“Going by their posting history, there is a faction on this forum who be a-ok with what is happening in Germany and England, much less other parts of Europe.”
For sure - I’ve been told to shut up based on postings saying that there’s more to the Ukraine War than Putin waking up in a bad mood 4 years ago and thus deciding to invade a country for the hell of it.
Free Republic is privately owned.
It is not a soap box set up in the town square.
You can be banned at the owner’s desire.
The same “free speech” you claim to have here
also applies to all of the other Freepers here.
You say high
I say low
I say yes
You say no
You say Hello
and I say goodbye.
“1 May 2021”
“Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones destroyed 114 Armenian tanks, i.e. more than three battalions, 43 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 141 artillery installation and MLRS, as well as a bunch of other military equipment of the Armenian army, and this is only in 24 days. The military conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia lasted 44 days”
“Even loitering ammunition purchased from Israel hit fewer armored vehicles than Turkish drones.”
“It is possible that this infographic is actually part of an information war, which was supposed to show Armenia that Azerbaijan is armed with “the most reliable attack drone” capable of destroying a bunch of enemy weapons without losing a single UAV.”
Moscow Times [10/27/2021]
The neighboring separatist-held Luhansk People’s Republic accused Kiev of using the Bayraktar in violation of ceasefire agreements that ban the deployment of foreign drones on the front line.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Turkey’s supply of drones to Ukraine risks destabilizing the eastern Ukraine conflict
The Ukrainian army has been locked in a long-running conflict with separatist fighters in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014 after Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Kiev. The conflict has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of sending troops and arms to support the separatists, which Moscow denies.
Warsaw Institute [27 October 2021]
“The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 combat drone has been deployed at Donbas by the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation for the first time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement. The drone targeted the positions of pro-Russian insurgents on October 26. The incident has been met with criticism from Moscow.”
“The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that the unmanned aerial vehicle was used to attack a battery of howitzers that fired Ukrainian positions in Hranitne on the southern part of the line of contact. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and the other was wounded. Despite calls for a ceasefire from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, “Russian-terrorist” forces did not stop the fire. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the drone strike to “force the ceasefire.”
“The Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation said on October 26 that separatists made thirteen breaches to the ceasefire”
https://warsawinstitute.org/ukraine-uses-bayraktar-tb2-first-time-donbas/
New York Times [Nov. 15, 2021]
How a Dispute Over Groceries Led to Artillery Strikes in Ukraine
Deployed for the first time in combat by Ukraine and provided by a country that is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the drone hit a howitzer operated by the separatists. Things quickly escalated.
Across the border, Russia scrambled jets. The next day, Russian tanks mounted on rail cars rumbled toward the Ukrainian border.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-putin.html
BBC [26 November 2021]
they see the Kremlin sending a message that it’s ready to defend its “red lines” on Ukraine: above all, that it must not join Nato.
“I think for Putin it’s really important. He thinks the West has begun giving Ukraine’s elite hope about joining Nato,” political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya at R.Politik told the BBC.
“The training, the weapons and so on are like a red rag to a bull for Putin and he thinks if he doesn’t act today, then tomorrow there will be Nato bases in Ukraine. He needs to put a stop to that.”
Ukraine’s desire to join the security bloc is nothing new, nor is Russia’s insistence on vetoing that ambition in what it sees as its own “back yard”.
But Moscow has been rattled recently by the Ukrainian military using Turkish drones against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine; the flight near Crimea of two nuclear-capable US bombers was an extra irritant.
“At a meeting between Putin and Biden, neither will give clear commitments but there may be some tacit understanding on how far the US is ready to go in increasing its military support to Ukraine,” Mr Kortunov argues. “That’s not impossible.”
“Whilst Putin has a flicker of hope that he can do a deal with Biden, he won’t take any rash steps. But if he thinks it’s all doomed, he could do the worst things we can imagine,” Tatiana Stanovaya warns.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59415885
Guardian [December 16, 2021]
“With tensions escalating along the border with Russia, Luke Harding visits troops in Ukraine’s Donbas region to gauge the mood ahead of a possible invasion. The war here has continued since 2014, when pro-Russian separatists seized Ukrainian cities.”
There’s a video I didn’t watch:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/dec/16/on-the-ukraine-frontline-only-the-dead-arent-afraid-video
I’ve been told to shut up based on postings saying that there’s more to the Ukraine War than Putin waking up in a bad mood 4 years ago and thus deciding to invade a country for the hell of it.
It may not be polite, but it is free speech. They are not credibly threatening to put you in prison or to fine you.
I do not find “shut up” to be persuasive, but I have found other arguments which disagree with you to be persuasive.