Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 #8

[Bit of hope]

It's a sign of protest. Some background:

March 2017
How the rubber ducky became a potent protest symbol (smh.com.au)

In September, Russian corruption fighter and would-be presidential candidate Alexei Navalny published the first episode of his investigation into the palaces and estates used by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. A video filmed from a drone showed an expensively renovated 18th century manor, featuring a pond complete with a duck house. Navalny recalled the scandal of Sir Peter Wiggers, the UK legislator who had tried to claim the cost of installing a waterfowl lodge as part of his parliamentary expenses. The Medvedev case, Navalny clamed, was far more outrageous.

Russian social networks picked up the duck house story. Memes placed Medvedev's ducky on the Forbes list of the richest Russians; people expressed their willingness to quack and dive for bugs on the pond for a chance to live in the house. Over time, Medvedev's duck morphed into the floating yellow toy the Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vucic, saw on the Moscow protest signs.

Thanks @PommyMommy

 

[happyday]

This war is really going from terrible to worse. Thank you all for posting here and keeping the thread going with all the recent information. I read here everyday, and I appreciate you all very much!

 

[Taskforce88]

The coming battles in the east of Ukraine, focusing on the Donbas, will be interesting. This is where Ukraine has expected a major Russia assault since 2014 and has been preparing extensively for such a scenario. The withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region and the large concentration of Russian forces in the Donbas will hamper Russian logistics, probably much more than we have seen. Russian army morale is close to collapse. Tactically and operationally Russia has displayed an alarming lack of basic military understanding and cohesion. Strategically Russia has already lost. The Russian people believe that they are winning and that Ukraine will be taken in full. They will not accept a limited victory in the Donbas, even if that were possible which I now highly doubt. Russia still has a lot of main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in the field and a greater number in storage but a large number of them are unfit for service as they have been sitting idle in sheds for many years. A number of mothballed T-80 tanks that were rolled out a few years ago required extensive overhaul. Putin will have to escalate to achieve a victory the Russian people will accept. They won't accept 10,000+ dead for the territory that was already outwith the grip of Kyiv. The coming days and weeks will be perhaps the most critical of this war and the potential for a full Russian mobilisation is there.

 

[dotr]

Ukraine War: Putin's daughters targeted by Western sanctions - BBC News
''The US has imposed sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, including his daughters.

The list also includes the family of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and major banks.

The measures follow new revelations of atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine, including images of bodies of civilians scattered on the streets of Bucha, near the capital Kyiv.

Russia says, without evidence, the images are staged by Kyiv officials.

Even though satellite images have shown the civilians were killed when Russians were in control of Bucha, Mr Putin on Wednesday described the event as a "crude and cynical provocation by the Kyiv regime".

The US sanctions announced by the White House include:

• conomic measures to ban new investment in Russia
• severe financial sanctions on Russia's largest bank private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sberbank
• sanctions on critical major state-owned enterprises
• sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members

Meanwhile the UK has announced further sanctions against eight oligarchs and Russian banks, including the country's largest, Sberbank, and Credit Bank of Moscow.

The European Union is also debating cutting off Russian coal imports as concern over alleged war crimes increases.''

 

[dotr]

U.S. targets Putin’s kids, Russia’s Sberbank with new sanctions over Ukraine war - National | Globalnews.ca
''The new sanctions will put full blocking sanctions in Russia’s Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia’s total banking assets, and Alfabank, a senior U.S. official told reporters. Energy transactions are blocked from these sanctions, the official said.''
''The United States is also sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult daughters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s wife and daughter, and members of Russia’s security council, the official said. Americans are banned from investing in Russia, the official said, including through venture capital or mergers.''

Chanel restricts sales to Russians abroad amid Ukraine war | The Star
''PARIS (AP) — Luxury fashion brand Chanel says it has stopped selling its clothes, perfumes and other luxury goods to Russian customers abroad if they plan to take the products back home — a bold response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The move comes after the Parisian stalwart had already shuttered its boutiques in Russia, a step many companies across all industries have taken in response to the war.

This further step, Chanel says, is simply a case of complying with trade sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union, Switzerland and others that prohibit transactions with designated individuals.

“The most recent EU and Swiss sanction laws include a prohibition on the ‘sale, supply, transfer or export, directly or indirectly, of luxury goods to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia or for use in Russia,’” Chanel said Wednesday in a statement.

It concerns products valued at over 300 euros ($328) — which is the majority of Chanel’s design output.

“We have rolled out a process to ask clients for whom we do not know the main residency to confirm that the items they are purchasing will not be used in Russia,” Chanel said, without elaborating on what that process looks like.

It’s a difficult measure to enforce, yet some Russian social media influencers have already said they are being asked for identification and denied the ability to buy goods at Chanel boutiques from Paris to the United Arab Emirates.''

 

[Bit of hope]

NAVO waarschuwt: oorlog kan nog lang duren • Nederlandse F-35's geland in Bulgarije
NATO warns: war could go on for a long time • Dutch F-35s landed in Bulgaria


3 HOURS AGO
Dutch F-35s landed in Bulgaria
Four Dutch F-35 aircraft have just landed at a military airport in Bulgaria. The fighter jets were offered to NATO by the Ministry of Defense.

Defense reports that two aircraft are being used for surveillance of the eastern airspace of the NATO area. The other two F-35s are spare. "In this way, deployment is guaranteed," says the ministry. The four aircraft will remain in Bulgaria until the end of May.

The Dutch fighters replace four Spanish aircraft, which had been in Bulgaria since February. The Netherlands previously deployed F-35s and F-16s to monitor Poland's airspace.

 

[sds71]

@barbarastarrcnn

Breaking from CNN NATSEC team: The US now believes “it will be able to identify the Russian units” that carried out the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, according to a US official familiar with the latest information

Identification of those involved “is an extremely high priority now” for the US intelligence community, official says. US using all avail intel means to help Ukraine identify who conducted atrocities.

The US is also analyzing possible indicators that more than one Russian unit or group of fighters was in Bucha during the time the atrocities occurred.

 

[Bit of hope]

@barbarastarrcnn

Breaking from CNN NATSEC team: The US now believes “it will be able to identify the Russian units” that carried out the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, according to a US official familiar with the latest information

Identification of those involved “is an extremely high priority now” for the US intelligence community, official says. US using all avail intel means to help Ukraine identify who conducted atrocities.

The US is also analyzing possible indicators that more than one Russian unit or group of fighters was in Bucha during the time the atrocities occurred.

Bucha killings: Satellite image of bodies site contradicts Russian claims

 

[Bit of hope]

NAVO waarschuwt: oorlog kan nog lang duren • Nederlandse F-35's geland in Bulgarije

9 HOURS AGO
Hundreds of people from Hostomel are missing
From the Ukrainian town of Hostomel, near Kiev, 400 people are missing after the retreat of the Russian army. Government officials said so to a local radio station. The cellars in the village are now being searched.

For example, a doctor who lived in Hostomel has not been heard from for twelve days. She was taken by Russian troops along with her husband and children. The bodies of people who are known to have died have not been found either.

The remains of people from Hostomel have been found in Boetsja, a government official told Hromadske Radio . Bodies were discovered in the street this weekend in that place. At least 300 civilian dead have been recovered in recent days , according to the Ukrainians .

Hostomel has been occupied by the Russian army for 35 days. There was heavy fighting at the site for, among other things, a military airfield. Many residents have fled because of the violence.

 

[dotr]

The butchers and rapists of women and children will have developed a taste for it and before long there will be an increase in rapists, pedophiles and serial killers in mother Russia if/when those so-called soldiers return. imo, speculation.

Bucha: Bodies tied up, shot and left to rot hint at gruesome reality of Russia's occupation in Ukraine - CNN
''Oksana Kostychenko and her husband Oleksandr returned home to Borodyanka over the weekend after fleeing the area on February 27. They discovered that their house had been trashed and looted by Russian soldiers.
The couple also found a dead man in their backyard. His arms were tied behind his back, and his trousers had been pulled down.
"Alcohol is everywhere. Empty bottles in the hallway, under things," Oksana said. "They smoked a lot, put out cigarettes on the table... They lived here as they wished."

 

[CSIDreamer]

NAVO waarschuwt: oorlog kan nog lang duren • Nederlandse F-35's geland in Bulgarije

9 HOURS AGO
Hundreds of people from Hostomel are missing
From the Ukrainian town of Hostomel, near Kiev, 400 people are missing after the retreat of the Russian army. Government officials said so to a local radio station. The cellars in the village are now being searched.

For example, a doctor who lived in Hostomel has not been heard from for twelve days. She was taken by Russian troops along with her husband and children. The bodies of people who are known to have died have not been found either.

The remains of people from Hostomel have been found in Boetsja, a government official told Hromadske Radio . Bodies were discovered in the street this weekend in that place. At least 300 civilian dead have been recovered in recent days , according to the Ukrainians .

Hostomel has been occupied by the Russian army for 35 days. There was heavy fighting at the site for, among other things, a military airfield. Many residents have fled because of the violence.

BBM

Boetsja keeps getting changed in my Google maps to another spelling 7.5 hours away. Is that right???

 

[CrimeAway]

OK this is better.

"Don't call him Dimon" by Navalny (about former RF president Dmitry Medvedev). Navalny has series about Russian corrupt politicians

It is enabled by cc with translations into English and other languages. Hit the top R button (control), find close captions in dropbox, hit English...

Navalny has released a documentary on "Putin's Palace" on the Black Sea coast. The amount of wealth that has been plundered from the Russian people is staggering, IMO. Meanwhile, people in rural Russia live in absolutely grinding poverty (see Vasya in the Hay for examples of this).

 

[CrimeAway]

Man 'blown up with a grenade' and father shot dead in front of son in horrifying Bucha stories | Daily Mail Online

 

[worldwatcher]

Well worth taking a look.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1511499188370092046?t=abYPf7_tDWM88zPjI_q63g&s=19

This war...

Ukrainian illustrator Olga Wilson draws all the Ukrainian lives cut short by Russia's war. On Olga's profile in Instagram, find the description for each scene.

Login • Instagram https://t.co/x0icLFhxkJ

Beautiful art in such a horrible war.
I feel sick,when reading what happend and what’s going on.
Sick what people can do,and for what?!

 

[worldwatcher]

!warning graphic pictures!!

Remember the sabotage work of a part of Belarusian railways so military equipment cannot move?

Very bad news for those heroes,they got shot in the kneecaps,and
the news of the capture was shown on Belarus tv:

“Three partisans were heavily injured by Lukashenka’s police while trying to set diversion on Belarus railways. They tried to destroy some elements of logistical infrastructure to disrupt the movement of Russian military equipment.”
https://twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1511676179677388801

 

[Taskforce88]

Olena Halushka
@OlenaHalushka
Almost 50 people burned alive in the Mariupol Children's Hospital, whichp was heavily shelled by russians, city mayor reports. Nearly 5,000 residents, incl 200 kids were killed during the last month there (officially). At least 40% of the city's infrastructure is unrepairable

 

[worldwatcher]

Olena Halushka
@OlenaHalushka
Almost 50 people burned alive in the Mariupol Children's Hospital, whichp was heavily shelled by russians, city mayor reports. Nearly 5,000 residents, incl 200 kids were killed during the last month there (officially). At least 40% of the city's infrastructure is unrepairable

This is terrible,have no words to describe how sick, angry and sad I feel,right now.Truly heartbreaking..

 

[worldwatcher]

!warning graphic pictures!!

Remember the sabotage work of a part of Belarusian railways so military equipment cannot move?

Very bad news for those heroes,they got shot in the kneecaps,and
the news of the capture was shown on Belarus tv:

“Three partisans were heavily injured by Lukashenka’s police while trying to set diversion on Belarus railways. They tried to destroy some elements of logistical infrastructure to disrupt the movement of Russian military equipment.”
https://twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1511676179677388801

Just wanted to added - so some more info, about the heroic acts and the high price they pay right now for. It deserves space here, and the names of these brave young men will be known..


Three guerrillas were injured in the detention, one in critical condition

“On the night of March 30, three residents of Babruisk, aged 27 to 28, were detained for sabotaging the railway. Another was detained on April 1 in Barysau district, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus reports. Three of the four underground fighters were injured in the detention.


One of the detainees is in a medical institution, the Interior Ministry said. Others received on-site medical care.

These partisans are involved in the destruction of two relay cabinets of the signal installation near Asipovichy.

Later , the names of the detained "rail guerrillas" became known , probably from Babaru. These are Minkevich Yauhen (January 28, 1994), Klimau Dzmitry (September 21, 1993), Avramtsau Uladzimir (April 7, 1994).

Telegram channel @belzhd_live writes that after the detention, people who did not resist were purposefully shot in the knee. “


“After that it became known about the arrest of three dozen railwaymen connected with the underground in different regions of Belarus. In addition, the State Security Committee of Belarus and GUBAZIK, a political police ministry, have arrested dozens of people in Mozyr and the district, in Svetlogorsk and the district, in Baranovichi, Stolbtsy and Dzerzhinsk . The purpose of the detentions was to search for people who were preparing acts of petty sabotage on the railway or transmitting to independent media and telegram channels information about the movement of Russian troops or missile launches in Ukraine.”

BBM
SBM


GT from source:
МУС: Трое партызанаў былі параненыя пры затрыманні, адзін у цяжкім стане

 

[LadyL]

We know we are the only ones who will give Russia hell and protect Ukraine: MP Kira Rudyk

 

[LadyL]

The lying
that there is no Ukraine
that there is no nation
that there is no state
The war to make the lies true
The lying about the war
The shelling of Kyiv
The shelling of Kharkiv
The shelling of Chernihiv
The old beautiful cities
The shelling everywhere
The bombing everywhere
The ghastly siege of Mariupol
The attacks on refugees from Mariupol
The bombing of children in Mariupol
The lying about Mariupol
The attacks on refugees from everywhere
The reporters
The truth of seeing
The abducted
The deported
The millions in flight
The schools Those bombed schools
The hospitals Those bombed hospitals
The archives burned
The lying about the schools and the hospitals
The lying on Russian television
The lying at Russian funerals
The lying about death that enables
The killing for a lie
The future lying enabled by the burning of records about the past
The truth under everything
The rubble, the bodies
The volunteers
The truth of solidarity
The mass murder at Irpin, the bodies under tanks
The mass murder at Bucha, the hands behind backs
The mass murder at Trostyanets, the desecration of corpses
The cities, the towns, the villages, the countryside
The murders everywhere
The truth

- Notes on Ukraine by Timothy Snyder