Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 #6

[Dontknow?]

Reuters
@Reuters
7m

U.S. President Biden calls Russian President Putin a 'war criminal' over his country's invasion of Ukraine, prompting the Kremlin to say the comment is 'unforgivable' https://reut.rs/3MQAuKl

 

[Lillymac]

Seven-hundred-million dollars in boats while people freeze and starve. This is WRONG and methinks many people just don't understand communism.

MOO

Why are yachts being seized?

 

[worldwatcher]

Catching up here..with a troubled mind.

I do think Putin sees Ukraine as a step to Europe aka Western world.I do believe Zelensky,when Ukraine is fighting the Western war...

WE NEED TO WAKE UP!!
MOO
——————————
New supplies from Italy to Ukraine

“The Italian Hercules has left Rzeszow airport at 17:11 to return to Pisa.

The aircraft has carried supplies for Ukraine.

We do not know what kind of aid. Italy has also approved the sending of arms to Ukraine.”

New supplies from Italy to Ukraine

 

[worldwatcher]

“There can be something a little distasteful about Western onlookers (myself included) cheering on Ukrainians for a cause that our countries are not willing to join, a stance that risks raising the price of a peace that will be paid only with Ukrainian blood. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize this, to be inspired by what Zelensky represents, and then to be shamed by his example.

Here is a nation and a leader willing to sacrifice so much for the principle of independence and the right to join the Western world. And yet, much of the West is jaded and cynical, apparently devoid of any such mission, cause, or sense of idealism anymore. What is it that the West believes in now? When you think of the great liberal heroes of our age, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, say, they are actually deeply pragmatic conservatives, constantly hedging, calculating, and balancing interests with little grand vision or cause to pull their policies together.”

What Volodymyr Zelensky’s Courage Says About the West

 

[dotr]

March 16 2022 rbbm.
Putin warns of pro-Western 'traitors' in Russia, references 'self-cleansing' of country | CBC News
''The Kremlin leader assailed Russians who he said were more mentally in tune with the West than Russia and said the Russian people would quickly be able to tell the difference between traitors and patriots.''

"Of course they (the West) will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors — on those who earn their money here, but live over there. Live, not in the geographical sense, but in the sense of their thoughts, their slavish thinking," he told government ministers, three weeks into Russia's war with Ukraine.''

"Any people, and especially the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish the true patriots from the scum and the traitors, and just to spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths," Putin said.''

Russia experts said the message was chilling.
"Putin in an Orwellian way has divided the citizens of Russia into clean and unclean," wrote Andrei Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst.''
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden called Putin a "war criminal" in his sharpest condemnation of the Russian leader since the invasion began.''

 

[worldwatcher]

Going a little bit O/T here ,but a few weeks ago I did read about jamming of GPS -Signals...

Makes me wonder,if the Russians were testing the waters..so to speak of

Planes and smartwatches near Finland's Russian border had GPS issues, and not for the first time

“On March 9, national airline Finnair reported encountering GPS disturbances during flights near the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, while flights between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the eastern town of Savonlinna were cancelled for nearly a week because of them.

The plane turned around when the fault was found, in line with normal procedures. When it arrived back in the Helsinki area, all signals were working fine again," Jyri Koponen, a spokesperson for regional airline Transaviabaltika, told the Finnish broadcaster Yle.


In June 2021, a number of ships in the Black Sea off Ukraine reported anomalies in their publicly-available positioning data.

In one case, British and Dutch warships on patrol were made to look as if they were approaching the port of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

SBM

Why are there GPS disturbances on Finland’s border with Russia?


HMS Defender: AIS spoofing is opening up a new front in the war on reality

“An incident involving a British warship off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea on June 24 may have begun online - with a virtual voyage that never really happened.

HMS Defender made headlines after sailing 12 km off the Crimean coastline. The Kremlin regards those waters as Russian territory. For much of the rest of the world, they belong to Ukraine.

Russia's Defence Ministry claimed it fired warning shots and dropped bombs to deter the Royal Navy vessel. Britain's Ministry of Defence denied those claims.



A BBC reporter on board HMS Defender said the ship was harassed by Russian fighter jets and coastguard vessels.

But data sourced from ship tracking site Marine Traffic shows the two sides may have engaged in what one expert called "virtual naval diplomacy" even before Thursday's incident.”

Fake ships, real conflict: How misinformation came to the high seas

And more of course:
Russia jammed GPS during major NATO military exercise with US troops - CNNPolitics

 

[Cool Cats]

Biden says US will send its 'most cutting-edge systems' to Ukraine — including Switchblade drones, anti-tank weapons, and guns — to fight Putin's 'depraved onslaught'

A screenshot from AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 presentation video.

The administration is giving Ukraine 100 armed Switchblade drones as part of the package Biden announced on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware confirmed to Insider.

"Drones can be very helpful...for the Ukrainian people in terms of being able to know where your enemy is," Carper said. "They're hard to hit, hard to knock down by the enemy. And it gives the Ukrainians a tactical advantage."

Unlike other unmanned aerial vehicles used by the US for targeted killings, such as the MQ-9 Reaper, Switchblade drones don't fire missiles but act as a missile. Switchblades, sometimes referred to as "kamikaze drones," are precision, single-use drones that fly directly into their targets and explode.

There are two versions of the Switchblade, the 300 and the 600. The 300 is for targeting personnel and the 600 is designed to target armored vehicles like tanks. It's unclear which version of the Switchblade the US is sending. The 600 can fly for up to 50 minutes and travel up to 40 miles, the company that designs them, AeroVironment, recently told NBC News.

 

[Cool Cats]

Captured Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov rescued by Ukrainian forces: Report

Melitopol Mayor exchanged for nine Russian POWs

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov has been released from captivity in exchange for nine captured Russian servicemen, Trend reports citing Ukrinform.

"Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was released from Russian captivity. For more than five days, the kidnappers detained the mayor, forcing him to cooperate, but Fedorov did not surrender. Russia received nine of its captive soldiers born in 2002-2003 in exchange for him. They are actually children," spokesperson to the Head of the President’s Office Darya Zarivna said on the air of the nationwide telethon.

 

[worldwatcher]

Russia and the Technological Race in an Era of Great Power Competition

Long read,but nevertheless quite interesting...

 

[fred&edna]

I assume someone has linked historic info about Hitler and Wagner. I was so surprised to learn that there's a Wagner hit squad under Putin.

Wagner Group is especially interesting with Putin doing all the Nazi talk of late. The founder of Wagner wore a Wehrmacht helmet (and that's how he got the name "Wagner"). The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany. Also, I'm not sure if anyone knows what happened to that Wagner founder, Dmitry Utkin, after Putin awarded him Russia's Medal of Valor.

Recent info:
The secrets of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries and the mayhem they'll cause in Kyiv, revealed

 

[sunshineray]

I've been away from this thread for the day, come back and the first thing that I check...

Alec Luhn
@ASLuhn
Scripps environmental journalism fellow interested in the far north. Former Russia correspondentfor@guardian1234 &@telegrah


Russian forces dropped a bomb on a Mariupol theater where civilians where sheltering,
@MFA_Ukraine
says. "CHILDREN" (in Russian) was literally written on the ground outside the theater, a satellite shows. https://reuters.com/world/russian-bombing-hits-theatre-mariupol-sheltering-residents-city-council-2022-03-16/…



5:55 PM · Mar 16, 2022·Twitter for Android

 

[CSIDreamer]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1504257656759930882?t=wW-grZGtx-4c2EDtBt451A&s=19

️UN Security Council calls emergency meeting over Ukraine.

The U.S., U.K., France, Albania, Norway, and Ireland requested an emergency security council meeting for March 17 to address the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

 

[sunshineray]

Some good news...

Kidnapped Ukrainian mayor Ivan Fedorov rescued in ‘special operation’ | News | The Times

 

[PommyMommy]

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Biden calling Putin a war criminal is ‘unforgivable rhetoric’, says Kremlin – live | World news | The Guardian
2h ago 19:29

It is almost 1:30am in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:

• Russian forces shot and killed 10 people standing for bread in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the US embassy in Kyiv said. Ukrainian officials said the attack took place at 10am local time (8am GMT). Russia’s defence ministry denied the report, claiming no Russian soldiers were in Chernihiv.

• Russian forces bombed a theatre and pool where civilians were sheltering in the encircled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city council said. Mariupol council posted an image of the city’s theatre showing it sustained heavy damage in today’s attack and said casualty numbers were being confirmed. Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk regional administration, said that pregnant women and children were sheltering at the pool, calling the attack “pure terrorism”.

• The bodies of five people, including three children, were recovered today during searches of residential buildings damaged by shelling in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s emergencies service said. The bodies were found in the ruins of a dormitory building, it said in an online statement.

• The UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) has ordered Russia to stop its invasion, saying it had not seen any evidence to support the Kremlin’s justification for the war. Only the Russian and Chinese judges on the court voted against the order.

• A report by the Financial Times about a proposed 15-point peace plan between Moscow and Kyiv shows only “the requesting position of the Russian side”, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said. The FT had reported a “tentative” peace plan that included a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal if Kyiv declares neutrality and accepts limits on its armed forces.

• The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine becoming a neutral state with a status comparable to Austria and Sweden was being discussed at talks with Kyiv and would be a “compromise”. “This is an option that is being discussed now and that can be considered as a compromise,” Peskov told journalists today.

• Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, suggested talks were making progress despite continued bloodshed and fears from some EU leaders that the Kremlin was toying with Kyiv. “The negotiations are not easy for obvious reasons,” Lavrov told RBC News. “But nevertheless, there is some hope of reaching a compromise.

• The US president, Joe Biden, announced an extra $800m pledged in security assistance from the US to Ukraine, to buy more weapons and military equipment, as part of a much larger package of aid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the US Congress to provide more weapons to help his country fight off Russian airstrikes and for further sanctions against Russia, including the withdrawal of all US businesses. Biden also referred to Putin as a “war criminal”.

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the west “would not succeed” in what he called its attempt to achieve global dominance and dismember Russia. In a televised speech to government ministers, Putin went further than before in acknowledging the pain that western sanctions were inflicting on the Russian economy, but insisted the country could withstand the blow.

• There have been 43 attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities, infrastructure and workers since the beginning of the invasion, said WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Two health workers had been killed and at least eight injured in the attacks, the WHO said.

• Russian forces have released the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said. Ukraine’s state services for communications shared a video showing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaking with Ivan Fedorov following his release.

• The prima ballerina Olga Smirnova, one of Russia’s biggest dance stars, has quit the Bolshoi Ballet company in Moscow after denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, Smirnova posted on Telegram saying that she was against the war “with all the fibres of my soul”.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 9 hrs ago
Putin claims that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is 'developing successfully.' The Russian dictator also claimed that the Russian military was "doing everything to avoid civilian casualties" despite the fact that they have been targeting civilians and residential areas.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Russian forces kill combat doctor with honorary title ‘mother heroine.’ Olga Semidyanova was a mother of 12 children, six of which were adopted. The medic had served in the military since 2014 and was killed on the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts on March 3.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Russia shells public pool in Mariupol, children and pregnant women strapped under rubble. The attack hit the “Neptune” swimming pool, where civilians were sheltering, according to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. The number of victims is unknown.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
UK confirms delivery of anti-air missile systems to Ukraine. BBC reported that U.K Defense Minister Ben Wallace said that British Starstreak short-range man-portable air-defense systems are supplied to Ukraine. It’s not clear whether they have been delivered yet.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Slovakia may provide Ukraine with S-300 anti-aircraft systems. According to CNN, Slovakia has preliminarily agreed to supply Soviet S-300 systems if they are replaced with other systems immediately. The transfer isn’t yet assured.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Russian forces capture Ukrainian paramedic. Volunteer paramedic, Yulia Payevska has been captured along with her driver in Mariupol on March 16, according to another volunteer Nataly Voronkova. Payevska “has been saving the lives of civilians for eight years,” Voronkova said.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Canada bans Russia Today from Canadian airwaves. Canada’s telecoms regulator announced on March 16 it was removing RT and RT France from its list of non-Canadian programming services. Earlier, the EU, the U.K. halted the distribution of RT.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
UN Security Council calls emergency meeting over Ukraine. The U.S., U.K., France, Albania, Norway, and Ireland requested an emergency security council meeting for March 17 to address the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 43 min ago
Canada closes its air space to Belarus. The Ministry of Transport wrote on Twitter “all aircraft directly or indirectly owned, registered, chartered, leased, operated or controlled by a citizen of Belarus are prohibited from entering, exiting or overflying Canadian airspace.”

 

[PommyMommy]

CIJ_ICJ on Twitter - Official account of the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN)

READ HERE: full text of the #ICJ Order indicating provisional measures in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (#Ukraine v. #Russia)

Order on provisional measures (icj-cij.org)

(The pdf is 22 pages)

 

[sunshineray]

Interesting...I pray they hold on and continue

Ukraine’s old air defense proves unexpectedly effective in combat

 

[sunshineray]

CIJ_ICJ on Twitter - Official account of the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN)

READ HERE: full text of the #ICJ Order indicating provisional measures in the case concerning Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (#Ukraine v. #Russia)

Order on provisional measures (icj-cij.org)

(The pdf is 22 pages)

Mike Becker

@mabecker17
·
8h

A few initial observations about the #ICJ's order today indicating provisional measures in #Ukraine v #Russia. The bottom line is that the Court has ordered Russia to suspend immediately, without qualification, the military operation against Ukraine begun on 24 February. 1/19


What will Putin say?
What will Putin do?

 

[PommyMommy]

Mike Becker

@mabecker17
·
8h

A few initial observations about the #ICJ's order today indicating provisional measures in #Ukraine v #Russia. The bottom line is that the Court has ordered Russia to suspend immediately, without qualification, the military operation against Ukraine begun on 24 February. 1/19


What will Putin say?
What will Putin do?

Bomb more innocents?

Halya Coynash on Twitter
#Russia responds to #International_Court order to stop bombing #Ukraine by destroying #Mariupol Theatre sheltering women and children #PutinWarCrimes #StandWithUkraine #ICJ #ICC #Ukraineinvasion

 

[Arkay]

Bomb more innocents?

Halya Coynash on Twitter
#Russia responds to #International_Court order to stop bombing #Ukraine by destroying #Mariupol Theatre sheltering women and children #PutinWarCrimes #StandWithUkraine #ICJ #ICC #Ukraineinvasion

Thank you, @PommyMommy, for posting the entirety of the ICJ order.

I read it and am stunned that two members of the court sided with Russia. Thankfully the vote was carried by the 13 who agreed that Ukraine had not committed genocide, and thereby the Russian Federation could not use this pretext for its attack on Ukraine.

Clearly, as we likely all expected, the judgment of the court held no weight to Putin at all.

Except for any encouragement it may give the Ukraine administration in being found legally correct (about something we all already know to be correct), I don't even know what difference it will make.

This will matter only if Putin is arrested and charged with war crimes. I do pray that happens, but I'm not too hopeful. He has too many places to hide away, if they ever even come for him.

IMO