Bank of Japan freezes Russian reserve assets.

The European Union asked the satellite intelligence center in Madrid to provide Ukraine with intelligence data on the movements of Russian troops

According to international law such way EU becoming side of conflict with obvious consequences, But EU bureaucrats don't get it.

@Dark_Blue

No - next will be fast drop of life level that will be blamed on Russians.

And return to fascism and Natzism, starting from declaring our nations as third sort.

@G3550D I consider myself level headed. I also have a degree in security studies (civilian), so I can make sense of reports like those published here: http://www.iswresearch.org/search/label/Ukraine

The first thing you'll need to do, if you actually desire to understand what's going on the ground, is stop following mainstream media on the hour, and the pundits in between. Their role isn't to inform, and never has been. Their role is to shape perception.

To your last point: five days in for a special military operation, the results are neither good nor bad. Underwhelming perhaps. They were expecting/waiting for a political collapse in Kiev. On to the bad news: the WAR starts now. They cannot afford to withdraw without achieving the political objective in full, as that would mean regime collapse in Russia. This will not end well either way. They went for the maximal objective, and that has been a strategic miscalculation in my view. It might've worked if Ukraine collapsed in three days. Now the bear is forced to move in ways it hasn't done in 70+ years. Other ramifications: the UN is shot, the post-WW2 order is shot. This is uncharted waters, much more unstable than the Cold War. The inherent risk for a miscalculation leading to WW3 is not low. Back to operations: the Russian Army will continue to exercise caution when striking at military targets, as to avoid civilian casualties, but accidents will increase. If it comes to heavy armor within Kiev, then it's shtf.

Ukrainians!

Today in your country there is no leadership that would worry about its citizens, think about them, try to make their lives better. No patriots, no defenders.

There are only Bandera, nationalists, terrorists. They only hide behind the fact that they are fighting for human and national ideals, but in reality they only alienate two peoples and two countries from each other.

Ukrainians!

Zelensky has lost his connection with the world, and not today, but for a long time. He did not rule, but he is ruled. Trust in him is lost, because he did not commit a single correct and deliberate act. All this time, he led Ukraine by the hand along the path, which is very well known to Chechen eyewitnesses of the events of the 90s. We are very well aware of this tactic of imaginary integration with the West, which in the end only leads to the protection of the interests of foreign states.

Ukrainians!

Bandera, the Azov battalion and other terrorist armed formations claim that they will protect you. Not true. Firstly, the Russian army does not attack civilians in Ukraine, and secondly, these "defenders" become the first marauders and thieves.

President Vladimir Putin, like any Russian, does not want human casualties among the fraternal people. He wants Ukrainians to have the opportunity to determine their own destiny, and not depend on the wishes of Western "partners." ⠀ I, as a military expert, as a person who has seen and experienced modern information and field wars, I ask you, Ukrainians, to hear us and become masters of your country, throwing aside the adherents of European propaganda. Only in this way will we rule out further human casualties. ⠀ It is necessary to move on to large-scale measures to destroy the Nazis and terrorists, to liberate the cities. And in this struggle, the armed forces of Ukraine have every right to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Russian troops. I assure you that the Russian servicemen are ready for such joint activities and will only be happy about it. ⠀ Peaceful citizens of Ukraine!

Military forces of Ukraine!

Let's liberate the country from traitors and bandits together!

@radikalfilm - you seem level headed to me too.

@Vitaly I don't think Putin is a genius of any kind. I do think his actions are going to bring long term suffering to the Russian people and a lower standard of living for the rest of us. As for the role that individuals can exert, it seems self evident to me that Putin and, more surprisingly, Zelensky are hugely significant at the moment. Forget propoganda for a moment, watch directly the way Putin treats his own cabinet in his own broadcasts and then watch Zelensky speaking to his people and to the Russian people.

But you are right, we need to be wary of propaganda and it is not always as obvious as in your post of 6.07 this morning. My previous post though was mostly a list of facts which I note you do not dispute.

I, like Putin, am not a communist but I do try to call my government (UK) to account when I think they are in the wrong. I was too young for Suez, but I demonstrated against Kennedy in the Cuban crisis, America in the Vietnam war, the UK in Iraq and some other times. I still regret that there was no organised opposition here against Thatcher's undermining of Karmel's government in Afghanistan. But it is easy here. With some exceptions, British Police, deal with demonstrations fairly and I can compare my experiences here very favourably with a couple of demonstrations I (unintentionally) encountered in Brussels and Paris.

Without wishing to say that Russia had no legitimate grievances, I am convinced that your government is seriously in the wrong here and that this will become more and more apparent if it tries to occupy Ukraine. I imagine a rerun of 1917 is unlikely but a less costly way out would be for your government to take control back from Putin and call a ceasefire. That will only happen if Russian citizens make it clear that they are against this invasion.

Vitaly do you ever disagree publicly with your government? Do you ever take the, what would be in Russia, courageous step of demonstrating against it?

Or are you just going to continue to try to hold the difficult line that Russia had more to fear from Ukraine than Ukraine had to fear from Russia?

@G3550D

I do think his actions are going to bring long term suffering to the Russian people and a lower standard of living for the rest of us.

One thing you don't get is that your countries already made Russian people suffer since 1992 multiple times. And even 2014 had been worse hit than today.

Forget propoganda for a moment, watch directly the way Putin treats his own cabinet in his own broadcasts and then watch Zelensky speaking to his people and to the Russian people.

You are out of touch with reality. In fact Putin now do a lot to hold society to shut few remaining pro west media outlets that 90% of society wants to not only close but hang on nearby trees. And they want it for last 20 years at least.

Without wishing to say that Russia had no legitimate grievances, I am convinced that your government is seriously in the wrong here and that this will become more and more apparent if it tries to occupy Ukraine. I imagine a rerun of 1917 is unlikely but a less costly way out would be for your government to take control back from Putin and call a ceasefire. That will only happen if Russian citizens make it clear that they are against this invasion.

Russian people, as well as Ukranian people with some grey cells are for reunification and peace. And west is for war and extermination now.

Vitaly do you ever disagree publicly with your government? Do you ever take the, what would be in Russia, courageous step of demonstrating against it?

In fact I support happening things now (including lot of sanctions on elites). Despite that it is imperialistic move and done mostly by nationals. Without Ukraine we don't have any chance to build socialism here. So, it is first step necessary.

@G3550D here in SA we are profoundly indebted by your demonstrations. Surelly they influenced much more our countries than the coups, torture, rape and murder. I bet the coups, torture, rape and murder international school closed because some nice guy in UK peacefully, moderatelly and orderlly demonstrated. Ohh wait, no, the thing still running. I hope you reach back when you people start experience democracy as it is sponsored by your guys in the great majority of the globe, could be a really aproaching experience. Oh, and if you guys happens to get there to the top walking nicelly and shouting with moderation, it is polite to return Malvinas.

While you solving things with your monarchy, I have to note that Ukraine nazis were training nazi paras from arround the world, including my country, and that put us in risk of civil war for the next decade at least. So I can't fell better if all these nazi bunch be hangged and stop spreading their shit arround. War was to break out, if not in Ukraine because of Ukraine.

@RoadsidePicnic There are small numbers of crackpots who call themselves Nazis all over the world and that includes Eastern Europe and, increasingly, America. They often have connections with small groups of football supporters (as in Ukraine) but it is just laughable to say that the current Ukrainian governemnt is Nazi. I have no strong feelings for monarchy and, as for Malvinas or Falklands, I was against that. We were 'lucky' there and had the tacit support of the USA - as well as very competent forces. But for us, the 'winners', it kept Thatcher in power whereas the 'losing' Argentinians got rid of a tyrant.
During Apartheid times I was outside the SA embassy a number of times and later Mandela came to London to thank everyone who had been part of the Anti-Apartheid movement. I have a fond memory from years later of going to the embassy to collect a visa for my daughter to work at AIMS in Cape Town. The black guy who served me was still learning his job but his pride in being there was humbling. I am sorry you appear to be defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

@RoadsidePicnic Please be clear. Are you supporting Putin's invasion of Ukraine or not?

@AndrewReid_EOSHD "Trump was the result of a social media campaign of disinformation and a proxy war." This is laughable. How do I know: trust me, I'm an expert. In 2017 I defended my Master's thesis in Intelligence studies (in a NATO country) on the topic of Influence operations, using the 2016 US presidential elections as one of the case studies. I argued (successfully of course) that there has been an influence campaign from Russia, besides the hacking of the DNC servers (this bit was likely true, but one cannot just trust the US cyber command when they say "these guys did it").

I have since come around, having uncovered more intel (it was making the rounds in the scholarly circles like a true butt joke one cannot publish, though I think it did get coverage in the US press eventually). We can equally say that teenagers from a remote village in North Macedonia tilted the US elections in Trump's favor, by setting up "news" websites with collations of facts and conspiracy theories, and reaping the ad traffic from the many millions hits they received from the conservative viewership in the US. There was simply a huge appetite in the US for that sort of content, and hungry enterprising kids in North Macedonia delivered it. This was uncovered by an investigation started by intelligence offices in the area, when expensive sports cars started appearing on the streets of those remote village(s). They followed the money, got to the ad payments, and the websites. It's the sort of thing too weird to contemplate, but nevertheless fact. 'Russia bad' is the easier sell.

Trump won because it was time for someone like Trump to rise to the fore. The US is tearing itself apart culturally, and soon geographically, and Trump's election was the first clear data point in this progression.

The fall of local liberal pillars

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation demanded to restrict access to "Echo of Moscow" and "Rain" *

“Echo of Moscow and the Dozhd TV channel publish false information about the actions of the Russian military as part of a special operation to protect the DPR and LPR,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Both are total pro west media.

@AndrewReid_EOSHD

It is not about statistics. You do not understand basic definitions and laws of economics and politics.

You are not stupid and obviously you can't oppose any core points from article that I gave you.

Putin's men have spent billions on sponsorships, investments, social media, traditional media, political influence and donations.

Don't you see difference? Same time west spent 100x more on their propaganda machine.

Are you really trying to deny the power of Russian influence and disinformation? As if it's a side show?

Get back from VR where you live.

He is encouraging the cracks to widen. It really is that simple.

We is not making cracks with words, he is doing it with missiles and tanks.

Ask yourself what all this chaos and murder archives for YOU and YOUR country.

Life is dirty Andrew. You just lived too long at the top floor where you don't see it. Now we'll pull you back down, and we just began doing right this.