Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

[RoseMorninStar]

Cute.

I think they (cows) are very curious creatures.

[Sunsilver]

It's possible the cows have been abandoned to fend for themselves, and are hoping these humans will feed them.
Human suffering in a war zone generally gets all the attention. People rarely think about the animals. Cows can't graze when the fields are covered in snow.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Wow. Here's the statement on the ICC website. It appears Putin has been charged with the war crimes version of kidnapping children.

[Frelga]

It's worth noting that sicnce the verdict, at least 50 children have been returned to their families. It's a drop in the sea of more than 13,000 kidnapped children. Some children have been taken to the Far East regions of Russia, and all are forced to go through re-education to instill the love of Russia.

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In less heavy news, Orlando Bloom was in Kyiv as part of his work for UNESCO, meeting with Zelensky.

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[Dave_LF]

Political scientist Branislav L. Slantchev's articles on the war are typically long and highly informative, and his latest is no exception:
https://slantchev.wordpress.com/2023/03 ... hat-wasnt/

[N.E. Brigand]

This genocidal rant from Dmitry Medvedev, formerly Russia's president and prime minister and now the deputy chair of it security council, is quite something.

[RoseMorninStar]

This genocidal rant from Dmitry Medvedev, formerly Russia's president and prime minister and now the deputy chair of it security council, is quite something.

Then why does Russia want it so bad?

[Frelga]

On the heels of Medvedev's genocidal creed, an extremely graphic video surfaced of Russians torturing and murdering a Ukrainian soldier. I haven't watched it. I don't think anyone here should watch it. But everyone should know. From the description, to call it a beheading does not begin to capture the magnitude of this crime.

This is not an exception, this is policy, entirely consistent with the rants on the Russian state TV. This is what we, as a civilization, are faced with, what we thought we left behind in the 20th century.

For most of us, there's only one thing we can do, and it's to help organizations that support military or humanitarian projects in Ukraine.

United24 is Zelensky's official charity organization,
https://u24.gov.ua/

Liberty Ukraine is based in Texas and provides aid to hospitals in Ukraine and refugees in Austin, among other projects. Also drones.
https://www.libertyukraine.org/projects

Both are US non-profits, and donations are tax deductible in the US (u24 for sure, but I think both).

[Dave_LF]

[N.E. Brigand]

In June 2022, Amnesty International issued a press release that faulted Ukraine for putting its own civilians in danger. In response to the outcry that his press release engendered, Amnesty charged an independent panel of international humanitarian law experts to review the press release and the information it was based on. That report has now been posted to Amnesty's website. The panel finds that some parts of the press release were fine, some parts were reasonable judgment calls, and some parts "were written in language that was ambiguous, imprecise, and in some respects legally questionable." In particular, the opening paragraphs "could be read as implying ... that on a systemic or general level, Ukrainian forces were primarily or equally to blame for the death of civilians resulting from attacks by Russia."

(I personally incline to J.R.R. Tolkien's view about how to apportion blame for misdeeds in war.)

[N.E. Brigand]

In June 2022, Amnesty International issued a press release that faulted Ukraine for putting its own civilians in danger. In response to the outcry that his press release engendered, Amnesty charged an independent panel of international humanitarian law experts to review the press release and the information it was based on. That report has now been posted to Amnesty's website. The panel finds that some parts of the press release were fine, some parts were reasonable judgment calls, and some parts "were written in language that was ambiguous, imprecise, and in some respects legally questionable." In particular, the opening paragraphs "could be read as implying ... that on a systemic or general level, Ukrainian forces were primarily or equally to blame for the death of civilians resulting from attacks by Russia."

Ouch. Amnesty International only made the report public today after the New York Times reported that the report had been presented more than two months ago to Amnesty's board of directors, who sat on it. Also the report originally was even tougher on Amnesty before the board asked the independent panel to reconsider their criticism. Is there a pro-Russian faction at Amnesty? Last August, the Russian government had praised Amnesty for reporting "exactly what Russia has been saying all along."

[Dave_LF]

As ironic as that would be, from your lips to God's ears:

[N.E. Brigand]

The U.S. National Security Council estimates that Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, including 20,000 killed, many of whom are former convicts who were released from prison to join Prigozhin's Wagner mercenaries -- and those number are just since December.

[Dave_LF]

As others have pointed out, that's comparable to what the US suffered during the entirety of the Korean War, and that was back in the days before unmanned drones etc.

[N.E. Brigand]

The U.S. had more than 33,000 KIA and 103,000 wounded over three years in the Korean War, so it's still a greater number than Russia's losses in the past five months.

[N.E. Brigand]

David Frum wonders whether U.S. House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy, speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem where he's been traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation, would have been so forthright responding to a Russian reporter if not for Tucker Carlson having been fired from Fox News last week. McCarthy said to the Russian reporter: "I do support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine. I do not support your killing of the children either ... You should pull out and I don't think it's right, and we will continue to support Ukraine."

I expect certain anti-establishment figures on both sides will point to Frum's analysis as suggesting that Carlson is the victim of a deep state war machine.

[Frelga]

Something hit and set on fire a flag on top Kremlin.

Russia blames a Ukrainian drone. Others speculate that this is a Russian false flag (heh) to justify canceling the Victory Day parade in the Red Square next Tuesday. This is plausible - during the war with Chechnya, Russian secret services blew up whole apartment buildings in Moscow to blame on Chechens.

I don't think Ukraine said anything official, although there are noises about Russian partisans. Partisan in this contest means guerrilla, not political supporter. Very unofficial sources said something to the tune of "if it were Ukraine, it would be more than just a flag."

We'll have to see what Russia denies later today.

[Dave_LF]

I don't think Ukraine said anything official, although there are noises about Russian partisans. Partisan in this contest means guerrilla, not political supporter. Very unofficial sources said something to the tune of "if it were Ukraine, it would be more than just a flag."

They are officially denying any knowledge of the incident, from what I saw (if I can find it again, I'll edit a link in).

Edit: I had some sort of official statement before that I can't find now, but this NBC article says the same thing:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russ ... -rcna82608

That Russia is lying goes without saying, but that only narrows down the possibilities a little bit.

[Frelga]

Ukrainian air forces command spokesman Yury Ihnat on alleged drone attack on Kremlin: “Maybe it was a UFO.”

The linked video is unsubtitled, but goes with the false flag theory. Which seems the most plausible, TBH.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has been surgically taking out Russian fuel depots in Crimea, Krasnodar, and other Russian, and Russian-occupied territories.

PS in reply to Dave's PS: what it wasn't was an attempt to assassinate putin, who was not expected to be in Kremlin, where he is rarely found.