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.

I've noticed that in the background of one of the photos from Bucha is Nazi '1488' graffiti. I wonder if the Russians have been doing a bit of propaganda scenery-painting? The amount of graffiti seems rather unlikely for what we are told is a rather pleasant semi-rural town. Remember The Rolling Stone story about the Russians persuading a wealthy Ukrainian businessman to pay yobs to carry out far-right activities, like graffiti-spraying, in the run-up to the invasion? It wouldn't surprise me if, as well as murder and destruction, the retreating Russians have been faking evidence of Nazism as well.

Either that or the '1488' graffiti is a message to say, 'Look at these terrible Nazis we have killed.'

@EsmaCannonball

I've noticed that in the background of one of the photos from Bucha is Nazi '1488' graffiti. I wonder if the Russians have been doing a bit of propaganda scenery-painting? The amount of graffiti seems rather unlikely for what we are told is a rather pleasant semi-rural town. Remember The Rolling Stone story about the Russians persuading a wealthy Ukrainian businessman to pay yobs to carry out far-right activities, like graffiti-spraying, in the run-up to the invasion? It wouldn't surprise me if, as well as murder and destruction, the retreating Russians have been faking evidence of Nazism as well.

Or they could simply just be the Nazis?

There's really awful accounts of experiences in Mariupol. It really makes me wonder how some people taking in Ukrainians in the UK will cope with it all.

A friend of mine is trying to get visas for a family who are still in Ukraine and haven't yet been able to get out. She's a really lovely lady, but I can't help but think she's also not the most worldly of women too. She's got kids and it does make me wonder how thats going to go.

I know a few people who have signed up, and when I've talked to them, none have really thought about this side of things. I think it will be a real shock to some. And they aren't the type to be digging about on twitter either...

The whole situation with refugees seems utterly wild west atm, and that in itself fills me with despair and I think is even more hidden from view because its not in Ukraine itself.

It worries me deeply.

I agree. Long term peace is essential and that means not settling for any peace at any cost because Putin will just regroup and come back.

Powerfully hope that the West will send more aid and more military equipment. And that Ukraine doesn't run out of men.

Thank you for the new thread

Agree @RedToothBrush. During the adoption process (as an adoptive parent) we were constantly beaten around the head with stories of family breakdowns due to the child's trauma and the adopter's inability to cope. I felt quite patronised at the time but it made us very sober about putting ourselves forward for the right child (ended up children) which meant we had to say no when children were presented to us. It was hideous. My point is that both head and heart need to engage in emotive situations. All the best intentions in the world will not make up for being out of your depth.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all immediately stopping the import of Russian gas.

Powerfully hope that the West will send more aid and more military equipment. And that Ukraine doesn't run out of men.

Agree Ijsbear and BreadinCaptivity. My earnest wish is for the West to capitalise on this golden window of opportunity - Russian 1 April conscription and 9 May V Day parade milestones - to arm and equip Ukraine forces more heavily to drive out the invaders before Putin's forces are able to resupply and regroup.

It makes me despair for Ukraine and the civilian population to hear about the atrocities Russian retreat is revealing in the cities they occupied. It is unbearable to stand by.

ArianaGic/Аріянॳць @GicAriana
Russian attacks on Ukrainian railroads begin.

According to the Regional Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast train & tracks and were severely damaged as a result of a missile attack. Train traffic is halted.

It has been feared Ukraine’s rail system would be next point of attack.

Trent Telenko @TrentTelenko
This means Putin has given up on over running Ukraine. His army cannot do so without railways.

It is now all about Russia hurting Ukraine both because it can.

And because Putin wants to steal as much of Eastern & Southern Ukraine as he can in a long war of attrition.

@EsmaCannonball

Olga Rudenko (Kyiv Independent journalist) on Twitter:

My friend is writing: "My husband's friend, a doctor from Zaporizhzhia, says a group of girls from Mariupol was admitted to their hospital. The oldest one is 10 years old. They have recto-vaginal tears."

Dear God's. I was braced for it to happen - mass rape seems to be a feature in most war zones - but that's stomach-churning.

The worst of it is that the rapists will get off scot-free.

@Hillsmakeyoustrong

Agree *@RedToothBrush*. During the adoption process (as an adoptive parent) we were constantly beaten around the head with stories of family breakdowns due to the child's trauma and the adopter's inability to cope. I felt quite patronised at the time but it made us very sober about putting ourselves forward for the right child (ended up children) which meant we had to say no when children were presented to us. It was hideous. My point is that both head and heart need to engage in emotive situations. All the best intentions in the world will not make up for being out of your depth.

It sounds like a lot of very well off middle class people near me have signed up to the scheme. The problem is any refugee family moving to the area is going to have an immediate problem : unless you have two professional incomes its very difficult to afford to live in the area. What jobs there are locally which don't require a car are few and far between.

And the six month hosting timeframe is frankly unrealistic even if they were moving to an area they could afford. There is going to be issues here. People aren't thinking it through. I know there are already some arriving here which is wonderful but yeah... Going to be an interesting local experiment...

MrRevinsky @kyruer
As this video shows, a Russian soldier captured 2 weeks ago by Ukrainians had multiple condoms in his pockets. More recently, Ukrainian forces found condoms also in the pockets of dead russian forces trying to retreat from other areas previously invaded.

Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for Russian POWs. It will be harder for Ukrainian authorities to keep their soliders disciplined and not react to this type of stuff.

Thanks for the thread Ijsbear and thanks everyone for all the links and analysis/discussion.

Tacitus got it right back in the 2nd Century
They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of 'empire'. They make a desert and call it 'peace'

Ok twitter going off for the night. The things coming up everytime I do any kind of search tonight are getting progressively worse.

Suggestion from Ukrainian officials that more than 3000 rapes have been reported. Bodies of the family of an abducted official from the Irpin area half buried. More 'execution' photos. A harrowing diary account from a 16 year old who was in Mariupol. Thats more than enough for me.

My friend at a media company told me two weeks ago they already had staff going off sick because they were sifting through horrendous images which weren't ok for public viewing.

Tonight stuff of a level thats out right disturbing is all over social media on a scale I've never seen before.

Grim doesn't cover it

Key Takeaways

Russian forces continued to capture territory in central Mariupol on April 2 and will likely capture the city within days.
Ukrainian forces repelled several possibly large-scale Russian assaults in Donbas, claiming to destroy almost 70 Russian vehicles.
Russian forces will likely require a lengthy operational pause to integrate reinforcements into existing force structures in eastern Ukraine and enable successful operations but appear unlikely to do so and will continue to bleed their forces in ineffective daily attacks.
Russian forces in Izyum conducted an operational pause after successfully capturing the city on April 1 and will likely resume offensive operations to link up with Russian forces in Donbas in the coming days.
Russia continued to withdraw forces from the Kyiv axis into Belarus and Russia. Ukrainian forces primarily conducted operations to sweep and clear previously Russian-occupied territory.
Ukrainian forces likely repelled limited Russian attacks in Kherson Oblast.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces have rendered two-thirds of the 75 Russian Battalion Tactical Groups it assesses have fought in Ukraine either temporarily or permanently combat ineffective.

ISW summary. The claim to have damaged 50 of the Russian Tactical Groups is astonishing if true. Just - how?!

Checking in, thanks to all contributors

A friend of mine is trying to get visas for a family who are still in Ukraine and haven't yet been able to get out. She's a really lovely lady, but I can't help but think she's also not the most worldly of women too. She's got kids and it does make me wonder how thats going to go.

I have a friend who is a social worker that's offered to host a family with here.

She works in child protection so is well versed in the realities of awful human behaviour and the toll it takes.

Part of the reason she's done this is because she's desperately worried about how many kind and well meaning people are opening up their homes to extremely traumatised people with absolutely no training/understanding or govt support on how to help them.

Our response is frankly a shambles in a humanitarian capacity. We are relying on the goodwill of people to open their homes with no support in how to help people who've experienced (to us) unimaginable trauma.

To be clear, I'm in awe of the people doing this and am not critical of them personally, rather, I'm aghast at the govt relying on people to host refugees without any support and understanding about the realities of doing so.

[quote Ijsbear]Another cat pic:

twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1509935827153035272/photo/1[/quote]
Thanks for this and the new thread ijsbear

.

@BreadInCaptivity
@Hillsmakeyoustrong
@RedToothBrush
Just to echo your concerns re trauma and the impact on refugees.
There needs to be a huge amount of training put in place for all of those offering homes (especially to those taking in kids) on trauma informed approaches and on how trauma can manifest.
I haven't seen any discussion of this by the Government or about the amount of counselling services and trained psychologists that will be needed.
Kindness goes a long way of course and people who open up their homes are doing an amazing thing but they will need support and training as will professionals working with refugees (GPs, teachers) etc.

Dr Margot Sunderland's books are great tools for anyone working or living with kids dealing with shock and trauma.
She uses story telling approaches and stresses how important it is to talk (another problem - language - I know).

Isobel Koshiw @IKoshiw
1/ The pictures from Bucha, Kyiv oblast confirm reams of eyewitness reports. Unfortunately, we're hearing almost identical descriptions from dozens of places under Russian occupation or seige.

2/ It's the same pattern, or rather tactic, (some of which they used in Syria). First comes the civilian infrastructure - cut off gas, water electricity

3/ Then even those who find ways to charge their phones don't have signal - the Ukrainians are convinced they are using jamming devices and targeting telecoms masts. I heard reports that in Mariupol they targeted Kyiv Star's infrastructure

4/ These people then try to survive on whatever supplies they have and if they are lucky, in a village, they have access to a well for water. If they are unlucky, like in Mariupol, they drink water from their radiators.

5/They then sit terrified in cellars or basements or in their corridors and hope they aren't hit. When I met people coming out of Irpin, they'd be essentially locked up, in the dark, for over two weeks. They saw my press vest and cried out to me to tell them the news.

@Gingerwarthog

Dr Margot Sunderland's books are great tools for anyone working or living with kids dealing with shock and trauma. She uses story telling approaches and stresses how important it is to talk (another problem - language - I know).

Thanks. I will look up and consider passing on the information to various quarters locally. Its really concerning me. Not to mention the number of people just going 'yeah i can put up a family of 4 in my spare bedroom. We've not much communal space but it will alllll beee jusssttt finnnnnneeee' type attitudes.

And things do look to be more organised than I suspect in other places. There are efforts to try to organise a wider support network. But its being led by someone who is an utter brain dead dick, closes every one else down and has actively harassed me (and my son) in the past. I'm acutely aware of all the things not being done and the cold unhelpful brush off he's already given one Ukrainian on FB. He's not the ideal person to be organising things to say the least.

There are, however, other ways to skin a cat and to bypass his excellency fortunately. Which a number of us have become used to doing.

www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/03/ukraine-apparent-war-crimes-russia-controlled-areas
Ukraine: Apparent War Crimes in Russia-Controlled Areas
Summary Executions, Other Grave Abuses by Russian Forces

Not Irpin, Hostomel or Bucha in many cases in this article.

Irpin, Hostomel and Bucha will be tip of the iceberg. The next Srebrenica has happened i fear and its what I've been worried about for a while. The West of Kyiv isn't on the scale of Srebrenica... Ukraine knew thats what the invasion would bring...

The West must not let up in support of Ukraine