The sacking of Constantinople 1204 and its legacy today as a reminder to Russia and Ukraine alike, that history doesn’t deal kindly to the stupid of greed.

*…Eight hundred years after the Fourth Crusade, Pope John Paul II twice expressed sorrow for the events of the Fourth Crusade. In 2001 he wrote to Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens, saying, "It is tragic that the assailants, who set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their brothers in the faith. The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret."[21] In 2004, while Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, was visiting the Vatican, John Paul II asked, "How can we not share, at a distance of eight centuries, the pain and disgust?"[22][23] This has been regarded by some as an apology to the Greek Orthodox Church for the slaughter perpetrated by the warriors of the Fourth Crusade.[1]: xiii 

In April 2004, in a speech on the 800th anniversary of the capture of the city, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I formally accepted the apology. "The spirit of reconciliation is stronger than hatred," he said during a liturgy attended by Roman Catholic Archbishop Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France. "We receive with gratitude and respect your cordial gesture for the tragic events of the Fourth Crusade. It is a fact that a crime was committed here in the city 800 years ago." Bartholomew said his acceptance came in the spirit of Pascha. "The spirit of reconciliation of the resurrection... incites us toward reconciliation of our churches…* Wikipedia.

Both Russia and Ukraine are United in a common religion.

Dan

Suppose Ukraine falls, is completely destroyed and all Ukrainian people killed - America would still survive.

But Australia would not!

NATO will end up doing what is good for NATO.
America will end up doing what is good for America.
But Australia must do what is good for Australia - for it is our lives that hang in the balance, not only Ukrainian lives.

From an Australian viewpoint, the war in Ukraine is a test case.
Xi sits and watches this trillion-dollar question: "can one in the 21st century gain by sheer violence?" - and if the answer is found to be 'Yes', then he will do the same: first Taiwan and then Australia and Japan, not yet clear in which exact order so we are either 3rd or 4th in line. Ukraine is our front line: unless we stop Putin there, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to stop Xi here.

But not only XI - we also watch: we must know, the sooner the better, whether America has any backbone, whether there is a chance that they will come to save us when China invades, or perhaps they couldn't care less about us either.

"The Russians are obviously winning the physical war"

Gee Mox, another commie mouthpiece I see. No, the Russians are getting killed when they face the Ukranian army, so instead they prefer to murder women, kids, the elderly and infirm, as well as making cities look like they have been nuked. Indeed, the Russian army are the biggest perpetrators of war crimes since the Nazis. I hope the sanctions remain until the perpetrators of these war crimes are convicted. Here is a recent report of a recent battle:

"Ukrainian soldiers repulsed five attacks by Russian fascist troops. As a result of battles the following was destroyed: up to 130 personnel, 9 tanks, 1 armored personnel carrier, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, 5 self-propelled howitzers and artillery guns, 8 ATs (grenade launchers- ed.), and 1 UR-77 (Soviet self-propelled jet installation). Another batch of Russian fascist evil is already burning in hell. You will not be forgiven, and all crimes will be punished," the statement said.

Note how Fester has resorted to name calling against me to try and detract from not liking some news and views I posted. Is one of those who has been brainwashed by the Western mainstream media on the Ukraine issue to the extent that does not want to listen to, let alone consider reports from alternative sources. The Western MSM has been crowing loudly about Russian losses and trying to play down what it has achieved subduing the Ukrainian military within a month. Then regular update of all the Ukrainian hardware and facilities indicates their losses are far more than those of Russians who have a lot more sophisticated equipment. . Note the Ukrainian Navy was quickly made non functional at start of hostilities before its planned amphibious attack of Donetsk area and Russian Navy effectively has full control of sea along Ukrainian coastline. In the early days, a lot of Ukrainian military targets were destroyed. Seems Russian military casualties were rather high then because of their policy of trying to minimise damage to civilians and also hitting "soft spots" behind enemy lines rather that confronting large forces "head on". Not like common Yank approach. ie Bomb and shoot up in a big way first. Then Russian army- and those of Donetsk and Lugansk have a significant problem with the Ukrainian neo Nazi Azov regiment types especially using civilians as shields. Note some claims of Russian strikes on civilian targets have proven to be on military ones. Such as a hospital in Mariupol where doctors, nurses and patients had recently been moved out so it could be used as a military headquarters. Anyway, seems the longer Ukrainian government - pushed by the US "Deep State" continues this war, the more casualties and destruction and also the more territory than will be taken out of Kiev government control. Seems basically the Donbass region which has for 8 years been fighting for independence and the strongly ethnic Russian section of the coast between Crimea and Romania.

Mox

I hope you wont have to be an apologist for war criminals for much longer. I hope the FSB has the balls to kill Putin. It will save tens of thousands of lives on both sides. I believe Russian citizens would be every bit as horrified as people elsewhere in the world if they knew what was going on, and they are slowly finding out.

"Seems Russian military casualties were rather high then because of their policy of trying to minimise damage to civilians and also hitting "soft spots" behind enemy lines rather that confronting large forces "head on"."

Gosh Mox, that reminds me of the nonsense spouted by Comical Ali. What happens is that when the Russian army tries to attack Ukranian forces their tanks get blown up, for example like this,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6AUbHrx34

which causes the Russian attackers to retreat and conduct war crimes like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0HgDRw2co

Leveling villages and cities and murdering civilians is not harm minimisation. It is war crime. I believe the daughter of Lavrov's mistress is living the high life in London. Where did the money come from?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvnan5/polina-kovaleva-sanctioned-sergey-lavrov