on Zelensky being Jewish but also as during world war two the Ukrainians apparently supported the Nazis against the Soviets and some became prison guards for the German war machine. Similarly, there’s been elements of ethnic cleansing in the Separatist regions which have led to charges of fascism being levied at Zelensky.
Obviously what Putin is doing is wrong as civilians will needlessly die, but there’s heavy doses of irony when Putin cites UN resolutions and supports Separatist States independence, much like the West and the EU did in Syria and Libya. I suggest to anyone who’s interested to follow journalists such as Greg Palast and Eva Bartlett for some balanced takes on the situation. Phil you are entitled to your slant of course but we all know there’s two sides too every story.
Sorry sunshine but you are apologising for Putin !