She’s defo got a soft spot for me.

SHE IS HUMAN AFTER ALL.

Looking at this, the Ukrainians would be no slouch - a large army of reservists and likely to be highly motivated…. Makes me think Putin will see a full invasion as too risky

    Jules72
    Bet they’ve got some proper industrial Techno Bangers in their boxes as well

    bosstrabs Taiwan? I am praying for China to grab the USA! We are ripe for the taking and there is absolutely no way things could actually get worse. I am young enough to make the transition into the new reality. Lets do this!

    Hursty This is highly probably as well, great sources Dave ;-)

    Where did I say I have sources, or suggest it with a comment like ‘I hear that’?

    BlainSA Isn’t Taiwan already theirs according to them? Do they need to grab it?

    Well, it’s a civil war that still isn’t actually over. The Communist Party rules the People’s Republic of China (the ‘mainland’) and lays claim to all of China (the mainland and Taiwan); The Nationalists rule the island and also lay claim to all of China - I think Nanjing (on the mainland) is still their ‘official’ capital, although in practical terms it had to become Taipei because they don’t possess the mainland.

    15 days later

    Homegrove Macron spinning ahead of an election more like. As if Putin is influenced by him.

    This is all just a media blown up circus tbf. Putin has no real interest in invading Ukraine, especially not with 100k troops (half of which are logistics personnel) which would not only be impossible but an embarrassing attempt. While everyone and their Auntie are sweating over an invasion, Putin will just calmly take the Donbas region, which is most likely the real motivation here.

      LT42

      Don’t think it is that he has no interest in doing it. He would be equally happy (if not more so) to succeed at the negotiating table. Were Russia to invade, their military (even based on the current build up) is far superior to that of Ukraine and I don’t think there is any doubt as to the eventual victor in that scenario. The real motivation is likely to be Putin’s overarching ambition to see the restoration of the former Soviet Union as a major actor on the geopolitical map. Putin has made much of the threat, as he sees it, of Ukraine and other former Soviet countries joining NATO (ironically the actions of Russia are the very thing that will drive other countries to join NATO) but that is not the real end game, as far as I can see. Think Donbas could be taken irrespective of Ukraine as the fighting has continued much of the time.

      Notwithstanding the progress of the current talks, it will be interesting to see what happens after the Beijing Olympics on 20th Feb (as he won’t want to offend Xi Jingping by launching an invasion while that is ongoing). March will also be the last window of opportunity because they will presumably want to launch an invasion on cold, hard ground rather than April onwards when it will be more difficult.


      • LT42 replied to this.

        whatever He’s not trying to invade Ukraine with 50k soldiers. Lets be honest. So whatever his intentions are on the border at this moment - it seems the media and many others have blown this up way out of proportion.