Whats David Cameron done this time?
Ali Rogin @AliRogin
@joshrogin talked to the leader of Syria's Civil Defense (White Helmets), who hadchilling advice for Ukrainians: "Do not give GPS locations of medical facilities to the U.N., which may claim it needs the information to keep them safe. The Russians will use that information"
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/08/syria-white-helmets-want-to-help-ukraine-against-russian-military/
The Syrian White Helmets are ready to help Ukraine
“We are here to help our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in any way we can,” Raed Al Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, told me in an interview. Putin’s goal is to break the will of the civilian population, he said, and there are no limits to the savagery of his troops. “The Russian military has no principles. They respect no human rights. They have no standards or ethics,” Saleh said. “The Ukrainians are facing the most ferocious, unethical, criminal killing machine that exists in the world today, which we have been facing for the last seven years.”
The White Helmets are preparing a series of videos to help Ukrainian civilians learn civil defense tasks, such as how to handle unexploded rockets or how best to evacuate a building under attack. They are also preparing lists of supplies and equipment Ukrainian rescue and evacuation teams will need. They’re even ready to send in staff.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians can learn from the White Helmets’ experience. Saleh recommends, for example, that the Ukrainians organize their civil defense forces inside each city by separating them into small teams of four or five people, dispersed geographically with small, quick vehicles that can easily speed to an attack site. Don’t establish any large or permanent headquarters, he warned, because they, too, will become targets for Russian bombs.
Short-range walkie-talkies are best for communications, he said, rather than cellular or Internet communications, which can be tracked by the Russians and might not work in an attack zone anyway. Also, some team members should be deployed to monitor the skies for planes, because that’s often a better early warning system than radars or sirens.
Understanding the Russian military’s cruel tactics can also save lives, Saleh said. For example, the Russian air force is notorious for what are called “double tap” strikes. Russian planes attack civilians, wait for first responders to arrive and then attack the first responders.
“One thing that we learned is, after the initial attack, you’ve got about seven to nine minutes, tops, to be able to do anything in that area, before they can hit it again,” Saleh said. “So, those seven to nine minutes are really important.”
The Ukrainians should establish small medical outposts around the city that can handle minor injuries and take the pressure off larger hospitals, Saleh said. But keep those secret and move them often, he warned, or they will be targeted by the Russian military as well.
and
There are some things the Syrians have learned not to do. Do not give GPS locations of medical facilities to the United Nations, which may claim it needs the information to keep them safe. The Russians will use that information to target them. Never let Moscow have any say or control over how humanitarian aid is distributed, even when it’s a U.N. program. The Kremlin will use that power to starve out civilian populations, as it is doing in Syria now.