Russia Invades Ukraine 2022

[temporal1]

.. whatever you say, Ken.

[Soloist]

I’m seeing more and more hints that Ukraine is doing poorly. There are some suggestions stirring that Ukraine may fall following the spring offensive.

[temporal1]

I’m seeing more and more hints that Ukraine is doing poorly.
There are some suggestions stirring that Ukraine may fall following the spring offensive.

“Ukraine war is changing the global arms trade”
France has overtaken Russia on the list of the biggest weapons exporters, a study from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has found. The United States has reinforced its global dominance in arms sales.
https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-ukraine-w ... a-68481124

US's global dominance
Mainly thanks to sales to European countries, the United States increased its overall weapons exports by 17%. Stateside producers delivered arms to 107 countries, more than in any other period studied by SIPRI or any other exporting nation.

"The USA has increased its global role as an arms supplier — an important aspect of its foreign policy — exporting more arms to more countries than it has ever done in the past," said Mathew George, director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. "This comes at a time when the USA's economic and geopolitical dominance is being challenged by emerging powers."

Unsurprisingly, Ukraine is the European country where weapons imports have most dramatically increased.
From 2019 to 2023, Ukraine went from being a minimal importer and a site of domestic production to being the No. 4 weapons buyer in the world, after India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Imports increased 6,600% compared with the previous period.

This article was originally written in German.

^^i don’t recognize this source.

[Josh]

DW is a major German newspaper; it means “The World”.

[Ken]

DW is a major German newspaper; it means “The World”.

It's the German version of the BBC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Welle

[Szdfan]

DW is a major German newspaper; it means “The World”.

It's the German version of the BBC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Welle

The German word is "Welt." Deutsche Welle means "Broadcasting," so "German Broadcasting." As Ken says, it's one of the major publicly funded broadcasters in Germany (like the BBC). There are a couple of others.

[Szdfan]

My father in Kaliningrad wrote the following a couple of weeks ago. It hit a nerve with me and it upset me because I have some fundamental disagreements with Dad about the war.

https://www.wyoder.de/2024/02/28/the-pa ... n-peoples/

An excerpt --

The term “Russian World” asserts commonality between the Eastern Slavic, Orthodox peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. This view that peoples demonstrate similarities, that nations can be grouped, is not inherently aggressive. Yet it can be used in an aggressive fashion by nationalist circles. Despite highly-different dialects, Saxons, Bavarians, Swabians and Friesens are nevertheless all classified as Germans. Why not view the Russian World in the same light?

I tend to support the view that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians form a single nation, often called “Rus”. Nearly all citizens of these three countries share a mutual first or second mother tongue. One could in the same sense argue that US-Americans and English-speaking Canadians form a common Anglo-Saxon nation.

More than a few evangelicals in Ukraine and Belarus are up in the front lines when it comes to pushing ethnic separatism, emphasizing that their nation is not a part of the Russian one. Swallowing or assimilating another people can be interpreted as an unfriendly act. Russia could be accused of that, yet millions of Russia’s inhabitants still claim to be Ukrainians. Is Russia attempting to swallow Ukraine, or is Rus simply attempting to swallow Rus? When is a war a civil war, and when is it not? You choose. Certainly, in terms of international law, the Russian invasion of 2022 was illegal.

Generally, Russians do not preach hatred of the Ukrainian nation. Russians continue to stress their friendship and fraternal ties with the peoples of Ukraine. As recently noted by the USA’s Tucker Carlson, Moscow’s impressive “Kievskaya” subway station, completed in 1954, continues to celebrate the brother- and sisterhood of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. I am not aware of similar government positions in today’s Ukraine.

I love my Dad, but I think there are major problems with this argument -- especially what I see as a soft pedding of Russia imperialistic intentions over Ukraine (arguing that people or "historic land" should all be in one land is a dangerous argument in Europe. It's what the Nazis argued about the "Volksdeutsche" in Austria and the Sudenteland prior to World War II.

I'm sitting with this as I'm thinking about how to or whether to respond.

[Josh]

DW is a major German newspaper; it means “The World”.

It's the German version of the BBC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Welle

The German word is "Welt." Deutsche Welle means "Broadcasting," so "German Broadcasting." As Ken says, it's one of the major publicly funded broadcasters in Germany (like the BBC). There are a couple of others.

Oops. For some odd reason I remembered it as “Die Welte”

[Soloist]

Perhaps the Pope is thinking of

Luk 14:31  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

[temporal1]

Perhaps the Pope is thinking of

Luk 14:31  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

We can hope he’s not thinking from an MIC pov.