Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 **Media Thread** NO DISCUSSION #2

[PommyMommy]

Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy vows to punish attack on civilians in Irpin; Russia bombards Mykolaiv – live

Levi Strauss & Co is temporarily suspending commercial operations in Russia, including any new investments, joining a slew of western brands that have halted operations in the country following its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.

“In 2021, approximately 4% of the company’s total net revenues were derived from eastern Europe, half of which was related to Russia,” the firm said in a statement.

On Sunday, the streaming giant Netflix, three of the Big Four accounting firms - KPMG, EY and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) - and the credit card company American Express cut ties with Russia.

The French yoghurt maker Danone, which makes around 6% of its sales in Russia and Ukraine, said on Sunday it was suspending investment in Russia and that one of its two factories had closed in Ukraine.

McDonald’s Corp and PepsiCo Inc are among companies continuing to operate in Russia, prompting New York state’s pension fund - a shareholder in the pair - to urge them to consider pausing their operations there.

 

[PommyMommy]

Poland has not and will not send its fighter jets to Ukraine to support the embattled country’s defence against Russia, Polish government officials said on Monday.

Marcin Przydacz, a deputy foreign minister, said in an interview on Radio Zet:

“We will not open our airports and Polish planes will not fight over Ukraine ... Polish planes will not fight over Ukraine.”

But, separately, the government’s spokesman Piotr Mueller indicated a final decision had not been made, the Associated Press reported. He said that the decision on whether to send fighter jets presented risks and was a “very delicate matter’.

Poland has been less than enthusiastic about the idea, at least publicly, largely because Russia has warned that supporting Ukraine’s air force would be seen in Moscow as participating in the war and could create a risk of retaliation.

Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy vows to punish attack on civilians in Irpin; Russia bombards Mykolaiv – live

 

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CORE Response: Community Organized Relief Effort

Video: Little girl sings 'Let It Go' at Kyiv shelter - CNN Video

 

[PommyMommy]

Convinced that Nato will never reject Ukraine’s membership, Putin has now taken his own steps to block it.

By invading Donetsk and Luhansk, he has created a “frozen conflict”, knowing the alliance cannot admit countries that don’t control all their borders.

Frozen conflicts already cripple Georgia and Moldova, which are also split by pro-Russian statelets. Now Ukraine joins the list.

There is speculation about what will happen next but from his standpoint, it is not actually necessary to send troops further into the country. He has already taken what he needs.

Understanding Putin’s narrative about Ukraine is the master key to this crisis | Jonathan Steele

Russia announces limited ceasefire; more talks planned (link for map)

 

[PommyMommy]

According to Ukrainians, all roads lead to The Hague: straight to the International Criminal Court.

To mislead Russian soldiers, Ukrainians have replaced road signs in their country, according to a photo that has been circulating on social media. The military under Prime Minister Putin's orders are still using maps dating back to the 1990 era of the Soviet Union's collapse, the messenger said.

DPG Media Privacy Gate

 

[PommyMommy]

@chrisshipitv· The Queen has met Canadian PM @JustinTrudeau at Windsor Castle following his meetings in the UK with Boris Johnson and Mark Rutte on the #ukraine invasion.

 

[PommyMommy]

Why Putin calls Ukrainians 'neo-Nazis in a created country'

"Ukraine must be denazified to end the genocide in eastern Ukraine." Russian President Putin uses very strong words to justify the invasion of Ukraine. What exactly does he mean by the allegations? And what are they based on?

We present five of Putin's claims to historian Marc Jansen, author of Borderland, a history of Ukraine . Putin's quotes come from two recent speeches and an article he wrote. You can read those texts at the bottom of this article.

1. "The Ukrainian government is russophobic"
Ukraine has tried in recent years to strengthen Ukrainian unity and limit influences from Moscow, including through a new language law. "Education should be given in Ukrainian and newspapers should be published in Ukrainian." Such measures may be at the expense of Russian, but do not mean the 'elimination' of Russian, says Jansen.

(......)

2. "Neonazis rule Ukraine"
For the Nazi indictment, we have to go back to the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera, who sided with Nazi Germany in World War II and whose movement contributed to the mass murder of Jews and Poles. "He did this in the hopes of proclaiming an independent Ukrainian state, which, incidentally, failed." In Western Ukraine in particular, Bandera enjoys cult status as a 'resistance fighter', much to Moscow's horror.

"There are far-right, anti-Semitist parties in Ukraine, but they play no significant role in national government." However, they were prominent in the Maydan revolution of 2014 and there are neo-Nazi militias that have been active in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, such as the Azov battalion, which is part of the Ukrainian armed forces.

That in no way makes Zelensky's government 'neo-Nazis', Jansen emphasizes. On the contrary: President Zelensky has a Jewish background, relatives were murdered during the Holocaust.

In Ukraine, an estimated seven million people were killed during WWII, the highest death rate of the total population after Belarus and Poland.

3. "Ukraine commits genocide against 4 million Russians"
Unfounded propaganda, according to Jansen. Eastern Ukraine has been at war for eight years between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists, with many displaced. "But that's different from genocide." Putin does not substantiate the genocide charge with concrete examples.

Putin also says that Ukraine wants to "destroy" Russian Orthodox churches under the Moscow Patriarchate. Although Kiev has had its own patriarch since 2018, who is separate from Moscow , there are no signs that Ukraine is opposing the Russian Orthodox Church, according to Jansen.

(....)

4. "Modern Ukraine was invented by Russia"
In Putin's over an hour speech last week , he said it after just one minute: Lenin created Ukraine. That is correct in a sense, says Jansen, because it was Lenin who gave Ukraine sovereignty. "He was afraid that the Soviet Union would become too Russian when he had just dealt with the tsarist Russian Empire." Later, the present territory of Ukraine took shape, when Stalin added parts of Poland (Lviv and environs) to the Soviet Republic and was 'handed over' Crimea by Khrushchev. That does not mean that Ukraine only came into existence then. Historians go back to the late Middle Ages.

(....)

Russian invention or not: Ukraine is now a united, autonomous nation, according to Jansen. "It is precisely because of the war in eastern Ukraine, which has been raging since 2014, that Ukraine has become a largely united country. Putin has done more for Ukrainian nation building than anyone else."

5. "Ukraine Is Working To Develop Nuclear Weapons"
"This too is a figment of the Russian propaganda", says the historian resolutely. Ukraine had nuclear weapons at its disposal after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but these were given to Russia, partly under pressure from the West, in exchange for recognition of the Ukrainian borders. "This 1994 agreement turned out to be worthless 20 years later, when Russia annexed Crimea."

Zelensky likes to recall this broken promise , but there are no signs that the country is actively developing nuclear weapons at the moment. "Maybe they want it, but you don't have just any nuclear weapon."

Truth or not: the above claims are believed by a significant part of the Russian population, says Jansen. "That is the power of propaganda: Russians have been hearing on state television for eight years that there are Nazis in power in Kiev, and they must be stopped."

Waarom Poetin Oekraïners 'neonazi's in een gecreëerd land' noemt

 

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https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1500686890743349250?t=26FCYbMud-8C6RtJc74W7A&s=19

️50 Russian diplomats including their family members return to Moscow from New York City, CNN reports citing RIA news agency.

Their departure follows a request that 12 Russian U.N. diplomats withdraw from the U.S. by March 7.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 28 minutes ago
️For those leaving Ukraine, the Customs Service recommends using the checkpoints on the border with Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova as they are less busy compared to Poland.

Map showing how busy each checkpoint is in real time:
Черги на пунктах пропуску - Google My Maps

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 18 minutes ago
️Russia claims it will stop the war immediately if Ukraine agrees to:
- cease military action
- change constitution to enshrine neutrality
- recognize Crimea as Russian territory
- recognize the Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states

Source: Statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, cited by Reuters.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️Ukrainian forces have retaken Mykolaiv airport, according to regional governor Vitaliy Kim.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 7, 2022
‘We will be here until the end’: the fight to keep Ukraine’s news media alive | Ukraine | The Guardian
Roman Stepanovych is no stranger to war. In an award-winning career for English-language news outlets including the Associated Press and Vice News, the 32-year-old Ukrainian journalist has reported from Syria, Chechnya and Myanmar, as well as covering the conflict closer to home in the Donbas region.

[...]

“I’m from Donetsk, which is occupied by separatists, and my wife [Kateryna Sergatskova, Zaborona’s editor-in-chief] and I and have worked in dangerous places. She was in Iraq. But now I think it was just an introduction for this. It is completely different when it is your home,” he said.

Zaborona is one of dozens of small news outlets focusing on investigative journalism that sprang up in Ukraine in the aftermath of the 2013 Maidan revolution. The protests eventually led to the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president accused of extensive corruption, political intimidation and abuse of those who demonstrated against his government.

[...]

For the 31-strong newsroom, however, the focus now is purely on surviving – both literally and figuratively. One Ukrainian journalist has already been killed, and another four injured. A Sky News crew was evacuated back to the UK from Ukraine on Sunday after the journalists were shot during an ambush by Russian snipers.

As Stepanovych knows well from his time working in Russia, Moscow has limited – and declining – tolerance for journalism which doesn’t conform to the Kremlin’s preferred narratives.

[...]

The repression has become almost total since Moscow invaded Ukraine. Last week the Russian government shut down the country’s last independent TV channel, TV Rain, as well as Echo of Moscow, one of its oldest radio stations. The BBC and other international news organisations have been blocked, as well as Facebook and Twitter, for allegedly spreading false information about the war.

Most of the journalism outlets remaining in Russia have suspended operations following a law passed on Friday punishing “fake war reports” with up to 15 years in prison.

The 2021 co-winner of the Nobel peace prize Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent Novaya Gazeta, told the New Yorker before the legislation was passed: “For now, we continue to call war war. We are waiting for the consequences.” The newspaper has since deleted content from its website.

[...]

“Before we would have been competitors, but we are not any more,” Stepanovych said. “If someone is in the right place and we need to write something or check something it doesn’t matter who they work for, we can call, because we are all working together collectively.”

[...]

But the newsroom still has hope. “It is hard to undo the gains we have made since Maidan,” Stepanovych said. “We will keep going. Maybe we will be fighting and writing at the same time. But we will be here until the end.”

 

[PommyMommy]

Hearing At UN's Top Court Over Russia's Ukraine Genocide Claim Ends As Moscow Boycotts (rferl.org)
The International Court of Justice says it will rule "as soon as possible" after ending a hearing into a legal move by Kyiv to stop an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops despite Moscow's rejection of the proceedings.

The United Nations' top court opened the case on March 7 and heard arguments from Ukraine. It had scheduled a second session for March 8 to give Russia a chance to present its case, but Moscow boycotted the proceedings, leaving a conspicuously empty row of seats reserved for its lawyers in the Hague-based chamber.

[...]

In Photos: Ukraine's Odesa Turned Into A Fortress To Repel Russian Attack (rferl.org)

1The National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Historians recall that the last time it looked like this was in 1941, when Odesa was besieged by the Nazis.

2The people of Odesa could not help repeating the now-famous joke about what Ukrainian border guards on tiny Zmiinyi Island told a Russian warship when they were threatened with bombardment.

3Only those who live there are allowed into the city center.

6Checkpoints operate in several places. Volunteers say that half a dozen saboteurs have already been detained in the center. This cannot be officially confirmed.

9Czech hedgehogs are set up in the streets to repel Russian tanks and armored vehicles.

 

[PommyMommy]

How Putin, Zelenskyy and Musk Fight the Information War in Ukraine

“It is much harder to do a total lockdown in the tech era,” said Susan Chira, the former foreign editor of the New York Times and editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a journalism nonprofit focused on criminal justice. “They are tech-savvy and are trying to do what the Chinese have done. But people are determined to get the word out, and they are pretty creative.”

That said, Chira spoke to friends in Russia over the weekend who confirmed that police were stopping people on the street and in airports and demanding to view their text messages. “It may be a cat and mouse game,” she said, adding, “It’s fierce. It’s really fierce.

“In the 1980s, people were used to standing in bread lines. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. You have some wealthier Russians traveling to France, buying Louis Vuitton. You cannot undo that. Right now every single company is exiting Russia,” she said, noting that there was a rush on Ikea in Moscow when the company announced it was pulling out.

 

[PommyMommy]

Russian arrested in Raleigh could be connected to the stalled military convoy in Ukraine :: WRAL.com

Video circulating on social media reportedly shows a Ukrainian soldier mocking Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, given to the Russian military. The packaging shows they were made in 2013 and expired in 2015, yet are on the battlefield today, 7 years later.

The label on the expired food, written in Cyrillic, translates to a tie back to an infamous criminal case in Raleigh. Federal investigators say Voentorg is the company Leonid Teyf used to get $150 million in kickbacks on Russian military contracts. Teyf and his wife were arrested back in 2018 when the FBI raided their mansion based on a murder-for-hire plot, bribing a public official, tax return issues and immigration violations.

 

[PommyMommy]

An 11-year-old boy braved a 600-mile journey from southeastern Ukraine to the Slovakian border all by himself with only a plastic bag, passport, and telephone number scribbled on his hand.



Brave Ukrainian refugee, 11, travels 600 miles on his own to Slovakia

 

[PommyMommy]

VIDEO: 'They're Killing Children': Ukrainian Civilians Under Relentless Russian Attacks (rferl.org)
Residential buildings were in flames in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv on March 7. The city is on a strategic route between Kherson, which is occupied by Russian forces, and the port city of Odesa. Residents of Odesa and Zaporizhzhya are preparing to defend their cities against expected Russian assaults. Civilians have been under continuous attack around Ukraine, including Kramatorsk in the east.

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine turning captured Russian equipment into weapons - Washington Times
[...]

On Sunday, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukrainian manufacturers and factories are focused on filling military orders and repairing equipment damaged in the fighting.

“To fight, the country has to work — everyone in their place,” Mr. Reznikov said, according to the Defense Ministry. “If you have been forced to evacuate, get a job in a new home. Your help is needed everywhere.”

[...]

In his address to the nation, Mr. Reznikov said Ukraine is turning war trophies into weapons by making use of the Russian tanks and armored vehicles often seen being dragged away by farm tractors. Moscow’s battlefield losses are helping Ukraine replenish its fleet of combat vehicles.

[...]

The Russians are focusing their wrath on women and children and pulverizing residential neighborhoods because they have been unable to overcome Ukraine’s military strength, Mr. Reznikov said.

“The Russians are ordinary terrorists, and terrorists will be destroyed,” he said.

 

[PommyMommy]

Biden To Discuss Ukraine With French, German, British Leaders (rferl.org)
U.S. President Joe Biden is due to hold a video conference on March 7 with the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain to discuss "the latest developments regarding Russia and Ukraine," the White House said.

The call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take place at 10:30 a.m. EST as Washington pushes its allies on a possible Russian oil ban amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a visit to Europe, said the United States and its allies are having a “very active discussion” about banning the import of Russian oil.

 

[worldwatcher]

Russian warship. Go f— yourself.

“Ukrainian Snake Island soldiers are believed to be alive, but details of their captivity are unclear
Russia and Ukraine have offered conflicting accounts about whether the soldiers surrendered or were taken captive.”

A group of 13 Ukrainian soldiers stationed on Snake Island in the Black Sea has captured the world’s attention, but the group has also been the subject of confounding social media reports about their status.

The soldiers were initially reported dead after a Russian warship attacked Snake Island, also known as Zmiiny Island, but they now are believed to be alive and in Russia.


Ukrainian Snake Island soldiers are believed to be alive, but details of their captivity are unclear - Poynter

 

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Russia reveals harsh demands for ending war; Ukraine calls evacuation routes 'unacceptable: Live updates

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia is demanding Ukraine halt its military activity, change its Constitution to include neutrality so it can't join the EU or NATO, recognize Crimea as Russian territory and recognize independence of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Ukraine live updates: Proposed evacuation routes called unacceptable

 

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@SkyNews
Watch live: Boris Johnson holds a news conference with Dutch PM Mark Rutte and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau as intense diplomatic efforts continue in a bid to show a united front against Russia https://trib.al/QTC8as2

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