Ukraine Invasion: Part 23

[MagicFox]

Welcome all, thanks for the company

Reports of blasts in Kyiv but can’t seem to find any confirmation as to the cause at this stage.

Wouldn’t exactly be a great look to go dropping a bomb on the UN Secretary General now would it.

Interesting. I wonder if that wandering drone at the start of this war which flew across some Balkan states had anything to do with moves there.

Is the UN sec gen still there?

Putin is really pushing it, if so...

Yeh I think so, he was giving a press conference a short time ago which I’m sure said it was in Kyiv.

Liveuamap

Rescuers on the site of 2 explosions in Kyiv. Mayor Klitschko says missiles hit Schevchenkyvsky, one of central districts of the capital
t.co/U79WiMK0Lg t.co/XI0GF35p4v

Yes, they are/ were holding talks in Kyiv.

Yes still there according to the BBC

Sorry cross post @katem98

Time he was put back in his box then. Should've been done weeks ago but I won't keep beating that drum.

We will either plough billions and billions supplying Ukraine and hope they win. If they don't then we are fucked.

Or we plough billions in and stop the fucker in his tracks, once and for all.

He's taking the bloody piss

.

eglantine7, in answer to your question on the previous thread about a connection between Black Lives Matter and Putin:

Russian Trolls Were Obsessed With Black Lives Matter
slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obsessed-with-black-lives-matter.html

Russian trolls pushed rally in Buffalo - then urged blacks not to vote
buffalonews.com/news/local/russian-trolls-pushed-rally-in-buffalo---then-urged-blacks-not-to-vote/article_33e038b6-e4c7-5b37-a8dc-fc6188f410fd.html

It's absolutely not a judgement on the value or virtue of any movement being targeted by the trolls, merely on whether the troll-masters thought it was potentially an emotive or divisive issue.

Putin works by slipping a knife in any cracks, and wiggling. Pre-existing racial tensions in the US are like catnip to his trolls.

I imagine it'll motivate Guterres.

If he is injured/killed though, it will be a whole different ball game. I do wonder if non-Western countries will care very much though.

Goes back to what we were saying a few threads ago. Russian trolls dip their sticky fingers intp so many campaigns of one sort or another, that almost everyone is bound to experience a troll rooting for an issue they care about, eventually.

We just have to get used to the fact that they will do this, and not see it as a reflection on us or on the value of our campaign. The moment we get defensive, we can find ourselves inadvertently covering for the troll.

I seem to think he’s quite popular. I think he was unanimously elected by the Security Council which is very rare.

The Prime Minister of Bulgaria is also in Kyiv at the moment.

On Ukrainecast they were speaking about Russian state tv mocking Guterres after his visit. They really have zero respect (obviously if they’ve decided to bomb kyiv whilst he’s there - that says it all doesn’t it). I think they were saying he was sent by Kyiv to beg for help for their neo nazis 🙄 and then on the other hand Kyiv were complaining he went to Moscow first so I guess it was a bit of lose-lose for him. I personally like him though.

Dont really know what I’m thinking/feeling today about things. Not as wobbly as yesterday but still feeling like I have whiplash from all the back and forth bravado from various sides. There’s been more Russian “warnings” today haven’t there. I don’t know why but I feel like there’s not been much change on the battlefield but the rhetoric has really upped it’s game. No doubt the two are linked in Russia’s case.

It's this, imo

It's anything divisive, it's designed to divide society and weaken it. I hadn't seen the article about Russian trolls targeting Black Lives Matter before, but I did wonder if they had been stoking the far right in the US to try and divide American society.

Thanks for the new thread, Magic Fox. I hope there is some good news about the Azovstal plant soon.

Regarding the energy consumption issue talked about on the last thread, I agree with @RedToothBrush that there are lots of little things we could do that add up, from trying to reduce heating and driving (where possible, obviously if you live in the middle of nowhere, you aren't going to be able to get a bus and you can't afford heating, you aren't going to be able to reduce it) and the government could have initiatives like funding solar panels (and batteries, so it would cover more electricity costs rather than any excess going into the grid) and home insulation for people on lower incomes (that would help with the cost of living crisis and climate crisis too).

The Washington Post
**
Planning to evacuate civilians from Azovstal has begun, Ukrainian official says

By Paulina Villegas 2:37 p.m.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Thursday that authorities have begun planning to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, following talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday.
U.N. chief calls Ukraine war 'evil’ and ‘an absurdity’ on Kyiv visit
Vereshchuk said on Telegram that getting the dozens of civilians, including women and children, out of the besieged port city is a “top priority.”
“Hope has appeared that it will be possible to evacuate the civilians from Azovstal,” Vereshchuk said.
In recent weeks, there have been numerous failed attempts to bring the civilians to safety, with Ukrainian officials accusing the Russian military of thwarting such efforts by continuing attacks in routes that were agreed upon for evacuations.

The ones I saw it's mostly family members holding pictures of their dads/grandparents in uniform. Not that many actual WWII vets around anymore, let alone hale enough to march in a parade.

It's an interesting phenomenon btw - originated as a (Memorial-adjacent) grass roots oral history project, then got hijacked by the government and turned into agitprop. So sad.

Checking in

Myroslava Petsa AT myroslavapetsa (BBC Ukraine)
In Ukraine's South, evidence mounts that Russian troops have been robbing farmers and agriculture companies of their equipment and crops, targeting storage facilities, essentially trying to starve Ukrainians and halt crop exports from Ukraine to places that depend on UA produce

Myroslava Petsa AT myroslavapetsa
After Russia’s strikes on Kyiv on the day of Guterres’ visit, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff in the Zelensky administration, calls for Russia to be stripped of veto power in the UN Security Council

twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1519758899976577030?s=21&t=MorfcO6AYY3receYKpAuUA

Yet Russia have bombed the city he's in.

Oh goodness, yes, HappyWinter, Russian trolls will absolutely be stirring the far right. They don't have to try too hard, mind you, because many Far Righties actively seek Russian support.

In 2018:
My six years covering neo-Nazis: 'They're all vying for the affections of Russia'
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/17/vegas-tenold-everything-you-love-will-burn-q-and-a-nazis

In 2022:
US Extremists Have Picked a Side in Ukraine: ‘Lol Putin Is Brilliant’
www.vice.com/en/article/wxd7zn/us-extremists-putin-nicholas-fuentes