Because casualty figures are so uncertain, it’s unclear whether the war in Ukraine qualifies as the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. After all, approximately 130,000 people died in the Yugoslav wars.
What is clear is that it’s the most intense conflict. Tens of thousands of people have died in just the eight months since Russia’s invasion began. If the conflict continues, it will soon surpass the Yugoslav wars in total casualties; and it may already have done so.
On top of all the deaths, Ukraine has seen a massive exodus of refugees, along with catastrophic damage to homes, industry and physical infrastructure. The cost of rebuilding the country has been estimated at several hundred billion dollars – similar to Ukraine’s entire GDP before the war (which may fall by more than a third this year).
Faced with such hardship, do ordinary Ukrainians want to continue fighting? Or do they want to sue for peace? Overwhelmingly, it seems, they want to continue fighting. Though there are a few caveats.
Following the first major strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in late October, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology carried out a poll. Respondents were asked which of two statements they agreed with:
• “It is necessary to continue armed resistance to Russian aggression, even if Shelling of Ukrainian cities continues”
• “It is necessary to proceed to negotiations in order to stop the shelling of cities as soon as possible, even if this means making concessions to Russia”
86% of people said they agreed with the first statement, and only 10% said they agreed with the second. The remainder said “Don’t know”. Interestingly, however, the results differed quite substantially by region – as shown in the table below:
In the West, only 8% favoured negotiations. But in the East, it was almost 30%. There are two possible explanations for this pattern. First, people in the East bear more of the costs of war, since that’s where most of the fighting is taking place. Second, people in the East are less nationalistic and/or more sympathetic to Russia (the historical pattern). I’m not sure which of these is correct, but it may be a bit of both.
Can we trust a poll by the Kyiv Int. Institute? Yes. As far as I can tell, it’s a rigorous polling outfit. In 2014, it ran a poll for Professor Ivan Katchanovski – the scholar who’s done all the work on the Maidan massacre. And he’s been accused of having a bias in the opposite direction.
What’s more, the American polling company Gallup ran a similar poll, and again found that the vast majority of Ukrainians want to continue fighting. It also found that support for negotiations was higher in the East, and lowest in the West.
There are obvious caveats, however. And to the Kyiv Int. Institute’s credit, these are detailed extensively at the end of its report.
As much as 15% of the country’s population has left. And at the time of the survey, around 5% of the population was unreachable owing to lack of power or phone service. Both of these groups – refugees and unreachable persons – may be more likely to support negotiations.
However, this is speculative. And even if it were true, it wouldn’t be enough to drastically shift the balance of opinion. (The Kyiv Int. Institute did not sample people living in Crimea or in areas controlled by separatists prior to Russia’s invasion.)
Polling evidence suggests the great majority of Ukrainians want to continue fighting rather than restart negotiations. Since the stated policy of the West is to avoid putting any pressure on Ukraine, this suggests the war could go on for a while longer.
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Tobes are you getting The FSU onto this ? You must
You are , still got sleep in my eyes
Haven’t had your cuppa yet?
No
I’m rambling , good morning btw 
WIN it + let’s see who the person is who made the complaint !
Goooooooooooooal! Well done Toby – all power to the elbow of the FSU – this story is utterly dystopian. Big Brother IS watching us.
What the frick is the FA and their allies (private investigators, the police?), doing wasting time and money on criminalising someone who rightly points out that the tranny-queer cult is mentally ill. Where I grew up these people were locked away.
The 34-year-old was shocked to discover that the Premier League had compiled a dossier detailing where she lives, works and where she walked her dog. The 11-page “target profile”, marked confidential, included data on “associated aliases” and “vulnerabilities”.
Pedant…. It’s The Premier League who did this, not the FA. Separate institutions.
I’m sure the those nice progressive Saudis who own Newcastle United were shocked at her views.
The idea that the owners, the players and the vast majority of the fans don’t share her views is too ridiculous.
ha ha ha yes. ———Are there any high buildings near the football ground for chucking all the LGBTXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX off? Isn’t that what they do in these very “progressive” places. ——-And while I am on the subject, why are we letting these human rights abusers buy up all our big sporting events? The next time footballers take the knee and then fly off to play football in this dreadful place they should be screamed at for their hypocrisy.
So progressive is the UK that we suspended core, inalienable human rights during Covid and coerced people to take experimental medication, specifically forbidden by the Nuremberg Code – people hanged for this after WWII.
We’re not so bloody progressive, either, and have had centuries longer than the Arab to get where we are.
Except they are not “progressive”. If anything they are some kind of “conservative” albeit a dreadful kind
Dear Premier League,
I also think that there are only two sexes and gender is a made up concept. Furthermore I also believe there is good reason to think that trans people suffer from some sort of mental disorder and probably need help more than they need a sex change.
Do your worst. Ban me from every stadium in Britain if you like.
stewart
Stewart you are the most based person in Britain. You are seldom wrong.
But tell them your real name and address Stewart if you claim to be so brave. ——-But I know exactly what you mean
Any spy service worth its salt should be able to find me quite easily.
Yep I know. ———-They choose the easy targets on Twitter etc.
Indeed, they’ll know all about us despite our usernames. We are probably branded as domestic extremists or some such nonsense whereas just a few decades ago we were simply men and women – and only men and women – having a bit of a grumble down the pub!
I don’t like football and I’m sure politically I’d not agree on much with the lady in question. Doesn’t stop me being appalled at her treatment and hoping the FSU throws the kitchen sink at whatever see you next Tuesday carried out this “investigation”. I also hope the police who questioned her are either disciplined or better fired.
The police who questioned her are doing as they are told. This is top down tyranny.——————- I am sure there will be a high percentage of police officers who see the absurdity of all of this and who are truly embarrassed at the job they are being forced to do here while real criminals are running around with knives and acid.
I simply fail to understand why the police got involved at all. Haven’t they enough to do? Are they trying to increase their sphere of responsibility?
I don’t like us to repeat the term “gender critical” because it makes it sound like those of us (actually probably 99.9% of the population of planet Earth historically and 99% of it now) who correctly identify that there are two sexes and that sex is determined by fate or God at conception are some kind of weird sect, whereas in fact people who believe that men can become women and vice versa are the loonies. I think the phrase was designed to give exactly that impression. Our enemies use corruption of the language to spread their evil.
It’s also an interesting commentary on where we are that large organisations such as the Premier League now feel that they want or need to concern themselves with things that have not traditionally been any of their business. The ATP (men’s professional tennis tour) held its own “investigation” into allegations of domestic abuse against one of their players. This is how comprehensively the leadership of almost everything has been captured.
Great point.
Never use the language of your enemy.
Thanks.
While am I at it sounding like a broken record, I don’t think we should use the phrase “transgender woman” either. If we think “trannie” or “transvestite” are too dismissive or inaccurate, how about “men pretending to be women” or if we want to be really charitable “men claiming to be women”. I think the phrase “transgender woman” was invented by the loonies in an attempt to normalise their lunacy.
Love this snippet from questioning of former US CDC director Rochelle Walensky by a member of the US Congress, in which she repeatedly points that the erroneous wording in CDC statements referring to “pregnant people” rather than “pregnant women”.
https://youtu.be/NIBdyFBpTa0?t=521
If only we had this kind of hostile questioning in our Houses.
The NBA recently banned a player called Ja Morant for several months for waving a gun around in a nightclub and then soon after posing again with a gun on Instagram. Not sure if any of those were actually illegal. I don’t think so.
What I found hilarious though is that all the while he was banned, you know, to send a message, his jersey was, of course, on sale, as was his signature shoes etc.
Apparently letting him play would appear to be condoning his behaviour, but selling his jersey and shoes, that doesn’t condone his behaviour at all.
They’re a bunch of clowns. Dangerous clowns but clowns all the same.
Interesting – I had not heard of him. As gun ownership is legal in the US, what he did may well have been legal.
My NBA hero* is Kyrie Irving:
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and his hesitancy to receive a vaccine against the virus, Irving shared and interacted with social media posts from a conspiracy theorist on Instagram, claiming that “secret societies are administering vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for a plan of Satan””
He was stopped from playing for many months.
*I don’t have “heroes” – just a figure of speech.
He’s a legend. As was Jonathan Isaac who in addition to publicly questioning the covid jab also refused to engage in performative kneeling during the BLM hysteria.
I hope some day they make a documentary about these and any other sporting icons like Djokovia that either very publicly or otherwise stood their ground.
Thanks – I had not heard of Isaac
Djokovic has been fantastic because they cannot ignore him and his reaction to questioning has always been so measured but at the same time implacable. They struggle to deal with the relaxed self assurance
Aside from the deserved opprobrium for NUFC, The ‘complainant’ should be sought out and verbally flensed for the rest of their miserable existence.
This is very scary, and no matter what your views are on any topic you should not want this kind of thing going on. ———If you disagree with this woman you should not want her spied on and charged with anything or banned etc. because that intolerance could one day be applied to you. Because in all walks of life people will disagree. That is what makes for democracy. If you cannot have an opinion you are not living in a democracy. But the gender issue is a controversial one, because government and authorities are telling you there is only one opinion you can legally have —-THEIRS. ———Once you get away with enforcing OPINION then where does it stop? You now have carte blanch to impose your will on everybody on every issue.
“Promotes”. She is part of the problem, not the solution.
A question for the downtickers: what do you stand for? You obviously don’t believe promotion of non-heterosexual lifestyles, the destruction of the traditional family, and the brainwashing of our children is a problem, so what is it you believe? Or is just that this story has appeared in the DS so the person in question can’t be questioned? Surely nobody is that shallow?
I think you are making perfectly reasonable points
An interesting question would be whether the young lady would approve of the PL investigating “anti Lesbian” or “misogynistic” Tweets in the same way. If so, she’s a hypocrite. If not and she truly believes in freedom of speech then perhaps she is guilty of a lesser offence of not appreciating that this is where identity politics leads
Concerning Newcastle United, I’d suggest like every other woke organisation, don’t give your money to people who hate you.
This is war. It’s costly and inconvenient, but we must stand together.
Own goal?
Looking at Newcastle United’s online shop on their website, I can buy a Men’s shirt or a Woman’s shirt in adult sizes (their own words, not mine).
Why aren’t they selling shirts to cater for all 107 (or however many it is today) genders?
Shouldn’t they be banning their own website?
News items like this just lead to more ffs’s omg’s and wtf’s don’t they?
To paraphrase Groucho “I’d never want to belong to any club that would have me.” Having just read about the Environment Agency’s decision not to use the terms ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’, one begins to get an idea of how endemic this ideology has become.
Well, now that the Premier League Stasi unit has been revealed I am confident that it will disappear, never to be heard of again. Of course it will still be operational but for the future it will definitely not be so dumb as to risk getting caught again.
The keystone cops at NUFC will undoubtedly require some detailed further training and the laughable Newcastle plods will simply carry on as objects of derision.
What an appalling state this country is in.
We need to support this woman and the homophobia and sexist commenters on here need to take a good look at themselves. Of course they won’t but supporting a lesbian women against this state sponsored oppression is the priority. As for the police maybe they had better things to do like keeping tabs on the violent sex offending refugee from Byker who was able to go to London and carry out an horrifying attack. We need Miriam Cates or Rosie Duffield raising this in in Parliament.
See my post above – interested in your response to it
We need to support this woman and the homophobia and sexist commenters on here need to take a good look at themselves.
In addition to the near permanent groping by gays (always to be tolerated when you’re just a man), I’ve also repeatedly been physically attacked by Lesbians in the past who probably sought to make a point against the patriarchy and apparently considered me to be a target of handy size (not exactly successfully attacked because while I’m a small man, I’m still a man, but that’s besides the point). These people urgently need to get their house in order and start treating other people like they themselves demand be treated. It’s not homophobia when I’m convinced that “No” is also an answer I may give to someone.
The nature of the complaint is particularly gross: Someone found some stuff someone else not personally known to it (let’s avoid misgendering here
) posted on the internet and then complained that it “would feel unsafe in the vicinity of the unknown person”. And that’s enough to trigger a secret investigation ultimatively culminating in a police interview.
This shouldn’t only be regarded as a free speech issue but also, as misuse of public funds by the police and, as Newcastle United is also a publically traded company¹, misuse of company funds as well (don’t know the English term for that).
¹ Majority shareholder is, ironically, the souvereign wealth fund of Saudi-Arabia, an organisation whose owners are certainly not very much interested in “trans privileges”.
Bayer Leverkusen has just been fined €18.000 by the DFB (FA) because their fans displayed a banner saying that there are only 2 genders.
And the id*iots at the club sucked it up, apologised and defended the fine.
As Jordan Peterson recently remarked: This is the big lie. If they can make you believe this one and play along with it, they can and will make you believe anything. Hence why they are so insistent upon promoting that lie and finding and cancelling those who don’t go along with it.
Once people accept a man is now a woman and has the right to be in our daughters toilet and changing room then we have a bit of a problem………But wouldn’t it also be a problem if they went into the men’s toilet or changing room? So where are they supposed go? I am not in support of the enforced gender ideology but there is a problem here. ——–Most people would say that they are happy if men want to live as a woman and dress like one as long as it does not interfere with them. The problem arises when everyone is forced to concede what they know isn’t true.
The clue to achieving clarity in all this is Toby’s wise use of the term “sex” in his second sentence. ‘Sex’ is indeed immutable in all but a very small handful of life forms (kobudai and some other fish, for instance), whereas ‘gender’ is as mutable, as fluid, as you like. Sensible commentators of the Katie Hopkins/Ben Shapiro type (whether one ‘likes’ them or not), constantly claim that “there are only two genders”. They mean, and should say, “sexes”. All those gentlemen out there who think that putting on a frock and a wig makes them ‘women’ are welcome to do so, as long as 1. they don’t insist that I treat them as such, and 2. that they understand that they may have changed their gender (in their own heads at any rate), but that they CAN NOT have changed their sex.The moment this simple difference is understood out there in the wider ‘community’, the problem in all its absurd manifestations will disappear.
Shame on Newcastle United Football Club. My team West Bromwich Albion are still taking the knee to career criminal George Floyd after 5 years. Go woke go broke.