Not sure tbh, probably a few years ago EU membership wouldn't be seen as big of a threat as NATO membership by Russia (I'm thinking of Serbia actually being further along in EU negotiations than any of Ukraine/Georgia/Moldova, and obviously Serbia is still on good terms with Russia), but now things may have changed. I can only imagine the thinking is to get into some Western institutions so as to preempt the possibility of a Russian invasion, which is pretty reasonable, especially as the EU is not a military alliance (also meaning it would be harder for Russia to argue it is a security threat), but it would still give greater protection than the current situation, but joining this rapidly and under these circumstances is unprecedented. There is also the issue of Transnistria, which already hosts Russian troops, which must be something all sides (Russia, Moldova, the EU) are taking into consideration (and in the Georgian case there are Russian troops in South Ossetia). The idea is probably that joining the EU would be a major move to cement their ties to the West (true), but that it wouldn't provoke Russia into war (probably true, Georgia for example was already open about planning to apply for the EU in 2024 and there didn't seem to be any Russian efforts to stop it). However, it's possible that the thinking has changed on one or both sides due to the war, hard to say what will come of it.

The contrast between the Ukranian and Russian official state social media presences are hilarious

Ukranians obviously much better at ralling the western world behind them

Meanwhile official Russian MOD account is just tweeting out what could be an early call of duty cover that some intern put together in 20 minutes lol

The Z and Vs of course corresponding to the markings that have been painted on a lot of the Russian vehicles

racism but lets make it trendy and woke

This can't be real...

seems to be real unfortunately as ive seen multiple people talk about the post (or similar ones) promoted on FB & IG

i saw that

What the f*** is this lol

Classic American tolerance

in the liberal mind the meaning of tolerance is when you have taco trucks in LA

I dont think Serbia will be in the EU ever maybe they will have some kind of free trade deal but I think Vucic has found a really good niche for the country positioning them between China, Russia, and the west

I was on the phone with some of my cousins the other day and they are very excited about the prospect of being in the only country in Europe that is still allowed to do business with Russians expect a lot of Russian s*** being brought into Montenegro ports brought to Serbia and re labelled as either a resource that was mined in Serbia or something that was made in Serbia. Like what Italian mafia do with Chinese clothes they bring to sicily and have old ladies in factory mark them as "Made in Italy" lol

Also Serbia has less then 7 million if we joined the EU 25 percent of country would leave to Germany and never come back politicians understand that this would be the death of country just look at what is happening to Croatia everywhere outside Zagreb

Quiet day in Ukraine today all things concerned... I suspect secret negotiations are underway in Mariupol Kharkov and maybe even Odessa between Ruskies and Ukies

Funny about Mariupol apparently Ukranian army shelled a Azov HQ their because they refused to follow orders and were targeting civilians trying to leave through humanitarian corridor

Even after Russians "seize control" Ukraine will be in a very rough spot for a long time Ukrainians have already blown up like every bridge in the country, infrastructure is destroyed everywhere and the Russians do not have the money to rebuild a giant country of 45 million

Gonna be inter ethnic fighting and skirmishes for years to come. Potential Oligarchs with their own private militias some backed by west some by Russians some playing both. Zelensky already handed out 10s of thousands of rifles to random civilians lol

Aren't you already one of the largest groups in Germany and Austria even without being in the EU lol. It's true migration hurts but even without it the whole region would be demographically f***ed anyways because of low birth rates/old population

Apparently Khrushchev wanted to give Kaliningrad to Lithuania too what was he on

John Mearsheimer & ex-CIA a***yst Ray McGovern yesterday

This whole conflict is really depressing on all levels.

The huge human cost it will have is already depressing. But the fact that it's one dying empire encouraging a small country to provoke a dead empire that has increasingly felt like it was being backed into a corner militarily and now lashed out in a completely erratic manner

And instead of trying to resolve the conflict, the dying empire is doubling down with their provocations and has gotten other diminishing empires on board with them, only making the situation worse

There really is no silver lining, there isn't even a side that's worth supporting despite its flaws like some of us would have during the first cold war

Then there's the obvious hypocrisy of the West in its reaction to this, the danger of the far-right benefitting from this war or the unequal treatment of refugees

Only to make it worse by the fact that pointing this out gets dismissed as "Russian propaganda" at worst, or not that important and self-centered at best, even by people who would usually not be so dismissive of racism

Just look at this thread on Trevor Noah speaking abt racism in the war's coverage lmao

reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/t72rvr/trevor_noah_slams_media_for_racist_remarks_on/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Like I know it's reddit lol, but these are mostly just regular libs. And Trevor Noah even unironically buys into the whole PUTIN IS GOING TO RE-ESTABLISH THE USSR bs lol, and they're still being dismissive of it

Yeah Serbs like all ex-yu people have been leaving to work in Germany/Austria/Sweden since the yugoslav days. The amount of balkan people in Vienna is f***ing insane lol

But the population change in Croatia since they joined the EU is much worse then what it is currently in Serbia, I have a lot of relatives in Croatia who have farms and its incredibly difficult for them to find labourers anymore everyone has gone and left for western europe (rightfully so obviously wages are much higher) but its sad to see all the abandoned houses in Slavonia and eastern Croatia in general

DPR commander died today apparently while assisting in civilian evacuations. Civilian evacuations around Mariupol are not going smoothly at all more "idealogical" elements of Ukranian army are likely stopping people from leaving. Gonna get much uglier soon

Russian air force really picking up with the bombings as well

The West completely fumbled it with Russia they should have gotten closer to Russia to curtail China. All their policies benefit China.

The US lost any chance of good relations with Russia, but they completely got Europe back in their orbit as if we got a Marshall Plan, except this time it's expensive gas lmao

List of anti-Russia propaganda we have seen thus far:

• Ukrainian father crying as he hugged his daughter was actually a pro-Russian rebel in Donbas preparing to fight Nazi Azov Battalion
• 13 Ukrainian soldiers "killed" on Snake Island actually surrendered and are alive and well
• Russian tank that ran over civilian car in Kiev was a Strela-10 Ukrainian air defense system
• Photos of Zelensky in military garb with a helmet on are from 2021 border inspection
• Video of Ukrainian MiG-29 shooting down a Russian Su-35 was a Digital Combat Simulator animation
• Russian cruise missile that blew up the side of a residential building was actually a Ukrainian air-defense missile fired by the Ukrainian military
• Viral video of Ukrainian pilot shooting down Russian jet was a screen recording from Arma 3 video game
• Viral video of Russian jet exploding over Kiev was in fact a Ukranian Su-27
• Russian supply convoy that Ukrainian military blew up was a Ukrainian convoy
• Ukrainian military lied about blowing up 56 tanks that included General Tushayev
• Russian jet bombing near residential homes appears to be a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter targeting Russian troops
• Claims from Western-intel that Ukraine had shot down multiple IL-76 transport planes carrying paratroopers have yielded no evidence
• Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN reads fake text messages from 2ch (Russian soldiers aren't allowed cell phones in Ukraine)
• Russian attack on Holocaust memorial was an attack on a communications tower nearby

Russian attack on Holocaust memorial was an attack on a communications tower nearby

Wait fr?

Man information war is wild