Any Ukrainian riders?

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/06/bucha-barbarism-atrocities-russian-soldiers/

In Bucha, the scope of Russian barbarity is coming into focus

This story contains graphic photos and video, including images of a decapitated body.

Spoiler

BUCHA, Ukraine — The name of this city is already synonymous with the month-long carnage that Russian soldiers perpetrated here.

As a team from the district prosecutor’s office moved slowly through Bucha on Wednesday, investigators uncovered evidence of torture before death, beheading and dismemberment, and the intentional burning of corpses.

 

On the gravel near a loading dock lay the body of Dmytro Chaplyhin, 21, whose abdomen was bruised black and blue, his hands marked with what looked like cigarette burns. He ultimately was killed by a gunshot to the chest, concluded team leader Ruslan Kravchenko. His body then was turned into a weapon, tied to a tripwire connected to a mine.

 

On a dirt path behind it was an even more grotesque scene: two victims, their bodies bloating. One man’s head had been cleanly sliced off, burned and left by his splayed feet.

 

 

221,245 views

Apr 8, 2022

 

Washington Post

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[UniVehje]

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/russia-ukraine-war-news-putin-live-updates/#link-K5FUM7S5EZCAFCN3A74Q7ATO6Y

By Adela Suliman 5:15 a.m.

 

European Commission president heads to Kyiv on Friday

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to visit Kyiv on Friday, where she will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Von der Leyen tweeted an image of herself walking beside a train and wrote that she was “looking forward to Kyiv.”

 

The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, is also on the trip.

Last month, the leaders of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic made a bold visit to Ukraine’s capital while it was under attack, to pledge “unequivocal support” to Ukraine, they said.

 

The prime minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, also joined Friday’s trip.

He tweeted that the group planned to discuss issues including wheat and other key exports from Ukraine, and the use of neighboring Slovakia as a humanitarian hub.

 

 

 

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/russia-ukraine-war-news-putin-live-updates/#link-K5FUM7S5EZCAFCN3A74Q7ATO6Y

By Adela Suliman 4:50 a.m.

 

Russia says it would ‘rebalance’ situation if Sweden, Finland join NATO

 

If Sweden and Finland were to join NATO, Russia would be forced to “rebalance the situation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday in an interview with Sky News.

The two Nordic countries are historically nonaligned and have maintained a delicate balance of relations with the West and Russia. But top officials in both countries have signaled that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could mean a change in footing.

 

The foreign minister of Finland, which shares a land border of more than 800 miles with Russia, said this week that the country would clarify with NATO within weeks what steps Helsinki would need to take to enter the alliance.

If Sweden and Finland were to gain membership, “we’ll have to make our western flank more sophisticated in terms of ensuring our security,” Peskov said.

 

Moscow has often cited countering the expansion of NATO and Ukraine’s desire to join the 30-member military alliance as key reasons for the ongoing invasion.

“We are deeply convinced that NATO is a machine for confrontation, it’s not a peaceful alliance,” Peskov said. “It was tailored for confrontation and the main purpose of its existence is to confront our country and this is a very unfortunate situation.”

 

A key tenet of the NATO alliance is Article 5 — an agreement that an armed attack on one member will be viewed as an attack on all, with an obligation to mutual defense.

 

[UniVehje]

Yes, we’re going to NATO. Today there was a cyber attack by Russians and one of their military planes flew in our airspace. Normal behavior by those thugs. Nobody cares over here anymore. These happened while Zelenskyi was talking to our parliament. All relations with Russia are over for generations. We’re not going back to previous relations before that nation has accepted their wrongdoings and embraced freedom and democracy. And payed reparations to Ukraine.  I feel sorry for those Russians who don’t support this regime. Unfortunately they seem to be a small minority. A nation zombified by lies. 

[RockyTop]

Finland: I saw the “800 mile boarder with Russia” printed in the article above. Remembering that Florida is about 450 miles tall I thought I would take a look at the numbers. According to Wiki , Finland’s land area is twice the size of Florida with one fourth the population of Florida. Just 5.5 million people. 1/8th the population of Ukraine. …”The Fins punch well above their weight class” but still scary numbers. I agree. It might be time for a bigger alliance. 
 

[Paul A]

The older generation of Russians, seem to be the ones that believe the official propaganda from state run media.  

The younger generation use and access the internet.  More aware.  VPNs might be circumventing censorship.

[meepmeepmayer]

51 minutes ago, UniVehje said:

Nobody cares over here anymore.

This is the key surprising development, to me, out of all this misery, in comparison to before.

Everybody now knows Russia lies and can't be trusted. The veil is off. The Soviets ruling class never went away, just hid. Nothing there changed.

Everybody now knows Russia is (and obviously always was) a paper tiger, and any worry about Russian military power is utterly moot.

The only people dumb enough to not get this are politicians who still worry about "angering Moscow" and delay and inhibit and sabotage supporting Ukraine and isolating Russia due to greed and dumbness, and most of all the delusional Russian leadership themselves. "Rebalance" my ass. "Nobody cares over here anymore." Indeed. Why would they? The Finns could invade Russia 5 times before Russia could ever be a threat to them. The Russians are lucky others are not like them.

Nothing more pathetic than seeing people blatantly unable to mentally adapt to changing circumstances. Take your third world, definitely not a great power country and go fuck yourself before we decide to do something about you. That's the new normal. Nobody cares what you could do, because you have nothing we can't counter a hunderd times over.

What a change in attitude in just a few weeks.

[RockyTop]

Super sonic nukes. Russia to the US in 35 minutes. Supposedly impossible to knock out of the sky. 

I don’t know if any of the above is true but this is the fear. I don’t think that the Russian’s test anything properly so they probably would not work at all. Yet the Russians do very well at getting to the space center. 
 

Does the US have top secret capabilities that could stop the nukes? … Maybe? Maybe not.  The best weapon is the one no one knows about. - US motto 
 

 

[meepmeepmayer]

All you need to say is "We have nukes, too, so all you can do is kill yourselves by using them. Your choice. You very clearly have nothing else. So get fucked." End of any consideration for or appeasement of supposed Russian sensibilities.

Quite frankly, Europeans should exploit this weakness in the nastiest ways they can. Just stealing all the frozen money outright would be a good start. Free $600B or what that number is. Plus whatever is in Cypriot and London bank accounts. What's stopping us? Nothing as far as I'm concerned.

Anyways, not point of this topic. Right now our politicians need to get their heads out of their asses and support Ukraine unrestrainedly, instead of this pathetic embarassing mess that's happening.

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/08/kramatorsk-train-station-strike-civilians-ukraine-russia/

By Dalton Bennett

Yesterday at 6:14 a.m. EDT

 

Witnesses describe grisly scene that includes Russian words ‘For the children’ on missile

Train station strike in eastern Ukraine takes brutal toll on civilians.

 

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Hundreds of people had gathered at the red-brick train station in this eastern Ukrainian city in recent days, eager to flee what local officials warned was a looming Russian offensive.

The crowds assembled Friday morning ahead of an arriving train, jostling for space on the platform and in the main hall. It was then that at least one missile struck the station, tearing through the evacuees, at least 50 of whom were killed. Another 98 were wounded, according to the regional governor.

 

Washington Post reporters arrived at the train station in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, about 15 minutes after the attack and counted at least 20 dead, including children. A large piece of a missile had landed about 100 yards from the building entrance.

On one side, the words “for the children” were written in Russian.

\

The remnants of a missile with the Russian words “for the children” painted on it lie on the ground after a strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine on April 8, 2022. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)

 

Witnesses said that an initial explosion was followed by four to five blasts that they believed were caused by “cluster bombs” that struck outside the building where a large crowd had assembled for an arriving train.

“There were people everywhere. Torn-off limbs, flesh, bone, pieces of people everywhere,” said Yelena Khalenmonva, a local resident who was inside the station waiting for a train when she heard the blasts.

“An old man missing his leg, another person missing their head,” she said.

Ukrainian servicemen carry a body after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)

 

The wounded were ferried to two separate medical facilities in Kramatorsk, including Town Hospital Number 3. There, medical staff struggled to cope with more than 40 casualties, including many with catastrophic injuries from shrapnel. All five of their operating rooms were full.

In the hallways, medical personnel treated more than a dozen patients, applying pressure to wounds or tightening tourniquets. A man lying on the floor screamed in pain as military medics rushed to seal his gushing wound.

“I need tape, give me tape!” yelled the woman who was treating him.

The wounded were treated in a city hospital in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, where evacuation trains were departing on April 8, 2022. (Wojciech Grzedzinski for The Washington Post)

 

Inside an operating room, surgeons struggled to stabilize a grievously wounded patient as they convulsed from blood loss. In another, doctors prepared to amputate the leg of a child injured in the blast.

 

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/video-shows-aftermath-of-kramatorsk-train-station-attack/2022/04/08/86e81db6-d843-4f2a-acc6-41c8c5afa384_video.html

[Paul A]

Russian Soldier About Russian Propaganda in The Intercepted Phone Call! Wife is Shocked!

288K views · 3 days ago

Insights from Ukraine and Russia
15.9K subscribers

 

[Paul A]

Russian Soldier Hates His Command - Intercepted Phone Call Conversation With His Monther From Russia

324K views · 1 day ago

Insights from Ukraine and Russia
15.9K subscribers

 

[Paul A]

Russian Soldier Complains He Has No People In The Intercepted Phone Call Conversation With His Wife!

757K views · 2 days ago

Insights from Ukraine and Russia
15.9K subscribers

 

[Paul A]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61052643

9 hours ago

Ukraine: Johnson pledges aid to Zelensky in Kyiv meeting

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has held talks in Kyiv with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

No 10 said the visit was a "show of solidarity" with the Ukrainian people.

Following the meeting, Downing Street said the UK would send 120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship missile systems to support Ukraine.

Senior officials in Mr Zelensky's team praised the UK for support during its conflict with Russia.

 

Mr Johnson's visit to Kyiv was not announced in advance and the first indication he was in the city came when a photograph of his meeting with President Zelensky was put on Twitter by the Ukrainian embassy in London.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The prime minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky in person, in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people."

 

Mr Johnson's visit to Kyiv came the day after the UK announced £100m of weapons for the country.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Friday, Mr Johnson said the UK will send additional military equipment including Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and 800 anti-tank missiles.

 

 

The two leaders walked through central Kyiv after their talks

 

 

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/09/russia-ukraine-war-news-putin-live-updates/#link-R4BCQV6HQNGRRDXEH4IPDFJ4OY

By Claire Parker 1:58 p.m.

 

Donors around the world pledge 9.1 billion euros for Ukrainian refugees

Donors pledged 9.1 billion euros ($10 billion) in fresh support for Ukrainian refugees at an event convened Saturday in Warsaw by leaders of Canada and the European Commission.

Of the sum, about 4.1 billion euros are donations by governments, companies and individuals, according to the E.C., and about 5 billion euros will take the form of loans and grants from European public financial institutions.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who co-convened the event with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pledged nearly 1 billion euros to help people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. About 600 million euros of that will go to Ukrainian authorities and the United Nations to help people in Ukraine, she said, while about 400 million euros will go to neighboring countries that have taken in Ukrainian refugees.

“[Ukrainians] stand up for our freedom, so we stand up for Ukraine,” von der Leyen, who had visited Ukraine the day before, said in her opening remarks.

Trudeau announced an additional 100 million Canadian dollars ($80 million) in humanitarian aid for Ukraine and neighboring countries. He said Canada would also provide more than 345,000 “essential relief items,” such as blankets and mattresses.

 

Celebrities, including Billie Eilish, Madonna, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen, took part in the fundraising initiative on social media.

[Paul A]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/slovakia-gives-s-300-air-defence-system-ukraine-prime-minister-2022-04-08/

April 9, 2022

 

Slovakia sends its air defence system to Ukraine

PRAGUE, April 8 (Reuters) - Slovakia has donated its S-300 air defence system to Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Friday, a day after the United States said more than 30 countries were increasing military aid to Kyiv.

 

NATO member Slovakia has been operating one battery of the Soviet-designed S-300 air defence system which it inherited after the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

The Slovak donation is the first known case of a country sending an air defence system to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.

 

In March, NATO allies Germany and Netherlands brought three batteries of the Patriot air defence system to Slovakia, which Bratislava said at the time would complement, rather than replace, the S-300, and that it would consider giving up the S-300 if it secured a replacement. read more

Heger said Slovakia would receive additional equipment from NATO allies to make up for the donation. Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad subsequently announced that Slovakia would receive the fourth Patriot missile system from the United States next week.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States would place one Patriot system in Slovakia in the coming days and it would be operated by U.S. troops.

"Their deployment length has not yet been fixed, as we continue to consult with the Slovakian government about more permanent air defense solutions," Austin said in a statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Slovakia for sending its S-300 system to Ukraine.

"As the Russian military repositions for the next phase of this war, I have directed my Administration to continue to spare no effort to identify and provide to the Ukrainian military the advanced weapons capabilities it needs to defend its country," Biden said in a statement.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday the United States and 30 other countries were sending weapons to Ukraine and that the process would intensify. He spoke of "new systems" that have so far not been provided by NATO allies, but declined to go into details.

[Paul A]

 

[Paul A]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/09/ukraine-battle-east-shift/

By Liz Sly and Dan Lamothe

Today at 2:36 p.m. EDT

 

Battles may be tougher for Ukrainians as war shifts to wide-open terrain in east

Ukraine is bracing for a new and potentially more challenging phase in its war to repel Russia’s invasion as the battles shift east to new terrain that could give more of an advantage to the Russians.

The wide open spaces will make it harder for the Ukrainians to run guerrilla operations as they did in the forests of the north and west and play to Russia’s ability to muster large mechanized formations of tanks and armored vehicles.

 

But much will depend on whether the Russians can rectify the mistakes they made in the first phase of their invasion, ranging from the failure of supply lines, logistical challenges and poor planning to using insufficient manpower for the size of the area they were attempting to seize, analysts say.

That the Ukrainians have not only managed to hold the Russian army at bay but also forced its troops into a humiliating retreat from the north of the country is testament both to their fighting ability and to the Russians’ poor performance so far, experts say.

 

Russian forces have now completely withdrawn from the areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north, where their attempt to launch a sweep into the capital was thwarted by fierce Ukrainian resistance, U.S. officials say. Those troops are in the process of being refitted and resupplied, apparently for redeployment to the east, the Pentagon says.

 

In one sign that Russia is trying to fix some of the problems it initially encountered, the Russians have appointed a general with extensive experience in Syria and the Donbas to oversee the war effort, marking the first time a single commander has taken control of the entire Ukraine operation, a senior U.S. official said Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The appointment of Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, the commander of Russia’s southern military district, signals an attempt by Moscow to bring some coherence to what military experts describe as a chaotically executed operation so far that has taken the lives of seven generals.

 

The Ukrainians could find themselves confronting a tougher fight in the terrain of the east than they did in the forested north, analysts say. There, trees provided cover for lightly armed fighters to sneak behind Russian lines to fire at tanks and armored vehicles, using anti-tank weapons such as the Javelins supplied by the United States that have helped tilt the war in Ukraine’s favor.

 

The battles in the east will look more like those of “the Second World War, with large operations, thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery,” Ukraine’s foreign minister told NATO last week, making an appeal for urgent supplies of new and different kinds of arms.

The shifting environment underpins Ukraine’s demand for NATO countries to supply more and different kinds of weaponry including tanks, armored vehicles and artillery, U.S. officials say.

 

“The fight down in the southeast, the terrain is different than it is in the north. It is much more open and lends itself to armor mechanized offensive operations on both sides,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional hearing last week. The Ukrainians need additional armor and artillery, he said. The United States is looking to NATO allies to come up with the right equipment because the kind used by the United States would require months of training for the Ukrainians to learn how to use, he said.

 

The Ukrainians were able to fight a guerrilla-style war against advancing columns of Russian armor that were confined to the roads because of mud and trees, contributing to the buildup of vehicles that formed the infamous 40-mile convoy turned traffic jam. The onset of warmer weather will further help Russia by giving its armored formations greater freedom of movement.

 

“This time around the Ukrainians will need to be moving in open country where they can easily be spotted,” said Jack Watling of the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “They will be in combat battles where both sides see each other, and if they are not in armored vehicles they will be vulnerable.”

 

The logistical problems that Russia encountered in its initial push into Ukraine should be less of an issue in the east, Watling said, because Russia already occupies part of the Donbas region, which directly borders Russia, making it easier to send supplies directly from Russia.

The Russians have had time to adjust to the reality of Ukraine’s ability and will to resist Russian advances, he said. “They know what they are up against, and their supply lines will be shorter”, he said.

Russia can meanwhile draw on vast quantities of mechanized armor including tanks and armored vehicles, where it possesses a clear advantage over the smaller Ukrainian army, said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO. Russia also possesses artillery systems that have longer ranges than Ukrainian weapons, creating difficulties for Ukrainian forces when they face each other, said Breedlove, who is now with the Middle East Institute.

 

 

“That makes it really hard on the Ukrainians and imposes a shoot-and-move philosophy on the Ukrainians that they would like to be imposing on the Russians,” he said.

[jojo33]

In French WE Saïd "d'une pierre deux coups" (one stone two hits).

Two birds with one stone : how to get rid of minorities in Russia

Article from The Gardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/30/coffins-in-buryatia-ukraine-invasion-takes-toll-on-russias-remote-regions

 

 

 

 

 

[Wolverine]

Heartland theory drafted in 1904 by Halford John Mackinder is the possible reason for Russia invasion to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is in a fight for its existence and if Russia wins, the Baltics and Poland are next, count on it. Likewise, if Russia loses the war in Ukraine or it can’t have all of it today, it will try again tomorrow, no treaty or ceasefire will last.”

Edited April 10, 2022 by Wolverine

[Paul A]

The Geographical Pivot of History.

Author: Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society

aka: Heartland Theory. 

World Island, Offshore Islands, Outlying Islands.

 

George Orwell's "1984" had three fictional superstates as Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.

 

Seems war is never ending. 

Peace is just the intervening period of planning, build up, before hostilities break out.

Futile.

[Paul A]

Returning to Bucha to search for loved ones in a mass grave

52K views · 1 day ago

Washington Post
1.99M subscribers

Viewer discretion advised.

 

[Paul A]

‘Safari for Ukrainians’ – that’s what Russian invaders call war on our land

34,056 views

Apr 11, 2022

Служба безпеки України

293K subscribers