Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

[N.E. Brigand]

Vladimir Putin is possibly the richest man in the world (although it's very hard to determine his net worth).

The European Union and the United States today both imposed sanctions on him personally. (As well as on Sergey Lavrov, who is Russia's foreign minister.)

That's a big move, and one that it was thought the U.S. would hold in reserve for a while. That the Biden administration moved forward may be an alarming sign.

[N.E. Brigand]

This is a useful collection of videos and images from the invasion.

[Impenitent]

Here to Frelga. I have nothing to add..

[N.E. Brigand]

In case you missed this last night, via USA Today:

Ukrainian soldier on Snake Island tells Russian officer 'go (expletive) yourself' before being killed

Ukraine had thirteen soldiers stationed on a small island in the Black Sea. A Russian warship demanded they surrender. The Ukrainians told them off. (The article includes audio of the exchange.) The island was bombed. The Ukrainians soldiers are all dead.

[RoseMorninStar]

The juxtaposition of Putin safe in his bunker while Zelensky stands in Kyiv with his people sends a strong message, one of solidarity and strength.

I couldn't see the Snake island video, but I heard about it. Brave soldiers. So sad.

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukrainian soldier blew himself up on bridge to block advancement of Russian tanks.

"Vitaly Skakun is being hailed as a hero after sacrificing his life to blow up the Henichesky Bridge. The bridge was mined, but a Russian column was advancing and there was no time to detonate it remotely. Skakun radioed his unit and told them he would do it manually, saying goodbye."

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukrainian civilians are being issued Kalashnikov rifles and urged to prepare Molotov cocktails.

And here's Ukraine's former president, who lost to Zelenskyy in 2019:



This is likely to be a long, bloody conflict even after the regular Ukrainian military is defeated.

[N.E. Brigand]

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, says on Fox News that it's ridiculous to claim that Russia would have left Ukraine alone if only NATO had promised never to admit them. As I said yesterday, I don't think much of Rubio, but I'm glad he made this point for a Republican audience.

(By contrast, Trump associate and former White House advisor Steve Bannon yesterday said: "Ukraine’s not even a country. It’s kind of a concept. It’s not even a country .. It’s just a corrupt area that the Clintons turned into a colony where they can steal money out of.")

[N.E. Brigand]

Tonight, in Ukrainian bomb shelters:

[RoseMorninStar]

Steve Bannon is a blight.

Those poor little ones.

[Sunsilver]

I just heard parents are sewing tags into their children's clothing with their blood type on them before sending them off to school. And THIS turned my stomach. Amazingly, witnesses were able to pull the driver out of the wreckage alive. He was elderly, so who knows if will be able to survive his injuries?

[Sunsilver]

(By contrast, Trump associate and former White House advisor Steve Bannon yesterday said: "Ukraine’s not even a country. It’s kind of a concept. It’s not even a country .. It’s just a corrupt area that the Clintons turned into a colony where they can steal money out of.")

Steve Bannon needs to think about what I posted on the previous page. Alaska used to be part of Russia, Steve! How'd you feel if Russia decided they wanted it back?

And, historically, it wasn't that long ago, either! Russia sold it to the U.S. in 1867, then totally ignored it for many years, before finally making it a state in 1959, probably due to concerns over the Cold War. As someone pointed out, many residents of Alaska can see Russia from their windows.

[Sunsilver]

Ukrainian woman offers Russian soldiers sunflower seeds, so sunflowers will grow when they are killed. The sunflower is the national flower of the Ukraine. (Language warning!)
Brave woman!

[elengil]

Apologies, I'm not sure what the original source of the video is, all I can do is share the tumblr link:

[Frelga]

In the most decisive Western move against Russia to date, Pornhub is said to block Russian users.

[Sunsilver]

Frelga, can't help but laugh at that!

Elengil, what an excellent speech! Very moving!

I can't help but think the Russian people as a whole don't want this. NO ONE wants this, except Putin.

[RoseMorninStar]

I could not have more admiration for Zelensky. What an exemplary leader.

No, I don't think anyone but a deluded egomaniac imp would want this.

Frelga, unfortunately that doesn't appear to be true. People are saying they've been able to open pornhub via Russian VPN's. (I did not try this myself). I saw one headline in the 'Moscow Times' with that claim, but it was from 2016.

[Frelga]

No, I don't think anyone but a deluded egomaniac imp would want this.

Unfortunately, it's a deluded egomaniac with nuclear weapons. He already threatened to use them, and he wasn't subtle.

Meanwhile, the head of Russian space agency threatened to bring the International Space Station into uncontrolled deorbiting over US, Europe, or China.

[N.E. Brigand]

I was introduced to the "horseshoe theory" of politics in a high school history class in 1988. The theory posits the farthest left and farthest right both end up as authoritarian: Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany, nominally on opposite ends of the spectrum, behave fairly similarly in terms of, say, oppressing their populations. Apparently the concept got little attention until being popularized a couple decades later, and lots of people disagree with it. But in the U.S., apologetics for Russia's Ukraine invasion do seem to come from the fringe right and fringe left, while the normal left, right, and center have been pretty solidly opposed to what Putin was doing.

I have a fringe-left sister who got pissed when I told her about the horseshoe theory. She also attempted some Russian apologism 36 hours ago in a family email chain. I pointed out that the Russians are trying to rebuild an empire and Ukraine has the right to defend itself from expansionistic swine. She ended up slinking off. I'm not sure where you'd have to put your head to justify a war of conquest.

I had noticed this as well and was going to make the same comment. Putin's apologists seem to be Marxist-Leninists who don't seem to realise that that Putin's government is right-wing and see this as a Cold War rematch, the type of anti-imperialists who don't really care about imperialism if the people doing it don't speak English (unless they're Israeli, of course), people who hate western liberal democracy in general and are happy for anything to replace it, Neo-Nazis who don't seem to care that Putin's justification for the invasion was to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, and right-wing nationalists who wish they could deal with their real or imagined domestic opponents in the same way Putin does.

And on the right, rejection of the horseshoe theory manifests as the claim that all totalitarians are actually leftists, an argument which requires defining fascism as socialism: "Hitler was a 'national socialist'!" (Never mind that the Nazis persecuted actual socialists, or that neo-Nazi groups support the right much more often than they support the left; c.f. the torchbearing "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukrainian civilians are being issued Kalashnikov rifles and urged to prepare Molotov cocktails.

And today the Kyiv Indpendent reports that a brewery in the city of Lviv in the far west of Ukraine is now mass producing Molotov cocktails.