You're an idiot. You really are. You think that you can convince ANYONE that Ukraine was about to attack a country 4 times its population and 14 times its size that has nuclear weapons. You're an idiot.
Ok putz, where did I say Ukraine was going to attack Russia, your assumptions are getting well anal now, Ukraine was going to initiate an offensive move on Donbas and possibly Crimea. If you ever went to Donbas, highly unlikely, and bothered to speak to people that live there, then you would understand what’s been happening there since an illegal overthrow of the legitimate government in Kiev in 2014, that vast majority of people that live in Donbas wanted Russia to defend them. So pipe up pal, you are getting boring now.
The reality... the large majority people in Donbas generally want nothing to do with Russia. Do people in Donbas want to be ‘liberated’ by Russia? We surveyed people in Ukraine’s contested eastern region to see what they wanted. Here’s what we found. https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...kraine-donbas-donetsk-luhansk-public-opinion/ The war in Ukraine is officially in its second month. But Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s territory began in 2014. That’s when Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea and intervened to prop up separatists who sought to create Russian proxy states in part of what’s called “the Donbas,” Ukraine’s two easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which border Russia. Ukraine has been fighting against these proxy states since. Russian President Vladimir Putin provocatively escalated that conflict right before the latest invasion, declaring in February that Russia would recognize these entities — the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR) — as independent states, including supporting their claim to all the territory of the Donbas. The Russian military has announced a new war strategy, focusing “on the main goal, the liberation of the Donbas.” But do ordinary people living in the Donbas actually want what “liberation” probably means: violent conquest, followed by independence or annexation to Russia? Our research just before the February invasion suggests some answers. How we did our research In January, we conducted a large, computer-assisted telephone public opinion survey of people living in the two regions on both sides of the military line of contact. To enable cross-checking of the survey data, we used three companies: the U.K.-based agency R-Research and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology calling from Ukraine, and Levada Marketing Research calling from Russia. In total, 4,025 people were interviewed, with equal numbers on both sides of the line of contact dividing the Donbas. Data are weighted proportional to current population estimations separately in the Kyiv-controlled and separatist areas. The opinions of those forcibly displaced are thus absent. Estimates are that up to 3 million of the 6.5 million people who lived in the Donbas region in early 2014 had left by early 2022, with many more fleeing since the invasion began in February. What do the people of Donbas want? Because of the fiercely contested nature of the Russian proxy “republics” in Ukraine, when asking people what status they preferred for the region, it proved impossible to use the same wording on both sides of the Donbas divide. In the areas controlled by the Ukrainian government, respondents were asked: “In your opinion, what should be the status of the regions of the Donbas temporarily uncontrolled by the Kyiv government”? In the separatist-held areas, the question ended, “…of the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DNR)/Luhansk Peoples Republic (LNR).” Each respondent could choose from five answers, as you can see in the figure below. When the responses are weighted by the estimated total population on either side of the line of control in the Donbas before the war (1.7 million in the Kyiv-controlled zone and 2.1 million in the separatist republics), more people preferred to remain in Ukraine (42 percent) than be annexed to Russia (31 percent). Just 9 percent opted for independence. For this sensitive question with a high degree of uncertainty about Kyiv’s and Moscow’s actions, the “don’t know” ratio is high at 18 percent. But the figure in which we averaged data from all the survey firms summary data hides some big differences. While the Ukrainian and Russian pollsters found similar opinions in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government, in the breakaway area, pollsters calling from Russia found higher support (70 percent) for joining Donbas with Russia than did the pollsters calling from Ukraine (16 percent). (Some respondents may have decided whether to answer the call or participate in the survey according to whether it originated in Kyiv or Moscow, or may have replied with answers that they thought the interviewers wanted to hear.) In the Ukrainian government-controlled areas, almost 3 in 4 respondents (72 percent) wanted the breakaway territories back within Ukraine. These residents were twice as likely to say the Donbas should not have any special status as to say it should have special autonomous status within Ukraine. In the separatist-held areas, opinion was more splintered. Forty-nine percent said they wanted to be part of the Russian Federation, with a roughly equal proportion saying they wanted to be a special autonomous region or just an ordinary part of Russia. On both sides of the line of contact, fewer than 10 percent supported independence. Almost 1 in 5 respondents — on both sides of the line of control — said they did not know. All this largely echoes our findings in an earlier survey in late 2020. In other words, beliefs about where the contested territory belongs were stable before Russia’s latest invasion. Among Donbas residents, the debate is between those who want to be annexed by Russia and those who do not; the independence that the Kremlin recently recognized isn’t desired. Leaders of both the “Luhansk Peoples Republic” and the “Donetsk Peoples Republic” have declared that they will hold referendums on joining Russia, announcements possibly approved by the Kremlin. These referendums are likely to be modeled on one held in Crimea in March 2014, in which pro-Ukrainian activists and journalists were detained while the local government aired Russian programming and citizens voted while Russian soldiers watched. Our research suggests that in a free and fair referendum held throughout the Donbas — under international supervision and with impartial, transparent and inclusive voting rules that allowed those displaced since 2014 to vote — the majority would be likely to vote to remain in Ukraine. However, a vote restricted to just those remaining in the Donbas would be likely to endorse joining Russia. Either way, war has hardened attitudes, so any such referendum would be bitterly contentious.
The same back in 2019... Most people in separatist-held areas of Donbas prefer reintegration with Ukraine https://theconversation.com/most-pe...-reintegration-with-ukraine-new-survey-124849
Well, we are past Victory Day now, so we will see where we are in regard to all those rumors about Vlad having surgery to remove his gizzard or something. Probably all BS but who knows. I would not turn down any good news. Except good news to most of us- but not all- would be bad news to Vlad. Putin is like Little Rocket Man. A little dipshit that gets tiresome after a while. Probably if he was shot out on the street no one would claim his body or tell his family. After all, that is the Russian way. One of his generals might pick his pockets to see if there are any rubles or an old pack of Marlboro's.
As I said you're an idiot if you think that Ukraine would make an offensive move with a 200K army amassed on its borders. Apart from the fact that whatever happens in Donbas and Crimea is an internal Ukrainian matter, on its territory. It's like you would be justifying someone invading Russia because of its military operating in Chechnya. Idiotic. But then I don't expect any better from a Russian apologist.
Why waste time on me then, hit that ignore button, personally I have never ignored a single poster on this board, this is because I am mentally very strong, unlike the abundance of snowflakes everywhere who can not handle a discussion without reverting to the most basic human behaviour, posting insults, hiding behind anonymity that keyboard warrior status provides. Bravo! Russia would never have allowed NATO’s presence in Ukraine and both NATO and Ukraine knew that, hence recent Zelensky’s comment that NATO should have accepted Ukraine application to avoid the military conflict initiated by Russia. I’ve posted this previously but may as well say it again, what Russia did is exactly what the US would have done, therefore it is highly hypocritical to accuse Russia unless your actions would have been entirely different. Roll on expansion of a hypothetical Chinese and Russian military alliance in Mexico to help Mexicans defend themselves from any possible aggression from the US. Just imagine what the US would do.