I agree with Putin wants to connect Donbas with Crimea. I think he will go for the parts of Donetsk and Lugansk controlled by Ukraine. Maybe the entire Ukraine east of the river Dnieper (spelling)

I'm getting conflicting reports as to, has Putin invaded or not?

Originally Posted by BritinBritain

I'm getting conflicting reports as to, has Putin invaded or not?

Yes, there are air attacks against military targets in Ukraine. There are conflicting reports about fighting around Kiev.

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

Yes, there are air attacks against military targets in Ukraine. There are conflicting reports about fighting around Kiev.

Its just came on BBC that Putin has carried out attacks. I'm wondering if Putin is going to stop at Ukraine or push on towards Eastern Germany?

My son suggested that Putin wants a return to a Soviet Communist form of government, I watched on TV protestors against Putin are arrested and chucked into police vehicles. Putin in my opinion is a dangerous bugger, I hope to God he doesnt spark WW3.

Originally Posted by BritinBritain

Its just came on BBC that Putin has carried out attacks. I'm wondering if Putin is going to stop at Ukraine or push on towards Eastern Germany?

My son suggested that Putin wants a return to a Soviet Communist form of government, I watched on TV protestors against Putin are arrested and chucked into police vehicles. Putin in my opinion is a dangerous bugger, I hope to God he doesnt spark WW3.

Putin views the collapse of the Soviet Union as a geopolitical disaster. One of his demands on NATO is to pull back to where it was before several former Warsaw Pact countries joined NATO.

Putin wants to prevent Ukraine to join NATO and the EU. He is pushing them into NATO and EU with attacking them and making them hostile against Russia for years to come. Russia is probably winning the war, but it will losing the Ukrainians and the peace for a very long time.

Give the Ukrainians more weapons and let the Russians pay dearly for what they are doing.

Originally Posted by MontyB

He will be over the border within a week is my prediction, my best guess is that he will look to form a land corridor to the Crimea from Donetsk via the city of Mariupol and that will give him total control of the Sea of Azov.

Then he will go quiet for a few years to consolidate that are and either look towards Odessa to completely surround Ukraine or move on the the mineral rich areas in other former Soviet republics.

This is just a repeat of 1935-1939 Russian style, I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't eyeing up the Baltic states but my money is on the mineral rich border area of Kazakhstan next.

1 Kazakhstan is already a Russian ally
2 The Baltics are Nato members and he will not risk WW 3
3 My conclusion is that he has attacked Ukraine because he is in a desperate situation and that he has lost before he started the war .
The Russian economy is hurt by Corona, by the sanctions and by the war ,which cost a lot of money . And what will he gain if he defeats Ukraine ? A country with 35 million hostile people who will start a partisan war which will last decades ( The OUN fought till 1949 against the Soviets ) and his army will answer by killing thousands of civilians and by burning countless towns .
He has only a small professional army that is not strong enough to occupy Ukraine .
I make the following predictions:
there is a strong Ukrainian diaspora in the US and especially in Canada and they will attack Russian targets in and outside Russia : no Russian ambassador will be safe .And the Cheka will do as its predecessors : they will use poisoned umbrellas to kill the leaders of the new OUN in the West .
Or better : Putin's Cheka will try to do as its predecessors,because compared to them,they are only bunglers .
We could also try to answer the question : WHY has Putin started ( at the age of 71 ! ) a war he can't win ?And than, we must look at the beginning ,which is Euromaidan .
For those who have forgotten : Euromaidan was an anti-Russian coup in Ukraine organized by the CIA ,USAID and Soros and this has fortified the position of the ultra in the Kremlin and,the attempt from the West to eliminate Lukachenko has convinced the Kremlin that it had to reply .

Originally Posted by lljadw

1 Kazakhstan is already a Russian ally
2 The Baltics are Nato members and he will not risk WW 3
3 My conclusion is that he has attacked Ukraine because he is in a desperate situation and that he has lost before he started the war .
The Russian economy is hurt by Corona, by the sanctions and by the war ,which cost a lot of money . And what will he gain if he defeats Ukraine ? A country with 35 million hostile people who will start a partisan war which will last decades ( The OUN fought till 1949 against the Soviets ) and his army will answer by killing thousands of civilians and by burning countless towns .
He has only a small professional army that is not strong enough to occupy Ukraine .
I make the following predictions:
there is a strong Ukrainian diaspora in the US and especially in Canada and they will attack Russian targets in and outside Russia : no Russian ambassador will be safe .And the Cheka will do as its predecessors : they will use poisoned umbrellas to kill the leaders of the new OUN in the West .
Or better : Putin's Cheka will try to do as its predecessors,because compared to them,they are only bunglers .
We could also try to answer the question : WHY has Putin started ( at the age of 71 ! ) a war he can't win ?And than, we must look at the beginning ,which is Euromaidan .
For those who have forgotten : Euromaidan was an anti-Russian coup in Ukraine organized by the CIA ,USAID and Soros and this has fortified the position of the ultra in the Kremlin and,the attempt from the West to eliminate Lukachenko has convinced the Kremlin that it had to reply .

I think it is fairly simple, why does any dictator do anything.
Dictators are all the same, Putin is no different to Hitler, Stalin, Mao or that sad little wannabe Trump, they all have thin skins and large egos.
I also think it would be a stretch to claim Kazakhstan is an Allie given that there are already thousands of Russian troops there propping up another unpopular dictator.

Putin had 20 years to invade Ukraine. Why did he wait so long to do it ? And, WHY did he do it ? He knows very well ( no one said that he is stupid ) that it is a mission impossible : how will he ''pacify '' with 190000 men a country with 35 million hostile people ?
The media try ,as usual, to impress us with sensational stories, but the truth is that we ( including Putin ) ain't see nothing yet : the worst,for Putin, has still to come and will happen after he occupies ( if possible ) the whole of Ukraine .
The OUN fought til 1949 against Stalin, without any help .
Ukraine will become an other Afghanistan .

Originally Posted by lljadw

Putin had 20 years to invade Ukraine. Why did he wait so long to do it ? And, WHY did he do it ? He knows very well ( no one said that he is stupid ) that it is a mission impossible : how will he ''pacify '' with 190000 men a country with 35 million hostile people ?
The media try ,as usual, to impress us with sensational stories, but the truth is that we ( including Putin ) ain't see nothing yet : the worst,for Putin, has still to come and will happen after he occupies ( if possible ) the whole of Ukraine .
The OUN fought til 1949 against Stalin, without any help .
Ukraine will become an other Afghanistan .

I can't answer why he has taken 20 years to attack Ukraine, I assume it is because for a sizable amount of that time he thought he could coerce the Ukraine into his sphere of influence without an invasion.

I don't share your views on a viable partisan movement forming as unlike WW2 this is an electronic world, drones, satellites and aircraft remove the ability to operate that type of movement on the terrain they have.

I sincerely hope the Russians pay a heavy price, as they did when they invaded Finland in 1939.

Sadly, whatever happens, a lot of innocent people are going to die.