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[Lionator]

Looks like Zelensky is taking a leaf out of Putin’s book and having his political opponents assassinated abroad. Not good. Remember this when they talk about Ukrainian’s current ‘western values’. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/aide-to-former-ukrainian-president-shot-dead-in-madrid-13372008

Edited 22 May 2025 by Lionator

[kenny]

11 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Looks like Zelensky is taking a leaf out of Putin’s book and having his political opponents assassinated abroad. Not good. Remember this when they talk about Ukrainian’s current ‘western values’. 

 

https://news.sky.com/story/aide-to-former-ukrainian-president-shot-dead-in-madrid-13372008

Maybe he was punished by Russia for not allowing Ukraine to be annexed easily causing their 3 day special military operation to last 3 years without much success and it has nothing to do with Zelensky?

[Lionator]

2 minutes ago, kenny said:

Maybe he was punished by Russia for not allowing Ukraine to be annexed easily causing their 3 day special military operation to last 3 years without much success and it has nothing to do with Zelensky?

No, this guy was a former aide to Yanukovych (former pre-maidan president) and a lot more pro Russian. He was exiled from Ukraine because of this and was working on anti-corruption work against the current government. Whether he is pro-Russian or not, having your secret services going around and murdering opponents in front of their children is funnily enough, a bad Putin tactic. If they want to be embraced by the west, then this is not the way to go about it. 

[st albans fox]

33 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Draughts.

 

Just saying because genuinely I was confused for about 30 seconds why they were drawing their chess games.

Ha (should have written checkers) 

edited !

Edited 22 May 2025 by st albans fox

[kenny]

13 minutes ago, Lionator said:

No, this guy was a former aide to Yanukovych (former pre-maidan president) and a lot more pro Russian. He was exiled from Ukraine because of this and was working on anti-corruption work against the current government. Whether he is pro-Russian or not, having your secret services going around and murdering opponents in front of their children is funnily enough, a bad Putin tactic. If they want to be embraced by the west, then this is not the way to go about it. 

I just wondered how you knew it was Ukrainian secret services and not Russian ones? 

 

Had this chap been good at his job, Russia wouldn't have suffered the way they have in pursuit of Ukraine. Russia has murdered plenty of its loyal subjects for less.

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

I just wondered how you knew it was Ukrainian secret services and not Russian ones? 

 

Had this chap been good at his job, Russia wouldn't have suffered the way they have in pursuit of Ukraine. Russia has murdered plenty of its loyal subjects for less.

Potentially, although when you have a lot of Ukrainians close to the government saying ‘good riddance’ then it makes it seem obvious 

[kenny]

1 minute ago, Lionator said:

Potentially, although when you have a lot of Ukrainians close to the government saying ‘good riddance’ then it makes it seem obvious 

It's certainly probable that both sides feel he deserved what he got.

 

I hadn't appreciated until that article just how frequently Russia is accused of killing their people abroad. You hear about the UK cases, but not so much about all the ones in Spain.

[leicsmac]

Never knew the Chagos Islands could get the old Empire enthusiasts so worked up.

[LFox99]

8 hours ago, leicsmac said:

The death of that young Israeli couple in Washington DC is tragic.

 

Equally tragic is the great many young couples now buried in the rubble of Gaza due to Israeli weaponry.

 

It never seems to be the ones that start wars that end up having to pay for them in blood. Just the people who never wanted the fight in the first place.

Murdered by someone who, as per his manifesto, was radicalised by lies and propaganda spread by Hamas. 

Yaron's final tweet was a retweet essentially calling out the UN/ BBC/ world media for circulating the "14.000 babies *will* die within the next 48h" story, which was a grotesque misrepresentation of the facts the UN and IPC themselves published, and how spreading such false narratives will eventually lead to bloodshed. 

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, LFox99 said:

Murdered by someone who, as per his manifesto, was radicalised by lies and propaganda spread by Hamas. 

Yaron's final tweet was a retweet essentially calling out the UN/ BBC/ world media for circulating the "14.000 babies *will* die within the next 48h" story, which was a grotesque misrepresentation of the facts the UN and IPC themselves published, and how spreading such false narratives will eventually lead to bloodshed. 

Who was it who said that "truth is the first casualty of war"?

 

Neither side in such matters has much reason, nor inclination, to be honest.

[Trav Le Bleu]

5 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Ha (should have written checkers) 

edited !

Chequers....

 

 

I kid, I kid.

[Trav Le Bleu]

16 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Who was it who said that "truth is the first casualty of war"?

 

 

Mae West

[foxy boxing]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Never knew the Chagos Islands could get the old Empire enthusiasts so worked up.

And if you tolerate this, then Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands will be next!. 

[st albans fox]

12 minutes ago, foxy boxing said:

And if you tolerate this, then Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands will be next!. 

Can’t see those lyrics catching on 

[st albans fox]

51 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Who was it who said that "truth is the first casualty of war"?

 

Neither side in such matters has much reason, nor inclination, to be honest.

Very true mac

Said it from day 1 - trust pretty much nothing you read from either side (and sadly most media too). 
 

That bbc headline the other morning was possibly the worst one I've seen in the last 18 months from the organisation  (in either direction). I mean what level of journalist do they employ - even a sixth former would have questioned it before publishing.  That then detracts from what dreadful events are actually happening there when they are reported because quite rightly, people don’t then trust what’s written. 

[leicsmac]

31 minutes ago, foxy boxing said:

And if you tolerate this, then Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands will be next!. 

Slippery slope being just one of their armoury of logical fallacies.

[leicsmac]

12 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Very true mac

Said it from day 1 - trust pretty much nothing you read from either side (and sadly most media too). 
 

That bbc headline the other morning was possibly the worst one I've seen in the last 18 months from the organisation  (in either direction). I mean what level of journalist do they employ - even a sixth former would have questioned it before publishing.  That then detracts from what dreadful events are actually happening there when they are reported because quite rightly, people don’t then trust what’s written. 

Yeah, fair points.

 

That being said, sometimes I find the Boy Who Cried Wolf paradigm a bit problematic because firstly it can be used as a convenient excuse for lack of action from those with the power to act, and secondly (and related) that same inaction can, does and will cause a great deal of damage with respect to various issues that involve everyone.

 

When the village starved because the wolf came, the villagers suffered for the sole reason that they didn't listen once.

[the fox]

The Russian/Ukrain war could find a proper conclusion if the parties mediating aren't looking for what benefits them as a priority but i guess machiavellian as it may be, that's the nature of geopolitics. 

Edited 22 May 2025 by the fox

[SecretPro]

11 hours ago, Lionator said:

No, this guy was a former aide to Yanukovych (former pre-maidan president) and a lot more pro Russian. He was exiled from Ukraine because of this and was working on anti-corruption work against the current government. Whether he is pro-Russian or not, having your secret services going around and murdering opponents in front of their children is funnily enough, a bad Putin tactic. If they want to be embraced by the west, then this is not the way to go about it. 

You realise pretty much every western nation conducts their own black ops right? 

 

The British Increment for starters. 

Edited 22 May 2025 by SecretPro

[Jon the Hat]

5 minutes ago, SecretPro said:

You realise pretty much every western nation conducts their own black ops right? 

Our press rarely report on it though.

[SecretPro]

2 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Our press rarely report on it though.

Staging, pr management etc is everything in that game. I imagine a war torn, financially and personel depleted Ukraine probably doesn't give much of a shit about that side of things at the moment. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

14 hours ago, foxy boxing said:

And if you tolerate this, then Gibraltar and the Falklands Islands will be next!. 

Alright James Dean Bradfield!

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7804k13x52o

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Sir Keir Starmer and other leaders have "effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power".

He also accused British, French and Canadian leaders of siding with "mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers".

In a video posted on X addressing Thursday's attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC, Netanyahu said Sir Keir, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney wanted Israel to "stand down and accept that Hamas's army of mass murderers will survive".

 

Clearly any criticism of Israeli military conduct whatsoever means that you're in league with Hamas, then.

 

Apparently, such convoluted matters of historical enmity are as black and white as matters of physics and thermodynamics. Apparently.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyggex25v6o

 

In other news, a bit of oddity from the other side of the world leading up to the election there.

[Izzy]

2 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Alright James Dean Bradfield!

Under rated post, very good