[OFFICIAL] Ukraine Thread

[Gibbon]

They speak Russian in Ukraine as well. My guests speak both, but being from the Eastern part of the country, they generally speak Russian to each other.

Київ and Киев. So surely it should have been Kyiv and Kyev. Never Kiev.

Kyiv is an approximation and actually wrong, иї is a diphthong (actually two English 'i's of differing emphasises) 'yi' isn't, but at least 'ie' is.


Anyway we mispronounce many foreign names as they do ours so why the fuss.

[d000hg]

Anyway we mispronounce many foreign names as they do ours so why the fuss.

1. It demonstrates that you #StandWithUkraine without actually to do anything if you bravely refuse Putin's spelling. You're basically on the front lines fighting for freedom.
2. It's important to show you knowledgeable you are to people on the internet.

[Gibbon]

1. It demonstrates that you #StandWithUkraine without actually to do anything if you bravely refuse Putin's spelling. You're basically on the front lines fighting for freedom.
2. It's important to show you knowledgeable you are to people on the internet.

Take a virtual like!

[d000hg]

On a slight tangent, someone mentioned to me recently that they thought there had been a change in how we call Putin. From Pew-tin => Poo-tin. But it's not something I ever really thought about beforehand.

Is there anything to it?

[vetran]

So then what about Chicken Kiev/Kyiv? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev

Although, since (the article claims) it is more widely known as a Russian dish, should we use the Russian spelling? I never had a bag of Mumbai Mix.
Should our woke supermarkets have refused to sell it rather than just renaming it, as a slap in the face to Putin?

A butcher pal who is never one to miss an opportunity has been making Chicken Kyivs for days and donating a percentage to the charity. They were going like hot cakes.

[NotAllThere]

Kyiv is an approximation and actually wrong, иї is a diphthong (actually two English 'i's of differing emphasises) 'yi' isn't, but at least 'ie' is.


Anyway we mispronounce many foreign names as they do ours so why the fuss.

Absolutely. What's wrong with cities having different spellings/names in different languages? London/Londres, Munich/München. Or take the Swiss city. Luzern in German, Lausanne in French and Lugano in Swiss.

On a slight tangent, someone mentioned to me recently that they thought there had been a change in how we call Putin. From Pew-tin => Poo-tin. But it's not something I ever really thought about beforehand.

Is there anything to it?

I always read it as Putain. Childish, I know.

[OwlHoot]

I visited in 2017 and it was definitely Kyiv except for old signage that hadn't been updated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KyivNotKiev

[Whorty]

Anyone else feeling that at some stage Nato/EU/UK/US or a selection of will have to step into this war before long? He's threatening Finland and Sweden now so it's pretty clear that there is only one way to stop him before he kills millions more.

I wonder if taking out Belarous is an option NATO/US/UK are looking at ... so not a direct attack on Russia but on Putin's ally and remove his ability to attack Ukraine from that side?

But, something has to happen, surely, or do we just sit back and watch as Russia does to Ukraine (then Sweden, then Finland) what it did to Syria and Chechnya. Eventually someone has to stand up to a bully.

[OwlHoot]

Anyone else feeling that at some stage Nato/EU/UK/US or a selection of will have to step into this war before long? He's threatening Finland and Sweden now so it's pretty clear that there is only one way to stop him before he kills millions more.

I wonder if taking out Belarous is an option NATO/US/UK are looking at ... so not a direct attack on Russia but on Putin's ally and remove his ability to attack Ukraine from that side?

But, something has to happen, surely, or do we just sit back and watch as Russia does to Ukraine (then Sweden, then Finland) what it did to Syria and Chechnya. Eventually someone has to stand up to a bully.

All that kind of thing is what the neocon lunatics in the US are longing to do, having stoked up this whole situation for years now in Ukraine and currently revelling in all the chaos and encouraging more, "fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian" as the saying goes.

If your goals are any or all of to (a) Minimise suffering, (b) Prevent western economies (especially the UK's) going completely tits up, as they are heading already, and (c) Reduce the chance of WW3 breaking out, either accidently or deliberately, then paradoxically the best option would be to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and let the whole tulip show to play out as quickly as possible.

Putin doesn't have either the manpower, economy, or probably even wish to spread conventional forces all over eastern Europe a la Russians in WW2, and all this type of escalationary talk like yours above is music to the ears of the lunatic neocons in Washington. But if your and their approach was adopted, and Putin felt threatened enough as a result, then who knows what might happen?

[d000hg]

Anyone else feeling that at some stage Nato/EU/UK/US or a selection of will have to step into this war before long? He's threatening Finland and Sweden now so it's pretty clear that there is only one way to stop him before he kills millions more.

I don't think his threats to Nato fringe nations are anything new. And he threatened the entire world not to "interfere" already.

There has been more talk what Nato retaliations would look like if chemical weapons are provably used this week, with phrases like "nothing is off the table" but it still seems that any overt military action is very unlikely.

Sweden might join Nato as a big slap in Putin's face*, but Finland would have to have big balls to do so given Russians can just stroll across the border. Many Finns have fallout bunkers (it might even be a legal requirement) due to residual fear of Russia and you are putting all your trust in Nato coming to your aid if joining does cause Russian retaliation.
*Of course, in places you can get from Russia to Sweden in no time at all so it's not really much of a buffer.