Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[NewYorkExpress]

Wtf

https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperRADLemon/status/1498309235314151430

Funny. Who are the fans casting as Putin, just for my curiosity?

[NewYorkExpress]

Wtf

https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperRADLemon/status/1498309235314151430

Funny. Who are the fans casting as Putin, just for my curiosity?

On House of Cards he was (kind of) played by Lars Mikkelsen:

That's actually...an incredibly good likeness.

[NewYorkExpress]

Apparently Xi Jinping asked Putin to hold off on invading Ukraine until after the Olympics.

A Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official.

The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on Feb. 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring that their partnership had “no limits,” denouncing NATO enlargement and asserting that they would establish a new global order with true “democracy.”

The intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was classified. It was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials reviewing it. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments passed it around as they discussed when Mr. Putin might attack Ukraine.

However, different intelligence services had varying interpretations, and it is not clear how widely the information was shared.


One official familiar with the intelligence said the material did not necessarily indicate the conversations about an invasion took place at the level of Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin. Other officials briefed on the intelligence declined to give further details. The officials spoke about the report on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence.

When asked by email on Wednesday whether Chinese officials had urged Russian officials to delay an invasion of Ukraine until after the Olympics, Liu Pengyu, the Chinese Embassy spokesman in Washington, said, “These claims are speculation without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China.”

China held the closing ceremony of the Olympics on Feb. 20. The next day, Mr. Putin ordered more Russian troops to enter an insurgent-controlled area of eastern Ukraine after state television broadcast a meeting between him and his national security council and a long speech in which he said Ukraine should be a part of Russia rather than existing as a country. Early on Feb. 24, the Russian military began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including carrying out attacks on Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles, artillery shells and tank units.

[NewYorkExpress]

I can’t help but notice that Afghanistan is green. Does that mean that THE TALIBAN are condemning the Russian invasion? The TALIBAN??

Given Afghanistan has been invaded by Russia before (and that's indirectly how the Taliban came to power), it actually wouldn't shock me if a Taliban UN Representative would have voted against Russia on this.

[NewYorkExpress]

Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin are going to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskiy

Anyone want to take bets on whether Putin tries to have them killed?

[NewYorkExpress]

Duma member Oleg Morozov openly threatens Poland, says that they are next in line for DeNazification.

Amember of the Russian parliament and a top member of President Vladimir Putin's political party, United Russia, has suggested that Russia look to Poland after Ukraine in its quest for "denazification."

Oleg Morozov's comments, which were posted to Telegram, echoed Putin's self-described goal of working to "denazify" Ukraine.

Poland should be "in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine," Morozov said in the post, according to an English translation.


It was not immediately clear why Morozov reportedly believes that Poland is in need of "denazification," but the comments could further strain tensions between Russia and Europe amid the war in Ukraine. Poland is one of 30 NATO member nations, meaning that any potential Russian attempts to target the country could trigger a massive war with the military alliance.


Newsweek reached out to Morozov via the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, for comment on these remarks.

[NewYorkExpress]

Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, a journalist for BFM TV was shot and killed near Lyssychansk.

A French journalist has been shot and killed in Ukraine, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. On board a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape the Russian bombs, he was fatally shot," Macron tweeted Monday.

"I share the grief of the family, friends and colleagues of Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, to whom I send my condolences. To those who carry out the difficult mission of providing information in theaters of operation, I want to reiterate France's unconditional support," Macron added.
France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said she had spoken with the governor of Luhansk and asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate.

"This is a double crime, targeting a humanitarian convoy and a journalist," she said.

Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, worked for CNN affiliate BFM TV, which released a statement saying its staff was "deeply saddened" by his death, adding that he was killed on the road to Lyssychansk in the Severodonetsk region of Ukraine.

[NewYorkExpress]

According to Russian State TV World War III has begun.

A prominent Russian state television presenter has claimed World War III has already begun due to western arms support for Ukraine.

Rossiya 1 presenter Olga Skabeyeva said Russia's so-called special military operation in Ukraine was over and “a real war has started, World War III”.

She added that Moscow now had to expand its goal of “demilitarisation” to cover Nato countries.

On Monday’s edition of her programme 60 Minutes, Ms Skabeyeva said: “It's time to admit, perhaps, that Russia's special operation in Ukraine is now over in the sense that a real war has started, World War III.


“We are being forced to demilitarise, not just Ukraine but Nato as a whole.”

She said the use of American M777 howitzers by Ukrainian troops in the Donbas had led her to the conclusion – though it was not the first time she has heeded the beginning of a third world war.

Ms Skabeyeva is a popular propagandist who enthusiastically follows the Kremlin line in broadcasts on Russia's second-most watched news network.

[NewYorkExpress]

The "everything is Russian" justification:

https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1534956562854432768?s=20&t=72LvWuIR6...
https://twitter.com/ElenaChernenko/status/1534929353682845696?s=20&t=72LvWuI...
https://twitter.com/ElenaChernenko/status/1534929357642289153?s=20&t=72LvWuI...

Putin openly admitting his next move will be to invade a NATO country here. Will it be Poland or a Baltic state?

[NewYorkExpress]

Vyacheslav Volodin threatens that Russia will take back Alaska.

In another blustery warning to the U.S., Vyacheslav Volodin, a longtime Putin aide who serves as the speaker of the lower house of parliament, warned Wednesday that Washington should remember that Alaska was part of Russia when it freezes Russian assets. Russia colonized Alaska and established several settlements there until the U.S. purchased it from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million.

“When they attempt to appropriate our assets abroad, they should be aware that we also have something to claim back,” Volodin said during a meeting with lawmakers.

[NewYorkExpress]

Iran to supply Russia with combat drones

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is set to visit Tehran next week as the US has accused Iran of preparing to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told reporters the US had information indicating Tehran was “preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, on an expedited timeline”.

“Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs, with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July.”

Sullivan added that the information received by the US supported views that Russia’s heavy bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, were “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.

Sullivan said it was not clear whether Iran had yet delivered any of the drones to Russia. He noted that Iran’s drones had been used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi Arabia.

[NewYorkExpress]

Dimitry Medvedev is calling for reestablishing the Soviet Union on social media.

A social media post that appeared on the account of former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev described how Russia should "restore the borders of our Motherland."

The page on Medvedev's VKontakte account referred to ex-Soviet countries neighboring Russia such as Georgia and Kazakhstan and was deleted within 10 minutes. His aide Oleg Osipov told the Tass news agency that the social media account had been hacked.

The message was still up for long enough for opposition figure and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak to post screenshots of the purported Medvedev post, which outlines a hawkish geopolitical vision for Russia's future following the war in Ukraine.


The post said that "after the liberation of Kyiv and all the territories of Little Russia from gangs of nationalists... Russia will become united again."


It also said that before 1801, Georgia as a country didn't exist, and that it was part of the Russian empire and that "North and South Ossetia, Abkhazia and the remaining territories of Georgia can only be united as part of a single state with Russia."

[NewYorkExpress]

Russia is stealing Ukrainan Art and Cultural artifacts at a scale not seen since the Nazis were invading,

Last fall, Ukrainian troops were closing in on Kherson, rolling back Russian forces who had seized the city after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

At the Kherson Regional Art Museum, a team of armed Russians in civilian clothes arrived along with several large trucks and buses. Over five days, they hauled away more than 11,000 pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, graphics and other works from Ukraine and around the world, said Alina Dotsenko, the director of the museum.


“It was obvious that it was all planned. The decision to loot the museum was not made on the spot,” Dotsenko said. “It was all carefully planned.”

The theft, verified by human rights monitors and independent scholars, was not an isolated incident.

A growing body of evidence suggests Russian forces are systematically stealing art and cultural artifacts from Ukraine on a scale not seen in Europe since the Nazi plunder of World War II, according to researchers and experts documenting the damage.

The theft includes precious Scythian gold jewelry dating to the fourth century B.C., ancient coins and thousands of paintings from museums and private collections, researchers said. Some art and cultural sites have been severely damaged and destroyed, including centuries-old Orthodox Christian churches, libraries and paintings by one of Ukraine’s most beloved artists, Maria Prymachenko, whose work was hailed by Pablo Picasso as an “artistic miracle.”

The organized campaign of looting and destruction, targeting hundreds of cultural monuments, churches and museums, appears aimed at wiping out Ukraine’s history and cultural identity, experts said.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://twitter.com/MedvedevRussiaE/status/1685573843094544384

[NewYorkExpress]

Romania states that parts of a Russian drone fell on it's territory.

Parts of what could be a Russian drone fell on Romanian territory, Romania's Defence Minister Angel Tilvar said on Wednesday, two days after Ukraine said Russian drones had detonated on the NATO member's land.

Romanian officials had earlier denied reports of drones falling on Romanian territory and said Russian attacks in neighbouring Ukraine did not cause a direct threat.

On Wednesday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said confirmation of the discovered parts belonging to a Russian drone would be a serious violation