Hey Euro Pals, what's up toward Ukraine and all that?

[IUTSM]

Hey Pals,

I'd like to try to keep this thread to answers from folks living on that side of the pond, kind of trying to leave out American politicized opinions...

What the fuck is going on with Russia possibly invading Ukraine? Are people really freaking out and leaving the country? All I'm able to really see are images on reddit and, on any side of the social-political spectrum, stories from Western funded writers/journalists, so I really don't know what's happening.

Please let us know.

[in love w/ fs shuvs]

@reddit@twitter

[iKobrakai]

Shit is fucked. That is all.

[Mark Renton]

Most of Europe is on the western side of the iron curtain and terribly far from Ukraine so we kinda get the same polarised info (NATO etc).

I used to know a dude my age who fled Ukraine with no money in like ‘14 or something when it all started.
Around same time another guy I know moved from Donetsk to Lviv cos it was safer.

Edit: lol I realised most of what I wrote is irrelevant.
But yeah the sense is that you should ask a Russian / Ukrainian pal. That’s why that Place itw was good.

[excitableboy]

I have a few Russian and Ukrainian friends in my football (soccer) team. We've been talking about the situation a bunch lately. They all strongly oppose Putin, to the point that he pushed some of them to emigration. Their take seems to be that in the West, there is a (mis)information war, but in Russia there is almost only disinformation left. People there either gobble up the Kremlin gospel or pay no more attention whatsoever. That said, my friends were all pretty blasé about the threat. That changed this morning, I imagine.

[iKobrakai]

Grandma and Uncle live in Rostov Oblast. No good new whatsoever.
 
Only distant hope is a revolution with blood of every single kretin from Duma decorating the streets.

[KoRnholio8]

Russian pro-Putin trolls were working overtime in the last week, commenting our (Slovenia) national TV's news articles and accusing the USA with being the provocateur. As of today, their voices are drowned out completely, since it is obvious that Putin is the aggressor and that the alleged crimes against Russians in Ukraine are not base in reality.

I don't see this escalating into a full blown multi-nation conflict - I believe that Putin will be on the verge of taking over Ukraine and then be pushed back to a smaller part of the country, so that the NATO forces can proclaim a victory of sorts and Putin can gain some land (and it's resources) and population. Some treaties will then be signed, so that Putin can be seen as relevant for a few more years (and then die, hopefully).

My biggest fear is if the economic sanctions and overall trade fallout could trigger a recession.

[whale]

” For years I have been reluctant to compare any dictator to Hitler, or any war to the second world war. The comparison, to me, seemed exaggerated, even vulgar.

But what other analogy is there? With no reason, in an act of pure madness, an old-fashioned air assault has been inflicted on a neighbouring country.

I said that to my Russian colleague, and tried very hard not to show how my voice was trembling. She asked for forgiveness again.

There is a famous phrase ‘4am Kyiv is bombed’. Every Ukrainian and Russian kid knows it. That’s how the announcement of the German bombardment of Kyiv in 1941 sounded.

And here we are: 24 February 5am Kyiv is bombed by Russia.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/24/kyiv-putin-bombs-invasion-airstrikes-ukraine-russia

Shit is fucked.

[Deputy Wendell]

i can't even fucking believe what i'm reading and seeing across the news and media spectrum today. fuck, not to say my own country isn't lousy with much of the same, but nevertheless, Putin is a fucking detestable, rabid fucking animal that needs to be put down...
 
cheers @IusedToSkateMore, i was thinking the same for a thread

[Sativa Lung]

” For years I have been reluctant to compare any dictator to Hitler, or any war to the second world war. The comparison, to me, seemed exaggerated, even vulgar.

But what other analogy is there? With no reason, in an act of pure madness, an old-fashioned air assault has been inflicted on a neighbouring country.

I said that to my Russian colleague, and tried very hard not to show how my voice was trembling. She asked for forgiveness again.

There is a famous phrase ‘4am Kyiv is bombed’. Every Ukrainian and Russian kid knows it. That’s how the announcement of the German bombardment of Kyiv in 1941 sounded.

And here we are: 24 February 5am Kyiv is bombed by Russia.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/24/kyiv-putin-bombs-invasion-airstrikes-ukraine-russia

Shit is fucked.

So one of my other weird little obsessions alongside skateboarding, pro wrestling, marijuana etc is military history. It's probably 75% of what I watch on YouTube (binge watching drachinifel stuff atm) and I've been super into aviation history since the first time I saw the blackbird at Lackland when I graduated basic training.

I've been saying for weeks that Putin is essentially reading the script from the 1939 Poland invasion by the Nazis. Move everything to the border, withdraw from diplomacy, stage a bunch of false flags, claim you're acting in self defense, invade. I actually think what Biden is doing so far is the right thing - he's basically calling out Putin's moves before he makes them and showing the world how much of a liar and fascist he is.

What really concerns me is he seems to be trying to push for all out war. I genuinely wonder if behind the scenes he isn't dying and sees this as his last chance to rebuild the iron curtain or something. Let's not forget he's a KGB kook to the core and the writing was on the wall as soon as he got Navalny out of the way and no one did anything about it.

From a pure milnerd perspective its going to be interesting to see how Russian fighters cope with western AA systems. I suspect they'll just try to overcome it with numbers if they're unable to avoid being tracked and engaged.

[cky enthusiast]

you dudes are sautéed if you’re earnestly comparing lebensraum to this

[Sativa Lung]

you dudes are sautéed if you’re earnestly comparing lebensraum to this

Please, enlighten us then professor.

[cky enthusiast]

i have to enlighten you as to why a russian encroachment into previously held territory isn’t the same as the axis conquest of europe? especially after  crimea and the georgian war and chechnya (x2)?!

[IUTSM]

I love y'all but I really kinda created this thread to hear what folks on the other side of the pond are seeing/hearing/experiencing. I can read American opinions on reddit.

[Banned from the room]

This is terrible.

[Sativa Lung]

i have to enlighten you as to why a russian encroachment into previously held territory isn’t the same as the axis conquest of europe? especially after  crimea and the georgian war and chechnya (x2)?!

Where did anyone say it was the same thing? We're saying this is exactly how that started. And it is. If you want to be pedantic, Russia, in its modern form has never held Ukrainian, in its modern form's territory unopposed, so they aren't recapturing anything and even if they were why would that be different than Hitler invading Poland? They've given almost identical justification for their actions.

Also you may, may want to look up what Hitler was up to before Poland. The anschluss and cz are actually pretty easy to compare to what Putin did with Georgia/Crimea.

Not trying to throw this off topic but if you don't see the parallels you're either misinformed about history or ignoring the obvious. And I'm really sick of this hand-waving "it won't actually happen" shit. A nuclear armed dictator just invaded and declared war on a sovereign nation. He's not just going to stop.

Also I'm invoking my honorary German status. Frank can vouch for me. I spent 2 of the most important years of my life there, not all that far from where this is happening.

[S.]

” For years I have been reluctant to compare any dictator to Hitler, or any war to the second world war. The comparison, to me, seemed exaggerated, even vulgar.

But what other analogy is there? With no reason, in an act of pure madness, an old-fashioned air assault has been inflicted on a neighbouring country.

I said that to my Russian colleague, and tried very hard not to show how my voice was trembling. She asked for forgiveness again.

There is a famous phrase ‘4am Kyiv is bombed’. Every Ukrainian and Russian kid knows it. That’s how the announcement of the German bombardment of Kyiv in 1941 sounded.

And here we are: 24 February 5am Kyiv is bombed by Russia.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/24/kyiv-putin-bombs-invasion-airstrikes-ukraine-russia

Shit is fucked.

yes, shit is fucked. Putin definitely is a powermad authoritarian leader. I don't like the comparison to Hitler, though. One, this has been done so many times that it doesn't really mean much anymore. two, all those comparisons do is make the history of the third reich and the holocaust less meaningful at the same time.

Putin is its own terrble phenomenon. Make the effort to understand his singular evil place in the present and in history.

[excitableboy]

I love y'all but I really kinda created this thread to hear what folks on the other side of the pond are seeing/hearing/experiencing. I can read American opinions on reddit.

Sentiments towards American presence in Europe are always pretty ambivalent, I feel. Many of our own armies have been downsized to a sometimes laughable extent. A few years ago the Dutch had to turn down a request for tank deployment, for example, because they only had a dozen or so left, and they were all broken. Germany leased them a few. Europe clearly depends on the US for defense, but then that worries people.

Putin unhinged keeps defying pundits' predictions, who still seem certain that Russia won't push it further than Ukraine since that would mean confronting NATO. For now that leaves Ukraine caught in the middle and left to its limited devices. Kiev citizens facing a full-scale invasion of their city were urged to prepare Molotov cocktails.

The news coming out of there is just heart-breaking no matter where you are watching from. This round-the-clock coverage, with specially composed Ukraine Crisis news jingles, talk of sanctions that 'will really hurt the Russian people', and accepting refugees 'within the reasonable parameters of our existing laws', is a nauseating mess that people soon can't help but look away from. (Though maybe that's just me - excuse the rant.)

[Mark Renton]

It's a crazy situation cos even if the EU declares war to Russia, well that means Europe is done.

If the USA do the same, Russia will probably attack NATO bases and the respective countries.

If China is backing Russia, well good luck.

Putin does not give a fuck, that's where the comparison to Hitler made sense to me, their mentality. Also Blitzkrieg.

Currently Russia took over Chernobyl nuclear plant, if they destroy the shell we're fucked.
They're also bombing left and right.

I got a hold of the dude who's currently in Lviv via his mother, he's stuck in the city.
She told me Russians executed 13 people aged 18/20 who were trying to defend a small island.

I believe that's just the very tip of the iceberg cos his mother told me the situation is like 10x more insane than what we know.
Communication is hard but I will report back what I hear from him/her.
The stuff I saw on Telegram is fucked too. Like tanks turning on the street to run over Ukrainian cars. Jets flying 20m above buildings and unloading missiles. Dark times.

Update: from what I understood he’s hiding in a basement or some shit. Poland is very close but he can’t flee cos they’re bombing and killing civilians.
Also there’s a chance Ukraine will call him to fight.
Fucking nightmare.

The young people who were executed were just patrolling some kind of border.
Filo-Russian Ukrainian from the Eastern regions ‘betrayed’ the country in a way cos they put down a red carpet for Russian invasion.
That’s what she said but I’d rather listen to her than the media.

[cky enthusiast]

edit: keeping american politicized opinions out of it per request. google GAZPROM and how much of europe is dependent on it. then ask yourself how far this is going to go. be serious with yourself.

[Easy Slider]

My heart goes out to all civilians whose life is in danger and whose existence is threatened. I hope the European countries show generous hospitality to those fleeing the war.

[flyingdepabrothers]

Hey Pals,

I'd like to try to keep this thread to answers from folks living on that side of the pond, kind of trying to leave out American politicized opinions...

What the fuck is going on with Russia possibly invading Ukraine? Are people really freaking out and leaving the country? All I'm able to really see are images on reddit and, on any side of the social-political spectrum, stories from Western funded writers/journalists, so I really don't know what's happening.

Please let us know.

Not from here but currently living in Poland. Can only speak about what is kinda happening in Poland, but people (at least the ones around me) are getting pretty tense/nervous about the whole situation. We've been hearing that a lot of people are trying to get into Poland from Ukraine, crazy highway jams and train tickets are all sold out. The Warsaw expat groups have constant posts of people trying to find rides for their family and friends to get into Poland. I heard that there's a lot of military (Polish) build up going on along the Polish eastern border (Podkarpackie, lubelskie). 

[Filip]

I live in Slovakia. Ukraine is our neighbour. I also work in media, so all the information available is pretty much instantly on my feed at work. Let me tell You, waking up these days, first thing that comes to my mind is to turn on the news, pick up my phone and just fucking pray that Russian tanks are still in Ukraine, and not in Slovakia (However fucked that sounds). My heart goes to all the people in Ukraine, and also Russians that are protesting against Putin and his regime.

Russia started locking up their own people who protest on the streets. Russian tanks go over civil cars in Kyjev, with people in them.

Fuck everyone who is in charge of this, Putin, or any of his people.

[sexualhelon]

Protests and such in Berlin, people showing support. I'd imagine less tension here than in countries closer to Ukraine. Chief of the German army went on a public rant about how the German military is worthless it's options to support it's allies are extremely limited.

[TheLurper]

Does anyone have any strong connections to the skate scene in Ukraine?

I spoke with a friend and we are down to put the work into trying to start some sort of fund to support the dudes stuck there or the dudes who escaped, but I don't know anyone in the scene down there to help distribute funds and really help understand what is needed by those in the skate community and their families (money for food? money for general supplies? money for food outside of Ukraine?)

[Síota]

I'm Irish living in France. My opinion is this. Fuck yourself Putin.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2022/feb/25/go-fuck-yourself-ukrainian-soldiers-snake-island-russian-ship-before-being-killed-audio

RIP.  Nothing but respect.

Edit:

[newguy]

anyway, this thread is filled with garbage. First and foremost the fact there's a war is terrible, what a miserable affair, but I can't help but mock the people urging the US to send troops and "fix" things when the US created this goddamn conflict in the first place. Putin was literally approved as Yeltsin's successor by fucking Bill Clinton himself in secret talks, they sponsored a far right coup of the Ukrainian government in 2014, they funded and armed neo nazi militias and they forced Ukraine to withdraw from the negotiating table and egged on Putin with threats of Nato (an obsolete organization founded and run in part by nazi officials jfc) encircling Russia. So the US toyed with Ukraine, made it into a buffer to contain Russia and then when Ukraine genuinely needs help, they flee. Anyone reading this needs to understand that Putin is also a maniac, who thinks that the Soviet Union failed because they cared too much about their people's wellfare, he only cares about power and authority, the invasion does not surprise me one bit.

I mean this conflict is really the result of one giant diplomatic fuckup and shitty cold war era miscalculations, it sucks, and the poor, the working class, the average man and woman are dying and suffering, caught between two shitty forces arm wrestling over territory. To be very clear, I absolutely detest Putin, he's a grifter, a reactionary traitor, and a fascist who believes in violence, but so are US politicians who provoqued this war when the writing was on the wall for the past 15 years. And once again, everyday people suffer the consequences of shitty decision making.

[iKobrakai]

Ah, fuck... Got super worse.. Ukrainians are bombing Rostov side now... I don't blame them, but fuck..

[brycickle]

Putin unhinged keeps defying pundits' predictions, who still seem certain that Russia won't push it further than Ukraine since that would mean confronting NATO.

Finland and Sweden have entered the chat:

https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/595853-russia-threatens-military-and-political-consequences-if-finland

[Mean salto]

Expand Quote

Putin unhinged keeps defying pundits' predictions, who still seem certain that Russia won't push it further than Ukraine since that would mean confronting NATO.

[close]

Finland and Sweden have entered the chat:

https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/595853-russia-threatens-military-and-political-consequences-if-finland

Scary. Seems like this was the plan all along. Basically WW2.(Finland joins Germany not because they are Nazis but because Russia is fucking wild) Russia's still pissed about it.