Meanwhile, back in Kiev....

[Clinton Huxley]

The chaps at the Light Brigade barracks were looking twitchy. I said, I'd love to have another crack at the Roosians with you, boys, but I'm too old. Went a bit misty-eyed, truth to tell.

[cronus]

The chaps at the Light Brigade barracks were looking twitchy. I said, I'd love to have another crack at the Roosians with you, boys, but I'm too old. Went a bit misty-eyed, truth to tell.

Don't worry, they'll come to you.

[JimC]

The chaps at the Light Brigade barracks were looking twitchy. I said, I'd love to have another crack at the Roosians with you, boys, but I'm too old. Went a bit misty-eyed, truth to tell.

Well someone has blundered, that's for sure...

[Svartalf]

This is really no laughing matter, when you live in a country with a 1000 km long land border to Russia.

If Putin succeeds in his bully game with Ukraine, without any strong repercussions, that would be very bad news indeed, and not only for his immediate neighbours.

What do you think will be done? We're still being polite to him, and why not, the Russian Army could steamroller its way right to the Atlantic if he set it to do that... China won't do a thing, and Obama isn't going to do anything serious about it either if I hear my new sources well.

[Audley Strange]

Yeah, the "War on Terror" is passé, so politics has went a bit retro and started up the cold war by the looks of it. Hang on to your hats South America.

[klr]

This is really no laughing matter, when you live in a country with a 1000 km long land border to Russia.

If Putin succeeds in his bully game with Ukraine, without any strong repercussions, that would be very bad news indeed, and not only for his immediate neighbours.

Russia already owns parts of Finland, ceded under duress in 1940 and 1944.

I guess Great Russian chauvinism and empire-building never really went away after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russians were just busy rebuilding their military and dealing with the likes of Chechnya over the past 15 years or so.

The only reason Putin has done this right now is because the voice of the majority of the people in the Ukraine was not to his taste, There is of course no material danger to the ethnic Russian population in Eastern Ukraine - it's just a pretext.

Apparently O'Bammy isn't happy with the situation and has given Vlad a stern talking to. I expect Putin will pull back the troops and apologize, before going to the naughty corner to think about what he's done.

I'd like (amongst many other things) for the Russia to lose the 2018 World Cup, although that's for FIFA to decide, so I don't hold out much hope there.

Using the same excuse as Russia, Ireland could have invaded Northern Ireland during the late 1960's to defend the Nationalist population. In fact, the Irish Government at the time did consider it, but not surprisingly thought better of it. But when you have might on your side ...

[cronus]

[klr]

A MiG 31? The Russians have no need of interceptors in this spat, not unless the evil Ukranian terrorist intend to actually bomb Russia with their strangely familiar MiG and Sukhoi designs.

[cronus]

Can't have a decent war without planes.

[Warren Dew]

I'm trying to imagine what the US's reaction would be if it were in the same situation as Russia is in now. I'm willing to bet that the military would be involved, regardless of world opinion.

Yep. Just look at how we invaded Panama to keep control of the canal zone.

Not.

[Warren Dew]

Split the fuckin place. It's already partly split. The Crimea is gone, and will never be back. I say, split the rest, and pass extremely harsh anti-discrimination laws on BOTH sides of the new border, to ensure that there is no possibility of ethnic cleansing.

What's the point of splitting the place, if you're going preserve ethnic tensions on both sides of the border? By the logic of splitting the Ukraine, it would make more sense to pass repressive laws against the minorities on each side, so they would promptly flee to the side where their ethnicity is in the majority.

The truth is, though, that only a few Crimeans actually want a split, outside of Moscow. Most Russian speaking Ukrainians want to stay in the Ukraine.

[Seth]

How much trouble should we tolerate from a region before we wash our hands of it?

Well, since the UK, along with the US, China and Russia signed an agreement to defend Ukraine's borders as a condition of their giving up their nuclear weapons, you'll have to tolerate it a bit more...and perhaps go fight Russians... if you leaders aren't as fucking cowardly as Obama is.

I bet everybody in Ukraine is saying "What a fucking stupid idea to give up our nuclear arsenal on the word of Brits and Americans..."

Let's see... the US has taken the lead in every conflict the UK was ostensibly part of since the Falklands, so how about we sit this one out and you lazy fucks go honor your commitments this time? We'll send over a squad or two to make a pro-forma showing of the flag, but watch out, those two dozen guys might embarrass your country by actually kicking some Russian ass.

[Seth]

The chaps at the Light Brigade barracks were looking twitchy. I said, I'd love to have another crack at the Roosians with you, boys, but I'm too old. Went a bit misty-eyed, truth to tell.

Don't worry, they'll come to you.

Well...at least they will send a stern note of disapproval...taped to the nose of a nuclear multiple warhead.

[FBM]

I'm trying to imagine what the US's reaction would be if it were in the same situation as Russia is in now. I'm willing to bet that the military would be involved, regardless of world opinion.

Yep. Just look at how we invaded Panama to keep control of the canal zone.

Not.

The US doesn't share a 1k-mile border with Panama.

[Audley Strange]

How much trouble should we tolerate from a region before we wash our hands of it?

Well, since the UK, along with the US, China and Russia signed an agreement to defend Ukraine's borders as a condition of their giving up their nuclear weapons, you'll have to tolerate it a bit more...and perhaps go fight Russians... if you leaders aren't as fucking cowardly as Obama is.

I bet everybody in Ukraine is saying "What a fucking stupid idea to give up our nuclear arsenal on the word of Brits and Americans..."

Let's see... the US has taken the lead in every conflict the UK was ostensibly part of since the Falklands, so how about we sit this one out and you lazy fucks go honor your commitments this time? We'll send over a squad or two to make a pro-forma showing of the flag, but watch out, those two dozen guys might embarrass your country by actually kicking some Russian ass.

Nah, we've been there done that while you lot were still recovering for shooting each other.