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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
At what point does the rest of the world go, that's fucked and just take out this regime?
-really complicated from a geopolitical standpoint.
Biden has low support from Americans now as President. Americans don't want their country to engage in an all out war with Russia.
The US and Europeans don't want to enforce a no fly zone over Ukraine out of fear that Putin would really go mad and declare war on NATO.
China is playing the diplomatic card game of silently supporting Russia with natural gas agreements and wheat purchases and not openly condemning or supporting Russia.
I don't think that the Kung Fu Panda is going to take the initiative and tell the Russian bear to declare a cease fire.
I think that the end game for this Russian invasion needs to come from within the Russian military and government.
An inside job. A military coup. A bunch of generals say "Fuck it. We're taking out this nut job". A mutiny.
Wow, my definition of a productive day is very different from Wali’s definition…
__________________ Do Not Put Aftershave on Your Balls. -604CEFIRO Looks like I'm gonna have some hot sex again tonight...OOPS i got the 6 pack. that wont last me the night, I better go back and get the 24 pack! -Turbo E kinda off topic but obama is a dilf - miss_crayon Honest to fucking Christ the easiest way to get a married woman in the mood is clean the house and do the laundry.....I've been with the same girl almost 17 years, ask me how I know. - quasi
I think that the end game for this Russian invasion needs to come from within the Russian military and government.
IMO, the (realistic) best we can hope for in the Ukraine invasion is for Russia to realize how costly and unsustainable an on-going and drawn out military campaign is, thereby causing them to recall / withdraw their forces back to Crimea, Donbas / Luhansk, and the whole Ukraine - Belarus - Russia region resorts to an uncomfortable truce. A senior US Defence official has indicated that Russia has deployed nearly all of its combat-capable troops to Ukraine. That means if Russia still cannot take over the front line battle zones soon, they would very likely be unable to keep up with the war effort as their losses mount, and their supplies dwindle down. Even if they were able to make some headway in Kyiv or other frontline cities, it is questionable whether they'd have any excess capability to deploy to fight other parts of Ukraine -- venturing further west means a longer supply line, and you have to leave some troops behind in the city(ies) that you have defeated and occupy.
This one hero equates to a hundred thousand freedom convoy whiners. This guy IS fighting for freedom and justice.
I just hope he and his family are kept safe. I can see Putin putting out an order for this guy's head. Carpet bomb the area he is spotted in. Yeah, watched too many movies.
Also, to the nut jobs we have in this country. The russian people are not the bad guys. The oligarchs and Putin are the bad guys. Please do not harass businesses here in canada that are run by canadians of russian descent. I heard of vandalism at community centres and places where russian people hang out. Lots of russians in Richmond. I did not know that.
Russian origin is a complicated thing. For example there are many Jewish people that fled to eastern Europe and stayed there after WW2. They've assimilated taking on Russian names as many have been there for generations. There's a few friends and acquaintances I know who are from Russia and speak Russian but aren't ethnically part of any Russian groups. They immigrated from Russia to Israel, then to Canada.
Russian envelops a HUGE landmass spanning two continents. A person born to “Russian” parents in St.Petersburg is nothing like a person born in the bordering regions of Khazakstan, Mongolia etc. it’s very fascinating you can have people who look what you’d associate as 100% Asian could have a Russian lineage spanning hundreds of years. On top of that you’ve got the enclaves of the former union in the countries that made up Yugoslavia etc.
Yuri selling Borscht in New West could have way less Russian in them than a guy who associates closer to Mongolian. Not like “Russia” actually cares about those remote outposts though lol.
Btw, if you want to talk about snipers killing Russians, should check out Simo Hayha, a Finnish Farmer who enlisted in the winter war:
Over 500 confirmed kills, people speculate it’s more like 700. While Finnish people do look to him as this folk lore hero, they don’t have this circle jerk attitude like the USA does with Chris Kyle. Simo was a farmer who took up arms to defend his country, and when asked at the end of the war how he felt about it, he replied with somthing like “I did a job I was asked to do the best I could”
My background is Finnish and while I have no direct grudge with Russians, ALOT of older Fins fucking hate Russians, mainly because they pulled similar shit to what’s going on now back during the winter war etc. where they annexed Vipuri/Vyborg and the port there. Many people still alive today had their family homes burned and taken to never return, much like may happen today.
__________________
Dank memes cant melt steel beams
JUST IN: #Anonymous has successfully breached and leaked the database of Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring #Russian mass media, releasing to the public over 360K files. #OpRussia
__________________ Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
If you recall, there was word of Belarusian troops joining the invasion of Ukraine... The theory, it turns out, is that the military wasn't into that, and refused to do so.
So now Russia has attacked Belarus, saying Ukraine is behind it
Great story on The Athletic about former NHL star Alexei Zhitnik staying in his homeland and using his pull / resources to move supplies and help people out of the country. Blows my mind what he says about Russian players he used to play with. It's behind a pay wall but I subscribe, so I'll copy and paste it here:
Spoiler!
‘Nobody’s going to back down’: Former NHL All-Star Alexei Zhitnik, from the front lines in Ukraine
When the siren screams, you have less than 10 minutes to find shelter. Grab your ID, passport and whatever you need to keep yourself warm in the frigid Kyiv night.
Leave the rest behind.
It’s 23 flights of stairs from the apartment to the street and then there’s a rush of people heading toward the bomb shelter that used to be a parking garage.
Packed between the concrete pillars, you huddle and wait. You listen to the siren, praying that silence breaks the cry — and not more explosions from rockets you’ve seen in the sky.
In the crush of fellow Ukrainians, it doesn’t matter that the ID you hold carries the name of one of the most beloved hockey players in the country’s history. It doesn’t matter that you played 1,085 NHL games for five different teams or that you were a two-time All-Star. It doesn’t matter that you once wore the Russian sweater, winning an Olympic silver medal — or that you finished your playing days with Dynamo Moscow.
That country is now dropping bombs on the city you grew up in, a homeland you refuse to leave.
“This is not about sports. It’s about defending your country,” says Alexei Zhitnik. “It’s not show-business anymore.”
Since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, Zhitnik has helped in the effort to defend his country however he is able. The longtime NHL defenseman has lived in Ukraine since he retired and is now the president of Sokil Kyiv, the storied Ukrainian hockey team that he grew up playing for in the country’s capital.
For the past two weeks though, he has been just like every other Ukrainian citizen ready to die for his country.
“God has the power over what’s going to happen with you,” Zhitnik says. “Basically, if something is going to happen, something is going to happen … a lot of people have died already, especially civilians.”
Two rockets recently hit a television tower and damaged the nearby Palace of Sports, the team’s arena in the heart of Kyiv, he says. A friend filmed the explosion of the second rocket hitting the tower, next to the rink Zhitnik has played on since he was young and where his No. 13 now hangs. Another video following the explosion shows four scorched bodies, as smoke rises into burning trees. The hands of one body, facing the sky, reach out as though trying to block an unseen force. The bodies lay near the shattered, blackened façade of the arena — across the street from a seared television tower. Sirens wail in the distance as burning ash drifts around the arriving emergency responders.
“It doesn’t matter, ice rink, hotel or medical building — anything can happen,” Zhitnik says. “Nobody really expected it was going to happen in real life. Especially in the 21st century, in the middle of Europe. And it’s not a one-day, two-day army operation. It’s a war.”
Zhitnik and his family remain in the middle of it. As a 49-year-old, he must stay in the country. Under martial law, no man between the ages of 18 and 60 is allowed to leave. But regardless, Zhitnik says he wouldn’t go.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to try to help,” he says.
His wife, Lyudmila, has vowed to stay by his side. Her mother and brother have stayed, too. Zhitnik’s identical twin brother, Dmitri, and older sister, Anna, have also remained.
Since the invasion began, Zhitnik has traveled across Ukraine aiding in the safe passage of women and children to neighboring countries, like Poland. More than 2 million Ukrainians have left the country since the invasion began, according to the United Nations. They provide food, beverages and gasoline to people who need it at the checkpoints mile after mile, marked by concrete barricades as Ukrainian special forces check IDs, search vehicles, and question where travelers are coming from and where they are going.
Zhitnik communicates with friends in the Ukrainian special forces to find out where they can be of most help. He moves goods and people for the army as needed, while still working to get children and women out of the country.
Some of his friends in the eastern part of Ukraine are providing food, water and medical supplies to Ukrainian troops. Others have joined local defense groups, outside of the army, which patrol streets inside in the cities. Some have taken up arms. Zhitnik requested weapons but was told he had to wait until those with military training or experience in combat were armed first. Citizens with their own guns, like hunting rifles, now carry them in case they come into contact with Russian troops.
Overseas in New York, Zhitnik’s adult son and daughter check in with their father constantly, trying to make sure he is all right while watching the news unfold on television. But the images they are see are nothing like the reality he is witnessing on the ground, he says. Zhitnik has watched rockets fly overhead as he’s driven the streets of Kyiv. He can hear the bombs exploding and see the smoke rising. He’s seeing the firsthand images of carnage that, he says, people beyond Ukraine’s borders can’t quite comprehend. He believes the goal is to exterminate the Ukrainian people.
“They are saying they hit the army points,” he says. “But I was driving, and I saw the buildings. I heard everything. I saw two rockets flying over my head.”
Throughout the invasion, Zhitnik has been in touch with Russian friends from the game, who he says, seem to be swayed by the rhetoric that justifies the invasion and seems to sanitize the devastation of the attacks.
“For me, I don’t understand how those Russian people don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “They ask me what’s going on and I say ‘fellas, just open the Internet.’ … They think Putin’s doing everything right. Like zombie, zombie, zombie.
“I know people for a long time. I just can’t believe they’re thinking they do right. They didn’t know how many people already died, on both sides. … And they have no idea what’s going on.”
But in the NHL, where he spent 18 years, Zhitnik says he is not surprised that more Russian players haven’t spoken out. He believes that many are afraid to speak out, knowing the trouble that could bring.
“If somebody from the NHL, Russian players, are going to say something against the war, they’re going to be in trouble. They’re just afraid,” he says. “I mean, some people are stupid. I understand that. Some people are zombies. They have no idea. And some people are just afraid.”
Other Ukrainian NHL players have tried to share the realities of what is happening in their country.
Ruslan Fedotenko, who grew up in Kyiv and won two Stanley Cups, is watching the devastation unfold from Tampa Bay as he tries to stay in contact with his family and friends.
“For what?” he said, of the devastation unfolding in his homeland. “It’s just mind-boggling. It’s surreal.”
Dmitri Khristich is in Poltava, about 200 miles from Kyiv. The former Washington Capital — who scored more points in the NHL than any other Ukraine-born player — has pleaded with the international community to send military support and close the skies over Ukraine.
“You’re going to let us be killed,” he said.
As an 8 p.m. curfew falls across Ukraine, Zhitnik echoes those pleas.
He believes the Ukrainians can hold their country, if only they can stop the rockets falling from the sky. He can see on the TV set he’s watching as he talks. He’s seen on the streets he drives each day.
“Everybody understands that if they close the sky over Ukraine, we’re going to be great on the ground,” he says. “On the ground we can do fine.”
And while he doesn’t know how long the fighting will last, Zhitnik says he will remain in Ukraine until the war ends, trying to help however he can.
Through another night, indoors, he listens for sirens while praying for silence. Regardless of what comes — or at what cost — Zhitnik believes his homeland will endure.
“We’re going to win — that’s for sure,” he says. “What price we’re going to pay for that? It’s tough to predict. But nobody’s going to back down.”
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