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

[PommyMommy]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499114843441410048?t=KRdxKDc9BEbjYKf3MjpKEQ&s=19
️Abramovich to sell Chelsea, says that he has told the team to set up a fund to deliver all net proceeds to “benefit all victims of the war in Ukraine.”

A nuclear attack would most likely target one of 6 US cities. Simulated images show how a Hiroshima-like explosion would affect each.
This is a good article explaining the effects of a nuclear bomb. Yes, it would be devastating. No, a single nuclear bomb would not take out a whole city, unless it was pretty small. Hubby is retired USAF. This article matches up with what he has told me.

 

[PommyMommy]

March 2, 2022 2:44PM EST
Prime Minister Trudeau says solidarity of Western sanctions a surprise to Putin after Ukraine attack | CP24.com
''OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he thinks Russia's Vladimir Putin is surprised by the strength and unity of Western sanctions in retaliation for his invasion of Ukraine.

Trudeau says Putin likely never imagined that Germany would freeze its lucrative Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia or decide to send anti-tank weapons and surface to air missiles to Ukraine.

"For countries like Canada and the U.K. to be forward leaning on pushing on sanctions, Putin probably expected," Trudeau said Wednesday.''

"For Germany to cancel Nord Stream, to talk about shipping weapons … to Ukraine? These are things that I think has definitely taken aback the Russian system because we are so united in standing up, not just for Ukraine, but for the principles of democracy that matter so much."

 

[PommyMommy]

March 2, 2022, 3:47 PM ET
Russia-Ukraine live updates: 3rd world war would be nuclear, Lavrov warns - ABC News (go.com)
''At least some of the losses the Russians acknowledged Wednesday were due to weapons the U.S. provided Ukraine, acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien told ABC News.

The U.S. has supplied defensive weapons to Ukrainians including anti-tank Javelins and anti-aircraft Stingers, along with ammunition and other supplies.

"We don't know which individual piece of hardware did which individual thing, but let's just say my understanding is Javelins have been extremely effective against Russian onslaught," Kvien said.

"When you see on television some of these Russian tanks or planes blowing up that's partly due to the weapons we have been able to provide," she added.

Kvien told ABC News the U.S. would continue to push weapons and ammunition into the hands of the Ukrainians, but declined to discuss how they are getting into the country.''

 

[PommyMommy]

Children from Ukrainian orphanages among nearly 1 million refugees fleeing country | CBC News
''Some of the nearly one million people who have fled Russia's devastating war in Ukraine in recent days are among society's most vulnerable, unable to make the decision on their own to flee and requiring careful assistance to make the journey to safety.

At the train station in the Hungarian town of Zahony on Wednesday, more than 200 young Ukrainians — residents of two orphanages in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv — disembarked into the cold wind of the train platform after an arduous escape from the violence gripping Ukraine.

The refugees, most of them children with mental and physical disabilities, were evacuated from their care facilities once the Russian assault on the capital intensified.''
''Alina Onica, a 41-year-old Red Cross volunteer in Siret, said that the freezing weather and snow are only adding to the challenges and needs of the refugees being displaced by war.

"It made it more difficult because many left their homes a couple of days ago, and all they had was the clothes on their backs," she said. "They have been asking for gloves, hats, and blankets. It's a humanitarian crisis and we're hoping it will end soon."

 

[PommyMommy]

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov was sanctioned by the European Union on Monday. Two days later, Forbes has learned from three sources in the yacht industry that one of his prized possessions—the 512-foot yacht Dilbar, valued at nearly $600 million—has been seized by German authorities in the northern city of Hamburg.

He’s not the only Russian billionaire with a mega-yacht: Forbes and yacht valuation experts VesselsValue tracked down 32 of them. Despite being hit by EU sanctions on Monday, Usmanov is yet to comment on them or on the war in Ukraine.

Germans Seize Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s Mega-Yacht

 

[PommyMommy]

Feb 24 2022
5 Recent Ukrainian Films That Explore the Human Toll of Russia’s Aggression – The Hollywood Reporter
-Reflection' (2021), by Valentyn Vasyanovych
''Ukrainian multi-hyphenate Valentyn Vasyanovych’s latest feature, Reflection, was one of the critical favorite’s of last year’s Venice Film Festival. With staggering visual restraint and artistry, Vasyanovych uses a sequence of fixed mid-range shots to tell a wrenching story about a cosmopolitan young doctor (Roman Lutskiy) who volunteers to care for the wounded near the battle zone in Ukraine’s Donbas region, only to get captured almost immediately by Russian-speaking soldiers who are pretending to be natives but are really Russian mercenaries shipped in to aid the invasion.''

-'Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom' (2015), by Evgeny Afineevsky

-'Homeward' (2019), by Nariman Aliev

-'The Earth Is Blue as an Orange' (2020), by Iryna Tsilyk
''Iryna Tsilyk’s inventive meta-documentary The Earth Is Blue as an Orange is both a meditation on the redemptive power of cinema and an interrogation of the plight of the women and children living amid Ukraine’s multi-year war in Donbas. The film follows a Ukrainian single mother named Hanna and her four children as they try to keep their home a safe haven full of life and levity as the bombs fall and chaos unfolds around them.''
-Atlantis' (2018), Valentyn Vasyanovych

-''Extra Viewing: 'Servants of the People' (2015-2019), starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The United States isn’t the only nation to vote a colorful TV star into its highest office. Ukraine’s current president Volodymyr Zelenskyy famously rose to public prominence in the country thanks to the wildly popular political comedy Servant of the People, a TV series he created, starred in and produced via his production company Kvartal 95.''

 

[PommyMommy]

From iNews, on the subject of Putin potentially wanting to go into Moldova after Ukraine

Whether Moldova is part of Nato, and what could happen if Russia invades it next

 

[PommyMommy]

How a group of Irish fishermen forced the Russian Navy into a U-turn - CNN

How Irish Fishermen Took on the Russian Fleet and Won

(...)

Murphy said the fishermen would be making a coordinated effort to head off the Russian fleet. “Our boats will be going out to that area on the first of February to go fishing,” he told Politico on Jan. 25. “When one boat needs to return to port, another will head out so there is a continuous presence on the water. If that is in proximity to where the [military] exercise is going, we are expecting that the Russian naval services abide by the anti-collision regulations.” By constantly having their boats in the exercise waters, the fishermen would—peacefully—prevent the Russians from conducting the exercise.

Their action worked. On Jan. 29, Filatov issued a statement announcing that Russia’s defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, had decided, “as a gesture of goodwill, to relocate the exercises by the Russian Navy, planned for February 3-8, outside the Irish exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with the aim not to hinder fishing activities by the Irish vessels in the traditional fishing areas.”

The Irish fishermen didn’t just humiliate Moscow: they also put Western capitals’ deterrence efforts to shame. And they did so by announcing asymmetric deterrence.

(...)

 

[PommyMommy]

The US Air Force plane, Forte10, a Northrop-Grumman Global Hawk gets to within 700 km from Kyiv, at about 53,000 ft on these runs.

Photo: Global Hawk

These are the planes the US is using to watch Russia’s military movements

A look at some military activity in airspace around Ukraine | Flightradar24 Blog

 

[PommyMommy]

Mr. Putin has long lamented the loss of Ukraine and other republics when the Soviet Union broke apart. Now, diminishing NATO, the military alliance that helped keep the Soviets in check, may be his real mission. Before invading, Russia made a list of far-reaching demands to reshape that structure — positions NATO and the United States rejected.

Mr. Putin has described the Soviet (USSR) disintegration as a catastrophe that robbed Russia of its rightful place among the world’s great powers and put it at the mercy of a predatory West. He has spent his 22 years in power rebuilding Russia’s military and reasserting its geopolitical clout.
The Roots of the Ukraine War: How the Crisis Developed

But the most significant influence on Putin’s worldview has nothing to do with either his KGB training or his desire to rebuild the U.S.S.R. Putin and the people around him have been far more profoundly shaped, rather, by their path to power.

Putin missed that moment of exhilaration. Instead, he was posted to the KGB office in Dresden, East Germany, where he endured the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as a personal tragedy. For KGB operatives, this was not a time of rejoicing, but rather a lesson about the nature of street movements and the power of rhetoric: democratic rhetoric, antiauthoritarian rhetoric, anti-totalitarian rhetoric. Putin, like his role model Yuri Andropov, who was the Soviet ambassador to Hungary during the 1956 revolution there, concluded from that period that spontaneity is dangerous.

But although Putin missed the euphoria of the ’80s, he certainly took full part in the orgy of greed that gripped Russia in the ’90s. Having weathered the trauma of the Berlin Wall, Putin returned to the Soviet Union and joined his former colleagues in a massive looting of the Soviet state. With the assistance of Russian organized crime as well as the amoral international offshore-money-laundering industry, some of the former Soviet nomenklatura stole assets, took the money out of the country, hid it abroad, and then brought the cash back and used it to buy more assets. Wealth accumulated; a power struggle followed. Some of the original oligarchs landed in prison or exile. Eventually Putin wound up as the top billionaire among all the other billionaires—or at least the one who controls the secret police.
The Reason Putin Would Risk War

 

[PommyMommy]

Of the 7.86 million barrels per day the U.S. imported in 2020, the majority came from its North American neighbors: Canada, with 4.13 million barrels (52.5%), and Mexico, with 750,000 (9.6%).
But imports coming from outside North America are significant. Russia, with 540,000 barrels a day (6.6%), was the top non-continental contributor. Roughly 11% of the imports came collectively from OPEC countries, including 520,000 from Saudi Arabia.

But the U.S. exports petroleum, too – and in 2020, for the first time since 1949, the U.S. exported more than it imported – 635,000 barrels per day more.

Of the 8.5 million barrels per day exported in 2020, Mexico and Canada reappear as the largest partners again, each receiving about a million barrels per day from the U.S. China was the third-largest recipient, with 720,000 barrels a day. Japan and India round out the top five, receiving about half a million barrels per day each.

Where Does the U.S. Get Its Oil?

 

[PommyMommy]

The Russian Federation Council is set to hold an unscheduled meeting on Friday, leading to widespread speculation in Moscow that the country might impose martial law.

The introduction of martial law would give the authorities sweeping powers to limit freedom of movement and freedom of speech.

The Federation Council said it will officially discuss on Friday a package of anti-crisis measures in response to Western sanctions.

Russia-Ukraine war latest: 38 countries, including UK, refer atrocities to ICC – live

 

[PommyMommy]

Rich Russians turn to luxury jewellery, watches to shield savings

A European low-cost airline is offering Ukrainians 100,000 free plane tickets from neighboring countries

U.N. vote on Ukraine sends "loud and clear" message to Russia

Why Putin's military has stumbled so badly in Ukraine

Russians in Canada struggle to navigate war in Ukraine

Army of cyber hackers rise up to back Ukraine

Factbox-What is the chain of command for potential Russian nuclear strikes?

Canadian volunteers prepare to join fight against Russian invasion in Ukraine

Around 70 Japanese have volunteered to fight for Ukraine - report

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich selling Chelsea soccer club, with proceeds to help victims of Ukraine war

Analysis: The shifting map of Ukraine makes Russia's intentions clearer

Ukrainian-Canadians eager to volunteer on medical front lines amid Russian invasion

U.S. lawmakers push Treasury to ensure Russia cannot use cryptocurrency to avoid sanctions

 

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Ukraine invasion: Oligarchs living in London react to sanctions against them

Pentagon: Russian Convoy Towards Kyiv Remains Stalled

Amanpour: These countries could convince Putin to stop attacking Ukraine

 

[PommyMommy]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499139436092743683?t=mjI9TF9MZ1TjW9dCTHjgpQ&s=19

️ JP Morgan: Russia risks default on public debt.

Russia is to pay off more than $700 million in government bonds this month.

 

[PommyMommy]

"Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson calls new signs in front of Russian Embassy a 'symbol of defiance'

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-russia-war-ukraine-reaction-1.6370022

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA @nexta_tv
The largest Eastern European media. To let the world know.
Media & Newst.me/nexta_live Joined September 2013

NEXTA@nexta_tv️#Ukrainian delegation is on its way to a meeting with the #Russian delegation in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Zelensky's office said
1:06 PM · Mar 2, 2022·Twitter Web App

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1499098959628881925?cxt=HHwWisCyvfWj780pAAAA

 

[PommyMommy]

United Nations @UN
Countries have pledged $1.5 billion on Tuesday to help the most vulnerable people in Ukraine, including refugees who fled to neighbouring countries.

This is among the fastest & most generous responses a humanitarian flash appeal has ever received.

China told Russia not to invade Ukraine during Winter Olympics, report says
Senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the New York Times reported, quoting Biden administration officials and a European official who cited a western intelligence report.

 

[PommyMommy]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499165466044076033?t=BIo1UV8BMOw453qatc9OJQ&s=19

️Loud explosion heard in Kyiv. (Posted 10 min ago)

Why Does the U.S. Buy Russian Oil?
…..

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said U.S. purchases of Russian oil in 2021 would have delivered an estimated $17.4 billion to that nation. "We cannot criticize Europe for its reliance on Russian energy, as we pour dirty oil money into Russia," he said in a Tuesday statement.

U.S. has not sanctioned Russian oil but traders avoiding it

 

[PommyMommy]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499169128405426184?t=myLpi8L_mjzwmQoc8HvzeQ&s=19
2 explosions heard in Kyiv. 1 minute ago.

BNO News @BNONews 6m
BREAKING: More than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, UN says

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1499169968407126016?t=1pwmSeCuqHrtI_3MSZwCxA&s=19
️️️A third and fourth explosion have now been heard near Kyiv's Druzhby Narodiv metro station.
Air raid alerts in Kyiv. Residents must go immediately to the nearest shelter.

Ukrainian camera operator Yevhenii Sakun killed in Russian shelling of Kyiv TV tower - Committee to Protect Journalists