The Ukraine situation.

You have all this kicking off in the Ukraine as I type and what do TVNZ have to show you? Frigging Coronation Street. Even on the brink of  a potential nasty war, you can't miss your Coro Street. FFS TVNZ, there's actually some important issues going on in the world and thus far it's normal programming and banging on about "Matti" getting engaged.

The whole situation is getting out of control.

It's piss poor on the whole over here regarding coverage for something that has significant global ramifications. Let alone fanning the flames of empire building. Closer to home, does someone the like of Xi Jinping look across at what Russia is doing and does this embolden him to go all in on Taiwan?

It's definitely going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. Thankfully due to Covid and all the uncertainty that's been going on around the world for the past couple of years, I'm more prepared than ever for global catastrophe.

Much love to Ukraine for having to go through this.  🇺🇦💔

I think the Chinese are watching with interest. If Nato and the US do not act forcibly in solidarity with the Ukraine, then China will see it as balless and go for Taiwan. 
This whole thing is playing out like a Vince Flynn book. Having read 16 of them so far, I see great similarities and oddly enough, Book 17 is about a Russian President whom is suffering a form of Cancer that is making him go mad and starting trouble.

The world needs a "Mitch Rapp" to sort this current crap out asap.

Lonegunmen

You have all this kicking off in the Ukraine as I type and what do TVNZ have to show you? Frigging Coronation Street. Even on the brink of  a potential nasty war, you can't miss your Coro Street. FFS TVNZ, there's actually some important issues going on in the world and thus far it's normal programming and banging on about "Matti" getting engaged.

The whole situation is getting out of control.

The world is watching via social media. 
Mainstream media is dead. 

I have a really bad feeling about this conflict. From a self-interest point of view, it's almost a win if the West stands back and let's Russia do whatever in order to prevent a major war. Macron meeting Putin a few weeks back is quite reminiscent of WW2 when Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler with a meeting beforehand.....

Any anti-vaxxer who is going on about their freedoms being impinged should go to the Ukraine, and find out what it's really like to have your freedoms well and truly bent over and reemed. 

I have a friend who is a senior military figure here in NZ and he reckons there's not much that anyone will/can do for Ukraine as it stands.

He reckons the US may step in in some capacity, but he says that condemnation of Russia is not a deterrent to Putin.

By all accounts Russia is now marching towards Kyiv, controls the rebel held areas in the east of the country, Donbas and Luhansk and is making plays for Odesa from the Black Sea in the South.

I'm no military man, but if a neighbouring country like Belarus is allowing thoroughfare for Russian troops, tanks etc I'd be turning anti aircraft missiles and anti tank missiles towards Belarus to cut off supply. I know its not that simple, but otherwise it's only a couple of hours from the border to the capital. I believe Russia has already taken the area surrounding Chernobyl and that is only about 100kms from the Kyiv.

Rusty Dunks

I have a really bad feeling about this conflict. From a self-interest point of view, it's almost a win if the West stands back and let's Russia do whatever in order to prevent a major war. Macron meeting Putin a few weeks back is quite reminiscent of WW2 when Chamberlain tried to appease Hitler with a meeting beforehand.....

Any anti-vaxxer who is going on about their freedoms being impinged should go to the Ukraine, and find out what it's really like to have your freedoms well and truly bent over and reemed. 

Good movie on Netflix "Munich: The Edge of War" all about Chamberlain's doomed peace treaty with Germany ("Peace for our time"), and how Hitler in reality just played with him. But in Chamberlain's defence in 1938 after the still fresh horrors of WW1 the Brits had no appetite for another war.

Watching events from a lakeside hostel in Guatamela, Ukraine all seems a world away, but yeah also have an uneasy feeling. Especially as others have mentioned above, could this all be a pretext to China invading Taiwan. Now an invasion there would nearly be in the NZ/Aus backyard, and I think a conflict that the USA could actually be drawn into. A proper concern.

Going to be very interesting to see what happens with the sanctions.
There was chat of excluding Russia from the SWIFT banking system. That's a very big deal. 
Germany must be sh*tting bricks as well. They were basically all in with Russia for their energy with this pipeline, and they already buy a ton of their energy resources off them. 
So many implications with this one. 

All very grim and depressing really.

I can understand why you wouldn’t want to intervene in this war but It appears lthese world leaders don’t even have the balls to exclude Russia from SWIFT. WTF

YoungHeart

I have a friend who is a senior military figure here in NZ and he reckons there's not much that anyone will/can do for Ukraine as it stands.

He reckons the US may step in in some capacity, but he says that condemnation of Russia is not a deterrent to Putin.

By all accounts Russia is now marching towards Kyiv, controls the rebel held areas in the east of the country, Donbas and Luhansk and is making plays for Odesa from the Black Sea in the South.

I'm no military man, but if a neighbouring country like Belarus is allowing thoroughfare for Russian troops, tanks etc I'd be turning anti aircraft missiles and anti tank missiles towards Belarus to cut off supply. I know its not that simple, but otherwise it's only a couple of hours from the border to the capital. I believe Russia has already taken the area surrounding Chernobyl and that is only about 100kms from the Kyiv.

Belarus is asking Russia for Nuclear Weapons and is saying they're prepared to use them. Lukashenko makes Putin look moderate and the two countries are pretty much stuck at the hip - they consider travel between the two countries to be domestic. Attacking Belarus would be the same as attacking Russia.

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You know who I support  !

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Taken in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, just across the border from the Russian city of Belgorod.

Lads got balls of steel standing next to something that looks like it could take out the entire row of buildings behind it. I Google mapped it and it's a multi storey row of apartment buildings too...

Holy shark

Will the NZ government's sanctions included freezing the assets of Christchurch United?

Steptoe

Will the NZ government's sanctions included freezing the assets of Christchurch United?

are they using Russian money?

theprof

Steptoe

Will the NZ government's sanctions included freezing the assets of Christchurch United?

are they using Russian money?

The origin of the funding stream(s) which enables Christchurch United to violate the Amateur Player Agreements mandated for participation in NZF's National League is unknown. However what is known is that Slava (Viatcheslav) Meyn is the sole director and shareholder of Green New Zealand Ltd, ostensibly a NZ wholesale building supplies business. However the basis of his wealth is business holdings in Russia's far east including the large meat processing company, Ratimir LLC. A 2014 Stuff article gives more background. 

Well if he's still got money over there it's likely stuck there for the foreseeable, due to Russ*a's removal from the SWIFT banking system.

YoungHeart

Well if he's still got money over there it's likely stuck there for the foreseeable, due to Russ*a's removal from the SWIFT banking system.

Possibly, but not all Russian banks have been removed from SWIFT

Isn't Terry still waiting for some money from Russia?