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

[PommyMommy]

Oliver Carroll on Twitter - Correspondent | writing for @theeconomist
New — Oleh Baturin, a local journalist in Kherson, has disappeared. His wife says he left home for a quick meeting at 4.30pm, left phone and documents at home, never returned. Baturin filmed protests against Russian occupation.

On Kyiv's eastern front, Ukrainians hold off Russian tanks (msn.com)
Firing a constant barrage of artillery at the Russians, a troop of Ukrainian soldiers are keeping up morale: their shelling has so far stopped Moscow's tanks entering Kyiv from the east.

 

[PommyMommy]

Euromaidan Press on Twitter - 8 minutes ago
At 12.00 12 March, a mobile air defence group of

Army shot down a Russian fighter jet near Izyum (Kharkiv Obl) with a Stinger MANPAD, Kharkiv RegHead Oleh Syniehubov reports. US & Allies supplied Stingers to Ukraine on the eve of the

invasion, amid other weapons

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter - 33 min ago, Video
Several rockets landed near the U.S. Consulate General in #Erbil, #Iraq According to the national Iraqi news agency, so far there have been at least three explosions in the city and alarm sirens are sounding.

NEXTA on Twitter - 19 min ago
The building of the Kurdistan 24 TV channel, which is next to the U.S. Consulate, was damaged after the strikes.

NEXTA on Twitter
Presumably video of missile launch from #Khasabad military base in #Iran

NEXTA on Twitter - 10 min ago
It is reported that U.S. Air Force planes are in the air.
Missile strikes on #Tehran are expected.

Multiple rockets 'smash into US Army base' in Erbil in Iraq
Multiple rockets have smashed into a US Army base and a Kurdish news channel office in Erbil, northern Iraq.

There were 'victims or casualties after Erbil blasts' Kurdish Health Minister Saman Barzanji said. US officials later confirmed there were no military victims of the blasts.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 11, 2022
War in Ukraine: How Russia is recruiting mercenaries - BBC News
[...]

The serving mercenary said many veterans of the secretive Wagner organisation were contacted on a private Telegram group a few weeks before the start of the war. They were invited to a "picnic in Ukraine", with references to tasting "Salo", a pork fat traditionally eaten in Ukraine.

The message appeals to "those with criminal records, debts, banned from mercenary groups or without an external passport" to apply. The message also included that "those from the Russian-occupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk republics and Crimea - cordially invited".

The Wagner group is one of the most secretive organisations in Russia. Officially, it doesn't exist - serving as a mercenary is against Russian and international law. But up to 10,000 operatives are believed to have taken at least one contract with Wagner over the past seven years.

The serving mercenary who spoke to the BBC said new recruits are being placed in units under the command of officers from the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit of the ministry of defence.

[...]

He said the new units being recruited are no longer referred to as Wagner, but new names - such as The Hawks - were being used.

[...]

The mercenary sources who spoke to the BBC, said the recruits are trained at the Wagner base in Mol'kino in southern Russia, next to a Russian army base.

[...]

Previously, a criminal record was a block for those wanting to join the mercenaries. Also restrictions were placed on anyone born outside Russia because of doubts around loyalty.

[...]

It has been reported that up to 400 fighters from the Wagner group have been in Ukraine.

[...]

The serving Wagner fighter explained that in the first days of the invasion of Ukraine he was sent to the country's second city, Kharkiv, where he said his unit successfully completed a mission without revealing what it was.

"We were then paid $2,100 (£1,600) for a month's work and returned home to Russia," he told the BBC.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 11, 2022
Ukraine: Spam website set up to reach millions of Russians
A Norwegian computer expert has created a website enabling anyone to send an email about the war in Ukraine to up to 150 Russian email addresses at a time, so that Russian people have a chance to hear the truth their government is hiding.

All over Russia email inboxes are pinging.

Millions of messages are being received with the same intriguing subject Ya vam ne vrag - I am not your enemy.

The message appears in Russian with an English translation and it begins: "Dear friend, I am writing to you to express my concern for the secure future of our children on this planet. Most of the world has condemned Putin's invasion of Ukraine."

The lengthy email goes on to implore Russian people to reject the war in Ukraine and seek the truth about the invasion from non-state news services. ... In just a few days, more than 22 million of these emails landed in Russian inboxes

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 12, 2022
‘We are not afraid and you must not be either,’ Ukrainian defense minister says | Euromaidan Press
[...]

Oleksii Reznikov, the defense minister of Ukraine, has issued a similar appeal that is a sign that Russian intimidation isn’t working among his people, something that represents a bigger victory for them and a bigger defeat for Russia than anything happening on the battlefield.

An informal translation of Reznikov’s words follows:

Today, I appeal not only to the leaders of the free world but also to the residents of all the countries of the world. Two weeks ago, the world was changed. Everything was changed although not everyone understands this.

Russia attacked Ukraine. Eight years ago in Crimea and the Donbas, they said ‘none of ours are there.’ But now the Kremlin demonstratively is conducting a war against my people. This is taking place in the center of Europe.

Rockets are flying hundreds of kilometers inside the country and destroying peaceful cities. Today these are our cities. Tomorrow they can be anyone’s including Yours.

No warnings, attempts and dialogue or expressions of concern have helped. Nor have any international rules and mechanisms. The Kremlin spits on your attempts to talk. It isn’t affected by what is happening at the UN, PACE or any other institution, in which you are trying to maintain its presence.

The Russian soldiers are conducting themselves like terrorists and cowards.

Over the course of 11 days, the Russian occupiers have destroyed more than 200 Ukrainian schools, 34 hospitals, and more than 1500 apartment buildings. It has already been established that Russian soldiers have killed 36 Ukrainian children and wounded 70 more. More than 400 peaceful Ukrainian citizens have been killed and more than 800 wounded. These figures are undoubtedly incomplete. And in Mariupol alone, some 400,000 Ukrainians have been taken hostage. They are constantly being shelled by air, artillery and rockets.

The Russian interventionists are shelling humanitarian corridors through which civilians are trying to save themselves. They are killing those whom they promised to release. They are killing those who are trying to save the hostages taken from terrorists from wounds and hunger. These are military crimes, and this is a terrible grief for Ukraine.

But I want to remind you that Russian soldiers are killing residents of a European country.

Where are your values and standards? Where is the work of international organizations which have billions of dollars in resources? Where is the UN, the Red Cross, the OSCE? They have been hiding.

I draw your attention to the fact that about 10,000 foreign students in Ukraine are today the targets of Putin’s terrorists. More than 2,000 of them have already been taken hostage by Russian forces. Many of them are from India, China, Turkey and the Persian Gulf countries.

Young people remain in cities blockaded by Russian troops – Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mariupol. The Russians are shelling these cities, but they are actually at war with the entire world and even with those who are trying to remain neutral. Neutrality won’t work, because evil does not act selectively.

Let me remind you that Ukraine has been and remains the home of representatives of more than 100 different nations. We have always lived in peace. We have many ethnically mixed marriages from which beautiful children have come. And those children are now being killed by the occupiers.

The occupiers are holding journalists hostage: we know about British journalists in the village of Stoyanka-2 where Russian forces fired on them and wounded another journalist, a British citizen. Also a victim of this was a citizen of Switzerland who was robbed by the invaders in Mykolayiv region. Unfortunately, you still allow the occupiers to do this.

Today, I want to say to you one thing: don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid, as we are not afraid!

In the course of 11 days, Ukraine has completely destroyed the myth about the military power of Russia. Ukrainian fighters have already destroyed more than 11,000 Russian soldiers. This is more than were lost in the two Chechen wars which lasted six years; and in a few more days, Russian losses in killed and wounded will exceed Soviet losses in ten years of war in Afghanistan.

Russia has lost hundreds of elite soldiers. They have been spreading terror in Africa and the Middle East but not in Ukraine. We are destroying them like all the other terrorists who are reining down rockets on our cities and shooting our children.

Do not be afraid! As are not afraid our young guys who are stopping the enemy, as are not afraid out farmers who are seizing the enemy’s armored columns, as is not afraid the worker of a postal company who shot down a Russian plane with a mobile rocket launcher.

Today, Europe has a chance to defeat the tyrant who has for decades frightened everyone around.

For that to happen, Ukraine must remain standing. Russia will not be able to defeat us in open battle. It will not be able to frighten us by criminal shelling of our cities. But in order to win, we need help, a closed sky and arms. We are defending ourselves and you as well. We are not afraid of the Russians. Many of them have already run away and hundreds have surrendered and been taken prisoner.

Ukraine needs more than weapons: it needs resources to clothe our army and feed our people and to restore what has been destroyed as quickly as possible. Moreover, you must increase the pressure on Russia and on all those who take money from Moscow. They will bring this war into your own home countries.

The world has changed. You must make decisions very quickly. But there is a war going on in Europe, and the Kremlin can light new fires.

We will still fight and win; the entire Ukrainian people will resist. But your help will help save lives, including the lives of your children and relatives.

Every day the war goes on, there are dozens of deaths among civilians, among Europeans. Thanks to everyone who is already helping us. I urge everyone to show that the free world is not afraid of tyrant now hiding in a bunker.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 1 hr ago
Zelensky: Sergeant Inna Derusova is the first woman to be awarded the Hero of Ukraine title posthumously. A field medic, she was killed during the artillery attack on Okhtyrka on Feb. 24, the first day of Russia's invasion. She saved more than 10 soldiers that day.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 18 min ago
Russian troops no longer in southern city of Skadovsk. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Yakovlev, said the situation in Skadovsk is under control and there is electricity, gas and water supply.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
On March 9, Russian military vehicles entered the city and reportedly seized all the computers from the city council.

NEXTA on Twitter - 5 min ago
Skadovsk is completely liberated from #Russian invaders As the mayor of Skadovsk Alexander Yakovlev stated, there are no occupying troops in Skadovsk yet and the situation is under control.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 11, 2022
Spokane doctor arrives at Ukraine military hospital ready to help – but what will that entail? | The Spokesman-Review

Varner doesn’t have wartime experience, but he is a Spokane physician with emergency and internal medicine knowledge that’s been increasingly necessary in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war has sent refugees and casualties flooding west from the front to the relative safety of Poland and other European nations – especially those that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Varner left Spokane on Sunday with hopes that he could help. He flew to Poland with a bevy of medical supplies including gowns, tourniquets, bandages, chest tubes (to drain fluid out of the chest cavity following trauma), two portable ultrasound devices and more.

Dr. Kyle Varner of Spokane, Washington arrives in Poland

 

[PommyMommy]

Polio Makes a Comeback in Ukraine as War Halts Vaccinations

In the fog of the war in Ukraine, it’s easy to forget about a smaller, but still very poignant tragedy that occurred months before the fighting began, back on Oct. 6, 2021. That day, a 17-month-old girl in the Rivne region in the west portion of the country was stricken with paralytic polio—19 years after the European region as a whole was declared polio-free. A second case of the disease appeared in the Zakarpattya region to the south on Dec. 24. And over those same months, 20 other children have tested positive for the poliovirus, though with sub-clinical, non-paralytic cases of the disease.

Where polio is concerned, 22 cases counts as a crisis. The disease can spread explosively and exponentially, with an average of 200 silent carriers for every paralytic case. That’s a lot of potential vectors possibly spreading a lot of virus to a lot of other people. And Ukraine—at least Ukraine as it was before the war began—did not stand still.

 

[PommyMommy]

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
Reportedly, an anti-war movement is spreading in Belarus via posters & graffitti
PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Herashchenko

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
Serbia reverses course, won't increase flights to Russia. Serbia had doubled its flights from Belgrade to Moscow in response to higher demand, but has since reversed the decision after sharp criticism.

The country has refused to sanction Russia and has been used to circumvent airspace restrictions to Russian flights.

Vishnu Som on Twitter
1/2 New satellite images from Mariupol reveal a worst-case scenario - destruction of residential complexes, hospitals, industries. Parts of Mariupol are now rubble, similar to what Grozny became during Russia's invasion of Chechnya. See before, after images.

Vishnu Som on Twitter
2/2 Unless there is an off-ramp to this nightmare, the siege of Ukrainian cities will end up becoming this. The human costs are horrific but there are no signs yet of Putin being willing to relent despite his Army, from multiple accounts, sustaining major losses.

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter
Red Cross hands over body bags for Russian soldiers to Ukraine

No agreement has yet been reached on return of the dead to their homeland

This was announced by the Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk on Ukrainian television.

Euromaidan Press on Twitter - Video
67 civilians killed by [Russian] occupiers were buried in a mass grave near a church in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. After intense fighting with occupiers, Bucha was besieged on 6 March. The occupiers shelled buildings, executed civilians, fired on evacuees

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 2 min ago
Air raid alerts in almost every region of Ukraine. Sirens have been activated in Uman, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Odesa, Volyn, Zaporizhzha, Berezivka, Izmail, Kiliya, Yuzhne, Chernomorsk, Bilyaivka, & Avdiivka.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
As well as in Kyiv, Rivne, Chernihiv, Ternopil, Dnipro, Cherkasy and Sumy Oblasts. Residents have been asked to go to the nearest shelter immediately.

 

[PommyMommy]

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
SBU shares an intercepted conversation of Russian occupiers near Kharkiv where they are given command to indiscriminately kill civilians. "The sniper on the tower just killed 3 ppl behind the fence who merely shone a flashlight in our direction."In Kharkiv, the occupiers were given the command to shoot at civilians – SBU | Ukrayinska Pravda

Euromaidan Press on Twitter
NPR analyzed footage of Russia's attack on the Zaporizhzhia NPP, finds it "was far more dangerous than initial assessments suggested" [Russian] forces repeatedly fired heavy weapons in the direction of the plant's reactor buildings, with nuclear fuel, turned away firefighters

Russia-Ukraine live news: Alarm grows over Mariupol ‘catastrophe’ | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

• The humanitarian situation in Mariupol continues to deteriorate with the United Nations citing reports of “looting and violent confrontations” over resources and satellite pictures showing extensive damage.
• Some 13,000 Ukrainians evacuated from cities on Saturday, Deputy PM says, but no one managed to leave Mariupol.
• Fighting intensified northwest of Kyiv, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25km (16 miles) from the centre of the Ukrainian capital.
• The United States has said it would rush up to $200m in additional small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
• Russia has said its troops could target supplies of Western weapons in Ukraine.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 12, 2022
AP PHOTOS: Day 17: Images of destruction, Ukrainian defiance | AP News


A Ukrainian welder builds a tire deflation stringer spike system in Lviv, western Ukraine, March 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)


Smoke from shelling rises as a wreath of flowers is placed at a cemetery in Vasylkiv south west of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)


Refugees that fled the war in Ukraine, with their pets and belongings wait at the Przemysl train station, southeastern Poland, on Saturday, March 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)


A fire burns at an apartment building after it was hit by the shelling of a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)


A resident passes by cars burnt in the Russian shellfire as he flees from his hometown on the road towards Kyiv, in the town of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, Saturday, March 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

 

[PommyMommy]

Covid-19 patients face dilemma of infecting others while hiding in bomb shelters (kyivindependent.com)
In late February, Kyiv resident Serhii Fokin had a tough decision to make: walk into a bomb shelter during an air raid and risk infecting those around him, or stay at home, risking being killed by a Russian missile.

Fokin chose the second option, staying in his apartment’s corridor near a bearing wall, known to resist blasts better than others.

[...]

By the time the further Russian offensive began, only 38% of Ukrainians had been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry, and over 646,000 active coronavirus cases were reported as Russian troops rolled into Ukraine.

Only a day before the invasion, on Feb. 23, over 25,000 new Covid-19 cases were registered in Ukraine.

According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine is coming off one of its worst waves of coronavirus since the pandemic began. Like many other countries, Ukraine experienced a surge in the number of cases due to the spread of the Omicron variant. The latest peak was in early February.

[...]

Fokin learned about his positive result on Feb. 24, the first day of Russia’s all-out war. Kyiv was already being bombed, but laboratories were still operating and offered testing.

[...]

On the second night of the offensive, Fokin heard multiple explosions in Kyiv. He saw his neighbors running to the bomb shelter, visibly panicking. However, no matter how scared he was, joining them wasn’t an option for Fokin. He says that at the moment he had a persistent cough, and the risk of infecting everyone in the shelter was too high.

[...]

As of March 6, 34 Ukrainian hospitals have been damaged or destroyed by Russia’s war, according to Health Minister Viktor Lyashko. The Health Ministry also reported attacks on cars with oxygen for Covid-19 patients.

Though some laboratories and hospitals are out of operation, on the 15th day of the war, March 10, the Health Ministry registered 6,700 new Covid-19 cases. Some 5,700 patients were hospitalized on the same day.

[...]

Though the spread of Covid-19 in Ukraine amid Russia’s war might seem like a local problem, it could affect the pace of the pandemic way beyond Ukraine’s borders.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 18, 2021
Why ukraine has not established the production of the vaccine. Forbes spoke to several of the protagonists of this story — Forbes.ua
In Ukraine, no company is engaged in the production of vaccines. "Production stopped back in the 1990s, we actually lost this industry," says Dosenko. In the mid-2000s, they tried to establish a release at Farmak, The company's co-owner Filya Zhebrovska told Forbes.

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukrainian national anthem live at the Royal Albert Hall | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 2 min ago
Multiple explosions heard in Lviv and Kherson and reports that Lviv is under Russian missile attacks.

NEXTA on Twitter
#British families who house refugees from #Ukraine will get £350 a month in return. The government's Homes for Ukraine program encourages people to give a refugee a spare room or vacant property for at least six months.

 

[PommyMommy]

[URL='https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/mar/12/ukraine-news-russia-war-ceasefire-broken-humanitarian-corridors-kyiv-russian-invasion-live-vladimir-putin-volodymyr-zelenskiy-latest-updates-live']Russia-Ukraine war latest news: invaders ‘cannot conquer us’, Zelenskiy says, as 13,000 flee besieged cities – live | World news | The Guardian[/URL]
19m ago 23:14

Moldova’s foreign minister Nicu Popescu has said his country is approaching a “breaking point” in its ability to shelter those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

The number of refugees staying in Moldova is around 100,000 but represents a 4% increase in the national population and would be equivalent in proportion to 2.5 million refugees arriving in the UK in a fortnight, the BBC reports.

Popescu told the BBC that Moldova was “Ukraine’s most fragile neighbour” with fewer financial resources, and less resilience in security, health care and education.

A full Russian assault on Ukraine’s third largest city of Odesa, 48km from Moldova’s border, would likely trigger an “overwhelming” influx of refugees and would be a “complete catastrophe for the humanitarian situation”.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 12, 2022
Ukraine reveals ‘Russian warship, go yourself!’ postage stamp | Ukraine | The Guardian

Ukraine has chosen the image for a new postage stamp called “Russian warship, go yourself!” as the besieged country continues to try to keep morale high and win the PR battle against invading Russian forces.

The country’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzheppar, announced the stamp commemorating the Snake Island incident, in which 13 border guards stationed on a roughly 16-hectare (40-acre) rocky island about 186 miles (300km) west of Crimea reportedly replied, when asked to surrender: “Russian warship, go yourself.” They were then attacked, and thought killed.

[...]

The illustration by the artist Boris Groh received the most votes in a competition held by the Ukrainian postal service, Dzheppar said.

The country’s efforts to undermine the legitimacy of Russia’s invasion through non-military means have drawn acclaim from around the world.

Earlier in the month, Ukraine authorities said any seized Russian tanks wouldn’t need to be declared for tax purposes. “Have you captured a Russian tank or armoured personnel carrier and are worried about how to declare it? Keep calm and continue to defend the motherland!” Ukraine’s National Agency for the Protection against Corruption (NAPC) said.

[...]

Note: Fill in the ****s to get the link to work.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 12, 2022
12 Hours on Board a Packed Train Out of Ukraine (businessinsider.com)
[...]

In normal times, the route from Lviv to Przemysl – 60 miles away, and just across the Polish border – might take 2 hours and 22 minutes. These days, travelers packed into crowded trains can expect it to take 12 hours.

[...]

This Thursday, March 10, a train bound for Przemysl was loaded at twice its normal capacity, with over a hundred passengers in each wagon. Travelers stood or sat on every inch of floor space. The passengers were mostly women, children, and seniors, because of Ukraine's wartime policy prohibiting men considered of military age (18 – 60) from leaving the country.

[...]