Putin says Ukrainians must 'surrender or die'
www.voanews.com
The Russian leader says his forces have trapped the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had trapped the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in its western Kursk region, where they have held on for more than seven months in one of the most important battles of the war.

  • peoplebeproblems@midwest.socialEnglish
    82·
    14 hours ago

    Europe, I hope y’all are doing the whole “speak quietly and carry a big stick.”

    Because if Putin steam rolls Ukraine, he’s not stopping there, and now he has the US government under his control too.

      • peoplebeproblems@midwest.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        Finland isn’t what I’m quite so worried about yet.

        Its more Estonia. And Latvia. And Moldova, Romania, Poland, Chezchia, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc.

        Hungary and Belarus I think we can say are pretty much already Russia.

        Also I didn’t know about the Kaliningrad Oblast, anyone know what the fuck happened there?

        • Dasus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 hour ago

          Yeah kaliningrad oblast came like as a surprise to me as well some years back. Like what the fuck is a piece of Russia doing there?!

          Estonia is a EU and NATO country. It’s not part of NORDEFCO but we still have exercised with them extensively I believe especially after joining NATO.

          Finland is the backbone of the Nordic defense.

          And that’s my favourite role. In the army we won the rope-pulling contest with me as anchor. The other teams wore fucking boots while we had sneakers on (because dress code says no boots with exercise gear) so they broke military dress code and accused us of cheating.

          I know I wasn’t the strongest member of our group (we had one EU judo champion who could toss a 10-20kg exercise ball to the ceiling of a sports hall like 10m high), but I was the most unyielding one with the most spirit and anger and that’s infectious.

          I like to think I channeled the spirit of Óðinn:

          As mentioned above, Odin’s name can be translated as “Master of Ecstasy.” His Old Norse name, Óðinn, is formed from two parts: first, the noun óðr, “ecstasy, fury, inspiration,” and the suffix -inn, the masculine definite article, which, when added to the end of another word like this, means something like “the master of” or “a perfect example of.” The eleventh-century historian Adam of Bremen confirms this when he translates “Odin” as “The Furious.”[1] Óðr can take countless different forms. As one saga describes Odin, “when he sat with his friends, he gladdened the spirits of all of them, but when he was at war, his demeanor was terrifyingly grim.”

          https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/

          (as a side note odin was way gayer than ppl think and slightly genderfluid and I respect all lgtb and im not a racist, it’s just something you have to mention when talking about norse myths)

          And thats wholly tangential but it’s what I bring to the table… Let Vanja fucking try opening up another front.

          “Silmien Välliin” - Finnish Anti-Russian Song

          • Maeve@midwest.socialEnglish
            1·
            52 minutes ago

            Fascinating! Thanks for this mythology lesson. I once read that although referring to the same god, “Wodan” is Odin on a grumpy day. Would you agree (I believe it was a modern Norwegian practitioner saying this, it was a long time ago, though).

            • Dasus@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              22 minutes ago

              I’m not an expert. It’s think the name might just be derivative, but obviously with the time it takes for a name to change, their aspects might change as well.

              It is a fascinating site.

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      8 hours ago

      They have scheduled a committee meeting to decide where to plant the tree from which they might someday get big sticks.

    • cool@lemmings.worldEnglish
      28·
      12 hours ago

      If Europe really wanted to stop Russia, they would’ve sent armies into Ukraine.

      “We don’t want to escalate because it might start WW3!”

      But Putin is going to attack you guys anyways when he’s done with Ukraine.

      “Yes, but this is the rhetoric dumbasses have been told to peddle so that’s what we’re doing!”

      I still remember when people said Ukraine shouldn’t mine its border because it would be seen as “escalation.” Funny how the wrong-crowd always scatters like roaches after the damage is done.