What about all the able bodied women nicking off? I am at a loss to see how the Ukraine president, who has not fired a shot, can be called a "global hero" either.

There is never justification for aggression by despots over smaller and vulnerable states like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Serbia, Vietnam and Palestine to name a few. It is sad how there are double standards in most liberal democracies. Macedonia was partitioned in 1913 by the British Empire, Tsarist Russia and Imperialist France with their puppet states Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia as proxies. The Macedonian people are still paying a huge price for the neo-colonialism and the propaganda from imperialists and denialists today led by the USA, UK,NATO and the EU. People need to unite to liberate themselves from new despotism and flawed ideologies. They must learn the lessons from history. The Ukrainians will quickly learn that they can not rely on the West in particular for their long term survival and prosperity. Every nation needs peace and cooperation but the military industrial complex gets in the way.

Hear, hear and well said Sir!

As for heroism the Ukraine leader could have accepted an US offer to evacuate, but chose to stay and lead his people, knowing if he is captured, he will be tortured to try and turn him and if that fails, he will be shot!

Trump on the other hand, dodged the draft and sent others in harms way to try and overturn the election which sent him packing.

The west needs to do a lot more to help Ukraine. And should send planes, tanks, more smart bombs and shoulder launched anti tank missiles.

And remotely controlled drones armed with armour piecing, laser guided missiles. And make sure that any Russian success comes with total bankruptcy and highways strewn with destroyed armour/weaponary!
Alan B.

A Ukraine as a member of NATO and the EU posed no threat whatsoever to Russian security! Just the very opposite! But posed s personal threat to Putin and his personal ambitions to rule a vastly expanded Soviet style empire?

If power corrupts and it does! Then absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Al Capone was a thug and a homosexual, who ruled his empire with incredible brutality and an iron fist.

It came as no surprise that he died of syphillus, that untreated, had migrated to the brain and turned him into a raving lunatic months before he died from the STD!

Could Putin be an in the closet homosexual, butching it up, with an STD that has migrated to the brain and the reason he is acting as if he were completely deranged?

His predilection for intrigue and poison and changing his mind on mere whim or caprice would seem to strongly suggest, the foregoing explanation could have merit?
Alan B.

Alan, Alan. Ukraine in NATO and a member of the EU would be a threat to Russia. You don't like Putin or Russia (neither do I) but you have to see the practicalities from their point of view.

The next tsunami crime wave is about to sweep Australia through the immigration and refugee process, where we’ll be told made up stories of the good refugees and the naughty politicians.

The whole “shebang” is beyond a joke.

Ukraine stands proudly on a par with Uganda and slightly behind Russia on a global scale of corruption.

I frankly couldn’t give a tinkers damn what happens to them.

Dan

Alan B

You are a *F* nut case. Has anybody mentioned that recently?

Dan

Andrew Bolt has lost his marbles by saying Putin should be killed to stop the war. Not that Bolt likes violence, mind!

This outburst follows a Russian millionaire putting a bounty on Putin's head.

If that happened, how long would it be before there was a call from the other side to assassinate Biden, Johnson, heads of European states - even Scott Morrison. Or the desk bound "hero" in Ukraine.

What a disgraceful idea. What a stupid idea. Do these idiots really think that there are not plenty of Russians who would replace Putin and exact a terrible revenge for his death?

Dan,

A breath of honesty amid the sanctimony.

Hey ttbn,
The left and the right are both largely devoid of any rational thinking.
Where's that leave us?

Alan
Your participation is indispensable, but you have come to dominate Comments and scare away contrary points of view. This is destroying On Line Opinion as a much needed medium for informed debate. To understand the horrifying war in Ukraine, it is necessary to take into account circumstances far beyond the personality of President Putin.
In breach of undertakings in the dissolution of the USSR, US/NATO moved East to incorporate the former countries of the Soviet Union, stationing intermediate-range missiles in Poland and Romania; and nothing is surer than Ukraine becoming a member and American troops on the border of Russia.
Ukraine rejected the Minsk agreements (brokered by France and Germany) which offered a solution to the conflict over the separatist enclaves in the Donbas. Instead it continued shelling towns and villages, inflicting widespread damage and about 10,000 deaths. No doubt for propaganda purposes, Russia is exaggerating the Nazi numbers, but the Azov Battalion, Right Sektor and C-14 have publicly demonstrated their neo-Nazi views. From the little news available, these organisations play a role infinitely more significant than their numbers.
Finally, one would have to set the conflict in the context of a long history which reveals how different are the cultures of the East and West of Ukraine

Glory to Ukraine!

I am currently studying to pronounce correctly the words of the Ukrainian anthem as I prepare to sing them with my orchestra.

In translation:

Ukraine is not yet dead, nor its glory and freedom,
Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians.
Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine,
and we, too, brothers, we'll live happily in our land.

We'll not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom
and we'll prove that we brothers are of Kozak kin.

Putin's desire is to return his country to the
so called "glory days" of Soviet Union Superpower.

As a former KGB operative Putin has said that
the collapse of the Soviet Union was "one of
the greatest disasters of modern history. He has
stressed that he does not regard Ukraine as a
"real country" nor Ukrainians as separate people.

The Ukrainian people voted overwhelmingly in 1991
in a democratic referendum to leave the Soviet Union
and become independent. Of course the parasitic
Putin wants Ukraine drawn back into the Soviet
Empire. Ukraine is a minerals-rich vast land of
fertile fields. As Ukraine moved towards the West and
stepped out of Russia's sphere of influence Putin has
increasingly sought to draw it back.

This crisis will not end until Putin leaves the Kremlin
and Russia finally decides whether it will build a
modern nation state or whether it will continue to
seek an empire under the control of this psychopath.

I've got no problem if Russia want to bomb Ukraine back into the stone age.
That's what happens when the West meddles where it doesn't belong.
Shame about the women and kids though, but if any of them try to attack the military then they deserve what happens to them.

AC,

I have no problem if the entire Russian force is sent back in caskets and the Russian economy implodes.

It is Putin's fault and he deserves to be hung from a lamp post.

Hey Shadowminister,
Well I have no problems if Russia does a decapitation strike on the Ukrainian government especially that Zelensky, and mini nukes them.
Why not, were going to have WWIII soon now anyway.

I don't support the Wests overthrows
I don't like their gang mentality of bullying of everyone else
I don't support making wars against autocratic nations
I think democracy is a tool to take sovereignty and control all nations
I don't support that, and realistically there's no reason China or Russia would either.

I don't support the Wests biolabs in countries it overthrows, side stepping its own laws.
You know Doherty institude was working with the Wests Ukrainian biolabs?
Maybe you work for the Doherty institute?

AC,

You really are a sick puppy. There is no situation where Russia uses nukes and ends up in a better state than not using them.

Secondly, repeating the bullsh1t claims fabricated by the Russian of biological weapons only makes you look like a naive idiot especially when Russia has active bio and chemical warfare research facilities.

The Russians are being pinned down and bled dry. After a few months of this, they will be reduced to the equivalent of a grandmother with a butter knife.