Ukraine Invasion: Part 29

[MagicFox]

Welcome all, part 29

very good Bellingcat article on how to cope with secondary trauma. Well worth reading for anyone upset by the reports. We don't come into contact with the level of gruesomeness they do, but we read and see enough.

www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2018/10/18/prevent-identify-address-vicarious-trauma-conducting-open-source-investigations-middle-east/

@Ijsbear thank you

Just seen this on Twitter, unconfirmed report of mass slaughter of captured Ukrainian soldiers in Russian prisonmobile.twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1552969443243958277

The Russians are saying that Ukraine bombed it, which of course raises the question how do you know Russia is lying, Russia speaks,yes Russia is lying

@Ijsbear Funny. I assume that is satire?

Ijsbear
A Reuters investigation discovered that Russia sent its agents to Ukraine long before the invasion to establish contacts with officials and prepare the ground for a takeover. According to Reuters, the Kremlin believed these agents would help Russia capture Ukraine effortlessly within a couple of days

That rather bears out what some of us on here have been thinking on and off since late February: embedded Russian agents were being paid to help with the capture/takeover of Ukraine, and were fully expected to do so – only they had taken the money and not done the job. It explains a lot of the early failure to get anywhere much with the plan to take Kyiv in three days: the Russians were expecting support they didn't get.

mobile.twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1553004152489402368 spokeswoman for the Donetsk republic giving a statement about the bombing of the prison. What good luck no Russian guards were killed

Funny how that bombing happened us as Blinken wanted to speak to Puti bout prisoner exchange, and the castration video

The killing of POWs by the Russians is especially mystifying as the UAF have encircled over 1000 Russian troops at Vysokopillia, and thousands more will likely be taken prisoner when Kherson is liberated.

And speaking of Kherson, here's another good update on the situation there.

Ukraine Update: All eyes on Kherson as Ukraine tightens the noose

Thank you for that article, @MissConductUS

📣 Turkey responded to Putin's proposal on joint production of Bayraktar
Turkish Defense Industry Directorate not considering possible cooperation with Russia on joint production of drones

🎪 Minsk has decided to recall its ambassador to the UK due to London's "unfriendly steps" and is reducing the level of diplomatic representation in the country
This was announced by the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Glaz.

‼️Hungary expects to sign an agreement with Russia on additional gas supplies of 700 million cubic meters by the end of the summer

‼️Azov regiment's patronage service is clarifying the names of the Ukrainian prisoners of war who were killed or
injured in the temporarily occupied village of Olenivka. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross are also heading to the site of attack

⚡️National Bank: Inflation in Ukraine to reach over 30% in 2022.

⚡️National Bank: Unemployment hits 35% in Ukraine.

⚡️Prosecutor General's Office: Around 40 Ukrainian POWs killed, 130 injured in Russian attack on Olenivka penal colony.

⚡️Germany pledges to send 16 Biber bridge-layer tanks to Ukraine in 2022-2023.
“The Biber will enable Ukrainian troops to cross waters or obstacles in combat,” reads a statement by the German Defense Ministry. “The delivery of the first six systems will take place this year, starting in autumn. Ten more systems will follow next year.

⚡️Infrastructure Ministry: Ukraine ready to start grain export.
According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, 17 vessels have already been loaded with grain in the Ukrainian ports, and 10 of them are ready to depart.

I was looking for a patron saint of sailors to invoke for the grain convoy.

Turns out St Clement is astonishingly apt. Martyred by being drowned in the Black Sea for giving relief to suffering prisoners, and buried in Crimea.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Rome

I'm not a Christian, but that convoy can do with all the protection it can get.

I wasn't familiar with the bridge laying tank, so I looked it up.

www.military-today.com/engineering/biber.htm

Let us hope Germany gets them delivered as soon as possible.

Thanks for that information, Perking. St Clement is venerated by western Christian churches and Eastern Orthodox, so very appropriate. Now I understand why so many Popes took the name.

@iangarner "Hot on Russian Telegram: map of “free nations” after “decolonization of Europe.” The only countries that get to be big are Russia and Serbia. Tells you everything about the Russian imperial imagination."

twitter.com/irgarner/status/1553078999550771202?s=21&t=8XGh4Bl2Fql08tO942szJA

mobile.twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1553106630044270596 Statement by the Russian embassy in London about the murder of the Ukrainian prisoners of war. Bastards

The Russian embassy post has caused absolute uproar

They really are disgusting. All Russians.

I am disgusted with the UN. They will do -nothing-. I bet my house on it.

Dimitri's translations of intercepted calls indicates the Russians placed the Azovians in the barracks and then planted bombs there to explode. No other building was damaged and no walls were breached.

If anyone has further information then please correct this info but as far as I'm aware this is what's known at the moment.

The Red Cross and UN guaranteed their safety when they surrendered, where the hell are they

Have just seen the reports of a Ukrainian POW being castrated while being by Russian soldiers who then hold up his genitals to the camera,

This is atrocious stuff by the RA

mobile.twitter.com/na_intel/status/1553043679656435715 alternative this is Russia video

PerkingFaintly · Yesterday 17:30
I was looking for a patron saint of sailors to invoke for the grain convoy

Turns out St Clement is astonishingly apt. Martyred by being drowned in the Black Sea for giving relief to suffering prisoners, and buried in Crimea.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Rome

I'm not a Christian, but that convoy can do with all the protection it can get

How apt as you say. That is satisfying information..

Thank you Ijsbear for that article on how to deal with secondary trauma. For us here it is more a thousandth down the line than secondary compared to people in Ukraine and other countries hearing of what is happening to their own. But the advice is welcome nonetheless. Looking up the POW bombing responses, I just saw a photo of a Ukrainian POW being dragged behind a car to death with his hands tied behind his back and his bottom exposed.

minsmum ·
Today 00:36E

That alternative video iuu is a very funny given the other one. I feel relieved to have just laughed and laughed at the contrast. A sardonic laugh I suppose.

Break of Day in the Trenches

BY ISAAC ROSENBERG

The darkness crumbles away.
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet’s poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies.
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver—what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe—
Just a little white with the dust.

Yes then they shoot him in the head and drag him away by a rope around his ankles. Barbarians.

Just pure evil.

I very much hope they get justice and bad karma after commuting this heinous act.

Important: "Speech by Sir Stephen Lovegrove, UK National Security Adviser, at a virtual event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC"

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/sir-stephen-lovegrove-speech-at-csis-washington-dc

good speech. I hope it can be followed up by action

When I and others questioned the build-up of forces on the border we were assured “it’s just an exercise”. We didn’t believe it, and were right not to do so. Nevertheless, we must try to get back to a point where “reassurances” like that are worth something

Effective deterrence mechanisms and capabilities, tailored to the current and developmental threats are indispensable.

Agreed that the talking -depends- on effective deterrence as there is provably no point trusting Russia (or China tbh, given how they steal technology).