Post
by macliam » Wed Jan 24 2024 5:14pm
Well, the request above seems to have been largely ignored.......
Now today we are told that a Russian transport plane that came down within their territory was shot down by Ukrainian air denfence..... and that, according to Moscow, it was carrying dozens of Ukrainian PoWs heading for a prisoner exchange. A second plane was (according to the same report) diverted and the exchange is cancelled. The Ukrainians claim that the plane was carrying missile parts. There is no outside confirmation of either story.
It seems unlikely to me that Russia would transfer PoWs by air, given the current situation and their general treatment of prisoners. However, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that both cargoes were on board, Russia taking the opportunity to transport materiel under cover of a humanitarian action. It is also perfectly likely that Russia will "find" the appropriate number of Ukrainian corpses to "prove" their claims.... it is certainly true that the event has been used as an excuse to abandon the prisoner exchange.
I become increasingly concerned that Putin will succeed in his invasion, not through having better troops, not through any fault of Ukraine, but because the west has "lost interest" in the struggle, rather like this thread. Ukraine is now on the defensive, not because it wants to be, but because it needs to eke out its resources. Russia, apparently, has no such issues. The result is that brave men are dying every day just staying to stand still and prevent Russia and its "allies" taking critical territory.
I am inordinately proud of those who volunteered for the International Brigades in the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. But in the end, their support and their blood counted for little when Franco had aid from his "friends" in Germany and Italy, whilst the west sat on its hands and accepted the propaganda against a popularly elected government, believing all the tropes of the time. Franco won - and this opened the door to a decade of fascist aggression and ultimately a war that killed millions. Even without that, the people of Spain suffered decades of repression. Let's hope we don't see a repeat in Ukraine.
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me