Ukraine v Russia II

That is good news.

 

Well, here's the answer on who blew up the pipeline.

1618871523137445889 is not a valid tweet id

 

You're free to ignore it

 

It's a valid question. I'm curious about this as well.

 

in general I ignore tweets unless I'm given a good reason not to.

 

Me too. Other than sports highlights, the only tweets I ever read are here. But if I'm reading them, might as well get to know who the sources are...

 

I don't read them often here. The signal to noise ratio on them is not favorable enough.

 

Someone recommended me this account as they provide frequent updates on the situation, on and off the battlefield. I don`t post the one on the battlefield as I`m no expert on the matter and there are usually no sources. I only post about geopolitics and economics since they do add their sources that are credible.

 

There is no answer there in that 12 second clip.
Being gratified about an outcome is not precipitating that outcome.

 

Right. I get a chuckle every time I see Russian soldiers getting killed. I haven't personally pulled the trigger on any of them, unfortunately.

 

Of course but perception is relevant if we're trying to gain ground diplomatically with the Global South (and we've been trying). For the most part, they think we did it

 

Ah, yes! Perception is reality. The truth is not.

Words to live by.

 

Source attached.

This could become a trend of countries asking the global south for their ammunition to then give them to Ukraine.

Brazil refused to supply Germany

President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, argued his refusal by the fact that "it is not worth provoking the Russians."

⚡️Source https://t.co/jMKTX0mVHv

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) January 27, 2023

 

Yet, this war is increasingly demonstrating that we made things way more difficult than it needed to be by not securing the support of most of the global south. We "officially" don't know who did it (the truth) and they don't buy we weren't involved.

But you're right, they should trust our words - we've never lied to them before

 

Ummm..... When did I say that?

I think I said the exact opposite.

 

My bad - I misunderstood. I really want us to win, I'm just of the divergent opinion that this can be done unilaterally by us without the global south. My critic is towards how our leaders collectively handled our diplomacy in that regard. Hope that's clearer

 

I'll be clearer too.

Although the US and EU and others have failed to bring along the global South, that doesn't mean that they don't have agency or are excused from critical thinking and ethical decision making. You are kind of infantilizing them while thinking you are pleading their case. Not so.

The point remains, we have not sweetened the pot enough for the global South to chip in. This was the first outreach. They are negotiating for more in return for donating & cooperating with the effort to bolster Ukraine. Some might be either onboard with Putin, or even in his pocket to a degree, but this stuff often changes along with the incentives.

What I see is a global South that has been repeatedly ignored, and is upset that they are expected to drop everything at this instant for Ukraine, even if they are in agreement in principle of the effort. Now is the time for them to get some guarantees in return for their cooperation.

It's a bit cynical, and some are true believers in not contributing, but everything is negotiable.

Woe be the leadership of the nation that ACTUALLY believes Putin's bullshit!

 

No, it absolutely is NOT relevant.
You said it was the "answer" not that you perceive that there might be an answer.

Totally different.

 

I see your point of view as for our leaders in regards to dealing with the global south but I think it's an oversimplification to minimize it to a lack critical thinking or ethical decision making.
From their perspective, decades of double standards among other things contributed to their decision to opt for pragmatism and prioritizing their own interests over ours.

I also don't share your optimism that they are negotiating for more in return for donating & cooperating with the effort to bolster Ukraine. We're past this and "dedollarisation" initiatives all over the place makes this obvious. Not too late for a hard diplomatic reset.

 

I wonder if Brazil’s decision was influenced by the Bolsonaro-Putin bromance.

 

I am sure Lula is also not a fan of helping Ukraine, the Latin left seems to be more on the side of not getting involved.

AMLO (Mexico) was already bitching about how Germany sending tanks will just prolong the war.

 

Interesting thing about this is that Bolsonaro was actually undermining BRICS and Biden's election changed the dynamic completely. He really disliked Joe while he was getting along with Trump.

As for Lula, he helped get BRICS started so he wanted South America out of the USD and US sphere of influence from the get go. Also, the CIA playing a hand in getting him jailed didn't help matters.

Most of the global south don't view blacklisting Russia as in their interests for many different reasons.