Ukraine

[TSR2]

Not just BA, any British Airline or aircraft chartered by a British entity.
Most "Russian" civilian aircraft are on Bermuda flags nowadays or leased.

[Paul K]

I think one of the main problems for Putin now is that, after repeatedly denying there were plans to invade Ukraine, most of the world will be deaf to anything more he says. The same goes for the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. In a way, that frees us up to reinforce the Baltic states without the need to explain why. If he complains, we'll just cite his denials and subsequent actions in Ukraine. No matter what he says, we can assume the worst and the rest of the world ( outside China ) will probably agree. He can deny everything, and the world will just say 'That's what you said last time'.

EDIT: Having just said all that, the New York Times is reporting that Putin is ready to negotiate.

[Nigel H-J]

Having just said all that, the New York Times is reporting that Putin is ready to negotiate.

Probably Putin under estimated the resolve and determination of not only the Ukrainian Forces but also the will of the people of Ukraine especially those in Kyiv who have willingly taken up arms to fight the Russians!!

Another strange bit of news is that Russia has warned of "serious consequences" if Finland or Sweden were to join the Nato Alliance.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -them.html

Looks like Putin is now ready to take on the rest of the world.

Regards
Nigel.

[Paul K]

Another bereaved mother, maybe a wife too, and children. You'd think the human race could move beyond this by now.

[TSR2]

Tragic. There are no winners.

[blanston12]

It strikes me that is really behind the the Russian attack is that Putin is feeling threatened by democracy itself.

In 2020-2021 the protests in Belarus over the stolen election by Alexander Lukashenko raged for months and although Putins chosen candidate finally came out on top I think possibility that the protests could have succeeded was probably a closer that anyone is letting on.

And then there were the recent protests in Kazakhstan, which required the deployment of Russian troops to help quell it.

Putin is also quite harsh in coming down on any democratic opposition to his rule, Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was such a threat that his people tried to poison him, and when he returned after being treated he was crested and is still in jail.

What makes these democratic idealists think they have a chance to gain freedom and independence from Moscow? Well Ukraine was able to do it, Democratic uprisings were able to throw off the Russian backed administration and had a functioning democracy, it was even trying to go as far as join the EU and Nato. Ukraines democratic success was an example to other former Soviet republics that it could be done and that by itself is an existential threat to Putin and his 'managed democracy' and now it has to be stomped out.

[Kevin Farnell]

Those Airtanker aircraft on the civil register are just wet lease aircraft that are effectively kept in reserve. They can be militarised in short order. Most of the time they are chartered out to civil airlines and I’m pretty sure they’re crewed or operated by Titan on behalf of AirTanker.

Yes, they are operated by Titan. Titan use three different airline code designations - 'AWC', 'ZT' and '9L'. I've searched to try and find out if these are for specific tasks, without any luck. One of the A330 flights that I saw, arrived at BHX using the flight number AWC223Y, but used ZT239 for the BHX - WAW sector.



Being on the civil register, does not preclude them from operating MoD flights. Several repatriation flights from Afghanistan to Birmingham were operated by Air Tanker. In fact, many years ago I flew on a MoD trooping flight from LTN to RAF Wildenrath on a Britannia B737-200 (I was in the Air Cadets and went on a weeks camp - that was awesome!).
Also, until the closure of UK bases in Germany the MoD trooping flights contract operated from BHX, using A330 Voyagers. Shown below arriving at BHX in 2017 (My photo) -



Kevin

[TSR2]

They use them on the falklands run too. Titan operate a couple of charters regularly for HM using G-POWH or G-ZAPX (the 757’s) down to St. Helena. They also operate Boris force one and her smaller siblings G-GBNI and the other one that I never remember the reg of.

[Kevin Farnell]

An interesting article from YouTuber 'That Preston Journalist'. He claims that Russia are ready to hold talks with Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOC9iH-EK7A

Whether there is any truth to this I have no idea (the first casualty of war is always the truth). If there is any truth to it, then any talks should be held on neutral territory and be overseen by the UN. Putin has shown himself time and time again to be an outright liar and this could well be a trap to get Ukrainian Government officials into Russian custody.

Kevin

[cstorey]

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I saw a broadcast by Putin yesterday, and he looks to have aged at least 10 years in the last week or thereabouts, the last pictures I saw being at "the long table" . I was also struck by the fact that the invasion having been launched in crystal clear weather , there are now blizzards and lying snow . I wonder whether the fact that it was snow which did for the Germans in the winter of 1941/42 has filtered into Putin's brain. Maybe there is a God after all

There is another similarity between 2022 and 1939. Hitler's fatal mistake was to believe, egged on by the actions of Chamberlain and even more so by the near- traitorous Halifax, that Britain would not fight. Putin's mistake may just have been a similar belief that the Ukrainians would not fight . This similarity does not bode well for anyone