The First Casualty

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russ

RT’s Paula Slier reports from Donetsk and carefully sidesteps the Ukrainian President’s assertion that the Russian Army has invaded.

The story of 10 Russian soldiers getting lost and ending up 20 miles into Ukrainian territory is still being pedalled.

“Now a few days ago there were 10 Russian soldiers who mistakenly crossed over the Russian-Ukrainian border into Ukrainian territory. The incident happened at night while at a part of the border where there are very few signposts”

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47 thoughts on “The First Casualty

  1. Bejayziz

    While i’m not a fan of Putin, he’s not a dictator and is very much the peoples choice, his approval ratings are extremely high in Russia…..The situation in Kiev is closer to a dictatorship

    1. edalicious

      Putin has a weird personality cult thing going on though, a bit like North Korea or communism-era USSR, so his extremely high approval rating could actually be something to be concerned about.

    2. Atlas

      The situation in Kiev is closer to a dictatorship

      How is the situation in Kiev, in any way, “closer to a dictatorship” than Russia? Can you cite even a single fact to back up that insane assertion?

    3. Bejayziz

      What happened to the thread of comments before and after this one, they were all deleted? There wasnt anything derogatory in the comments, WTF

    4. C Sharp

      He manipulated the constitution to keep himself as the #1 power in Russia since 2000 (arguably even 1999).
      He has suppressed dissent in the media and on the streets, with some of his and his regime’s fiercest critics dying in v mysterious circumstances.

      He is a master of propaganda with willing stooges all over the world lapping up his every word if that word blames western influence.

    1. Scooperman

      So not in the mood for a WW. Pain in the a**e. Although probably a good excuse to stop showering/turning up for work.

  2. Odis

    The Russians invading Ukraine, just isn’t a news story anymore. Unless you are John Kerry or some other weirdo.
    Wake me up when they invade another country.

      1. Odis

        speaking of “other weirdos”.
        I haven’t seen you around in a while Smashy. Has the new term started in Tel Aviv?

        1. Smashmouth

          Ukraine is a sovereign nation with a democratically elected government. This conflict is far closer to the bone for those living in Western Europe than the myriad of other conflicts in the news

          How much are Russia allowed to get away with? Do you want Russian military on the borders of Poland in 2 years?

          Your indifference to the events happening in Ukraine is a sad reflection of western opinion at present

          1. Odis

            Seriously, so you would council us that WW3 is our safest option, if we are in anyways serious about avoiding “Russian aggression”?

          2. Smashmouth

            My point is Europeans should not ignore or excuse Russia’s actions. Their aim is to reclaim former territories across Europe.

            The attitude that “it’s only Ukraine” is wrong. If we do ignore it then it will be Poland in 5 years time and that WILL be a Third World War

          3. Odis

            Poland in two years or Poland in five years. You don’t seem to be able to make your mind up. I wonder why?

            It like this Smashy, the smart way to deal with the Russians would be to try talking with them. (Remember the Russians aren’t Palestinians)

            The dim way seems to be to adopt the cold war strategies proposed by our “American allies” who have been delivering freedom to Iraq, Libya and Syria, of late, much to chagrin of the populations of those countries.

          4. Smashmouth

            Odious, why are you only pretending to care now that I have an opinion?

            You said it yourself – you don’t care until they invade another country i.e. you don’t give a sh*t because it’s only Ukraine

            what an ignorant, argumentative fool you are

          5. C Sharp

            Odis, what had US to do with Syria?

            The west didn’t act in Syria primarily due to Russian intervention. Russia wanted to protect their last med naval base there, so have had “their s.o.b.” Assad’s back all along.

            So “talk” to Putin (they have been talking to Putin for some years now). Every time Putin has had a summit with either EU or Ukrainian leaders the overtures happened at the same time as a new Russian manouvre in E.Ukraine.
            Absolutely, keep talking, but back it up with harsher sanctions.
            My fear re: sanctions is that the real power brokers in Russia have so much wealth now that power is probably more attractive even if they need to spend some of the wealth to get it.

            While this one begun, Putin was in talks with the Ukrainian president.
            You are being duped by a shrewd and cunning guy who really doesn’t give a toss and will pick away ever greater concessions backed up by masses of propaganda.

            Putin has declared Russia’s right to protect ethnic Russians where ever they are. Give a little, he will keep on taking.

          6. jungleman

            C Sharp, you are talking nonsense. The US and UK are on the record as having acted in Syria. Russia thankfully prevented them from turning it into another Libya.

            You sound just like Smashmouth – completely paranoid about Russia. You appear to have a Cold War mentality. Russia’s actions over Ukraine are in fact reactions to US meddling in Ukrainian politics. Their hand was forced. Is it right that a superpower can act in such way? Perhaps not. But it is to be expected. The US would react in a similar manner if they were in Russia’s position.

            “Putin has declared Russia’s right to protect ethnic Russians where ever they are”. The US maintains such a right also and it was one of their main justifications for the current campaign in Iraq. Jen Psaki confirmed this week that they would not even seek permission from Syria to bomb ISIS in Syria. Would you also be willing to criticise that policy?

          7. C Sharp

            Well Jungle, if you want to resort to name calling I’ll just leave you to it.

            I’m trying to maintain some sense of objectivity here. You are only interested in reinforcing your polarised world view.

            Good night and good luck.

          8. Smashmouth

            “completely paranoid about Russia. You appear to have a Cold War mentality”

            You do understand that Ukraine is a sovereign nation right?

            Therefore you understand that Russia’s actions undermine the authority of the Ukrainian government resulting in what is widely recognised to be Europe’s biggest security crisis since the Cold War?

    1. Atlas

      “It’s only Czechoslovakia. This isn’t news anymore, the Germans always annexing parts of their neighbouring countries. Nothing will come of it. Wake me up when they invade another country.”

  3. Eliot Rosewater

    “A reckless nuclear state invades its neighbour and nobody can do anything about it”.

    This isn’t actually a ‘New World Order’ like he’s trying to suggest. Something identical happened recently. In the last few months.

  4. C Sharp

    Putin is like a child with chocolate all over his face denying he ate the chocolate.
    This is blatant. The truth is HE DOES NOT GIVE A F**K what people think, once he can spin a yarn there are millions who will regurgitate his word that it’s all western propaganda and he is the concerned humanitarian. A delicious irony for the man.

    Anyone who takes Putin’s word for it with the track record he has is being wilfully ignorant.
    People defend him online as a knee jerk reaction to western misbehaviour on other fronts.

    Putin is extremely dangerous, make no mistake.
    No one but no one with any iota about geo-politics should be paying slightest bit of attention to RT at this point.
    It even puts Fox to shame.

    1. jungleman

      “People defend him online as a knee jerk reaction to western misbehaviour on other fronts. ”

      It is a fact that the US meddled in Ukraine’s politics, spending billions on the project. What was to be expected from Russia? The US would act similarly if they were in Russia’s position. I don’t support Russia, but their foreign policy is far more reasonable than that of the US, and their reaction in Ukraine was predictable. I do not believe it is their aim to reclaim old territories, but it is certainly in their interests to prevent NATO from being based right on their border. I expect Russia will invade Ukraine in the coming weeks, but it certainly would not be analogous to the Sudetenland, as the motives are completely different.

      1. C Sharp

        Can you be specific about those billions please? Amount, source, purpose?
        Someone reasonably credible, not Fox or RT.

        Russia and EU BOTH offered massive sums of euro in support of opposing positions should they vote one way or another.

        So to say Putin is justified on that basis is to say EU would have been justified invading had things turned out differently.

        You might find Russia’s foreign policy reasonable (invasion and annexation of the sovereign territories of small neighbouring states, for example, or support for Assad, for another, unilaterally tearing up EU-Russia co-operation treaties for peace and stability in Europe) but I don’t, and neither do his immediate neighbours, nor those who are even currently a whole country away from him but were occupied by that country for decades.

        If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

        1. jungleman

          Victoria Nuland has stated that 5 billion was spent since 1991.

          “So to say Putin is justified on that basis is to say EU would have been justified invading had things turned out differently.” This is a perfect example of a logical fallacy, in particular the fallacy of the converse. There are simply too many variables to consider this a fair conclusion. Firstly, there is no EU military and therefore no capacity to invade. Secondly, the situation prior to the past year was the status quo, i.e. a close relationship between Ukraine and Russia. Therefore Russia’s interests are more entangled with Ukraine than those of the EU and certainly more-so than the the US.

          You cite Russian support for Assad as a bad thing, so clearly we have completely different views on foreign relations. I will say that the support for Assad is progressively looking like the most reasoned and rational policy. The US and “partners” in the EU will soon adopt a similar position I suspect.

      2. C Sharp

        Re: Sudetenland
        Are the motives really that different? The excuses are pretty close:

        “German people live there”
        “Russian people live there”

        1. jungleman

          I believe the most important issue for Russia is the possibility of NATO on their doorstep.

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