Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine

Wow - this was really done well:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/video/russia-ukraine-bucha-massacre-takeaways.html

Remember all that Bucha was staged talk?  The footage they have is pretty remarkable.  It's just sad what Vlad an Co has been doing, hopefully some people will be held to account.  And I hope the people of Russia can understand what's happening as well.

jamie said:

Remember all that Bucha was staged talk?  The footage they have is pretty remarkable.  It's just sad what Vlad an Co has been doing, hopefully some people will be held to account.  And I hope the people of Russia can understand what's happening as well.

I’d settle for people in the U.S. understanding. 

"Fighting any war is horrific. But fighting a winter war can be almost intolerable. Russian president Vladimir Putin, exhibiting his habitual cruelty, has weaponized war before—Grozny fell to Russian forces during the second Chechen war in 2000. What I remember of those frozen days: the unbearable, throbbing cold; the blood on the snow like frozen rose petals; young soldiers in winter white uniforms blending in with the whiteout blizzard as the Russians pounded them with helicopter gunships. Most of all, the civilians were wrapped in layers of clothing to stave off the chill, hiding in potato cellars against the bombs. They seemed more like ghosts than human beings, and, upon seeing them, I often thought of the work of the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who wrote of the terror and hardship of the purges in Stalin’s time, and families waiting in long icy queues to deliver food parcels to prisoners being held by the regime. ...

"Ukraine is now Putin’s target, and by using missiles and drones to attack the electricity grids and heating structures, he and the Russian military seek to freeze Ukrainian civilians into submission or surrender. There’s not much chance of that. The Ukrainians have endured shocking deprivation before—Stalin attempted to starve them to death in the 1930s during the Holodomor—but there is a particularly gruesome kind of menace that comes with unending cold in a country where average temperatures in winter can drop well below zero."

From Christmas in Kyiv: “The Cold and Loneliness Scared Me—Not the Russian Missiles”, by Janine di Giovanni

Merry Christmas.

A lot of generators have been shipped to Ukraine. They will survive this war, and they will defeat the Russians. He sends them in waves, and they just climb over the bodies and keep on coming, until they form another pile of stiffs. Russian soldiers can not refuse to fight, if they turn around their commanders shoot them. It’s a death run, and they have no choice. This is how evil and dangerous Putin is. He’s willing to sacrifice half a million men, because he’s still thinking how effective it was in World War One, even though most of the men had trench feet. 
This is such a useless, absolute waste of Russian lives in a senseless war. For what? 

I have a friend living in Ukraine, in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. We text on a daily basis and she occasionally sends me pictures of everyday life in her city, Kolomyya. She has agreed to let me share these pictures and a little story about them if anyone is interested.

Interested?

bigben_again said:

I have a friend living in Ukraine, in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. We text on a daily basis and she occasionally sends me pictures of everyday life in her city, Kolomyya. She has agreed to let me share these pictures and a little story about them if anyone is interested.

Interested?

sure!

bigben_again said:

I have a friend living in Ukraine, in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. We text on a daily basis and she occasionally sends me pictures of everyday life in her city, Kolomyya. She has agreed to let me share these pictures and a little story about them if anyone is interested.

Interested?

yes 

This was my friend's apartment complex in October, when things were relatively normal, versus how it is now. A gas-powered generator provides light to one apartment. Very costly and dangerous.

Here is a neighbor, back from the front.

My friend is an English teacher in a primary school. This is where students and teachers take cover when the sirens sound. Sometimes they sound for two to three hours straight, and multiple times throughout the day.

No more street lights in the city, much of the time.

Although far from the front line, men from her city volunteered to fight, and there have been deaths. The son of a cook at her school, gone. Here's another hero whom she knew quite well, also associated with her school. Gone.

Here is a happier day, taken this fall.

Normal moments (a happy girl and her kitten) are plucked out of chaos.

These maps are updated many times a day, showing where the danger from missiles lies throughout Ukraine. Lately, all of Ukraine is hotspot. 

The third photo is an unexploded missile that landed not far from her home. There was a mom and daughter in the room next to the hit. Both survived.

Post removed.

Thank you for sharing, and please thank your friend.

bigben_again said:

Normal moments (a happy girl and her kitten) are plucked out of chaos.

These maps are updated many times a day, showing where the danger from missiles lies throughout Ukraine. Lately, all of Ukraine is hotspot. 

The third photo is an unexploded missile that landed not far from her home. There was a mom and daughter in the room next to the hit. Both survived.

Both unbelievable and not surprising.

Thanks for sharing!

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/05/world/russia-ukraine-news#russia-pardon-prisoners-ukraine-wagner

What could possibly go wrong.  Take a group of men convicted of violent crimes, expose them to combat and then pardon them.

“You have finished your contract with dignity,” Mr. Prigozhin is shown telling the first group of men. To another group, he says: “Don’t drink too much, don’t take drugs, don’t rape women.”

Ukrainian military intercept phone calls between Russian soldiers talking about  how Poland had invaded Ukraine and Putin sent them there to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty. So now it’s the Polish nazis and satanists who are trying to invade Russia after they have invaded Ukraine…. This Rasputin is the most ridiculous lying piece of horsesiht.

Putin called a ceasefire so he can go to church and celebrate Russian orthodox Christmas. When he launched hundreds of missiles into Ukraine on Christmas Eve…I say bomb them now!

Surely there was a military installation close by - right Paul?

jamie said:

Surely there was a military installation close by - right Paul?

Expecting a reply to this, arguing about the use of the word "Fascist" in this tweet.

Miss Ukraine

Perspective on the war by a Ukrainian American. They are more united today than they ever were. Brave people. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/am-ukrainian-american-political-scientist-193356757.html

Musk blames Victoria Nuland for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

And the Moscow media will milk this point quite a bit:

https://www.rt.com/news/571981-elon-musk-victoria-nuland/

Who knew Nuland was so powerful?

My thought is the guy killing thousands of people is pushing the war (and has the ability to stop it) a little bit more than Nuland.

paul - what estimates do you trust for killed and wounded?  How many deaths happened in the region the 2 years prior to Vlad starting this war?  Is it safe to say WAR is Russia now?  Or is still a Special operation?

Top story in Vlad media is the Hersh story!

https://ria.ru/20230223/podryv-1854056366.html

Has Hersh addressed the evidence that refuted his claims?  I doubt VladMedia will cover this.