Lorindól

Distilleries commonly produce a variety of alcohols, not just ethanol for human consumption. First ones that come in mind are methanol for antifreeze solutions and isopropyl alcohol for sanitizing and industrial solvents.

Cutting the vodka production is a nice bonus hit to the morale, but damaging the supply lines of military production is most likely the main goal here.

With their families held hostage back in Shitty Korea, it is very doubtful that defecting/surrendering will be their first choice.

Over 1700 personnel down in one day. The meat grinder hungers.

The minister in charge of these issues is a religious homophobe and the “party” he represents is more like a loose protest coalition of confused conservatives and racists.

Our prime minister “would have liked Finland to join the initiative, but the ministers have the authority in their own cabinets”. The racists have our prime minister’s balls in a grip, since the government would dissolve if they got offended and decided to leave. And since the current right wing government is the only chance to crush the labour unions’ power, prime minister Orpo seems to be more than willing to suffer one humiliation after another to win this prize for the corporate sector.

Yes. I’ll happily pay extra if it goes to Ukraine.

This is the core doctrine of Russian warfare.

1. Armies fight armies. Unit casualty rates over 50-60% are completely acceptable.

2. If decisive victory cannot be achieved by fighting, begin systematic destruction of the opponent’s infrastructure and society to crush to their morale.

3. If 1 and 2 should fail, use of nuclear weapons to achieve the preset goals is the next step.

This is what has been taught to their generals for a long time.

According to Wikipedia, one S-500 system has a ~ $2.5 billion price tag and it still is unable to protect itself ;)

Destroying one with nearly any ordnance available will give you the best bang for a buck one can possibly get. The murderous thieves may find it very hard to replace these with the sanctions up, which is nice.

UN will remain powerless as long as the permanent security council members have veto right. It never should have been introduced.

Finnish legislation strictly forbids storing nukes inside our borders, even transporting them via our territory is a no-no. But laws can be changed.

Putin’s whining about nuking Finland is ridiculous. Most of the time the prevailing winds here blow to the general eastern direction, detonating a nuke or few above our capital would nicely contaminate both St.Petersburg and the Finnish Gulf right in front of it. And using tactical/strategic nukes against our defences would happen near the Karelian border, which would irradiate Putin’s and his cronies precious dachas located in the stolen Karelia.

So they most likely won’t be doing that. But on the other hand Russia has clearly demonstrated that their actions are not based on rational thinking, so it remains to be seen.

Ukraine’s long range strike capability has become truly impressive. Let’s hope it will continue improving.

Slava Ukraini!

Correct.

Due to our location, we Finns did our best for a very long time to keep up good relations with Russia / Soviet Union. And for some time, it benefited us greatly with the commerce options it opened, but the price we had to pay was our diminished sovereingty.

That yoke was finally broken when the USSR fell and we joined the EU few years later. Some politicians tried to open a discussion about joining NATO, but the popular opinion was strongly against it and it was never considered seriously until Russia attacked Ukraine.

Then, like our former president stated, “The masks have come off, only the cold face of war remains”. And faced with the fact that Putin revealed himself to be a totally unhinged megalomaniac, our nation’s attitude towards NATO changed almost overnight.

Our defense forces are quite capable, but we will never again wish to go to war without allies. We could field an army of 900 000 troops if all the reserves were activated, and even after that there would be thousands of men in their 70’s that would gladly take up arms to defend our land from the horror that is “Russkiy Mir”.

If Putin is not stopped at Ukraine, he will continue attacking countries that were under control of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. He is an old man willing to happily sacrifice as many men he needs to fulfill his delusional fantasy. And this cannot be allowed.

1kg per month sounds about right for what I drink at home.

But if I add the 2-4 daily large cups at work and a few “social visit cups” per month, I’d say that my personal total comes closer to 2kg/month.

Sweden and Finland will be among the last in Europe to decriminalize/legalize.

“Drugs are bad because drugs are bad” is too deeply ingrained into the older population. It will take years to change this attitude, even if the results of legalization in other countries will be positive.

“It just would not work here” is the eternal argument. And the only one.

The Czechs also announced that they have found half a million 155mm and ~300K 122mm shells to donate.

Let them flow.

Could you elaborate on this line of thought?

I cannot tell if you are suggesting a professional standing army or something else entirely.

performing labour or 6 months of jail does sound completely unforced

Forced labour is very different to military training, IMO. Your choices and freedom are restricted - that cannot be denied - but your days are filled with different training excersizes, not labour as I understand it. And I’ve had my fair share of that too, but by my own choice.

i said nothing about whether i see my own country as worth serving, but your pity is appreciated

True. Your earlier statement was ambiguous concerning this. This is why I started the sentence with “if”.

and youll continue to have the option to do so regardless of whether your government continues to threaten its citizens into doing so

Also true. But if I had to defend my country, the most effective way to do it would be as a part of a trained and coordinated effort, not as some loner seeking a Hollywood - style “heroic sacrifice”.

I do not see compulsory military service as forced labour, not by a long shot.

In my country when a man turns 18, he has to choose either military service (6 months for rank and file, 9 months for specialists or 12 months for specialist drivers and NCO and officer trainees) or civil service (13 months). Third and very seldomly used option is “total denial”, which means you get to spend 6 months in an open jail.

I very reluctantly chose military service, hoping to get the shortest 6 month option. I ended up serving 12 months in the reserve officer training program, so I do have some experience on the matter.

The population of my country is so small that an army based on professional or voluntary troops is not a possibility. Conscription is the only viable choice.

The service was rarely fun, but it was very effective and extremely valuable. The personal growth I experienced during that year was immeasurable and one year of my life is a very small price to pay to this country that my grandparents’ generation paid a very heavy toll to protect. A country that offers equal rights, universal healthcare and free education for all citizens, amongst many other tax-paid services.

If you do not see your own country worth serving, I feel sad for you. I would gladly give my life to protect mine.

Yes. Our leaders should’ve pushed Russia back in 2014. This cannot be denied.

But we’ve also been the main theatre of two world wars that left our cities in ruins and we’re still clearing old munitions from our lands - the destruction of life and material was immense. North America has never seen such level of human suffering and I hope you never will. Wanting to avoid a third world war by all means necessary is imperative for us, even so much that is has undermined this goal by emboldening the eternal enemy, Russia.

One also should remember that Europe is neither a country or a nation. Nor is the EU a federation like the US. Just one country can block extremely important decisions - like Hungary is doing while licking Putin’s boots, because their greedy leader wants to keep buying cheap Russian gas and oil to keep his voters happy. EU also includes many countries who have never trusted Russia and never will.

The price of peace is eternal vigilance. Many of us had forgotten this simple truth and now Ukraine is paying the price.

After seeing only the first episode, yes. Apparently they did NOT tone it down one bit.

This is the way.