Ukraine War Watch Thread

[Certain Russian user]

I would express to you what Macron indicated to Putin: don't lie to yourself.

And you're telling that to me? And to no one else? In this very thread?

[Certain Russian user]

Russian troops in Mariupol. City is already safe enough for journalists, even though not fully under control. By the end of the month (but likely much sooner) this job will be done:

blocked_news/25137

[raklian]

Lobbying giant works to connect Ukraine officials with U.S. leaders after representing Russian bank as war rages

A lobbying disclosure report filed to the Department of Justice’s FARA Unit shows that Mercury Public Affairs agreed to conduct lobbying work that would include setting up communications between local Ukrainian officials with U.S. leaders.

Mercury dropped Russian bank Sovcombank after the U.S. took aim at the financial institutions with sanctions.

The U.S. and their Western allies placed sanctions on multiple Russian financial firms after Russia invaded Ukraine.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/17/lobbyis ... s-war.html

[Yuli Ban]

Elon Musk’s Starlink Becomes Most-Downloaded App In Ukraine

Starlink, the app that enables mobile users to access SpaceX’s satellite internet service of the same name, was the most-downloaded app in Ukraine Monday afternoon after reaching the top spot Sunday, according to data seen by the Wall Street Journal, following SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s rapid delivery of the terminals that provide the service to the war-torn country last month.

So long as they have enough terminals, this could easily prove a gamechanger in the long run, acting as the Trojan horse for Starlink to penetrate all of global internet connectivity as well as allowing for people even in impoverished and wartorn regions to have access to the internet. For better or worse, mind you!

[Ken_J]

this is making the rounds lately, interesting to see what folks are responding to it with:

[Maximus]

this is making the rounds lately, interesting to see what folks are responding to it with:

What is there to say. Typical communist edge lord who still accuses NATO of being the imperialists while Russia is hacking up its neighbours and annexing their territory.

[caltrek]

I would express to you what Macron indicated to Putin: don't lie to yourself.

And you're telling that to me?

Yes, the post in question was directed at you.

And to no one else?

Perhpas you have missed the fact checking that I do on other people's posts.

In this very thread?

Again, in this very thread I have advocated for truthful posting, careful fact checking, etc. That other people make mistakes is not a good excuse for you to be deliberately deceptive. To the extent that you actually believe your own posts, then I am merely pointing out what I perceive as faulty logic in your reasoning.

[Xyls]

[caltrek]

I get the concern about neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but as I (and others) have pointed out before, they hardly dominate Ukrainian government policy. That should be abundantly obvious from, among other things, the fact that the Ukrainian government is led by a Jew. For the most part, these people do not deserve the treatment the Russian government under Putin is handing out to them.

And what's so special about Jews that they can not themselves be Nazis? Or at least fund Nazis (including that same Azov battalion) as Ukrainian oligarchs (ethnic Jews) really do? We live in postmodern, everything is so mixed and twisted...

Here is current Ukrainian TV. The speaker says: "Let me quote Adolf Eichmann, to destroy the nation one should start from children, so that they will not grow and will not avenge... we need victory, if this require to kill your (Russian) families, I'm going to be first to start..." Fascist enough? Or still a "single irrelevant case"? The name of this Ukrainian Nazi, btw, is Fakhruddin Sharafmal:

blocked/9165

And what's so special about Jews that they can not themselves be Nazis? Or at least fund Nazis (including that same Azov battalion) as Ukrainian oligarchs (ethnic Jews) really do?

It was a policy of the Nazis that Jews should be exterminated. Why would Jews fund such an organization?

In any event, do you have an English language source for the claim that forms the premise of your second question?

We live in postmodern, everything is so mixed and twisted...

Here is current Ukrainian TV. The speaker says: "Let me quote Adolf Eichmann, to destroy the nation one should start from children, so that they will not grow and will not avenge... we need victory, if this require to kill your (Russian) families, I'm going to be first to start..." Fascist enough? Or still a "single irrelevant case"? The name of this Ukrainian Nazi, btw, is Fakhruddin Sharafmal:

I am not a regular user of Telegram, so I had trouble opening that link. I did find this corroborating your claim:

https://www.opindia.com/2022/03/ukraini ... -children/

I am not going to defend the very poor judgement shown by Mr. Sharafmal, but I think it is only fair to understand his statement in the context of other things that he was saying:

Quoting the Nazi ideologist Adolf Eichmann’s statement – ‘In order to destroy a nation, you must destroy, first of all, children,’ Sharafmal said, “I know that as a journalist, I have to be objective, I have to be balanced, in order to report information to you with a cold heart, but to tell you the truth, it’s very hard to hold on now, especially at a time like this, and since we are called Nazis, fascists, and so on in Russia – I will allow myself to quote Adolf Eichmann, who said that in order to destroy a nation, you must destroy, first of all, children.
...
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot kill Russian children because the rules of war forbid it, and it is prohibited by various conventions, including the Geneva Convention. But I am not from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And when I get the chance to take down Russians, I will definitely do it. Since you call me a Nazi, I adhere to the doctrine of Adolf Eichmann, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that you and your children never live on this earth so that you can feel what it is like when innocent civilians die and bear all the pain and suffering,” the angry TV broadcaster said.
...
Following the outrage over his statements, Fakhrudin Sharafmal apologised on Channel 24 the next day.

He stated that his statements were unacceptable both for a journalist and as a person.

“The pain of loss and sadness for a friend spoke in me. Once again, I apologise. We will not allow the genocide that is happening in our country,” Sharafmal emphatically said.

(See the link I cited above for the source of this quote).

So, Mr. Sharafmal backtracked and apologized for his statement. One which he made in part because he felt he was already being accused of being a Nazi and because of the frustration he was experiencing at seeing innocent children dying and bearing pain and suffering. As he later admitted, his call for a genocidal war and declaration of allegiance to the doctrine of Adolf Eichmann were in his own words "unacceptable both for a journalist and as a person."

Satisfied?

[Xyls]

Putin you have been given the hint by China and India that they are not impressed by this shit show.

You have embarrassed yourself internationally, and you need to get out of Ukraine asap. If you get Mariupol (big if now because the Russian forces are clearly led by incompetents) you have your landbridge to Crimea and you need to spin out of this conflict as fast as possible before it goes into total defeat for Russia, let alone the collapse of your economy next month. The West is already going to be loathe to politically give you an offramp for your aggression by loosening sanctions the more war crimes you commit in Mariupol... Ukraine is inflicting massive damage onto your forces and you are nowhere close to taking Kyiv or Kharkiv nor will you ever be...

You are destabilizing your own country and all it takes is one rogue actor to assassinate you and send Russia into chaos. Not that I actually think you give a shit about the average Russian or improving your country anymore anyways...

[caltrek]

this is making the rounds lately, interesting to see what folks are responding to it with:

The USSR defeated it (Nazism)

I am too tired to address each point made in your citation, but I did want to provide at least a response to this clause. Notice how the contribution of England, France, U.S. etc. to the defeat of Nazism is not even acknowledged?

[Xyls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60785754

So these are supposedly Putin's demands.

They are kind of close to what I have been saying all along regarding demands... However, Russia is still asking for too much here and this has no realistic possibility of being accepted by Ukraine.

Firstly, Ukraine is not going to accept demilitarization and NATO neutrality, nor should they. Putin needs to pick one and that one should be the NATO neutrality. Zelenskyy has no political space to agree to both of these as that would be leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Russia which already has shown that it will not respect the 1994 Budapest Memorandum where they promised not to attack Ukraine if it gave up nuclear weapons. Why would they do this again? Russian agreements are already less than worthless. It would be better politically for him to leave Ukraine as a Russian meat grinder. He has no incentive to accept this, nor should he as it is the Russians who are going to have to weaken their position the longer this goes on. Alternatively, Ukraine could counter-propose that it gives up it's armed forces but instead re-pursues nuclear weapons as a nuclear surety for the deal that Russia will not attack ever again, since Budapest is basically null and void at this point anyways. But at that point Russia will then have little control over Ukrainian affairs which is really what Putin wanted in the first place but isn't going to get... Quite frankly this is a non-starter and there will be no peace until Russia drops that demilitarization demand.

Secondly, Ukraine giving up Crimea and the Donbas? I don't think so... Crimea is one thing, and a water agreement for Crimea is what Russia should be looking for as that is the main thing they need. But you need friendly Ukrainian relations to do that and quite frankly not trying to make an attempt to solve this issue leads me to believe that Putin would probably use this as a pretext for further attacks in the future. Donbas and demilitarization? Never. Not going to happen ever.

There is no hope of Ukrainian demilitarization so Russia should get real.

[Certain Russian user]

Here is current Ukrainian TV. The speaker says: "Let me quote Adolf Eichmann, to destroy the nation one should start from children, so that they will not grow and will not avenge... we need victory, if this require to kill your (Russian) families, I'm going to be first to start..."

I think it is only fair to understand his statement in the context... Fakhrudin Sharafmal apologised... Satisfied?

No, not satisfied. Nor at all surprised by your reply. We know each other too long and too well, after all.

By news like this, however, I'm satisfied:

blocked/79019

"The Ukrainian side confirmed that 21 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 25 more were injured during a missile attack in the city of Merefa in the Kharkiv region."

If even Ukraine, with their usual "fortunately no losses" stance, had to confirm 21 corpses, then only God knows how much it really was.

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[funkervogt]

Foreign fighters in Ukraine have ridiculed an American who fled the country when he was faced with fighting Russians in Kyiv with supplied gear, and complained in a viral video that he had been lured into a 'trap'.

Henry Hoeft, 28, was among thousands of foreigners to answer the call of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to help repel Moscow's invasion of his country - including a reported 3,000 U.S. citizens.

Hoeft, who also goes by the name of Henry Locke, is a 28-year-old former U.S. Army infantryman with associations with the American far-right group Boogaloo Boys.

A video of the Ohio native speaking to camera about his experiences trying to escape the country went viral on social media this week, with the army veteran admitting that he and two others fled the country in an ambulance.

He claimed that he and others in his unit were supplied with limited gear when asked to fight in Kyiv, something they refused to do.

But according to other foreign fighters, when the American attempted to join the Georgian National Legion - a unit of foreign fighters separate from Ukraine's Foreign Legion - he was rejected for not meeting the necessary requirements.

They also disputed claims that he made about an alleged attack on a Georgian National Legion base, and his experiences trying to leave Ukraine.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... hting.html

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Xyls]

Russian state TV abruptly cuts away mid-sentence from Putin speaking at rally

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/rus ... ed-stadium

Hmm... this reminds me of someone...

[Outlook]

Russian state TV abruptly cuts away mid-sentence from Putin speaking at rally

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/rus ... ed-stadium

Hmm... this reminds me of someone...

Apparently it was due to Putin limping away when he stopped talking at their little nazi rally.