What difference Aussie troops in East Timor or Russian Troops in Donbass?
- Before you judge you should look at what we did.

What because we called ourselves 'Peacekeepers'?
In Ukraine at the Russians came to help THE OTHER RUSSIANS.

This right to self-determination seems to only be acceptable when it's in the Wests interests, when not, it's called illegal and denounced.

You all know that Russia is only following the Wests precedents of what they've done in Serbia / Kosovo and other places.
The west set the precedent itself for what Russia is doing.

The west occupied Afghanistan for 20 years, they also carved off a chunk of Syria and is still stealing from them to keep them poor and starving.

Rules based order? what are the rules?
"Do as I say, not as I do"

Bronwyn,

“There was indeed a promise that NATO would not move eastward. It wasn’t formalised in a treaty,”

In international affairs any ‘promise’ not included in a treaty isn’t worth the paper its not written on.
But even there, no such promise was made, despite your claims of some mysterious documents in some DC archive. (Perhaps they’re stored next to Indiana Jones’ Ark of the Covenant!). When Putin was bounced on the issue, he agreed that nothing was in writing but declared that the promises were nonetheless made. He suggested that the interviewer check with Gorbachev to find the truth of the promise. And as I previously pointed out, Gorbachev confirmed no promise was made. You’re just regurgitating Russian propaganda by claiming otherwise.

As to the Donbass rebels, they are clearly armed by elements within Russia. Remember that they shot down MH17 with the loss of 298 lives by a surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia and possibly manned by Russians. There is ample evidence that there are Russia ‘volunteers’ in the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya including admissions from within Russian authorities itself. Quite how you think they managed to fight for 8 years without outside help is unclear. But again, its just regurgitation of Russian propaganda.

It’s a well-established MO of imperialist nations to justify expansion. First create a small rebel force, arm it and provide it with support, complain when the opposing authorities try to control the rebel force and finally declare there is no choice but to annex the troubled zones to protect the rebels who created the problem in the first place. It was the justification Hitler used in both Austria and even more so in the Sudetenland. Nazis indeed.

The Soviets loved "liberating"
They did it so well in the past
Many countries were given their "freedom"
Which for decades was doomed to last

Then came the nineties, everything changed
The Soviet "freedom" was re-arranged
Countries took back what once was theirs
Gone was the yoke, and with it despair

Nations wanted to really be free
They removed the Soviet yoke from their history
But Putin's come back with a grand great plan
He wants the world to understand

That "Sovietization" no longer exists
It's "Russification," now, if you please
He wants to take back what he thinks was once theirs
He doesn't care if his lie isn't fair

There's useful idiots out in the West
Who'll jump on Putin's bandwagon and carry his crest
There's a name in Russian for folk like these
The word is DURAK - and it's not meant to please

There's many Duraks around the world
Willing to champion and to scold
Putting out their version of history
Determined to hide the past misery

The world needs to fight this travesty
to ensure that it doesn't continue to spread
The only way to do this effectively
From the python's body - remove its head!

The Russian people need to remove Putin!

Hi AC,

I don't share your high opinion of the Russian army. They have the upper hand with inaccurate artillery. They seem to have increased their attacks on power and water infrastructure, and have continued to target civilians.

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3583930-death-toll-in-russias-missile-attack-on-civilian-convoy-in-zaporizhzhia-rises-to-31.html

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3583816-russian-attack-on-column-of-civilian-cars-near-kupiansk-24-people-killed-including-13-children.html

And the Russian army's treatment of pows is reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-prisoners.html

Logistically, Ukraine's greatest military challenge remains the Russian artillery. If you look at Russia's losses, you might note that they are losing four times as many tanks and apcs as they are losing artillery pieces. The significance of this is that their ability to advance against is very limited, but they still have ample capacity to cause damage with inaccurate weapons. I would like to see the Ukrainian army try swarm attacks with their smaller drones, especially in areas where the Russian army has more sophisticated anti-drone technology. I believe that this approach would be devastating if they had artillery (especially Himars) to attack targets spotted by the drones.

Hey Fester,
From what I heard the attack on the civilian convoys was a false flag.
Ukraine did it, not Russia.
- Just like they attacked the Zaporizhia NPP and the Olenivka prison

I think the people had been queued for days maybe even protested their right to leave.
Ukraine probably (rightly) assumed they wanted to go back in time to vote and decided to target them instead as collaborators.
- Just say Russia did it...

"And the Russian army's treatment of pows is reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps"

Can't read it sorry, paywalled, but there's plenty of horrible things going on on both sides.
You'd be a fool to think there isn't.

- Yesterday I heard a story about a Ukranian soldier who was apparently stewing a Russian's head in a pot.

"Logistically, Ukraine's greatest military challenge remains the Russian artillery..."

Russian military doctrine is to soften them up with the rocket artillery first before sending troops in, it creates many dead and wounded on the Ukranian side.

I agree that drones would make a significant difference.
- But Russia too is also now using the Iranian drone which have been quite effective, as it their ability to shoot down the Ukrainian drones already.

You'll soon see the effects of increased Russia troop presence defending what is now considered Russian territory, but they're only a few weeks away before the rains come.