[Raion]

I'm preemptively talking about this because I am concerned about it too. 

Here at irixnet we don't really allow politics but I'd like to say that yes, I too am shitting bricks at what's going on. While I would prefer as a group we refrain from politics, if things get antsy I'll create a topic to quarantine WWIII/Russian War talk. 

For those in Russia, Ukraine or nearby countries, be careful and be safe.

[Shiunbird]

The situation is intense. I personally know a few folks affected by the conflict and, since I am coincidentally flying to Brazil next week for a short while, I'm offering my place to a NGO. I also intimately know a woman who had her family home turned into rubble back in 2014 (at the same time, her parents lost their jobs in Greece). They couldn't even find the village where it was located when they returned for their belongings.

I've lived in Russia for a short while (I'm Brazilian, for the record), my ex-wife is Russian and I have plenty of friends there. Not a single person I know there supports what's going on or knows anyone who supports this. Many of them have relatives across the border. They have Internet and can see the contrast between what's reported home and abroad.

My work colleagues are scrambling to try to help and it's truly hard to believe I'm not dreaming. My girlfriend comes from a city 70km from the Ukrainian border in Slovakia and everyone is scared. The saddest thing is the realisation that almost everyone gives any thought to war only when it happens around the corner.

We are all shitting bricks. Think Cuban Missile Crisis or Stanislav Petrov to the n-th.

[Raion]

I'm no fan of this either. The Soviet funded Cuban revolution killed several members of my mother's side of the family, including putting prices on my grandfather, his brothers, my cousins and my great grandfather. I am not ethnically Cuban (we were integrated Iberian immigrants speaking a mix of Galician, Português and Spanish) but I look an awful lot like my grandfather on that side. People should not lose their homes and livelihood over pointless conflicts intended to feed the egos of blowhard hotheads.

I've in the past opened my home to Venezuelan refugees. Should Kyiv fall, I'll do the same for Ukrainians who come here for shelter.

[sgt_barnes]

If the current situation has anything good in it, then it is bringing us european (or metropolitan) liberals and conservatives back closer together. After all, we do have more in common than the differences we focused on in the last decade.

And it appears that Trump was right in at least one point: He demanded a sharp increase in european (and german, in particular) defence spending.

That said, it is still a very high price for that...

[Raion]

People don't want to hear my opinions on this so I'm going to refrain from saying too much.

I don't have any way of predicting the outcome. All I can tell you is that we're facing a person who has nothing to lose and that's the most dangerous kind. In a way this reflects ongoing culture wars. If you take everything from somebody then they don't care anymore and are going to go even further radical.

For anybody in the Ukraine or Russia stay safe.

[Irinikus]

[Shiunbird]

This is not good...

[Raion]

Just stopped by to say that I'm proud of the Ukrainians for damaging a Russian cruiser. Russia already has a pretty marginal navy, especially compared to the United States, but to see the Ukraine do it to the same ship that was told to set on a cock by Snake Island forces is just poetic justice.

I recently was able to verify that my friends were able to evacuate Kyiv and get to safety in Poland which is a huge relief.

Despite the anti-Russian sentiment around the world, I am going to reiterate my promise that I have no intentions of blocking the website for anybody in Russia and I'm sorry that you are caught in the crossfire of something that is entirely on your leaders. I think it's really really annoying that many us-based companies cannot tell the difference between Russian citizens simply trying to survive and the government and their shells. Similar story at times with Chinese people and how they are blamed for things the CCP is doing.

Should any Russian Nationals need to get something off their chest you are more than welcome to here, and if the Russian government contacts us, well I'm going to tell them too bad we're hosted in the US.

[vishnu]

I feel very sad for the Russian people for being saddled with such horrible so-called "leadership." I feel the same way for the Iranian people, as I'm fond of pointing out, one of my co-workers is a Ph.D mechanical engineer from Iran, he's got a DoD secret clearance, is married to an american and they have lovely children and a lovely family. How many americans do you think are doing R&D for the Iranian military? My guess would be none... 🤣

[lunatic]

Don't you think you might be going a bit overboard with your good vs. evil categorization?
For once, war sinks ships. Looking at past wars, the French Exocet missiles still seem to have a better track record. So, sinking ships with missiles might not be the kind of national achievement you portray it as.
Second, people are taking jobs to make their life better. One of the countries that attracted a number of foreign specialists was actually North Korea. Apparently they paid Ex-Soviet specialists a lot of money to build up their now-infamous missile and nuclear programs.

As far as NATO is concerned, this whole thing is walking a very fine line between repelling Russian aggression and WW3.