Personally, I generally think we should de-couple any relief of sanctions from a cease fire. The conditions for a cease fire should come between Ukraine and Russia, and I think the relief from sanctions should be part of a wider, more permanent peace.
Whether Putin is fertilizer or not at that point, I would prefer that sanctions would only be lifted after Ukraine received more concrete security guarantees than it has had in the past. Up to and including membership in NATO, if they so desire.
Alexander Rzhavsky, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician, was killed by Russian troops during their rampage through Bucha.
Russia claims it destroyed the anti-missile system donated by Slovakia. They say otherwise.
It was just donated a few days ago. Seems unlikely Russia would have the exact target location unless a collaborator provided the gps coordinates.
Hope no one falls for the trick of posting a photo. The geotagging would provide the targeting.
Darn it. Such a low-hanging fruit.
But the fact that Johnson was willing to go to Kyiv at all must be an encouraging sign for Zelenskyy. It’s also a public statement that Kyiv remains free enough that foreign leaders can come and go there, as indeed they have been.
(from a Guardian blog)
Ah - one of those Colonel Generals.
Don’t ever change, Grauniad.
I didn’t know they even had face-eating leopards in Russia.
In Russian they’re face-eating bears.
Damn. 
They’ve fought until nearly the last man and woman.
Guardian Blog
Sanctions should be tied to full nuclear disarmament.
And the provision of free flying unicorns to every man, woman and child in the world…
This is a thing in the Russian Federation armed forces.
But that’s not what the Guardian actually meant.
I’m concerned the Russians won’t take prisoners in Mariupol. Ukraine forces have defended the port for 47 days. The Russian forces have to be very frustrated.
This could be really bad when the Ukrainians can’t resist any longer.
Huh. I stand corrected.
But yes, this is the Guardian’s usual sloppiness. They can do some damn good reporting but they do tend to screw up around the fringes.
If they are anything like US news, the headlines and titles are often composed by the least experienced staff.
Over the weekend I checked archive.org to see what had been uploaded recently,---------- and came across wall of videos with titles like “Drugged Up Ukrainian Soldier Admits Shooting Civilians While On Drugs” and “Ukrainian Nazis Now Also Torture Children”.
(Clumsy attempts at misinformation, but still, where’s that “slap to the forehead” emoticon when you really need it.)
Evil cackling Russian karting racer makes Nazi salute on podium and gets his contract terminated.
I suspect that it will be a default with an asterisk under the circumstances (insofar as they had the money but could not access it for non-financial reasons) and thus the longer-term consequences will not be as severe, assuming things settle down reasonably soon. But it’s still going to leave a mark in the short term.
And I want a pony. The only way Russia ever disarms is if all their nukes have been fired at us.
Can someone explain to an idiot (me) what this means?
It means almost 30% of the Russian invasion force has been rendered combat ineffective.