If someone senior in the Biden administration also made to trip to Kyiv, that would be a very strong statement indeed.
It would just give ammunition to Russian propaganda about Zelensky being a US puppet. There is no reason to help Putin frame his invasion as a preemptive defense against US aggression. Send arms and money. Not politicians seeking a photo op.
And lawyers?
I don’t understand how Ukraine can keep Donbas. They’ve been at war with Russian separatists for years.
That local Russian support won’t go away. Russia could pull back their forces and it would still be difficult for Ukraine to govern.
I don’t see a solution that’s going to satisfy Ukraine.
Russian soldiers arriving in large numbers and behaving like, well, like Russian soldiers? It’ll go away like a snowball in a blast furnace.
ISWYDT. The S*** has indeed hit the fan…
I’d expect they’d need to be able to find their way through a veritable warren of bombed-out buildings.
[quote=“DavidNRockies, post:4330, topic:960037, full:true”]
Makes me wonder what the ‘Z’ stands for on Russian vehicles.
Russian support in the Russian speaking areas was strong until the Russian army devastated the cities with artillery. Bombing homes and laying siege to towns full of desperate civilians does not win hearts and minds.
However I am sure if there was a vote, there would be a clear majority who would vote to join Russia. Elections in Putins Russia tend to have a predictable outcome. Angry soldiers and police on the lookout for Nazis can be very persuasive vote winning combination.
The donation of tanks is very interesting; it would give Ukraine more of an ability to conduct offensive operations, such as trying to dislodge Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
We could almost call this WW III by proxy.
Stars & Stripes has an article talking about how the standards for foreign volunteers have been tightened up.
I am too fat and too old. 
For some reason, when I see President Zelensky with other people, it always surprises me to see how small in stature he is. He’s 5’ 7" tall, how the hell does he walk with those six foot balls?
His lower center of gravity helps.
How would that be any different from the US puppet Boris Johnson visiting Ukraine?
Maybe they could also send a headless Thompson gunner from Norway.
/nods head/ Makes sense.
My fav dispensary has a donation jar for Ukraine (as well as fliers about how the money will be delivered/used). When potheads are worried enough to drop twenty dollar bills in the jar instead of spending it on more weed…shit’s getting real.
They need the air crews from the Heavy Metal movie.
https://news.yahoo.com/spurred-putin-russians-turn-one-144438408.html
This will be very bad in the short term. It will, however, be unsustainable in the long term. The country will tear itself apart.
Plenty of cesium in the Red Forest. Plenty of strontium, too, which is another concerning isotope. All of which are reasons to NOT camp in the Red Forest and not to go digging trenches in the place.
There’s no winning when it comes to the Russian troops in the area. If you don’t warn them they’ll do stupid stuff and then they’ll blame you for not warning them. If you do warn them they’ll ignore you because they, Russians, know better or think you’re lying, they’ll do stupid stuff, then probably blame you when bad things happen.
With great confidence and panache.
What I’m not sure about is how he does that without the constant clanging of brass…