Ukraine Invasion Part 18

[Ijsbear]

Place for information, discussion, points of view, useful links and above all, a hope that this sovereign land can regain its freedom.

Daft question probably but how does Navalny have access to the news, a phone and Twitter (or do we assume someone else is managing his SM accounts)?

[quote ScrollingLeaves]@ClaudineClare
Thank you for that link to Alexei Navalny
twitter.com/navalny/status/1511368941758787592?s=20&t=YoLL7Y5Llk0M1BnSq7kJ7w

He said the TV is whipping up a cry for blood and going to the bitter end no matter what that takes:
8/14 They demand a war to the bitter end, storming Kyiv, bombing Lviv. Even the prospect of a nuclear war does not scare them. They mop up the floor with their fellow Putinists on live television if they as much as hint at the fact that peace talks are a good thing[/quote]
It is pretty terrifying isn't it? We all know the power of the media.

@Igotjelly

Daft question probably but how does Navalny have access to the news, a phone and Twitter (or do we assume someone else is managing his SM accounts)?

I assume someone tweets on his behalf, but last year NY Times said he is forced to watch state TV...

twitter.com/nytimes/status/1430560987602694157?s=20&t=egzI_u3IEadHl-k9YOoDxA

I just can't understand how there can still be sanctions we haven't applied yet (apart from gas), or 'diplomats' we haven't expelled yet??? Surely total exclusion is the obvious and only response?

Expulsions tend to be reciprocated, the UK still has citizens in Russia and they need the embassy.

Zarina Zabrisky @zarinazabrisky
#Mariupol Survivors evacuated from Mariupol talk about what is happening in the city. Complete lawlessness. They can be killed for a Ukrainian flag. For a phrase in Ukrainian.

#Bucha More than a thousand explosive devices have been neutralized. The doors of houses were mined, just so that you open the door and immediately blow yourself up. Basements. Mines in the yards, on playgrounds. - adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

#Bucha Messages that Facebook and Instagram are blocking hashtags of publications related to the atrocities of Russians in Bucha began to appear on April 3-4. Human rights organizations criticized Meta for removing the evidence of war crimes. It is not the first time.

#Kherson The Russian military got the database of all activists in Kherson, participants in the territorial defense and anti-terrorist operation. The Russian National Guard and the FSB now “process” activists. - The mayor of Kherson Igor Kolykhaev

#UnitedNations The representative of the Russian Federation at the UN meeting made a slip of the tongue "there were no corpses in Bucha before the arrival of Russian soldiers," later making a correction "until they left." Need we say more.

Barak Ravid @barakravid
BREAKING: Israeli foreign minister Lapid accuses Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine: “The images and testimony from Ukraine are horrific. Russian forces committed war crimes against a defenseless civilian population. I strongly condemn these war crimes”

Viktor Kovalenko @mrkovalenko
One of the Russian attack helicopters, allegedly Ka-52, suddenly left its squadron which was arriving from Russia to Belarus for war in Ukraine. It switched off navigation, and escaped to the south, to #Ukraine. Kyiv offers $500,000+ for a Rus. helicopter.

[2] The #Ukraine Army released a 6 minute audio intercept of radio communications btw a Homel air traffic controller & a Rus. helicopter squadron commander who went on the search for the disappeared helicopter of his squadron, but failed to find it.

Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss
Leaving aside the helicopter itself, the pilot may have detailed knowledge of military operations including Russian war crimes. Good defection for Ukraine.

Shashank Joshi @shashj
My rough count of expulsions of Russian officials from the US & Europe since the invasion of Ukraine. Mostly alleged undeclared intelligence officers, but not all. I make that more than 310 from Europe alone—more than double the Skripal total, triple the UK expulsions of 1971.

Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof
Czech Republic has already sent T72M tanks to Ukraine as it and Slovakia mull repairing and refitting Ukrainian armor on their soil. Scoop by ⁦*@drewhinshaw*⁩ w me.
www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-quietly-receives-tanks-from-czech-republic-to-support-war-effort-11649160666?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

Excellent article. This is Sumy region:
www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/05/barbarians-russian-troops-leave-grisly-mark-on-ukraine-town-of-trostianets
‘Barbarians’: Russian troops leave grisly mark on town of Trostianets
An apartment block in Trostianets occupied by Russian troops and damaged by the Ukrainian army when it retook the town.
On a two-day visit, the Guardian found evidence of summary executions, torture and looting

Russian gas to Germany. This could be good news.
twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1510764494775070725

US, UK and Aus to work together on building hypersonic missiles, which China and Russia already have. There's going to be massive spending on defence now isn't there? Like we're waiting to be attacked. I'm so depressed about the world.and I've had a glass of wine so pardon me :-)

Julian Röpcke🇺🇦
@JulianRoepcke
#Breaking #NewsMap
Russian forces are quickly advancing in #Kharkiv oblast, the Ukrainian general staff reports, trying to surround the remaining Ukrainian forces in Donbas.
Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are under intense threat of being encircled now.

Navalny has repeatedly said that he can only see Russian state media in prison. The messages are very much in his voice (as someone who was following 'Bulk' on LJ ages ago). I think he can message from prison. Just how and whether there are security issues, I do not know.

twitter.com/phillipspobrien/status/1511399902265360385?s=21&t=R4yWrmwdpygYPEI8WSrzMg

"A thread on claimed Russian losses, and why the Ukrainian official claims might be far more accurate than people think."

God, just watched the video Zelenksyy played at the UN meeting. Heartbreaking.

Thanks for the info @ChardonnaysPetDragon, that helps explain things!

@MagicFox

US, UK and Aus to work together on building hypersonic missiles, which China and Russia already have. There's going to be massive spending on defence now isn't there? Like we're waiting to be attacked. I'm so depressed about the world.and I've had a glass of wine so pardon me :-)

By some shares in Thales.

Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are under intense threat of being encircled now.

I was in contact with a distant relative in Kramatorsk toward the end of last week. I asked 'why don't you get out' and was told "where would we go?".... 'almost anywhere'. Some seven or eight had come together at one apartment basement and were just sitting it out. I have found this hard to take in. Contacting relatives on Dnipro (where my mum was born) I get a "they won't come here" response and not too much worry over the rockets and bombs that have hit the city. Another relative in Kyiv wasn't going to leave when we were touch some two weeks ago. She just wanted some web design work as all the local freelance work had understandably dried up. I sent her portfolio link to a contact who has commissioned some graphics for online payment, but I think he is being charitable. So while there are stories of refugees there are also the intransigent hold-outs.

I discussed Bucha with the trio of relatives who are together behind Russian lines yesterday and will post what I think I gleaned later on.

EU on Hungary

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced today that Hungary will be the first country to face proceedings under the Commission's powerful new mechanism to cut funding to countries that erode the bloc's rule-of-law standards.

@TargusEasting or Laithwaites?

@DuncinToffee

EU on Hungary

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced today that Hungary will be the first country to face proceedings under the Commission's powerful new mechanism to cut funding to countries that erode the bloc's rule-of-law standards.

Needs to happen now though. Not talk.

Re: dead pigeons. Ukrainians on Twitter have pointed out that one of the more crazy Russian claims was Ukrainian biolabs weaponising zoonoses to spread biological warfare. The suggestion is Russians have been poisoning pigeons and spreading these videos as evidence of Ukrainian perfidy.

Oh, and the other suggestion is that people are poisoning the pigeons because the Russian media has told them Ukraine has turned them into bio-weapons that will render ethnic Russians infertile.

Josh Wingrove @josh_wingrove

The Pentagon plans to order and send to Ukraine 10 of the newest model Switchblade drones armed with tank-busting warheads in addition to previously announced deliveries of a less powerful version

how quickly can the Switchblades be made and delivered ...

Struggling tonight. That pic of the little 6 year old boy at his mother's grave. Bewildered unhappy little face. So many little boys without a mother now, so many mothers without their child.

This war is such a senseless waste of life, that poor boy.

@Ijsbear

how quickly can the Switchblades be made and delivered ...

Struggling tonight. That pic of the little 6 year old boy at his mother's grave. Bewildered unhappy little face. So many little boys without a mother now, so many mothers without their child.

On Twitter this evening I saw heartbreaking pictures of small children whose mothers had written their names, where they were from and the contact details of relatives in safer parts of Ukraine in their backs/tummies in marker pen in case they were killed and their children survived.

I can't imagine how you would feel as a mother as you did that

Reminds me of stories you read about WW2 and parents smuggling their children out of ghettos, not knowing what waited for them but knowing that if they stay with you it means death or worse 😭 it’s literally history repeating itself.

I am so angry. Imagine being able to cut yourself off from human feeling so much that you give more shits about a bit of fucking land and your pride than you do about children and families, to the point that you can inflict total horror on them