#all of my thoughts go to the people of ukraine and to the soldiers who will inevitably die fighting for the greed of a few powerful men

[sayruq]

Here's more of what's been happening on the ground. (Once again I'm not an expert in war).

Palestinian fighters are still waging war on the state of Israel

It is clear that Hamas and other groups have access to anti aircraft weaponry and long range missiles, partly from looting Israeli bases but partly from (and this is unconfirmed) from the Russia-Ukraine war. It's not unexpected for weapons to end up smuggled into other countries during a war.

On the other hand, Israel went from swearing it would invade Gaza on the ground to doing just about anything but that

It's understandable why Israel would hesitate even with its 300,000 strong army

IDF is made up of mostly conscripted soldiers who normally act as civilians once they've served their 2.5 year mandatory conscription. Not only that, IDF acts more like a police force than an army. Its soldiers simply don't have the training or mentality to fight militia groups in their home turf.

America itself doubts its capabilities no matter how it words it. This is a country that has yet to win against a guerilla army so it has experience when it comes to this

Edit:

Edit 2: above Hamas states the obvious

In my previous post I highlighted how disorganised the Israel military was in response to Operation Flood Al Aqsa.

This hasn't changed in the days. Israel is behaving more like a cornered animal lashing out than the so called 'strongest army in the Middle East.'

It has been dropping bombs on Syria, Lebanon and Egypt aimlessly, more out of anger than calculated strategy

Its efforts to pushing back against the Palestinian militia isn't going well either

in addition to naked, barbaric cruelty towards Gaza because it is not producing results elsewhere

The tweet below is important as Russia is an Israeli ally. The Israeli right wing has been very favourable towards Putin, even willing to disagree with the US and EU policies on Russia. However Israel repeatedly bombing Syria is quickly souring Russia on the country. While Putin doesn't want to go against Israel at this point, he has become increasingly critical of the country in the past couple of days.

Saudi went from making a half-hearted 'both sides need to stop statements to cutting ties with Israel (ties Israel and America have worked very hard to form) to outrightly condemning Israel's treatment of the people of Gaza.

Naturally, with all of this happening, Israel has responded, not with ceasing the bombardment of Gaza, but by killing and assaulting journalists covering the genocide.

so that it could committ war crimes without it being documented and seen by the world. War crimes such as announcing that they'd bomb a hospital in Gaza and giving doctors and nurses just hours to evacuate their patients.

This, btw, is part of the reason they cut electricity so that Palestinians can't post their own genocide on social media. Israel brutality is costing them allies but they have no intention of stopping.

Despite all of this, there has been a great deal of support for Palestinians globally

In short, this war is not going the way Israel thought it would. They didn't crush Hamas and the other Palestinian military groups immediately after the battle of Re'im. In fact, they're still struggling against those groups right now. They've been humiliated in front of the world after being revealed to be paper tigers and as such, they're going after Palestinian civilians in increasingly horrific ways.

The Palestinian resistance is still optimistic and they're still carrying out their plan. There's still hope for a future without apartheid.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #colonialism

[effervescentdragon]

i dont know how to deal with this pain in my chest that's a constant. i dont't know how to take this much hurt.

i was a child of war, i type out and then i say to myself no, i am a child of war. its a funny story i tell people, how when i was to be born they bombarded our city the whole night. the gas that my dad spared so they could take my mother to the hospital was stolen, siphoned from the car, so what happened was that my mother's water broke in the back of a military vehicle that my dad's friends-colleagues-soldiers drove us all in to the hospital. i was born almost 12 hours later during a night when they bombarded my hometown from every mountain around it. it doesnt really matter; they bombarded us all the time.

my mother is a doctor. she worked in the hospital the whole time during the war and she worked relentlessly. she tells the stories of that time with a detachment that used to be curious to me when i was younger and is now just horrifying. "mom," i said to her years ago, "im learning about porphyrias." - "oh," she says, eyes lighting up, "the first time i encountered a case of porphyria was during the war, when we were shut in the hospital for 5 days because they kept bombarding us and we couldnt go home. one of the doctors not on call when we got stuck came with his daughter, drove to the hospital because his daughter was unconscious and we determined she had porphyria. it was really interesting to see." she doesn't see my horrified gaze. she doesn't know what she sounds like. she still doesn't, to this day. i stopped begging her to go to therapy one day when she looked at me, eyes far away, and said "if i go, where do i start?"

my friend was 5 when the war started. she asked me on saturday "are you always afraid of everything?". i shake my head. she said she wakes up sometimes gripped with fear and has to list out all the things in her life that are alright and asks her husband to hug her and still it doesnt help. she thought she was the only one to feel that way and then she tells me a new phrase she learned. generational trauma. i nod and remember her telling me how a grenade hit their building when she was 8, in the year i was born, and how she still has the burn scar on her leg from the shell.

my high school teacher told me a story once. it was war and she was 15, and it was a friday and they stopped bombarding for three days. the youth gathered at the main square on the date that used to be a celebration of youth. her friend had strict parents, "but whose parents arent strict in a war," she says with a laugh, and they all decided to walk her home before her curfew. a bomb hit the square, civillian target, and killed over 70 people. the youngest was 2. he died because a shrapnel pierced his heart as his mother was clutching him. she didn't notice until it was too late. i know her and her husband. i see them around the town sometimes. my mother worked in the hospital that day, when they brought in the wounded. my father brought them in. "thats what i always remember when my kids say im too strict," my teacher says and laughs. i laugh along. what else am i supposed to do.

the year my sister was born another genocide happened. the world looked away then too, like it does now. when the war in ukraine started my gynecologist tells me about it; about a woman who came in and said "i have 5 children." my gynecologist said "what do you mean five," lookimg at the four surrounding her. the women said "i had to leave my wounded son behind. it was the best chance these other four had to survive, if im with them". she has a placid smile on her face as i look at her in horror. "i learned not to ask stupid questions then," she says, and laughs, and i laugh along because what the fuck am i supposed to do.

i dont know how to take this pain of palestine right now and still i look. i look at the victims, thousands of innocent children and people murdered by israel's carpet bombing. i look at the ethnic cleansing happening in front of my eyes, all our eyes. i look at the world which refuses to call it what it is - an ongoing genocide of a whole population. i dont have the privilege of looking away. i opened my eyes into a war when i took my first breath, and i cannot in good conscience look away. war is in my blood; i am a child of war.

there is no point to this except to say somewhere what hurts me the most right now.

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free. it has to be. anything else is unnaceptable.

#its about palestine but i dont want to put it in the main tag because this is just my grief right now #cw war #and everything it entails #personal #effervescentdragonrants

[shittygaypornmagazine]

Dear Who-Ever-The-Fuck-You-Are's, let me explain to you: Russian filtration camps are not the "Will You or Won't You Pass The Border" kind of camps. These are "Will You Live Or Will You Get Murdered" kind of camps. This is the filtration. And my childhood best friend didn't pass it.

It happened back in June.

He was dragged out of his car, in which he sat with his mother for hours, after being told that they will be shot if they as much as open the window, along with other people in other cars, just like them wishing to escape Mariupol. The Russians took my best friend to their "station" and held him there for more than two hours. His mother said that she was forced to wait in the car, crying and screaming, guarded by one of the soldiers while he pointed his gun at her face through the window.

When the door of the station opened and her son stepped out: beaten, with blood all over his face and clothes, dragging his feet and holding his obviously broken hand at his side, she thought that maybe. Just maybe. It is a miracle and they passed. That they'll let them leave. That the Russians were done with them.

Except they weren't.

My best friend's mom saw as one of the Russian soldiers who exited the station after him laughed at something and pointed at him. Other two people peaked through the door and laughed too. It was strange, but she didn't care. Her son was about to open the door to the passenger seat and they were about to be out of there.

Except they weren't.

The Russian soldier raised his gun and, still laughing, never pausing the conversation he was engaging in with the others, pulled the trigger. At least three times in a row. And my best friend was killed with a single bullet that entered through his neck and painted his mother's white car red. The others pierced his body, each disrespecting it more than any god ever could.

That's when the soldier that pointed his gun at my now dead childhood best friend's mother took his body and tossed it into a pile just couple of meters from the station, full of other people.

Once alive.

Once happy.

Always Ukrainian.

His mother was in the state of shock. She was free now. Was ordered to go because "she passed". So she drove forward. Got to the territory controlled by Ukraine... But her soul never did. And she ended her life today, 18/11/2022. I wouldn't have even known if she hadn't sent me one of her Last Emails, thanking me "For Everything".

Except I never did anything. Or rather never did enough. I still don't do enough. I worked all summer and donated about 12k UAH to the army, give or take, but it's not enough. I can't do anything that will make me fell like it is and now I have the memory of two people to avenge. So, oh help me Devil, whom some of you think all Ukrainian's worship, because if I see a single person saying something about this war not being a genocide, I will do things both wrong and deadly.

#I am sorry for this vent #but I don't really know what else to do with all of this that I feel #so I decided to try and write it down #and that happened #donate to Come Back Alive! #help ukriane! #russia is a terrorist state #fuck russia #anti russia #russian invasion of ukraine #russian war crimes #war in ukraine #ukraine war #proud to be ukrainian #ukrainian #ukraine #loss #putin huilo #slava ukraini #heroyam slava

[loving-n0t-heyting]

the idea that the Germans overwhelmingly supported the nazis is a perversely fascinating tool of propaganda tbh bc it was and is used by so many people with different goals and in different ways. The nazis obv just tried to legitimize themselves by faking the results of eg the 1934 referendum; the various German governments of the post-war period in turn use this referendum to show that referendums are bad and everything should be left up to qualified politicians bc the people would just elect another Hitler (who was, in fact, empowered primarily by so-called qualified politicians). Various far-right groups uphold it to claim that modern democracy is a sham. The allies used it to tell theri soldiers "see? They chose this! You can kill them without second thought, men, women, and children, and it's totally justified bc they unanimously stand behind their dictator", and lastly (afaik, at least) there's the cult of guilt in Germany as well as internationally condemning every German who was born after the whole thing as guilty by association. Like practically zero people of influence have any interest at all in being honest about this, and if you do, somehow, it's nazi apologia to say that the NSDAP were oppressors who did not care about what the population actually wanted.

If you for some reason are in need of upping yr blood pressure you can try reading this obscene Jason stanley article in which inherent german blood guilt for Hitler is used to justify treating all future generations of Russians as analogously guilty of the invasion of ukraine by way of their national identity

Even so, my first thought when meeting another German is that their grandparents most likely would have enthusiastically supported murdering me and my family. […] [T]here is still fear and shame in their eyes whenever they attempt to steer the conversation away from their country’s dark legacy. There always will be, because genocide will not and cannot be forgotten – ever.

Imagine just saying this, in print, on purpose! I cannot, as the saying goes, fucking even

#ask #anon #as a friend pointed out: #does he think this is also true of jewish Germans? Or does he not think they *are* germans? #same for gay/communist/Romani/etc Germans

[mockerycrow]

Здравствуйте!

Я прочитала Вашу статью, как любой по Вашему мнению русский человек я должна была придти к Вам домой и вырезать Вашу семью у Вас на глазах. Но к Вашему удивлению, я хочу задать Вам вопросы

Во первых в Вашей статье Вы ссылались на конкретного человека, утверждая что он гомофоб и прочие эпитеты, а теперь вопрос. Действительно ли Вы смотрели его контент? Потому что ничего из выше указанного он не пропагандирует. И даже если он не любит геев это его права и его позиция. Такая же как у и Вас

Во вторых - если по Вашему мнению все русские это орки, напавшие на другую страну, то пожалуйста для профилактики почитайте историю своей страны и найдете много интересных моментов.

Да я русский человек, поэтому и написала данный пост. Я ПРОТИВ УБИЙСТВА МИРНЫХ ЖИТЕЛЕЙ. Но хочу донести до Вас что любую ситуация нужно рассматривать со всех сторон.

Если хотите подискутировать то я к Вашим услугам 🫡

First of all, I never said you that you were coming to MY house personally. I did not imply every single Russian person ever is going to come and slaughter everyone. Yes, I did mention the real soldier. Yes, I did watch the videos. Me rewatching those videos doesn’t change the fact that he’s teaching people how to effectively kill people who are defending their land. “Even if he doesn’t like gays, that’s his right and his opinion, just like you have your own” and I can hate him for it! It doesn’t change the fact that he’s fighting for an ultranationalist terrorist, though. I don’t know if you thought I was Ukrainian, but I’m an American. I know my history full well, I’m well aware we’ve done extremely similar things to Russia, and I’m aware we are still doing fucked up shit. If you’re talking about Ukrainian history.. I’m begging you to remember who had control of Ukraine for the longest time. If you are against murdering civilians, then you should understand my post was not made to target every single Russian person that ever existed on the internet. “every situation should be looked at from all the angles” this i don’t agree with because quite frankly, i’ve heard the reasonings of invading Ukraine and all of them have to do with ruined pride. Like I said in BIG BOLDED LETTERS in the post, it isn’t a post for debate. In the nicest way possible, you need to be able handle criticism about your country because you just took an entire post that was made about Ukrainian feelings and turned it into a Russian feelings one.

>> for anyone wondering, I’m aggressive in this because I don’t take disrespect. Don’t be passive aggressive towards me with these things and I won’t be mean. thanks

#call of duty #crow answers

[odinsblog]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, MAR 17, 2022

Full transcript below the cut

Hello everybody, and thank you for sharing your time with me. I'm sending this message through various different channels to reach my dear Russian friends, and the Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine.

I'm speaking to you today because there are things that are going on in the world that are being kept from you—terrible things that you should know about. But before I talk about the harsh realities, let me just talk about the Russian who became my hero.

In 1961 when I was 14 years-old, a very good friend of mine invited me to come to Vienna to watch the World Weightlifting Championship. I was in the audience when Yuri Petrovich Vlasov won the World Championship title, becoming the first human being to lift 200 kilograms over his head. And somehow a friend of mine got me backstage.

All of a sudden, there I was, a 14-year-old boy standing in front of the strongest man in the world. I couldn't believe it. He reached out to shake my hand—I mean, I still had a boy's hand. He had this powerful man's hand that swallowed mine, but he was kind, and he smiled at me. I will never forget that day. Never.

I went home and I put his photo above my bed to inspire me when I started lifting weights. My father told me to take down that picture and to find a German or an Austrian hero. He got really angry, and we argued back and forth.

He didn't like Russians, because of his experience in the second World War. You see, he was injured at Leningrad, where the Nazi army that he was part of did vicious harm to the great city and to its brave people. But I did not take the photograph down, no. Because it didn't matter to me what flag Yuri Vlasov carried.

My connections to Russia didn't stop there, by the way. Oh, it actually deepened when I traveled there, with bodybuilding and for my movies and met all my Russian fans.

And then one of those trips I remember I met Yuri Vlasov once again. It was in Moscow during the filming of Red Heat, which was the first American movie allowed to film in Red Square. Now, he and I spent the day together. He was so thoughtful, so kind, and so smart. And, of course, very giving. He gave me this beautiful, blue coffee cup. And ever since then I've been drinking my coffee out of it every morning.

Now, the reason why I'm telling you all of those things is that ever since I was 14 years old, I've had nothing but affections and respect for the people of Russia. The strength and the heart of the Russian people have always inspired me.

And that is why I hope that you will let me tell you the truth about the war in the Ukraine and what is happening there.

No one likes to hear something critical of their government. I understand that. But, as a longtime friend of the Russian people, I hope that you will hear what I have to say. And may I remind you that I speak with the same heartfelt concern as I spoke to the American people when there was an attempted insurrection on January sixth last year, when a wild crowd was storming the U.S. Capital, trying to overthrow our government.

You see, there are moments like this that are so wrong, and then we have to speak up. This is exactly the same with your government. I know that your government has told you that this is a war to denazify Ukraine. Denazify Ukraine? This is not true! Ukraine is a country with a Jewish president. A Jewish president, I might add, whose father's three brothers were all murdered by the Nazis.

You see, Ukraine did not start this war. Neither did nationalists or Nazis. Those in power in the Kremlin started this war. This is not the Russian people's war. No. As a matter of fact, let me tell you, what you should know is that 141 nations at the U.N. voted that Russia was the aggressor. They called for it to remove its troops immediately.

Only four countries in the entire world voted with Russia. That is a fact. See, the world has turned against Russia because of its actions in the Ukraine. Whole city blocks have been flattened by Russian artillery and bombs, including a children's hospital and a maternity ward. Three million Ukrainian refugees—mainly women, children, and the elderly—fled their country, and many more are trying to seek to get out.

It is a humanitarian crisis. Because of its brutality, Russia is now isolated from the society of nations.

You're also not being told the truth about the consequences of this war on Russia itself. I regret to tell you that thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed. They have been caught between the Ukrainians fighting for their homeland and the Russian leadership fighting for conquest.

Massive amounts of Russian equipment have been destroyed or abandoned. The destruction that Russian bombs are raining down upon innocent civilians has so outraged the world that the strongest global economic sanctions ever taken have been imposed on your country. Those who don't deserve it on both sides of the war will suffer.

The Russian government has lied, not only to the citizens, but to its soldiers. Some of the soldiers were told they were going to fight Nazis. Some were told that the Ukrainian people would greet them like heroes. And some were told that they were simply going on exercises—they didn't even know that they were going into war. And some were told that they were there to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. None of this is true.

The fact is that Russian soldiers have faced fierce resistance from the Ukrainians who want to protect their families and their country. When I see babies being pulled out of ruins, I think that I am watching a documentary about the horrors of the Second World War, not the the news of today.

Now let me tell you, when my father arrived in Leningrad, he was all pumped up on the lies of his government. And when he left Leningrad, he was broken, physically and mentally. He lived the rest of his life in pain. Pain from a broken back, pain from the shrapnel that always reminded him of those terrible years. And pain from the guilt that he felt.

To the Russian soldiers listening to this broadcast, you already know much of the truth that I've been speaking. You have seen it with your own eyes. I don't want you to be broken like my father. This is not the war to defend Russia that your grandfathers or your great-grandfathers fought. This is an illegal war.

Your lives, your limbs, your futures, are being sacrificed for a senseless war condemned by the entire world.

Now, to those in power in the Kremlin, let me just ask you: Why would you sacrifice those young men for your own ambitions?

To the soldiers who are listening to this, remember that 11 million Russians have family connections to Ukraine. So every bullet you shoot, you shoot a brother or a sister. Every bomb or every shell that falls, is falling not on an enemy but on a school, or a hospital, or a home. I know that the Russian people are not aware that such things are happening.

So I urge the Russian people and the Russian soldiers in Ukraine to understand the propaganda and the disinformation that you are being told. I ask you to help me spread the truth. Let your fellow Russians know the human catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine.

And to President Putin, I say: You started this war. You are leading this war. You can stop this war.

Now let me close with a message to all of the Russians who have been protesting in the streets against the invasion of Ukraine: The world has seen your bravery. We know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. You have been arrested. You have been jailed. And you have been beaten. You are my new heroes.

You have the strength of Yuri Petrovich Vlasov. You have the true heart of Russia. My dear Russian friends, may God bless you all.

(source)

#politics #ukraine #russia #arnold schwarzenegger #🇺🇦

[thegayhimbo]

Say "I know nothing about the history of Russia's treatment of Ukraine (the Holodomor being one such example) or what's currently going on between Russia and Ukraine" without saying it. 🙄😒

For those who can't access the video due to the "age restriction," here is a transcript of the 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley interviewing Freed Ukrainian Prisoners of War:

SPOILER ALERT: The following video/transcript contains descriptions of beatings, torture, rape, starvation, child deaths, and human rights violations.

As for "Russia is not continuously bombing all civilian infrastructure and committing a genocide," there have been multiple posts and articles over the past 2 years proving otherwise (including their recent attack on New Year's Eve). This also includes the Russian war crime of Ukrainian children being kidnapped by Russian soldiers, deported to Russian reeducation camps, getting brainwashed, and being used as Russian Propaganda tools:

Between the 2:27 and 2:37 mark, Isobel Yeung (the narrator) doesn't mince her words when she notes how Vladimir Putin and his cronies are accused of trying to "ethically cleanse a generation of young Ukrainians."

If you've read this far, you can probably come to the conclusion that imtryingsir did absolutely zero research, or even cared enough to follow the last 2 years of news about the Russian-Ukraine War, before making their abhorrently idiotic comment.

So why am I bothering to dignify this with a response when it's clear this person is being maliciously stupid? Because of this post. Specifically, the disgusting little remark they made where they tried to justify why a Jewish woman on social media deserved to be bullied/harassed (which eventually led to the Russia apologist comment above when they were called out on it by multiple Tumblr users):

Putting aside the gross victim-blaming and thinly-disguised antisemitism (which I'm sure my Jewish followers are deeply sick of at this point), what really gets me is how disingenuous this user is. They don't actually give a rat's ass about what's going on in Gaza: Someone who truly cares about genocide and the deaths/suffering of innocent people wouldn't be going out of their way to downplay/whitewash the genocidal actions of another country (Russia), or making comments dismissing another groups problems/trauma while dehumanizing them, or even straight up wishing for more death and destruction:

People like this (as well as the so-called "Pro-Palestine" users in the Jewish woman's post who were harassing her) are devoid of empathy. They relish in being cruel and condescending to others because they feel empowered in doing so, and they know they can get away with it without facing lasting consequences. They are doing nothing to help alleviate an already horrific situation, and are just making the world a worse place to live in. I'm sure they'll tell themselves the sweet little lies about how their bullying and antisemitism is really "activism" or "caring for Palestinians" or "Being antizionist; not antisemitic" (while continuing to spew the same bigoted rhetoric that Jews have been calling out as antisemitic for YEARS). At this point, I truly don't give a damn what their excuses are since they will grasp at anything, no matter how flimsy, to rationalize their behavior.

I never thought I'd see the day where a bunch of Leftist/Westerners would embody two of the most loathsome fictional characters in media (right down to their hateful, sadistic, vile attitudes), and yet that is the point we've currently reached:

To say this has been deeply unpleasant to witness is an understatement. 😒

I talked about this in a recent post about antisemitism from the Left, and I'm going to reiterate something I said: "There is a larger conversation that needs to be had about how selective Leftist empathy and compassion really is. By this, I’m talking about people on the Left who will a.) Only be compassionate/empathetic when it’s convenient for them, or b.) Only be compassionate/empathetic towards people they think are “deserving” of it."

People like imtryingsir only prove why it's important to have this conversation: If you're perfectly okay dismissing/downplaying the suffering of one group of people (be it Jews, Ukrainians, Palestinians, etc) so you can prop up your preferred group of people who are suffering because you think they are more "deserving" of empathy/compassion......................you need to do some serious self-reflection about the type of person you've become.

#tgh opinions #antisemitism #antisemitism on the left #leftist antisemitism #jumblr #ukraine #russian invasion of ukraine #russian war in ukraine #war in ukraine #russia is a terrorist state #imtryingsir #60 minutes #vice news #isobel yeung #'i'm antizionist not antisemitic' my ass 🙄 #leftist hypocrisy #leftist morons #social issues

[imfeelingbad]

(As a ukrainian) I lost all hope in humanity forever ago and I'm pretty sure I won't change someone's opinion, but I just want to tell the truth that i cry about every time.

I didn't see my home for 2 years. When I was there all I heard was explosions, bombs and warplanes. I saw ruined houses. I saw my half-destroyed school near which a projectile fell. I saw fire, smoke, a lot of it. I was in there. I heard all this. I heard. I saw. with my own eyes and ears. And what did you see and heard in the west, saying "This is all just Ukrainian propaganda"?

I was in the metro and saw hundreds of my fellow citizens, that a few months ago were casually going in this metro to their jobs, schools, universities etc. Some were sitting on the floor, some on old crusty carpets, with no fresh air, no normal ability just to go pee, not even talking about washing. But they were there just to be safe. Just to not die. They didn't care about hygiene, warm food and bath, delicious drink in their favorite café, all they did care about was just surviving.

Then I heard about Bucha massacre (read about this, if you think "russian soldiers are just poor people who don't want war and against Putin!!"). I heard hundreds women, children, men being raped, killed, tortured and firstly I was shocked. Then I heard about Irpin, Mariupol', Izium, Bahmut, now Avdiivka and many other ukrainian cities, that were completely destroyed by russians. But the difference is now I'm not shocked or surprised. Because now I understand this is Russian world, Russian culture, whole Russia in general.

But no one cares. No one cares about genocide, if the victim is big country in the center of Europe (even though every country has many people of color, and the biggest country in the world terrorizes it).

I saw a girl in the tiktok that was telling about the film "20 days in Mariupol". I looked in the comments and started crying. Why am I, my family, my friends, all ukrainians supposed to suffer while some westerns and russians are just laughing and saying "slava russia"?

Many people were talking about Gaza and I agree, there is total hell in Gaza and I feel very sorry for Palestinian people. I know how it is. But what gives YOU, a person that is sitting in the safe place with all basical human needs and think a war is just some trend, the right to compare the DEATHS of people that DIED from GENOCIDE and say that one GENOCIDE is less bad than another.

I'm not saying that we are suffering more than Palestinians, I'm saying that it's just so cruel to normalize deaths of people.. any people. That DON'T HURT anybody. That just want to live in a free country.

If I say, boycott Israel, all people from Israel are terrorists, people will agree with me. But when I say Russia is the terrorist, people will say "No, you're just xenophobic!"... And the genocide of my people is NOT xenophobic?? And the hundreds of years of destruction of Ukrainian culture is not xenophobic??

"What about Gaza?"

Gaza needs help. Ukraine needs help. Congo needs help. Syria needs help. No one should suffer. THAT'S my point.

Did you hear something about Holodomor in Ukraine? About MILLIONS of Ukrainians that died because soviet government were taking LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING BREAD CRUMB?? around 3.9 million ukrainians died. And this is only according to official data. These are only people whose identities have been established. It does not take into account people who were missing, or who were just horribly maimed.

If you still think I'm an ukrainian propagandist and not some fucking random teen like you who's just sharing my thoughts, read about Holodomor in Kazakhstan, first Russian-Chechen war, SECOND Russian-Chechen war, Russian-Georgian war, Russia’s invasion of Syria, Illegal occupation of Crimea and Donbas or just anything that involves Russia and war crimes.

If you're still saying this is all propaganda, Photoshop, I'm not surprised. Of course, everything around is propaganda. But not your beautiful truthful swamp.

Sometimes I just wish I was in yours shoes. Not caring about anything.

I don't care what russia supporting bots will say, I don't care people will not believe me, I just want to feel alive again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_war_crimes

#war #genocide of ukrainians #russia is a terrorist state #ukraine #україна #palestine #free palestine #free ukraine #genocide #first post #last post #russia #ruzzia #israel #ussr

[avelera]

So I was on a panel about cyberwarfare as it relates to the Russian invasion of Ukraine back in December 2022 and afterwards while talking to some people said that the boldest statement I was willing to put money on was that we were closer to the end of the war in Ukraine than to the start of it and that Russia would fail and collapse sooner than people thought, just like the Soviet Union where people were blindsided by the collapse.

I pointed out that there’s fractures everywhere in their front that entirely relied on plugging by throwing untrained bodies at the problem, which would inevitably be unpopular at home. That besides the size of their force, Russia was completely outclassed. That they’d expected an easy fight and got blindsided. That corruption had gutted their effectiveness to the tune of billions in money stolen by the oligarchs. We couldn’t say when it would all fall apart but the West was still buying into Russian propaganda to continue to see strength where there was nothing but floundering and weakness propped up by brutality.

I pointed out that just about every objective that Ukraine claimed it would achieve, they had, and nearly every objective Russia had claimed they would achieve they’d failed at, and eventually those would add up and to stop thinking there was some deeper clever play at work. That they were in a shit ton of trouble, the question was just when it would all come crashing down.

And it was a bold thing to say! Possibly naive! It might still be naive if Wagner really does achieve their goals and do as they promised and turn around and go back to the front. But that seems a long shot only from the sheer internal disarray caused by them abandoning it. I can’t imagine those soldiers are going to want to go back. The parallels to the Bolsheviks is jaw dropping that Russia would again put all their political dissidents in prison, then recruit from prisons for a war, thus giving all their political enemies military training and cohesion.

I also can’t help but think that the Wagner leader saw this was the best chance he’d ever have to seize power with the experienced army at his disposal and with threat of assassination looming over him he was basically given Caesar’s choice and had to cross to the Rubicon or die.

But anyway. There’s still no way of knowing how this plays out. This is a truly chaotic situation reminiscent of the days of Rome’s Soldier Emperors or Machiavelli’s warring Italian cities, when the man with the biggest, most effective army could take over empires if he moved cleverly enough, or combust spectacularly in the attempt. It’s truly mind boggling to behold in the modern era with such a major state.

My greatest hope is that this proves enough for Ukraine to achieve a decisive victory and regain all its territory while Russia is distracted.

And, I admit, I’m feeling a little vindicated right now after saying this to a room of people who had largely bought into Russia’s claims about its own power. These current events are not things that happen to a successful, stable world power.

#Maggie rambles #current events

[queeranarchism]

Ukraine War 101 thingy

This week I had a bad day and I started complaining that a lot of leftists don't really seem to understand the military aspects of the fighting in Ukraine. Today I'm having a better day so I decided I could just write a 'Ukraine War 101' thingy for people who want to understand it a little better.

It'll be imperfect, incomplete, simplified and biased. This is a big story where sorting through all the misinformation is almost impossible. Here's my attempt anyway. I'm going to leave out most of the political stuff and the war crimes and focus only on things that directly impact the progress of the war. I’ll be using a few maps by Aljazeera. Let's dive in:

THE SPRING

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th (2022), everyone expected Russia to win and it's worth mentioning the numbers for context:

Russia had 900.000 soldiers, 2.000.000 reservists and an annual military budget of 62 billion dollars. It had 42.500 tanks and armoured vehicles, 1500 military aircraft, 500 helicopters.

Ukraine had 210.000 soldiers, 220.000 reservists and an annual military budget of almost 6 billion dollars. It had 14.7000 tanks and armoured vehicles, 100 military aircraft, 34 helicopters.

All in all, that's a huge difference. But Russia couldn't use all that military power, for two reasons:

A reservist is someone with limited military training who can only be called upon to protect against invasion, not to attack. So when the war started, Ukraine could use its reservists and Russia could not. Ukraine also mobilised all male citizens and started training them.

Russia is geographically the biggest country in the world and it must defend all it's borders, so it can not send its entire army to Ukraine.

It is believed that when the war started, Russia committed 175.000 or 200.000 troops. Meaning that in manpower, there were more Ukrainian soldiers in the fight. Still the difference in military equipment was huge and everyone expected the Russians to defeat Ukraine within weeks or a few months. But a couple of things went very wrong for Russia:

Russia scattered it's army, attacking from the north, east and south at the same time. The goal was probably to quickly overwhelm the Ukrainian army and take Kiev. But this means they were outnumbered or matched almost everywhere, and one thing that is fairly consistent in warfare is that defending territory is easier than attacking.

Russia did not destroy Ukraine's' tiny air force. Normally, if you're invading a country, you start by trying to surprise and destroy the enemies' air force while it's still on the ground. After that, you basically have almost unlimited opportunity to attack your enemy from above. It's a huge advantage. Russia did not destroy Ukraine's air force and does not seem to have really tried. Maybe it thought the numbers were too small to matter. Big mistake.

Russia did not mentally prepare its troops for the attack. Moments before the attack, many soldiers still believed there would be no war and that they were just gathered at the border to intimidate Ukraine. When the war did start, soldiers were shocked, confused and not ready to risk their lives. Ukrainian soldiers on the other side were incredibly motivated. It looks like Putin also did not trust his mid-level commanders enough to inform them about the coming invasion, meaning they too were not well prepared and made a lot of tactical mistakes.

Russia committed most of its tanks in a massive attack on Kiev and royally fucked it up. The thing is: any tank has vulnerable spots, so unless you protect your tanks well, a few soldiers with a simple hand-held anti-tank weapon can destroy a tank if they can just get close enough to target its vulnerabilities. Once a tank has been taken out, it becomes a huge dead weight on the road. Russia put all its tanks in one 17-miles-long column, which means that Ukrainian soldiers could easily destroy the tanks at the front and the back and the entire column was stuck in place. To get un-stuck, you need a tank-tow-truck. The Russians had brought those but had not positioned them close to the front or back of the column. So now all the Ukrainian army needed to do was find the tow trucks that were slowly trying to reach the front of the column, and take out those. This very basic tank-tactics-101 mistake pretty much ruined the main attack on Kiev.

THE SUMMER

By the end of March, Russia's plans had clearly failed and Ukraine was even succeeding in launching small counterattacks. Ukraine had used up a lot of its own weapons but was by now receiving regular supplies of light weapons from the EU en US. At first these weapons could only really make small dents in the Russian advance but at least the Ukrainian troops still had something to fight with.

Russia gave up its big ambitious Plan A (overwhelm and defeat all of Ukraine) and went for Plan B: take the south and east regions of Ukraine and hold them. Russia pulled it's troops away from Kiev, regrouped and resupplied them, and then started a renewed attack in the south and east. This time, their plan was to concentrate far more troops in a small area. This part of the fighting included long attacks on cities like Mariupol.

This was much harder of Ukraine to counter and things were starting to look badly for them. This was when Ukraine started pushing its allies to receive long range missiles. It might be worth explaining why these are crucial: basically, if you can hit your opponent from 30 mile away, but your opponent can hit you from 40 miles away, then he can hit you whenever you enter the 40 mile zone, so you will face heavy losses every attack. But if you then get the power to hit an opponent from 50 miles away, you can stay in a safe location while shooting at them. This is a massive advantage, especially if you're trying to limit your losses because you're running out of manpower (which would become an issue for both sides over the summer). Ukraine demonstrated the importance of long range missiles by taking out the Russian flagship Moskva (using its own limited supply of anti-ship missiles).

By the middle of the summer, Russia had mostly completed Plan B (take the south and east regions of Ukraine) but it hadn't won the war. The next step of Plan B appeared to be: hold out for the winter. Russia started targeting Ukraines electricity grid and power plants, while at the same time limiting Russian gas supplies to Europe.

A couple of things were brewing under the surface though:

Both sides were running low on troops. Even the ones that weren't dead or wounded were in need of more rest than at the start of the war.

Russia was running out of missiles and out of spare parts for tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. This is where the sanctions (which failed miserably at their original goal of destroying the Russian economy) proved very impactful. In the 2020s a piece of artillery requires highly specialized parts, computer chips and semi-conductors, a lot of which are not produced in Russia. By now it was getting harder and harder to get these parts. So Russia was forced to start using outdated 1970s equipment, which doesn't require so much digital tech to function.  

By June, the US promised HIMARS rocket launchers to Ukraine. These have a great range and at the end of July the US added smart missiles with a long range, which can find their own target. They're expensive and ridiculously effective. Basically: with a non-smart missile you might have to shoot dozens of them to hit a target. With a smart missile, one shot is enough. (the idea that such precision creates less civilian causalities is bullshit though, they will destroy anything that happens to be near the target). Other countries also started providing more and better weapons to Ukraine. I’m mentioning the US here because they provided the biggest most impactful chunk and I don’t have time to go over them all.

Russia's command structure was doing badly. A lot of generals had died or been fired, there was a lot of distrust, and from the outside it seems like Putin has started micromanaging the war. This is a bad idea. One man can not oversee something as large and complex as the war, especially when that man has to handle politics and diplomacy at the same time. But Putin no longer seemed to trust that his generals could do the job.

THE FALL

On September 6th, Ukraine launched a mayor counter offensive. It was able to do this largely because of a lot of new weapons from the US and EU, including long range and smart missiles. Before the counter attack, Ukraine did kind of a classic trick: it did a small attack in the south, where there are valuable ports to recapture. Russia quickly pulled a LOT of troops south, leaving the North vulnerable. Ukraine then launched its main counter attack in the North, recapturing vital railway connections and electricity grids instead. There were very few Russian troops, the HIMARS took out key bridges and communication, and as a result the Russian defenses in the North collapsed fast. It was just a ridiculously effective counter offensive and the Ukrainian army made quick progress. This wasn’t only due to a good deception and good weapons, it was also just incredibly well organized.

The area that Russia had lost in Ukraine wasn’t massive, but Putin PANICKED. In a short time he did three or four things:

Organize fake referenda in the conquered regions, so these regions could 'request' to join Russia and Russia could officially annex them. The moment these regions became Russian, it would become legal for Putin to commit the reserves there (remember: A reservist can only be called upon to protect against invasion, not to launch an attack) and to deploy nuclear weapons.

Announce the mobilisation of 300.000 reserves. In reality, it is believed that Russia is actually trying to mobilize 1.000.000 reserves.

Threaten, once again, to use nuclear weapons if needed.

At this time it is believed by many that Russia may have sabotaged two gas pipelines from Russia to Europe (North Stream I and II). This has no direct military effect because Russia had already stopped supplying Russian gas to Europe through these pipelines. However, the sabotage occurred at the exact moment that a new gas pipeline between Norway and Denmark, Germany and Poland was being opened for the first time. This new pipeline was created specifically to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas. The sabotage seems to have been a threat to Europe. It says "we can not openly declare war on the EU, but we can secretly sabotage your gas connections and you will not be able to prove that we did it". This is a very serious threat.

So where are we now?

At the moment, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has stalled. It's hard to say but it seems that Ukraine is running low on combat-ready troops and on smart long-range missiles. It will probably need some time to patch up and move troops, and it will need new supplies of missiles before it will be able to advance further. Given that Ukraine has just demonstrated how effectively it can regain territory when it has the right tools for the job, it will probably get those new supplies of high quality weapons. (This will be expensive and the US is no longer giving away existing weapons from its storage, it is now increasing weapon production just to keep supplying Ukraine, but it will probably keep sending weapons to Ukraine.)

Putin is today announcing the annexation of the conquered territories. It is unlikely (but not impossible) that he will be quick to use nuclear weapons to defend them. What he does seem to be doing is filling them with hundreds of thousands of newly mobilized Russian reserves as quickly as possible. By all accounts these are badly trained or untrained men who lack a lot of basic armor and weapons. And above all: these reserves do not want to be there. They're not going to any be good at attacking any time soon, so they'll probably be used for defense only until they get more experience and better tools.

This means that once Ukraine is ready to advance again, a small, motivated,  experienced and well equipped Ukrainian army that has so far had excellent tactical leadership will go up against a massive unmotivated inexperienced and poorly equipped army with a failing command structure. This is probably going to be incredibly bloody and most casualties will be Russians, but that does not necessarily mean that Ukraine will win. So far Ukraine has never been truly vastly outnumbered before. That is about to be a real issue and there is a lot of territory left to reconquer. Ukraine is going to be unable to risk too many lives of their own troops, so it’s going to have to rely on good long range equipment to do part of the job from a safe distance.

Meanwhile both sides are going to have to deal with colder weather as the fall and winter sets in. Neither are in a good position to do this. Electricity is failing, in the regions that have seen battle there is a lack of good housing. Behind the battlefield civilians and hospitals need the same scarce energy and warmth that the army needs. Russia will certainly continue to target civilians, hospitals, power plants and infrastructure. Humanitarian aid from the EU is going to be as important as military aid in the months to come. Russia is confident that it can win a winter war because it has always been good at winter wars in the past. But it has never done this on foreign soil, with such unmotivated and ill-equipped troops. This might be a lot harder for them than they realize.

From a military perspective, the next stage of the war looks slow, cold and bloody, but you can never entirely predict war and you can’t predict Putin. He has demonstrated consistently that he doesn’t play by the rules of conventional warfare. Chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, war crimes against Ukrainian civilians and covert attacks on Europe’s power supplies are all possible. Of these, my guess would be we’ll mostly see the last two. But I could be proven wrong within the next few days.

[booksandabeer]

I’ve read like almost all the angsty stucky fics (i’ve been doing this for years), so I just want to know if there’s anything new? Thank you so much.

Hello there!

(1) You've read almost ALL the angsty Stucky fics out there? HOW? I've been diligently working on that goal for years and I'm nowhere near close to achieving it (also it's kind of a moving target, so you know...). Do you ever sleep? Eat? 😜 (2) How new is 'new'? Any particular preferences? What level of angst are we talking here? Give me all the information, please, so I can find you the perfect fic!

Anyway, as always, I tried my best. Here we go:

All of these are fics that were either completed in 2022 or are so fresh out of the oven, they are currently being posted.

Prisoner One by ancientreader | E, 134K

Author's summary: Captain Steve Rogers is assigned to evaluate the security arrangements for an unusually dangerous prisoner. Of course, nothing is what it seems.

A truly original AU in which almost everything is the same: Steve is Captain America, Bucky is the Winter Soldier, they were both born in the 1910s & grew up in Brooklyn. Everything is the same, well, except for the fact that they never knew each other before the war. What happens when they both meet for the first time in the 21st Century, where everyone has an agenda and seemingly no one can be trusted? This is one of those fics that, even while your heart is hurting for the characters, makes you squeal with delight because it is so full of smart ideas, little details, and bits of characterization that subvert both canon and fanon interpretations.

You are here by dharmashark | M, 22K

Author's summary: Did he mean to—did Steve know, during that long march back from Azzano, that he slept the whole night with a hand through the open neckline of Bucky’s shirt? Each time Bucky woke, heart racing, he felt that heavy, certain weight against his chest and remembered who he was, and where he was supposed to be.

Bucky wanders between DC and Bucharest trying to understand himself, outrun his ghosts, and hide Steve from both. Steve won’t let him. And certain ghosts won’t let up.

A "classic" post-TWS Recovery/Up All Night to Get Bucky fic--and I mean that in the BEST way possible. Gorgeous writing, intense emotions, and a great understanding of the characters and their dynamic. The first part in particular floored me in a way that I didn't think could still happen to me after reading millions of words of Stucky fanfic. This story looked me in the eye and said "oh, so you think you've seen everything? You think you've become immune? Well, watch me as I tear your heart right out of your chest." To be fair, it then proceeded to slowly, gently put it back in again.

then a small thing happened by BeaArthurPendragon | E, 41K

Author's summary: After a Russian bomb in Ukraine ends combat photographer Bucky Barnes’ career several decades ahead of schedule, he returns to the lake house he hasn’t visited since his parents died to put the pieces back together over the long, lonely winter. He’s got no idea what his life is supposed to look like now that he’s not constantly on the move and facing danger every day, but an unexpected friendship with his elderly neighbor—and then her astronaut son—leads to the kind of connection he never thought he’d get to have.

Bea is one of my top 3 all-time favorite writers for this ship and a self-described "peddler of smut and hard-won joy", and that's exactly it. Like all of her works, this is a smart, mature and empathicly written story about people who've endured horrific things, but who've persisted and kept a tight grip on their own humanity even in the face of unspeakable atrocities. It's also funny, and tender, and hot. An incredibly satisfying read that reminds you to never lose your sense of wonder in the world.

Nothing Said by theemdash | M, 8K

Author's summary: There’s always been another war, another reason for Steve to keep his feelings to himself and keep moving on. For all his wishes to do things differently, he never figured out how. Which is why following Fury to the moon, passing on the shield, and leaving Bucky to discover himself seemed like the right answer. When Steve gets caught in a force field surrounding a crumbling civilization, he starts to realize everything he thought was wrong.

A beautiful, introspective story about Steve's state of mind post-Endgame. So quiet and yet so intense, with a lovely, soft ending. Featuring a Steve who has to figure out himself and how to be brave enough to truly live, and a Bucky who knows him, has always known him, and ultimately helps Steve to save himself and find happiness.

WIPs

better to speak or die by emilywithoutY | M, currently 14K (Chapter 2/13 Ch), updates every Thursday & Sunday

Do you think Jonathan understood what happened that day David first stepped into his father’s court?

All James wants is to play his part well enough that his mother stops looking at him with that twist of regret in her smile.

Summers in C. are as endless and hazy as when they were kids. The only thing to break the sun-soaked monotony is the arrival of the new summer intern. While the rest of the household—and half the village—fawn over Steve Rogers’ movie star looks and understated charm, James finds him aloof and his polite interest near unbearable. But as they collide in vulnerable moments, the sparks of frustration ignite something neither has the power to stop.

Does this sound like a beautiful, passionate, sun-drenched summer romance in Italy, with great 80s period details, exquisite writing, and the bittersweet sting of childhood nostalgia? Why yes it does--and it is all that! Until it pulls out the rug from under you. A spectacularly good No-Powers AU, loosely based on Call Me By Your Name.*

*(full disclosure I beta-read this so I might be biased, but it also means that I can say with full confidence that this insanely good all the way through.)

Still Running by TessaBennet | Part 4 in  What I'm Looking For series | M, currently 16K (Chapter 5/30), updates every Friday

Author's summary: Steve Rogers is, against his wishes and intentions, still alive in the 21st century. There's aliens in New York, there's an intelligence agency in his name, there's more new faces than old ones. And Steve? He's reluctant about it, but he's going to have to try to get by. Finding his footing isn't a job he wants to tackle; but then, when's the last time he got what he wanted?

Do you want to go on a canon-compliant (currently) 290K journey of Suffering, Pining, and Pain? Here you go! This is the 4th part in the author's ongoing and awe-inspiring project of 'Let's Try to Make Sense of the MCU & Ultimately Fix It'. It's full of beautiful character insights, historical details, and original ideas to fill out the parts we didn't get to see on screen. The installments can be read as standalones, but I really recommend that you start from the beginning if you have the time & willingness to cry A WHOLE LOT.

Angst Angst Baby Part 1 - Even More Stucky Fic Recs

#stucky fic rec #stevebucky fic rec #steve x bucky fic rec #stucky #stevebucky #steve x bucky #stucky fanfic recs #stucky fic recs #steve/bucky #steve x bucky fic recs

[justacynicalromantic]

"Enemies comes here saying they want to "free" us, but they only steal our land for themselves"

The song, amazingly (actually, no, not surprising at all), is more than ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.

"Through steppes" - Ukrainian folk song written during its war for Independence from the Russian Yoke, after the Russian Tsardom Empire fell in the early 20th century.

Hey! Through steppes, through dark ravines,

Iron regiments are marching forth.

Let all the brave men join us!

We will become knights, oh young ones!

We don't want to fight for another's cause,

We don't want to fight as hired soldiers -

We all live only for our Ukraine,

Only for her, we would give our necks.

Enemies comes here saying they want to "free" us,

But they only steal our land for themselves.

Well, they will have land - where their graves are going to be,

Upon them, our freedom will be blossoming!

Fly, our song! Fly far under the blue skies!

Sing to the hearts of all Ukrainians!

Let our freedom always be with us!

Let the end come to all the enemy plans!

That war would turn out a failure.

Much like Ichkeria 80 years later would, Ukraine, fighting alone, lost and was occupied by Russian army, instilling a loyal puppet government and occupying Ukraine for another 80 years - until the Soviet Union, an economic and military failure by then, collapsed in on itself, which let Ukraine - and other states Russia had captured - to declare its independence again in 1991.

It is important to understand that it was never a design of the Russian elites - it was never what they wanted, they simply had no choice and no power at that time to stop the other nations from freeing themselves.

But as soon as they were able, they went on to "collecting" the lands they lost.

First, Ichkeria - a weaker state a still weak after the Soviet collapse Russia could handle back then. Russians burned and bombed its capital to the ground, mass killing many civilians and completely occupying the territory now known as Chechnya.

Then, a try at Moldova (part of Moldova's lands are now occupied by Russian mercenary army).

Then, a try at Georgia (part of Georgia lands are now occupied by Russian mercenary army).

In 2014 a try at Ukraine (part of our territory - my home region actually - had been and is now occupied by Russian mercenary army, but after the full invasion of 2022, Russian regular army is also stationed there now🙄).

Now, in 2022 a full invasion of Ukraine.

What you knew of Russia is a lie.

A propaganda they fed you.

Russia always was and is a colonialistic empire.

It has subjugated and erased nations for centuries.

Have you never wondered HOW EXACTLY IT HAS GOTTEN THIS BIG A TERRITORY?????

The total number of nationalities and ethnicities in Russia is probably bigger than the number of minorities in the US.

THOSE ARE ALL THEIR LANDS.

Moreover, they all mostly still live on them (i.e. it's not like a united country where all nationalities mingle completely).

Yes, there are also white people there in those lands - many of them ethnical Ukrainians actually who already forgot their ancestry. And you know why? BECAUSE THEY WERE DISPLACED THERE!!!!

Russians, after occupying a territory, did this thing to hold power there - they forcibly took those who resisted and forcibly SENT THEM TO LABOR CAMPS they instilled in a far off land of Asian ethnicities (like, half of the world far off lands) - which they captured earlier. On the other hand, they encouraged their own white Russian settlers to come to this European beautiful warm country Ukraine and settle in the homes of displaced Ukrainians🤷🏻

They did send Russians also to those cold northern Asian and Middle-East lands - convicts, prisoners, dissidents, etc. - all those who the regime deemed as unsavory and broken - that the only their worth, as the regime thought, was to serve in a labor camp to "bring culture and language" to "uneducated savages" who lived there (those be the Asian many ethnicities whose lands they captured) - direct quote there. I still see and hear MODERN Russians calling people of those ethnicities "ungrateful" if they say anything bad about Russia - because apparently "Russia brought them up from the dirt - gave them culture, education, taught them to read and write"🙄🙄🙄🤦🤦🤦 (this is so funny actually - because many of those lands are descendants of the Mongol Empire - which was prosperous and powerful when Moscow didn't even exist yet🤣 And when Moscow did exist - it existed as a small, weak, rural 'dutchy' which paid tributes to the great Mongol Empire. It's like saying that Saxons (no offense to Saxons but still, Saxons were awesome but Roman Empire was awesome-r) brought culture and language and education to Italians, because many Italians can speak English now)

All in all, Russia had many "funny" ways of managing the population.

#ukraine #music #ukrainian music #folk #revolution #history #Youtube

[alcestas-sloboda]

this year broke my heart and left it lying in pieces. the worst thing one can imagine become daily news reports. death, ruins, destruction, that godforsaken air-raid siren, constant fear and anxiety but there were also love and hope, pride and joy - there was everything.

i would never forget that day, the shaking of my hands and worried voices of my parents. that first week or two when you don’t know what will happen next. than there were 5 month of daily volunteering through which I hopefully helped people who needed it the most.

there were also two semesters of uni, the interest in which I lost a long time ago but still couldn’t dare to let it go. there is now only one semester left and I will be a bachelor, what happens next? who knows? I hate myself for thinking the worst, for not knowing what to do with myself, not trying in general - I will try to change it, I will, I must.

this year was one that almost gave a reason to keep going. those tragedies became a point of no return - my worldview changed completely. there are things that will haunt me for the rest of my life and there were people who will be with me forever.

the only thing I want to talk about now is my country. my beloved motherland. my people. my greatest support. my steel. nobody believed in us, no one thought we would withstand but we did. as we always do. we showed the world what courage looks like, what actually great culture looks like - the one that blossoms even under the rocket fires not the one that destroys museums and theatres - what great people look like.

I’m eternally grateful to all of the defenders for everything: for every lived moment, for every eaten meal and coffee, for every read book and concert. you give everything and much more for our future and all I hope for is that my support is at least a ted helpful.

eternal glory to all the fallen heroes. to everyone who gave their lives for peaceful and victorious Ukraine.

there were so many things that keep appearing inside my brain right now. that first zelenskyy address on 24th. bucha and irpin’. me and my friend making the most random playlist during the night because we just couldn’t sleep. azovstal’ and mariupol. roman ratushnyi. eurovision win. kremenchuk. vinnytsia. when I started watching football again. kharkiv. mykolaiv. liberated kherson. mass graves in izium. our soldier castrated and shot by russians. bavovna in belgorod. olenivka. patron the dog. bakmut. first hug with my friend from kyiv. severodonetsk. return of mariupol defenders. ukrainian football even with the air threat. finished course paper during the blackouts. sunflowers. my skies covered in smoke. cyber bullying of russians. zhadan as leitmotif. pain. so much pain. and hatred. unfathomable hatred toward everything russian.

that is not even the whole list. hopefully next year will be more about love and joy than about pain and hate but even if the world has something more in stall for Ukraine and Ukrainians - we will withstand. that’s it, nothing less, nothing more.

thank you for everyone here who was engaged in our own informational warfare. thank you for sharing information and donations, thank you for kind word and constant support and also thank you to those anons that thought that Ukrainian thick skin could be pierced with cruel words and propaganda stories - everything was well and truly appreciated.

love you all. here is to victorious 2023. victorious for the one who doesn’t give up, victorious for the fighters and warriors and for those who stands on their side. to the other side of the world: you will lose. shamefully and disgracefully without a single droplet of tears from us.

glory to Ukraine! ❤️

#x

[peakwealth]

You Run

Vladimir Putin, flanked by airline cabin crew (reportedly Aeroflot trainees), shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Two recent quotes stick in my mind. The first one was from an American woman who escaped from a mass shooting incident after the US Super Bowl in Kansas City. (One dead, twenty-two injured.) Interviewed minutes later on TV, she said: In this day and age, you run.

I forget where I saw the second quote but I thought of it after Donald Trump's threat to pull the plug on NATO, should he be re-elected this year. It's as if the devil had changed sides.

Near panic broke out across Europe. Trump was willing to throw European countries, previously known as America's allies, to the wolves.

Vladimir Putin, do as you please. Ukraine, prepare to be sacrificed. And by extension, Taiwan, your time is up.

I keep coming back to this: the West isn't what it used to be. I think of myself as fortunate to have grown up in a 'eurocentric' world order, or the outcome of the second world war if you prefer. It may have been delusional but it was printed on perfume bottles: PARIS - LONDON - NEW YORK.

In reality, eurocentrism and the colonial empires that created it were already faltering by the time I came into this world. It took, however, a long time to see and accept it. As for the 'American century', it ended in 2001 with the apocalyptic scenes of 9/11 in New York City. As the towers collapsed, the world pivoted into a new era. To put it differently, the world was changing hands.

---------------

On February 24 2022 I woke up in a small, no-nonsense hotel south of Granada and went downstairs to have coffee at the bar. I flipped open my tablet and there it was:

RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE

Until then I - we - had assumed there existed a fundamental contract with European history, immovably rooted in postwar reality: never again, no more major wars in Europe. No one in their right mind would want to mess with that contract.

Except that Vladimir Putin had just ordered his army across the border into Ukraine.

Now I wake up every day and want to hit my head against the wall as the Russian war of aggression grinds on. Grind, meat grinder, human waves, trench warfare. The words are all desperately wrong.

After two years of daily annihilation, hundreds of thousands of lives casually erased or ruined, it goes on and on. Both sides, it has been reported, are running short of young men to waste at the front.

We do not know exactly what goes on on those front lines. We hear about Russian soldiers dispatched to their deaths as a matter of course. But we do not get to see that, nor do we get any real casualty numbers. At the beginning of the war, things were more graphic, the bodies photographed where they had fallen. Two years on, we don't know. But the broken, blasted cities tell the story, as they do in Gaza: not many people walk away alive.

And now no one seems quite sure what to do about Ukraine. The war looks unwinnable because Putin does not care about the cost in human lives.

Why fight if you can't win? Is a negotiated settlement still possible? Land for peace would mean the partition of Ukraine accepted as a fait accompli. But can there be peace without justice for Ukraine, which would effectively be sacrificed in the hope of keeping Putin's Russia in check? Putin, however, cannot be trusted, nor can Trump for that matter.

Should Trump return to the White House, a new world order might emerge overwhelmingly inimical to the west or what would be left of it. It might not even be clear where the USA would position itself. As for the loss of Ukraine, in whole or in part, it would be like small change.

You can go on like this, endlessly turning over the options and arguments in your head, none of them acceptable: Ukraine's outright surrender? Or an indefinite ceasefire that would humiliate Kyiv but leave it attached to Europe?

Faced with a historic opportunity to rewrite everything, a moment of dizzying recalculation of how the planet works and who's boss, it is hard to imagine that China would hesitate to seize the moment. Others would follow, like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, eventually lining up with Russia in an historic act of opportunism and Schadenfreude.

In this day and age, you run.

A lot is at stake in 2024.

[ohsalome]

Also, didn't want this in my last ask cause I think it would have been too convoluted but... how to condense this thought?

So I watch a Ukrainian man's coverage of this war, Denys Davydov on youtube, I think he does a very good job of things

When he was covering the russians fleeing mobilization he pointed to that guy who was trying to get into Georgia but had a big Z on his windshield so they didn't let him in and so the russian was complaining

And what Denys said was more or less, "See, a lot of people fleeing russia right now aren't doing it because they don't like the war, they're doing it because they don't want to be mobilized. When they go to these other countries they might remember to scrub the Z off their car, but they still have the Z in their minds. That's why it's not smart to let them in to other countries, they haven't changed any of their opinions, they just don't want to be effected"

I thought yeah, he's pretty much nailing it on the head, and he's pointing out the problem so many westerners were missing when it came to mobilization

They'd be like "well it's less troops they can send" or... you know, all that stuff; and it was just like no... these people are going and harassing people in the countries they're going into, they're still supporting the war

I just feel like a lot of these people really don't get the situation but still feel free to run their mouths over things

Like, and this is my perspective as and American and I'm not saying I'm right and totally don't mind people disagreeing with me, but you show me an actual anti war russian... fine, let's help them out

So many of these russians though, they're not anti war, they're anti losing. They're anti it effecting them. It's clear people being like "oh the poor russians" about people who... you listen to what they're saying and it's like... why on earth am I supposed to be sympathetic

Yeah, I'm sorry that russian soldiers are dying, like in a general sense that death is bad, but I kind of don't have a choice but to be happy every time one of them dies cause that's one less murderer

You want to save russian lives? Support Ukraine, support moves that weaken the kremlin, force russia to end the war. That's how you save russian lives

Like yeah, I have an American's perspective on this. I don't have an Eastern European's perspective... but at least I listen. At least I hear what's being said, think about it, and am able to go... yeah, I get why Eastern Europeans feel like they do about russia. I get the anger after the generations of genocide and the active genocide and like... maybe I can shut the hell up and leave it

Then I see opinions from people, not even the hard core far right or tankie opinions, but stuff where it's like "oh the poor russians" and it's just like man... you're not paying attention at all

I don't know... I really don't, and it's not like my opinion is even super important. Just kind of... as an American I see American opinions and it's way too often I'm going fucks sake, y'all aren't paying any damn attention

Thanks for the support

I think you raise a very good point when you mention "not paying attention". If people don't follow the events of the war, they end up relying on their own assumptions about how world works... Which apparently is like a kindergarten level of telling two kids who had a fight to apologize to each other.

Is it laziness? Is it lack of empathy? Is it russian propaganda? Frankly, as far as outcome is the same, it makes no difference to me.

I will also be leaving a link to the channell you mentioned

#also ''less troops to send'' argument doesn't work when (1) we're talking about +140 mil country #(2) the people who flee are not the people who get drafted en masse

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Special Address by the President on the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

December 6. 7 a.m. The Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. A day of the strong. A day of the brave. A day of the unbreakable. Men and women. Warriors. Heroes.

All those who continue to defend the state. And all those who gave their lives not to give up Ukraine. And right now I am heading to the Wall of Remembrance. Many people know where it is, many have been there. And for those who haven't been yet, it's worth going. To see the faces of our heroes. To look into their eyes. And just be silent. And in that silence, to reflect. To remember. To comprehend. To compare this morning with the morning 651 days ago. How loud it was. And how fearful it was for many. But fear was defeated. And now everyone has heard about us. How tough it was back then, but now we're not ashamed.

To recall what we could have lost and what we have preserved. Knowing exactly who made it possible. For the sake of what exactly. Knowing what exactly we are all defending. We're defending our own. We're defending what's ours.

And today, most of us have the opportunity to live and work in our cities. Walk along our streets. Not Kirova Street, by the way, but Hrushevskoho Street. Yes. For almost two years now, there have been checkpoints and fortifications here. Hedgehogs. But they're our hedgehogs, not someone else's jackals.

Those who naively believed that it could be different. That three days would be enough, that it would go their way. But we have those who have proven and continue to prove: it will be our way. They prove it every day. Those who are fighting for our freedom. On the frontline, in trenches, tanks, aircraft. In all branches of our forces, in all our brigades. In our east, in our south, in our north. Throughout our Ukraine. Those who are fighting on the front and defending our peaceful regions.

And now I am walking through the capital of our beautiful country, not someone's guberniya within someone's empire. I'm walking from the Office of the President of Ukraine, not someone else's gauleiter. Ahead of us is the European Square, where our blue and yellow flags fly, not tricolors. Ahead is St. Volodymyr's Hill. In honor of our great prince, not their petty czar.

And such moments inspire a lot of thoughts, you draw a lot of conclusions. You recall what is behind us and know what lies ahead. Behind is the daily struggle for the temporarily occupied territories. The liberation of these territories is ahead. How else could it be? These are our lands, these are our people. Is there an alternative? No, there is not. Nine years and 651 days of war are behind us. Victory is ahead. How else could it be? Is there any alternative? We all know there is not.

And nearby we see the beautiful Dynamo Stadium. And one day, fans will return here and to all stadiums in Ukraine. Thousands of them are now in the ranks of the Armed Forces. They are fighting for what is ours. Like everyone who did not allow the occupier to parade here. And that's why there are monuments to ours nearby. To our Chornovil. Our Lobanovskyi... Monuments to our prominent figures.

It's a little cold outside, but my heart is warm. It's slippery, but I know we'll make it. In every sense. Because I know that we are actually walking together. It was hard, but we endured. It's not easy now, but we are progressing. No matter how difficult it may be, we will get there. To our borders, to our people. To our peace. A just peace. A free peace. Against all odds. Together with you. And thanks to you, our people, our Armed Forces of Ukraine.

I congratulate all of you on your professional holiday.

Today there is only one expression – "well done". There is only one emotion – gratitude. And there is only one wish – victory. Commanders, please take care of your soldiers. Take care of yourself, be true to yourself. Congratulations on the Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine!

And let us remember: St. Nicholas the Wonderworker will come to those who behaved well. To those who behaved despicably, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will come. The creators of justice.

Well... I'm almost there, in a few minutes I'll reach the Wall of Remembrance. The memorial wall in honor of our heroes. I am sure that for each of us, it will be a reminder and will serve as a wall for our spirit. A wall that fear, despondency, despair, discord, or the thought of giving up won't break through. We are strong. We are the wall. We stand.

To defend our land. To protect our people. To achieve victory. Glory to all our warriors, glory to our Armed Forces!

Glory to Ukraine!

#nothing to see here #just the president of a country having a morning walk and giving a special address in the meantime #because you know he has time #casually greeting people who pass him because mama ze raised her son right #no but imagine if he hadnt greeted the other people and his mother sees the address #you can hear the “Volodya!” #“did i raise you like this!” - “no mama but” - “what the people are now going to think!” - “mama...” - “they will think we are bad parents! #if you listen closely you can hear maks heartbeat somewhere in the background #“maks your pulse is 300” - “...really that low?” #that was such a boss move of him #assassins try to kill him #and ze is like you know what? i go on a walk! :D maaaaaaks! #good morning everyone!!!!! :) :) :) #he truly is a servant of his people #in every possible and the best way #a president for his people #not of the people but for the people #Youtube