[VBprogrammer]

Seems like Putin missed a trick by not kicking this off in November. With a whole winter of gas supply issues in store the EU would be walking on egg shells even more than they have been.

Regardless, it seems like a small price to pay for solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

[hollerith]

Hard to fight a war in bitter cold although that is less of a problem when the entire force has vehicles than it was during Napolean's invasion.

I am curious why he didn't wait longer. Maybe he chose now to make the crossing of rivers easier. Also, ISTR that when the snow melts the roads there get so muddy they are almost unusable.

[netsharc]

Also, it's almost spring... Although I did wake up to snow on the ground this morning.

Seems like Putin didn't want to piss off Xi by starting a war before/during Xi's "look at how great we are" Olympic Games.

[hh3k0]

> Seems like Putin didn't want to piss off Xi by starting a war before/during Xi's "look at how great we are" Olympic Games.

And it'd seem that Putin favors dates like 22.02.2022 for some strange reason.

Russia launched their full-scale invasion of Georgia on 08.08.2008, too.

[JumpCrisscross]

Dear god, if this all turns out in the end to be the fancy of some Rasputinesque numerologist with the Kremlin's ear...

[HWR_14]

Also explains why he had to go big this invasion. There is no march 33 to look forward to.

[dogma1138]

03:03:2033 Baltics RSVP then…

[mmastrac]

I felt like this year's games disappeared in all the news: pandemic, truckers, Ukraine

[dgut]

To be fair... Winter Olympics don't typically get much attention, this year was an exception and it actually got _more_ attention.

[ed_balls]

Dec-Feb is better cause the ground is frozen so the heavy machinery won't be stuck in mud. Currently is warm, Russian army has a problem and have to use roads for tanks, which means they are easer pickings.

[zx85wes]

I think he was hoping to avoid this war. It was an option, obviously, but not a preferred one. https://www-bazonline-ch.translate.goog/abschreckende-kriegs...

[blackhaz]

He could have and can still stop the invasion at any time. Don't paint him as having to do something "inevitable."

[rectang]

This link reads to me like Putin propaganda justifying an unprovoked invasion by claiming Russia as the supposed victim of western aggression.

[zx85wes]

You can blame the experts (do google their backgrounds) cited in that article for trying to avoid this war.

[BipolarCapybara]

So, it was unavoidable for Putin yo invade Ukraine because a few countries were joining a military club he doesn't like? And shelling and using clusters bomb on civilians was also unavoidable?