To Those Who Had Doubted Me and Said Putin Was Only Interested in the Dombass... Yeah, uh, huh... You Know Who You Are...

@ElwoodBlues Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine. As far as we can see, they are using their 200,000 troops in theater (yes, that's 200,000 not 150,000) to take down the government of Ukraine, instill a puppet regime, annex a land bridge to Crimea, and secure independence for Luhansk and Donetsk. Then they will leave it up to the Ukrainian institutions under the control of the new puppet to manage Ukraine.

@sarabee1995 I have been trying to reach our dear friend, Yulianna, in Kyiv. She is silent. I pray for her safety.

@samueltyler2 She made it out of Kyiv, but that's all I've heard. As far as I know, she is still in Ukraine somewhere.

@sarabee1995 thank you, she did not know if her family may be on Putin's kill list.

@samueltyler2 Yup. I know.

@ElwoodBlues [quote]Ukraine is a nation of 44 million people. Who thinks they an maintain an occupation of a nation that large with a mere 150,000 troops??[/quote]

Early in World War II, Germany occupied much of France (a similar population to today's Ukraine) with about 100,000 troops.

@sarabee1995 [quote]Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine. As far as we can see, they are using their 200,000 troops in theater (yes, that's 200,000 not 150,000) to take down the government of Ukraine, instill a puppet regime, annex a land bridge to Crimea, and secure independence for Luhansk and Donetsk. Then they will leave it up to the Ukrainian institutions under the control of the new puppet to manage Ukraine.[/quote]

That's a reasonable theory.

The problem with it is that doesn't account for an uprising by Ukrainians. Perhaps that's because Putin and his inner circle reject that will happen. But it seems unlikely that Ukranians will accept a Russian puppet government.

@beckyromero With the cooperation of the Vichy French government. The Germans themselves only addressed the issues that the Vichy regime could not.

@beckyromero Putin assumed incorrectly that much of the Ukrainian population would welcome Russian troops.

@beckyromero there are so many parallels between 1930s Europe and the past 5 years, and the fall of the power of Germany after WWI and the need to retake the power in the build up to the actual invasions of independent countries by Germany. Be worried!

@samueltyler2 yup

@ElwoodBlues how many will Putin leave alive? You don't really think he will allow the existence of those who disagree with him?

@samueltyler2 @sarabee1995 Christ!I hadn’t even thought of that.
Which makes me wonder what it is we don’t know!

@TheSirfurryanimalWales

The most dangerous of all....

"The Unknown Unknowns"

@KiwiBird but on a kill list?What are the family involved in besides farming?
Is there a grain of truth in War Stories?

@TheSirfurryanimalWales [quote] The U.S. has sent a letter to the U.N. warning that Russia has created a "kill list" of Ukrainians to be attacked or detained if it invades the country, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. He said it's a sign of how brutal and violent events could become if Russia invades Ukraine.

The U.S. has intelligence that suggests "there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies," [/quote]

@KiwiBird I knew of the kill list....but it never occurred to me that Yulias family could be on it.
But we know because of things she has posted they have relationships with various politicians...so yeah...perhaps they are.

@TheSirfurryanimalWales I don't think anyone knows the answer to that. Except Solo and she is from the future.