How many of you actually thought Ukraine was EVER in the running?

[Dafinch]

Russia may be devoured by its neighbours ​

421
Svitlana Morenets
Wed, May 31, 2023 at 5:28 AM PDT

Fighters of the Russian Volunteer Corps
Ukraine’s resistance to Putin’s invasion has demolished the idea of Russian invincibility. Everyone knows Russia is not the unbeatable empire Moscow was at pains to portray itself as both outwardly and inwardly. And just as Russia is trying to claim Ukraine as its own, other countries are eyeing chunks of Russian land, spotting an opportunity as the war shows just how weak the Russian army is. Nations within Russia are waiting for the right time to oust the bully. The Kremlin should be wary of promoting a world where it is acceptable to seize territories through force; it only invites others to join in and claim parts of Russia for themselves.
Japan was the first country to break its silence after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Tokyo said of the Kuril Islands that it was “completely unacceptable that the Northern Territories have yet to be returned since the Soviet Union’s illegal occupation of them 77 years ago”. That annexation saw the expulsion of Japanese people from the southern islands, and since then, the countries have failed to reach a compromise. Talks broke down when Putin showed he was not willing to share lands but only to gain new ones.
Then China started drawing maps marking part of Siberia and the Russian Far East region as originally Chinese. Great areas of Chinese land were annexed by Russia in the 19th century. Unable to claim this territory back in a peaceful way, Beijing has pursued economic expansion around Baikal and has been actively purchasing and leasing lands near the border.

In Poland, there are narratives suggesting that Russia occupied the Kaliningrad region in 1945, and that Warsaw has the right to claim it. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and even Ukraine could also stake interests in vying for Russian lands. Russian fighters infiltrating the Belgorod region under the Ukrainian flag served as a reminder to Putin that others could also reclaim their “primordial territories”. Kyiv aims to restore its 1991 borders and end the war. Yet the prospect of exiled Russians on tanks turning Russian border regions into “national republics” is seen as a welcomed payback for Moscow’s deeds in the Donbas.
As Moscow pursues the expansion of its European borders, national autonomies in Russia and their exiled leaders envision the decolonization of Russia, dreaming of dividing it into 34 independent states. For now, national liberation movements are absent due to oppression and persecution within Russia. When the Soviet Union fell apart, several regions of Russia declared their state sovereignty but were silenced. These regions have constitutions stating their sovereignty as separate states, with power-sharing treaties governing their relationship with Moscow. These norms are “dormant”, but they can be activated as soon as the regime demonstrates its inability to keep the empire under control.
The Kremlin has well-founded fears of a possible cascade of sovereignties in Russia. The Russian economy relies on resource redistribution from the regions to Moscow. The prospect of gaining control over their own finances could prompt local elites to seek independence. The destruction of Chechnya showed other nations that were forcibly joined to Russia how Moscow handles “separatists”. Still, the Kremlin pushes the population of these regions to the edge, throwing their men into the battlefield in Ukraine as cannon fodder.
The poorest regions in Russia were affected by conscription the most. Anti-war rallies have taken place in Dagestan, Kalmykia and Buryatia, with the republics’ leaders speaking out against the conscription. They feel they are treated as second-class citizens based on ethnicity compared to those residing in St. Petersburg or Moscow. The mounting number of caskets delivered from the front line to small towns and villages further fuels the flames. Once ignited, the liberation movement could sweep through numerous regions, leaving the regime with only those territories firmly aligned with the Russian narrative and unwilling to break free from imperial rule.
The Ukrainian government believes that Russia’s imperialistic ambitions must end with justice for everyone. It has recognised the Kuril Islands and Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as temporarily occupied by Russia and supports the exiled politicians of Russian national minorities. Ukraine insists that to achieve a prolonged peace in Eastern Europe, Moscow’s troops must leave not only Crimea and Donbas but also Transnistria, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh. It is an idealistic dream, almost impossible, because Putin won’t give up an inch of land for free. Still, Moscow would be wise to watch its back. It may end up reaping what it has sown as Russian lands prove too tempting for its neighbours – and its oppressed citizens.

 

[StevieRay]

Zelensky's THUGS arrested Gonzalo Lira, an American citizen living in Ukraine who faces 8 yrs in prison simply for criticizing the war!! So much for free speech!


CRICKETS in the MSM & of course the Nazi money laundering Biden regime doesn't give a shit!!

Biden Administration Refuses To Assist American Locked Up In Ukraine For 'Speech Violations'....

 

[Dafinch]

Russia builds gigantic facilities for sorting occupiers' corpses – Ukraine's Defence Intelligence​

(Dead Russkies TELL no tales)

Ukrainska Pravda
Wed, May 31, 2023 at 3:29 AM PDT


In Russia, large-scale facilities are being built for sorting and storing the corpses of the occupiers killed in the war against Ukraine.
Source: press service of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence
Quote: "In Kursk and Rostov-on-Don, the Russians are building large-scale facilities for sorting, analysing, and storing the corpses of personnel eliminated in the war against Ukraine."
Details: According to the Ukrainian military agency, the area of each object is more than 4,000 square metres.
The facilities are supposed to include:

• posts for conducting investigative actions and research on bodies;
• refrigerators with 1,000 refrigerating chambers;
• warehouses with coffins and other funeral necessities;
• mourning hall

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the estimated cost of building such a facility in Rostov-on-Don is about 600 million roubles (roughly US$ 7.4 million), and in Kursk it's more than 800 million roubles (approximately US$9.8 million). The cost of refrigeration equipment is estimated at more than a billion roubles for each facility.
Quote: "The Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine states that terrorist Russia is no longer able to hide the scale of personnel losses in the war against Ukraine.
The construction of these facilities on the territory of Moscow confirms the fact that Putin's regime is sending its occupying army on a deadly assembly line but is unable to cope with the flow of the dead."

 

[StevieRay]

?????????????

 

[StevieRay]

For months, the 'Battle for Bakhmut' has been a main point in Zelensky's fundraising pitch, as he gallivanted across NATO territory in search of more lethal aid. But now that the Russian Wagner Group has taken control of the city, the "fortress" Zelensky once touted that was supposed to "change the trajectory of the war" is no more, and he refuses to acknowledge that he knowingly sent thousands of men to their death, while he used their lives to increase his own wealth..

The loss of Bakhmut has broken what’s left of the Ukraine military

They are fantasizing about capturing a Russian military base and stealing their nukes, with the men who have already been slaughtered in a suicide publicity stunt.

They are willing to believe anything at this point.

 

[StevieRay]

The NATO Alliance is once again teasing the promise of membership for Ukraine—but Chief Stoltenberg is now admitting that the only way Kiev can become a member is if "President Putin doesn’t win this war." No way is that not happening

In other words, despite all of the political double-speak, NATO is still wary of Russia's red line.

$$ laundering at its finest

 

[SheriffJoe]

Ukraine is the Money Laundering, Sex Trafficking and Organ Harvesting Capital of the World.

On 04/14/2022 the Ukrainian Parliament passed a law 5610 which clears Ukraine to export Organs abroad.

Organs were removed without consent and the laws were passed during ongoing military actions. These laws were promoted by former acting health minister Ulyana Suprun. Under the new transplants laws Hospitals, Prisons, Military Units, and Orphanages are free to use the organs of anyone under their care.

Ukraine is Cabal Central

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1664040658406113281

 

[StevieRay]

Nothing new here


Robert F. Kennedy Jr Says We Are Being Lied To About the Proxy War in Ukraine

“Our government is lying to us about it. The media is going on with the lie…It’s a laundering operation for the Military Industrial Complex.”

 

[Dafinch]

Ukraine Update: Anti-Putin forces cross the border again for another attack inside Russia​

More Russian stuff blowing up inside Russia​

by quaoar
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Thursday, June 01, 2023 at 12:19:06p PDT
33
Comments
33 NEW
Recommend Story231

Shebekino is a small town in Russia southeast of Belgorod and right across the border from Ukraine. And it has devolved into a bit of chaos as it is attacked by the anti-Putin Russian militias that have been fighting for Ukraine.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Freedom of Russia Legion announced Thursday morning that they were conducting a new raid into Russia’s Belgorod region. The two pro-Ukrainian militia groups have carried out multiple armed incursions into Russia from Ukraine in recent months. In videos posted to Telegram, the RDK said its fighters were at the border and were approaching the “outskirts of Shebekino,” a town in the Belgorod region, while the Freedom of Russian Legion said they were also at the border and would soon enter Russian territory “to bring freedom, peace, and calm.”

The Russian Defense Ministry claims the invaders were repelled by “selfless actions of Russian servicemen” and that 30 members of the militia were killed.
It remains to be seen if this is just a raid or something more.

There are two militias. The Russian Volunteer Corps is the one that is led by a neo-Nazi. The other group is called the Legion of Freedom.





The Russians say there is nothing to see here.

 

[StevieRay]

When the real numbers slowly will be made public … people will be shocked … nobody will understand why a peace deal was not reached. All for a proxy war, money $$ and protecting the deep state playground

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1608157132255281153

 

[StevieRay]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1606688670882451456

 

[Dafinch]

Ukraine threatens Russian garrison in Transnistria, plus Russian stuff blowing up ​

 

[roadreeler57]

 

[roadreeler57]

edit

 

[StevieRay]

 

[Dafinch]

‘Everything Changed’: The War Arrives on Russians’ Doorstep​

357
Valerie Hopkins and Anatoly Kurmanaev
Sun, June 4, 2023 at 7:11 AM PDT

Members of the Free Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps pose for reporters during a media event in the Sumy region of Ukraine, May 24, 2023. (Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times)
Over the last five days of May, Ruslan, an English teacher in a Russian town near the Ukrainian border, heard the distinct sound of a multiple rocket launcher strike for the first time. Shelling would begin around 3 a.m., sometimes shaking his house, and continue through the morning.
He had heard the thud of explosions in distant villages in the past, he said, and in October, shelling damaged a nearby shopping mall. But nothing like this.
“Everything changed,” he said.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
Fifteen months after Russian missiles first roared toward Kyiv, Ukraine, residents of the Russian border region of Belgorod are starting to understand the horror of having war on their doorstep.
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Shebekino, a town of 40,000 just 6 miles from the border, has effectively become a new part of the front line as Ukraine has intensified attacks inside Russia, including on residential areas near its own borders. The spate of assaults, most recently by militia groups aligned against Moscow, has sparked the largest military evacuation effort in Russia in decades.
“The town became a ghost in 24 hours,” said Ruslan, 27, who evacuated Thursday after a sustained campaign of shelling.
In the last several days, The New York Times interviewed more than a half-dozen residents of the border region to get a sense of the deepening anxiety among Russian civilians. Like Ruslan, most insisted on being identified by only their first names, citing a fear of retribution for speaking about the war.
“Shebekino was a wonderful, flowery town on the border with Ukraine filled with happy, neighborly people,” said Darya, 37, a local public-sector employee. “Now only pain, death and misery live in our town. There is no power, no public transport, no open businesses, no residents. Just an empty, shattered town in smoke.”
The hardship is familiar to Ukrainians, who have seen cities like Bakhmut obliterated and others ravaged by civilian casualties. So are the sleepless nights; Russian missiles targeted Kyiv at least 17 times in May. But many Russians had not expected something similar to happen on their home turf.
Explosions are audible, too, in the city of Belgorod, the regional capital 20 miles to the north of Shebekino, and residents there have increasingly begun seeking access to basements that can be used as bomb shelters. People who had previously tried to go about their daily business suddenly discovered they could not.
“We are at a turning point right now,” said Oleg, a businessperson in the city. “When this all started,” he said, referring to the war, “the people who opposed it here were a minority. Now, after four days of being shelled, people are changing their minds.”
Belgorod’s regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said 2,500 residents had been evacuated and taken to temporary shelters in sports arenas farther from the border. Thousands more left on their own accord, residents said in interviews.
Gladkov said nine residents had died from shelling over the past three days. It is unclear how many Russians in the border region have been killed overall, but this was almost surely the deadliest week for the Belgorod region since the start of the war.
Flare-ups and cross-border shelling between Ukrainian and Russian forces have occurred regularly throughout the war. The recent attacks on Belgorod were undertaken by two paramilitary groups made up of Russians fighting for Ukraine’s cause; they have claimed that they target only security infrastructure and portrayed their fight as one for liberation from President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
But their claims have clashed with accounts of widespread residential destruction described by witnesses and seen in videos posted on social media and verified by the Times. One of the two groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps, has also acknowledged shelling Shebekino’s urban area with “bouquets of Grads,” a Soviet-designed multiple rocket launcher that covers a large area with explosives.
As footage of that shelling filled Belgorod’s public chat rooms, citizens volunteered to drive affected families to safety, donated money and opened homes to refugees. In doing so, they underlined what they said was the inadequacy of the local government’s response, and the growing realization that they had only themselves to rely on.
It was a sign of spontaneous social organization that Putin has systematically undermined in recent years as he tightened control. The arrival of the war on Russian soil is rekindling a grassroots civic spirit borne of necessity, with as yet unpredictable consequences for the country’s politics.
To some in the region, the assaults on Shebekino, the most sustained attack on a Russian town since the start of the war, made clear Moscow’s lack of concern for their fate. In social media posts, they used the hashtag #ShebekinoIsRussia, a cry for attention from the wider public across the country, which has largely carried on with daily life. In interviews, some in Shebekino expressed anger at how state television anchors struggled to pronounce the town’s name, even as they lauded the evacuation efforts.
“It seems that in Moscow, they don’t understand what we have going on here,” said Ruslan, the English teacher. Citing explosions over the Kremlin last month, he said, “When drones flew to Moscow, there were immediately big stories; it was all over the news. And here, people have been under fire for months, and nothing.”
Despite an uptick of attacks on Russian soil, only 1 in 4 Russians is following the war closely and most likely going beyond state media to seek information about it, according to a May poll conducted by the independent Moscow-based public opinion firm Levada Center. Almost half of respondents said they don’t follow the conflict at all, or only cursorily.
Levada’s director, Denis Volkov, said it was too early to say whether the escalation of border attacks would rally Russians around the flag.
“We have a very disjointed society,” he said. “No one has much interest beyond their own nose.”
But the violence is causing residents of Shebekino to reevaluate their apathy or support for the war, and the disruption of the last week is breeding resentment against authorities who they believe have failed to protect them.
“People are disappointed that it has gotten to this stage, that this was permitted to happen,” said Elena, a Belgorod resident who volunteered to evacuate people from Shebekino.
Darya, the public-sector employee, described a chaotic evacuation. As the sounds of explosions grew near, she said, her family gathered necessities and waited for the official transport promised by regional authorities. When it didn’t arrive, they called an evacuation help line set up by the governor and were told to wait, in vain.
They eventually left the town in their private car, leaving behind an older relative who could not be easily moved.
“We saw many Shebekino residents sitting on the side of the highway in their cars, because they had nowhere to go,” she said.
Evacuation did not always bring safety. Two women died near Shebekino after their car was hit by a shell on the side of the road Thursday, according to Gladkov, the governor. His claim could not be independently verified.
There is also the realization among border residents that there is no end in sight to the war.
Russia has annexed parts of four Ukrainian regions that it has occupied and is planning to hold elections there in September, despite the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive aimed at wrestling back territory from Moscow’s forces.
“I don’t understand the point of these annexations; I don’t even know where they are,” said Alina, 31, a social media manager in Belgorod. “This is just some kind of farce.”
In the city of Belgorod, with a population of 340,000, the pain and confusion of the war is made more acute by historical ties to Ukraine. It is only 25 miles from the border and only 50 miles from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Before the war, people from Belgorod traveled to Kharkiv to shop or even just for a night out. Many have relatives living across the border.
Ruslan, the English teacher, said that he was always opposed to the war and that his position hasn’t changed with the destruction of his city. But his feelings toward Ukraine have.
“I thought I was able to empathize, but when it comes to your home, it’s a completely different feeling,” he said.
“I understand that it’s all because of Putin, but at the same time, I have a slightly different attitude toward the Ukrainian armed forces,” he continued. “Now I think, maybe they are no different from ours.”

 

[StevieRay]

??? the NY Russia Russia Times

 

[Dafinch]

??? the NY Russia Russia Times

View attachment 68977

You FIRST, NAZI Scum: you don't even have a clue how fucking STUPID you look, ridiculing, without comment, media sources with whom you disagree, when, one, YOU tongue the balls of rags like the New York Post and (formerly?) FAUX Non-News, and, two, you're a fucking moron, i.e., "DEM VOTER FRAUD HAS ALREADY STARTED," ROTFLMAO!!!!!

A horrifying embarrassment for Putin stands to test Zelensky’s nerves of steel​

Lewis Page
Sat, June 3, 2023 at 10:00 PM PDT·16 min read



Vladimir Putin - Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Recent events suggest that Ukraine is fighting a deniable shadow war on Russian territory. It’s true: and in fact this war began almost as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine.
Reporting in Russia is subject to state control, but it’s difficult to keep people from noticing events such as large fires and explosions.
Within weeks of Russian troops crossing into Ukraine, such fires were raging and things were exploding on the Russian side of the border.
As early as April 2022, Ukrainian officials were denying that Kyiv was responsible for a fuel depot blaze near Belgorod, and suggesting that Russian separatists seeking to establish a “People’s Republic of Belgorod” might have started the conflagration.
Later that month the Russian border provinces of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh all raised their terror alert status.
Explosions, fires and power cuts began to ravage the border region.
As the summer arrived, Russia gave up on its disastrous attempts to take Kyiv and Kharkiv, and pulled its troops back onto its own territory all along the northern border. The defeated Russian forces mostly redeployed to the south to reinforce the invasion there.

Ukrainian servicemen prepare a tank, at a position near the frontline city of Bakhmut - DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
This left more than 1,000km of Russia-Ukraine border, from Luhansk all the way up to Belarus, only very lightly defended by the Russians. It has been somewhat fortified, and is increasingly defended by minefields and patrolled by drones, but it remains permeable.

Mystery fires​

Ever since Russia retreated, its border provinces have been ablaze. The destruction is almost always reported in Russian media as being the results of cross-border shelling or airstrikes: but it is clear that there are teams of saboteurs operating across the border too.
It also seems plausible that there are at least some Ukrainian covert operatives and/or disaffected Russians working from inside the Motherland.
There has been sabotage in the railway systems of both Belarus and Russia. So-called “mystery fires” have been breaking out in Russia since the invasion, often far from the border areas. The Russian aerospace force research institute in Tver, northwest of Moscow, was gutted by fire in April 2022, with a number of people killed.

 

[StevieRay]

Keep slinging u ignorant 0-114 abandoned threads bumped daily maggot. ur a fool of fools




MP’s demand that Zelensky is to be held accountable for his serious crimes, which have left tens of thousands of Ukrainian Ppl Dead.
Zelensky to be investigated for "High Treason," by Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation

 

[Dafinch]

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