Ukraine Invasion: Part 17

[MagicFox]

A new place for us to convene, thread 17.

Jack Detsch @JackDetsch
Jack Detsch @JackDetsch
NEW: Ukrainian forces are making successful counter attacks against Russia east of Kyiv and have retaken two villages along the main 🇷🇺 supply route to Chernihiv: UK Defense Intelligence

Both cities are STILL taking 🇷🇺 air & missile fire despite Russian claims of de-escalation

NEW: Russia is redeploying up to 2,000 troops from Georgia’s breakaway provinces to Ukraine: UK Defense Intel assessment

UK believes “it is highly unlikely” Russia planned to bring reinforcements to 🇺🇦 from Georgia & indicates higher-than-expected losses.

[quote ClaudineClare]Apologies if this has been posted, I haven't yet caught up with the thread. Edik's story is very interesting. Clearly some trust the Russians even now...

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/01/who-will-return-my-stolen-life-to-me-the-teenagers-who-fled-mariupol-ukraine[/quote]
Edik is in Russia now. Do you think that makes his account reliable testimony? Especially given that journalists have been forced to say they were lying about reports they have previously given? Edik is 15.

I love the line from the Kremlin that the attack within Russian borders is hurting the peace talks. You almost have to admire their chutzpah.

The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent
^Russian media accuse Ukraine of attacking Belgorod Oblast again.

The state-controlled TASS and RBK reported on April 1 that an artillery shell allegedly launched from Ukraine fell in the village of Nikolskoye in Belgorod Oblast.

Tomi T Ahonen Stands With Ukraine @tomiahonen
A running angry joke in Ukraine these days. You can get Russian soldiers out of Chornobyl, but you can’t get Chornobyl out of Russian soldiers.

Reports that RU troops were ordered to entrench in the radioactive “Red Forest.”

It's entirely possible to bring an entire country to a standstill with hardly any resources. If you know what you are doing. Very occasionally we might get a hint of this ... I can recall a few years ago when a lone would be jumper on the M42 managed to bring the entire South East to a halt as police closed the M42, which jammed up the M5, M6 and M40 which then jammed up the M25 ...

One person and a rather dim police force. Just imagine what a few well located bomb hoaxes could do ...

@Ijsbear

I love the line from the Kremlin that the attack within Russian borders is hurting the peace talks. You almost have to admire their chutzpah.

That's the problem when you start to lie. No one believes it when it's true. Boys and wolves spring to mind.

Edik is in Russia now. Do you think that makes his account reliable testimony? Especially given that journalists have been forced to say they were lying about reports they have previously given? Edik is 15

RedToothBrush bloody hell, did you mean to be quite so unfriendly and patronising?

The Guardian doesn't tend to publish pro-Russian propaganda, which is why I thought it was interesting and maybe a bit puzzling that it chose to include a story that is in such stark contrast to the others. I am not stupid and know that it very well may not be true, I just thought it was something interesting to share on this thread.

@ClaudineClare

Edik is in Russia now. Do you think that makes his account reliable testimony? Especially given that journalists have been forced to say they were lying about reports they have previously given? Edik is 15

RedToothBrush bloody hell, did you mean to be quite so unfriendly and patronising?

The Guardian doesn't tend to publish pro-Russian propaganda, which is why I thought it was interesting and maybe a bit puzzling that it chose to include a story that is in such stark contrast to the others. I am not stupid and know that it very well may not be true, I just thought it was something interesting to share on this thread.

The Guardian publishes a fair amount of unthinking rot tbh. One of its columnists is Owen Jones fgs.

Just like other newspapers.

I do think its chosen in stark contrast. I don't know the reasons why. The Guardian haven't explored this.

I don't know if they've given proper scrutiny to what he's saying. I do have an issue with a 15 year old boy who has been deported under fire from the country of his birth to the one invading it, being quoted in that way without the Guardian explicitly making a point of this 'minor' fact and how it might be said under duress or to protect his father inparticular.

The absence of any comment at all about the possibility of this from the Guardian is exactly the problem.

It NEEDS to be highlighted, precisely because of your reaction about how the Guardian don't normally publish pro-Russian propaganda therefore he must be telling the truth and being honest and he still trusts the Russians (as you said in your original post).

There is no evidence of this. We merely have a minor who has been deported by a hostile nation which was bombing him and his family, now living in this hostile nation being quoted by a western newspaper with no cavets whatsoever applied to the story in print. This is not enough. It is not good journalism.

So yes, I do intend to be 'so unfriendly and patronising' if you think thats what I am for pointing this poor journalism which hasn't applied an appropriate questionmark over the quotation of a child.

Sorry.

I actually find the whole thing exploitative and highly inappropriate.

It would be bad enough if they were adults quoted in a similar way.

Its not. Its children.

I should obviously have made it clearer that I was aware the piece may or may not be true. Really sorry I posted it now though!

Article in the ISW about the dangers of accepting peace talks. Everyone out of the warzone who's for accepting anything less than full Russian withdrawal should read it. These guys are incisive and steady.

www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/risks-russian-ceasefire-offer

@Ijsbear

I love the line from the Kremlin that the attack within Russian borders is hurting the peace talks. You almost have to admire their chutzpah.

My brother sent me this earlier

His refugee guests have managed to catch Covid , which is apparently now running through French schools since they lifted the mask mandate.

Oh dear, I hope it's a mild dose! Our ukrainian guests made a point of saying they'd been vaccinated, which was nice as apparently only 35% of Ukrainians have gone for it.

@RedToothBrush

I actually find the whole thing exploitative and highly inappropriate.

It would be bad enough if they were adults quoted in a similar way.

Its not. Its children.

Its the fact its children that bothers me. Reporting peoples words neutrally without comment could be construed as alowing people to make their own minds up without biased input. But they have published his name and photo. Either:

1. He is being coereced/controlled in what he says. In which case its wrong.
2. He genuinely means what he says. Fair enough. In every war there will be someone with a different opinion/viewpoint (although the phrasing is interesting). But even in this best case scenario, what he says is likely to be offensive to people that are his old neighbours and probably also his friends - that could cause issues (and I don't mean evil Ukrainian Nazi's physically targeting him. It could be loss of friendship, people judging him for it) either in the short term or the future (because he is linked to that statement forever now). An adult might be able to make that decision. A child isn't. Especially if they may be coerced. It would have been more ethical/less exploitative to make the whole thing anonymous.

His refugee guests have managed to catch Covid shock, which is apparently now running through French schools since they lifted the mask mandate.

I did ponder the implications vis a vis Covid of moving millions of people around Europe with no notice. I imagine the next piece of "What now ?" news is the emergence of a new variant (inevitably called "z") with all that means.

@ClaudineClare

I should obviously have made it clearer that I was aware the piece may or may not be true. Really sorry I posted it now though!

Nothing wrong with posting it - its in a newspaper. But I find the journalist and editors decision making process a little of.

But they have published his name and photo

I don't think they have published his photo, the photos are of the two other teenagers, Edik's is not there, just a stock photo.

[quote Ijsbear]Article in the ISW about the dangers of accepting peace talks. Everyone out of the warzone who's for accepting anything less than full Russian withdrawal should read it. These guys are incisive and steady.

www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/risks-russian-ceasefire-offer[/quote]
Excellent article - very grounded and strategic pointing to his patterns and MO. Really important that the West and Ukraine do not get lured into any of his games. We know his hand, we know how he plays it.

@DGRossetti - it was the other way around: the guests caught Covid from my nephew or SIL (who got it from her generous son) (I missed out the word "rampant" when describing its prevalence in French schools )

...although I recognise that there is a risk of Covid spreading via the exodus of Ukrainian refugees, a high proportion of whom are unvaccinated

@ClaudineClare

But they have published his name and photo

I don't think they have published his photo, the photos are of the two other teenagers, Edik's is not there, just a stock photo.

Ah, I missed that. That's a bit better...

Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish
Russian gas buyers have weeks to pay for supplies in roubles, the Kremlin says, adding that Moscow will not turn off the taps
www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/1/russia-not-turning-off-gas-taps-buyers-have-weeks-for-rouble-pay
Russia not turning off gas taps, buyers have weeks for rouble pay
Kremlin spokesman says no immediate end to deliveries; the decision about payments in Russian currency to come into effect from the second half of April.

"Payment for the actual deliveries that are going on now does not need to be made today. And it should be made somewhere at the end, in the second half of the month of April, or even at the beginning of May,” he told reporters, according to Russian news agency Interfax, adding that state-owned energy giant Gazprom would work with its customers to implement the new rules."

From 1st of April.
'Or even the beginning of May'.

www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/01/vladimir-putin-visited-cancer-doctor-35-times-bathes-deer-antlers/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1648820674
Vladimir Putin 'visited by cancer doctor 35 times and bathes in deer antlers'
The Russian president also bathes in extract of antlers in the hope of supporting his health, according to Proekt a Russian media outlet

Vladimir Putin took a cancer specialist with him on regular trips away from Moscow, according to a new investigation that raises further questions about his health.

The Russian president, the report says, is frequently visited by doctors in the resort city of Sochi and keeps a thyroid specialist at his side.

The specialist, Yevgeny Selivanov, of Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, has allegedly flown to Sochi with the president 35 times, according to documents purporting to show hotel bills.

The claims have been published by Proekt, an investigative journalism outlet that was founded in Russia but which is now blocked by the Russian government.

And

The report suggests that Mr Putin secretly underwent surgery last autumn, saying that the president “did not appear in public for the entire month of September. In medical circles, it is believed that the president was undergoing a complicated procedure related to some kind of thyroid disease during this period.”

And

The report claims that Mr Putin also bathes in deer antlers as an alternative therapy. Sergei Shoigu, currently Russia’s defence minister, introduced Mr Putin to antler baths in the early 2000s. The extract is taken from the antlers of red deer, removed with a saw in springtime, when the antlers are full of fresh blood.

Clinics that sell antler baths claim that the practice bestows various health benefits. Those benefits, according to a clinic in Siberia’s Altai Mountains, include “male potency.”

The report says: “An acquaintance of the president claims that he had been warned that there is no conclusive evidence of the benefits of antler baths. But Mr Putin liked it, and since then he has revisited Altai multiple times.”

Bahahaahhaaha. Today is not the best day to run that story. Deer antler baths!?!!

Hitler was also a medical wreck at the end. Still took a bullet and a cyanide pill to finish the bugger off though.