Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

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Ahnold's message to the Russian people:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/1504426844199669762

I like it! He's actually good at this, just like his post-January 6 address.

Too bad Ahnuld was never able to run for president.

He's a Republican

Ahnold was a bad governor, is a bad person, and is a mixed bag as an actor, but he's consistently nailed foundational issues of democratic self-rule and its discontents.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/BeijingPalmer/status/1504551175747784704?s=20&t=xZU0kT80...
More China stuff. Apparently the line from the censors is to avoid content that is clearly pro or anti Ukraine/Russia and just present the situation. Which matches what Bejing seems to be signaling: neutrality with the aim of exploiting the eventual outcome to its fullest.  

Yeah for all compucomp claiming to be a CCP hack he is being quite weird here. It seems his opinion is more pro Russia than anything. China rn is in a very strong position to just stay out of this and enjoy cheap Russian resources while not taking major relationship hits with the west. Compucomp is instead arguing for aid to Russia when that would cause actual relationship degradation. Now the US may be more hostile to China but China could definetely lose a lot of relation with the EU if they actively support Russia.

I'm aware that the situation is fluid and that China is adjusting its stance moving towards being more accommodating towards the West. Yesterday it was announced that China will work with the SEC to establish standards for Chinese firms to list in the US (disclaimer, I hold MCHI which went up 20% on this news), and while this has nothing to do with the war, this is a signal on China's attitude on it since with China the level of cooperation with the West is tightly correlated on everything. If you read my posts carefully I'm not expressing pro-Russian views but rather views opposing Western hegemony and bullying behavior; unlike the actual Russians here that got banned, I never made any comment on how Ukrainians don't deserve their own country, that they're a bunch of Nazis, defending Russia's conduct in the war, etc.

If our leaders judge that the right thing to do is to beat a retreat, back away from Russia, and repair relations with the West, then I'll suck it up and adjust my views since they know better than me. Sometimes one just has to accept an L. Up until last week or so the official stance of the Foreign Ministry was quite bellicose and anti-Western so I'm not the only one that has to make an adjustment. We'll see how the Biden-Xi call goes, if Biden really wants to encourage Xi down this path then he will retreat a bit on some of his other anti-China stances, or he can push Xi back towards Putin by not doing so.

You know that you're still allowed to have opinions separate from those of the Chinese government, even if they are worse than the Chinese government's rather than better, right? Don't let us, or Xi, stop you from being a pro-tyranny hack if that's what you believe is right.

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Massive pro-war rally in the Luzhniki football stadium. Expect Putin to deliver a blood and soil speech.

Bit of a fiasco. People (esp. state employees) were bussed in as per the old Soviet traditions and a number left as soon as their tickets were stamped, and the TV feed for Putin's speech rather bizarrely cut off shortly before the conclusion.

Was there anything of interest in the speech or was it the same "we have to nazify Ukraine in order to denazify it" crapola as always?

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Interestingly, something that Scholz said today managed to anger both Russia and Ukraine and make them agree (but not in a positive way). Scholz said "This war is Putin's war".

In response Zelensky's Chief Foreign Policy Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz for "defending the Russian people". According to him Scholz just wanted to justify his indecisiveness. "A distinction is spreading in Europe between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian people. But that is wrong: according to surveys, a majority of the Russian population supports the war and the killing of Ukrainians." Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also criticized Scholz's remarks, stating that also the Russian people bear responsibility for the war. While in Russia, Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov also criticized Scholz's remarks for trying to divide the President from the Russian people.
 
It seems that the one thing both sides agree, if for different reasons, on is that this war is not a war between the governments, but a total war by the Russian nation against Ukrainian nation. Whilst the people who disagree with this are westerners, either because they are naive and don't want to believe it, or because they are looking for a politically correct excuse not to "punish the Russian people" with the harshest possible sanction for the irredentist and genocidal views that the vast majority, yes, not all, but most of them share.

The other thing is that this hasn't really been Zelensky's own framing, but differences of opinion within a government on how much blame to assign to enemy civilians is far from unusual in wars of this scale.

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Western observers (and the Ukrainian government) have been trying very hard to make this into a clash of systems and ideologies. It’s not; it really is ‘two tribes go to war’.

If you look at both nations and see no difference between them in terms of 'systems and ideologies' then I have a bridge to sell you.

Honestly as much as I support Ukraine, I would caution against this statement. Ukraine's governments post Soviet union have been notoriously corrupt and Ukraine is largely an oligarchy much like Russia. While yes there are elections that are more fair...its really just a bunch of empty promises every cycle. That is part of the reason Ukraine is literally the second lowest country in GDP per capita in all of Europe (first if one is are a pathetic Serb nationalist who can't accept that Kosovo is sovereign)
While I do think Ukraine could well have a much better future due to increased investment from the West and greater national unity if they do somehow survive the invasion (they won't in the short term but that is a different story) there still are serious corruption problems that need to be addressed. I believe Zelenskyy actually was much more committed to this than his predecessors, but I can't tell you the success of those efforts. Regardless, Ukraine will need to see true economic liberalization and a reduction of oligarch power if they want to thrive post war.

I also do think Ukraine should allow Russian to be a second official language. By not doing it, they just enforce the idea one can't be a Russophone and a patriotic Ukrainian, and that has only further incentivized separatism. This should be done especially after the many brave Russophone Ukrainians who are fighting against the invaders in Mariupol and Kharkiv.

Of course i am no expert on Ukrainian politics and I could be just speaking out of my a**.

A corrupt, oligarchic democracy is still a different and better system from an autocracy in which, especially, independent media doesn't exist. (Imagine getting bombarded with Newsmax-tier propaganda from literally every remotely mainstream news source for decades for context on why the majority of Russians still support the war.) Ukraine is also, as I've said before, actively speedrunning adoption of a more civic and liberal nationalism as this invasion continues.

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https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1504892608660840450

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1504892944867856385

Seems like pretty standard stuff. It doesn't seem like the White House is signaling a major shift in Beijing's position, at least not based on this.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1504892608660840450
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1504892944867856385

Seems like pretty standard stuff. It doesn't seem like the White House is signaling a major shift in Beijing's position, at least not based on this.

Beijing's position is a lameass "war is bad, but we won't say aloud that Russia is bad too" that probably won't change for quite a while.

Clearly Joe did not have any intention of bargaining to get China to move in his favor but instead tried to browbeat Xi into submission with "freedom and democracy" rhetoric and threatening sanctions. Thus the result is what we see, the Chinese position remains unchanged, we're keeping the option open to supply Russia, and the Americans are disappointed.

A lack of change in Beijing's position is not actually as disappointing to us dastardly foreign devils as you seem to think, since a day or two ago Blinken was implying that the concern was that China might start very overtly aiding Russia's increasingly incoherent war aims (whatever the hell those are), which is not currently happening. Sure, Blinken is an idiot, but he's also the Secretary of State and presumably had somebody's permission to stoke fears (or hopes, if one enjoys unprovoked mass slaughter as much as you keep claiming not to) of that.

the humanitarian and Ukrainian view,

Mask off. Not a clown but the whole circus. Saying the quiet part out loud. Whatever else people are saying these days about this sort of remark.

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Back to the low effort non sequitur responses again? Who takes the W or L is still to be decided; I will say that if the US and China end up in a trade war, the US will suffer historic inflation and supply shortages among other economic consequences and the Democrats will be utterly destroyed in November.

Speaking of non sequiturs, lol.

Anyway, clearly the biggest L was taken by your parents, whose only child, I presume, ended up being, well, you.

LMAO, they are quite proud that despite being constantly exposed to Western propaganda,  I remain loyal to my people and my country. This is after all a common Western mistake; you love to think that Chinese people are all brainwashed by their government and would overthrow it if they were just informed, does it kill you to know that most Chinese people genuinely support the government and the party, especially when the USA is held up as an alternative?

Why don’t you move to China if  you like it so much , and given you call China your country instead of the US .


You are literally the best possible example of how immigrants should not act and you are a disgrace to the immigrant community

This…is a bit too far. Immigrants can be supportive of certain policies of their homeland even if there were other reasons they left. The only disgraces to the immigrant community imo are those who rally against immigration in general (not illegal immigration so don’t start there) immediately once they get here.

It'd be one thing if he just had strong opinions on the politics of the country he immigrated from; that's any immigrant's right, and Lord knows I have strong opinions on Italian (and Russian for that matter!) politics despite my people having immigrated from Italy and Russia a century ago. The issue is that he openly and affirmatively roots for relations between his home country and his current country of residence to worsen, to the point of sneering at the latter's humanitarian concerns about a country that's currently more friendly to the former bombing theaters and hospitals as part of an unprovoked war of conquest. Actively advocating worse relations between two countries one has extensive ties to is bad form, to say the least, without even bringing questions of loyalty into it.

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I also forgot to mention that for someone who claims to be taking a HARD-NOSED UNSENTIMENTAL VIEW OF THINGS based on WHAT'S IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF HIS PEOPLE, there's something very...well, baizuo, in the radlib-identitarian sense, about compucomp's bitching and moaning about how badly done by China is at the hands of whitey. I bet if Xi Jinping were posting on this forum and making these same arguments he wouldn't be nearly as whiny, self-pitying, and weirdly pessimistic about China's status as a rising superpower. Have some self-confidence in these positions if you're going to be flogging them this hard, for crying out loud.

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It’s not geographic, it’s based mostly on power tier levels in the world mixed with the autocratic-democratic ideological divide. Second-tier powers want to weaken the first-tier power so they can do whatever they want to their neighbors. This appears to override considerations of democracy and autocracy because power corrupts and all that.*

Lol that’s the typical “bringing freedom and democracy to the savages” world police exceptionalism that it’s pointless to argue with. Not that different from Putin fabricating moral argument bs that validates HIS interventions with the “denazification” thing.

As if the West was democratic pinnacle to act like that, the main difference there is that corruption is sold as “entrepreneurship” and elections with two parties only are treated as example to others to follow. You’re not changing your mind and neither am I on this.

Regarding the Brazilian poll, that’s not the “Bolsonaro” or “Lula” view. Neutrality is a consensus. The “Nem-Nem” voters are people who will vote for other options and they’re 73% so… not an ideological thing at all. You can bet the Lula voter would be even higher than 70% if it wasn’t Bolsonaro pushing for neutrality.

Again, that doesn’t mean support for Russia at all (I think people sympathize with Ukraine), but show that people disagree with taking a position and not just buying the simplistic good vs evil narrative. NYT already reported on this geographic divide:

In some parts of the world, the war in Ukraine seems justified

And yes, your bubble, everyone should always realize they’re in one and their views are related to many different backgrounds and experiences.

But cool that you mention that attempts to isolate US for Iraq war failed while this one went unquestioned for a reason. Thanks for backing my point?

Believe it or not, Red Velvet, I actually do agree with many of your part of the world's historical and moral claims against my country. I support several leftist governments, that of Bolivia for example, that haven't exactly been profiles in courage on the Russia-Ukraine situation. I understand very well why people in the Global South would reflexively distrust shrill NATO and EU narratives about muh freedumb and in general I don't blame people for that.

But we, on this forum, frankly, know better, and I have absolutely no patience for moral relativism, whataboutery, or any other reason you or compucomp or anybody else on the Talk Secular Elections US Atlas Forum Blog has for excusing or minimizing the Russian government and military's actions. The fact that the world failed to hold the US to account for its actions in Iraq does not mean that the world should choose not to hold Russia to account for its actions in Ukraine out of some perverse sense of naïve fairness. Double standards should be resolved in favor of consistent justice, not consistent injustice. The direct equivalency that you draw between Russia launching an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and other world powers contemplating intervening to expunge that invasion is particularly obscene, and indicates very bad things about your ability to tell the difference between sincere principled considerations and half-baked knee-jerk resentments and thought-terminating clichés about the United States being both the Main Character and the Bad Guy.

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I'm here for Russian/Ukraine updates and couldn't give two s**s about a multi-page, multi-person debate started by a bootlicker and folks who refuse to stop feeding and encouraging said bootlicker.

Take it to another thread.

The bootlicker's horrid takes pertain to the Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions, so this is, unfortunately, the correct megathread for them. I'd recommend putting him on ignore; I know I'm going to do so if he keeps this up for much longer.

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Can ya'll seriously stop feeding the troll? Most of the last 3 pages have been taken up by a inane debate caused by one or two bootlickers

Not everyone who disagrees with you in automatically a troll.

But compucomp is

He's not. I've met people similar to but less extreme than him in real life. This is your brain on authoritarianism plus affluence.

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There was even a case in the beginning of the invasion where a pro-Russia mayor of a city in eastern Ukraine expressed support for the invasion and called the Russians "liberators", and was then attacked and killed by a mob. Anyone who stands with Russia here is going to face a fate similar to that of collaborationists in post-WWII France.

Or worse. There were, amazingly, more Frenchmen willing to make excuses for the Nazis in immediate postwar France than there are Ukrainians willing to make excuses for the Putinites and Kadyrovites now.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

There's something very Baudrillardian about the apparently quite normal and productive negotiating process chugging merrily along while events in the theater of combat get more and more extreme and the invading forces cross more and more lines that can't be uncrossed. The war is abominable and it isn't. It's being prosecuted rationally and with restraint and it isn't. Putin and Zelenksy don't want a negotiated peace and they do. Welcome to liquid-modern warfare.

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Here is a question:

Who has the upper hand in these negotiations?  Who is negotiating from a 'position of strength'?  Is it Zelenskyy or Putin?  

Nobody really knows. The fact that the Russian starting position was surprisingly modest suggests the former, but the fact that talks don't seem to have moved very far away from that starting position (yet) suggests the latter.

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Ukraine is in a much better spot for a war of attrition than Russia. The sanctions are devestating Russia and will continue to each month. Meanwhile Ukraine can be resupplied easily, the borders of Poland and Slovakia are still easy supply lines. The Slovakian border hasn't really been hit at all, and Lviv near Poland is the least impacted major city, only a few missle strikes and no urban fighting at all

Are there any major roads into Ukraine from Slovakia? I know there are a few from Hungary through the Carpathians.

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At what point will see a full-blown split within the Eastern Orthodox Church, which naturally would be a major religious schism, the like of which has not been seen in some time... ??

Thoughts Atlas Hive???

Ukraine war: The priest gunned down at a checkpoint

On the afternoon of 5 March, Rostyslav Dudarenko, the village priest, was at the Yasnohorodka checkpoint. His role was to check approaching vehicles. But like all military chaplains he was also there to offer the group spiritual support. He was dressed in civilian clothes.

It is not possible to establish exactly what happened, but one survivor of the attack, Yukhym (not his real name), told the BBC he had been manning the checkpoint with Dudarenko and around a dozen others when they learned three Russian tanks had driven through the village. He says the group decided to hide in the woods, ready to confront them if necessary.

As they approached the checkpoint, the Russian troops started "firing in all directions", Yukhym told the BBC. "When they realised we were hiding in the grass, they went off road to run us over with tanks."

He says the tanks had driven back to the road when Dudarenko decided to break cover.

"I saw Rostyslav raise the cross above his head, get up from his hideaway, screaming something and walking towards them. Perhaps he wanted to stop them. I tried to call him."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60778909

Other articles...

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-invasion-splits-orthodox-church-isolates-russian-patriarch-2022-03-14/

https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/03/21/russias-orthodox-church-paints-the-conflict-in-ukraine-as-a-holy-war

https://www.timesofisrael.com/local-clergy-affix-letter-calling-for-end-to-ukraine-war-to-jerusalem-russian-church/

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250692/pope-francis-discusses-ukraine-war-with-russian-orthodox-leader

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/nyregion/russian-ukrainian-orthodox-churches.html

In an unusual move, more than 150 Russian Orthodox clerics have called for an immediate stop to the ongoing war in Ukraine in an open letter issued on March 1.

At least 176 Orthodox clerics said that they "respect the freedom of any person given to him or her by God," adding that the people of Ukraine "must make their own choices by themselves, not at the point of assault rifles and without pressure from either West or East."

The letter says the clerics “bewail” the suffering that has been “undeservingly imposed on our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.”

It is very rare for such a large number of religious clerics of the Orthodox Church to openly challenge President Vladimir Putin's government. In recent years, the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, who did not sign the letter, have fully supported Putin's policies.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-orthodox-clerics-stop-war-ukrane/31730667.html

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarch already declared each other to be in schism in 2019 over the status of the Orthodox Church in you guess it, Ukraine. There are technically two Orthodox Churches in Ukraine now..

Got it, but however we are talking about many other countries and roughly 220 Million Baptised members.

Obviously like Mark Twain once famously said, "There are Lies... Damned Lies... and then there are statistics".

Still, outside of Russia proper looking like there are many communities perhaps from the Eastern Orthodox Religion quite likely to break with the with the "top dog" Putin sycophant, anti-gay leader of the Church???

https://www.highpoint-associates.com/2017/06/lies-damned-lies-statistics/#:~:text=The%20full%20quote%20%E2%80%94%20%E2%80%9CThere%20are,it%20in%20the%20first%20place.

Romania (82%)
Belarus (48-73%)
Greece (95-98%)
Serbia (97%)
Bulgaria (88%)
Moldova (93%)
Georgia (84%)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodoxy_by_country

Kirill is not the leader (technically first among equals; Orthodoxy does not have an equivalent to Catholicism's centralized papacy) of the Eastern Orthodox churches; Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is, and most other Orthodox churches sided with him when the Moscow Patriarchate had its hissy fit in 2019. The Russian Orthodox Church commands a certain respect and prestige because it's by far the largest and because of its undeniably vast storehouse of artistic and cultural treasures, but Kirill himself has no special status among other Orthodox patriarchs except what he gets from being a caesaropapist hanger-on to a major world leader.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

At what point will see a full-blown split within the Eastern Orthodox Church, which naturally would be a major religious schism, the like of which has not been seen in some time... ??

Thoughts Atlas Hive???

Ukraine war: The priest gunned down at a checkpoint

On the afternoon of 5 March, Rostyslav Dudarenko, the village priest, was at the Yasnohorodka checkpoint. His role was to check approaching vehicles. But like all military chaplains he was also there to offer the group spiritual support. He was dressed in civilian clothes.

It is not possible to establish exactly what happened, but one survivor of the attack, Yukhym (not his real name), told the BBC he had been manning the checkpoint with Dudarenko and around a dozen others when they learned three Russian tanks had driven through the village. He says the group decided to hide in the woods, ready to confront them if necessary.

As they approached the checkpoint, the Russian troops started "firing in all directions", Yukhym told the BBC. "When they realised we were hiding in the grass, they went off road to run us over with tanks."

He says the tanks had driven back to the road when Dudarenko decided to break cover.

"I saw Rostyslav raise the cross above his head, get up from his hideaway, screaming something and walking towards them. Perhaps he wanted to stop them. I tried to call him."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60778909

Other articles...

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-invasion-splits-orthodox-church-isolates-russian-patriarch-2022-03-14/

https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/03/21/russias-orthodox-church-paints-the-conflict-in-ukraine-as-a-holy-war

https://www.timesofisrael.com/local-clergy-affix-letter-calling-for-end-to-ukraine-war-to-jerusalem-russian-church/

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250692/pope-francis-discusses-ukraine-war-with-russian-orthodox-leader

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/nyregion/russian-ukrainian-orthodox-churches.html

In an unusual move, more than 150 Russian Orthodox clerics have called for an immediate stop to the ongoing war in Ukraine in an open letter issued on March 1.

At least 176 Orthodox clerics said that they "respect the freedom of any person given to him or her by God," adding that the people of Ukraine "must make their own choices by themselves, not at the point of assault rifles and without pressure from either West or East."

The letter says the clerics “bewail” the suffering that has been “undeservingly imposed on our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.”

It is very rare for such a large number of religious clerics of the Orthodox Church to openly challenge President Vladimir Putin's government. In recent years, the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, who did not sign the letter, have fully supported Putin's policies.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-orthodox-clerics-stop-war-ukrane/31730667.html

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarch already declared each other to be in schism in 2019 over the status of the Orthodox Church in you guess it, Ukraine. There are technically two Orthodox Churches in Ukraine now..

Got it, but however we are talking about many other countries and roughly 220 Million Baptised members.

Obviously like Mark Twain once famously said, "There are Lies... Damned Lies... and then there are statistics".

Still, outside of Russia proper looking like there are many communities perhaps from the Eastern Orthodox Religion quite likely to break with the with the "top dog" Putin sycophant, anti-gay leader of the Church???

https://www.highpoint-associates.com/2017/06/lies-damned-lies-statistics/#:~:text=The%20full%20quote%20%E2%80%94%20%E2%80%9CThere%20are,it%20in%20the%20first%20place.

Romania (82%)
Belarus (48-73%)
Greece (95-98%)
Serbia (97%)
Bulgaria (88%)
Moldova (93%)
Georgia (84%)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodoxy_by_country

Kirill is not the leader (technically first among equals; Orthodoxy does not have an equivalent to Catholicism's centralized papacy) of the Eastern Orthodox churches; Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is, and most other Orthodox churches sided with him when the Moscow Patriarchate had its hissy fit in 2019. The Russian Orthodox Church commands a certain respect and prestige because it's by far the largest and because of its undeniably vast storehouse of artistic and cultural treasures, but Kirill himself has no special status among other Orthodox patriarchs except what he gets from being a caesaropapist hanger-on to a major world leader.

Atlas burped and am assuming a server reset scene, but you making some good points there.

Anybody been monitoring Eastern Orthodox church vibes elsewhere within the counties mentioned upthread?

There are obviously a couple NATO nations listed, as well as a couple former Soviet Republic Nations...

The mood in my local (Albany/Capital District) Eastern Orthodox scene is pro-Ukraine and anti-Kirill even in primarily Russian parishes, but given how strongly pro-Ukraine American public opinion is in general, I'm not as sure as I'd like to be that that's saying all that much.

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Another worthless token gesture. I'm starting to get Bosnian War vibes. The two opposing armies fight to a stalemate. The west continues having diplomatic talks, while ever more civilians continue to be killed by indiscriminate shelling (and now with Russia, missiles). Nothing is done for years to actually to stop the killing until an "outrageous" event occurs.  

Except in this case, nothing will be done except more sanctions and empty rhetoric because everyone is scared of Russia's nukes. I read a report a few days ago quoting some American official (anonymously, of course) saying NATO intervention is unlikely even if Russia uses chemical or biological weapons.

I wish we could have a “Iraq will not be permitted to annex Kuwait. And that’s not a threat, not a boast. It’s just the way it’s going to be." moment.

To be fair, President Biden is having to deal with a war-weary American public who have no desire to involve themselves in any more wars of choice (aka, the Vietnam War Syndrome of our era).  I certainly think Biden was too timid when it came to the Polish warplanes proposal (and that he should have stood his ground in demanding that Putin and his regime be overthrown), but I understand where he is coming from.  

Biden is still taking a firmer line than many European leaders. Macron and some of the Italian party leaders have been especially disappointing and tiresome with their recent walkbacks and the way they've framed them.

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The video of UA soldiers kneecapping Russian POWs is looking more genuine after some work done by the OSINT community.

If Ukraine does not crack down on this, good luck getting more soldiers to surrender after they have seen videos of torture/mistreatment.

Thread below:

https://twitter.com/zcjbrooker/status/1508114632673828867

Before we get too teary-eyed about abused Russian POWs:

A Ukrainian woman recounts being raped by the Russian soldiers who killed her husband: 'Shall we kill her or keep her alive?'

We from the comfort and safety of home have no idea what is going through the minds of their captors or what they witnessed and experienced, so let us not judge them too harshly. 

Mm, no, brutalizing prisoners is brutalizing prisoners. Not that one or a few instances of it amount to so much as a drop in the bucket when it comes to which side in this war is right and which is wrong overall, but even one confirmed case of it is one too many for a minimally civilized military, and I hope these soldiers are punished to the fullest extent of Ukraine's military law.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also nice to see that even with Tucker Carlson, only 2% of the US population seems to be swayed against Ukraine. I honestly expected higher.

To be clear, this poll is of whether Ukrainians perceive the country in question as friendly or hostile, not whether people in the country in question perceive Ukraine that way. (Support for the invasion within Russia, while unfortunately higher than it seemed like it might be at the beginning, is nowhere near 98%, for instance.) So that's 2% of Ukrainians who think the US is hostile towards their country, not 2% of Americans who feel hostile towards Ukraine. Polls I've seen of American opinion tend to show negative opinions of Ukraine in the 5-10% range, which is still slightly less than my previous working estimate for how much of this country believes whatever ridiculous crap Tucker Carlson happens to spew no matter how insane it seems (about 15% or so), but you might feel differently.

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https://www.twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1511931823999361027

"Patriarch" Kirill is a disgusting heresiarch at least as bad as his predecessor Sergius.

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Based Boris!

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1512818337415372802?s=20&t=Fn1yKXh5R...

 Generally not a fan of bojo, but d***** if he hasn't been a true leader in Western Europe regarding supporting Ukraine.

There have been quite a few people involved in this whole situation whom I normally can't stand but who I do have to admit fall on the right side of the "just an awful politician vs. genuinely depraved on a core level" line that this is making so clear. Off the top of my head, Rubio, Duda, and, hell, even Erdogan are cases of this as well.

Interesting article about Ukrainian Draft Dodgers

Not your typical MSM article, but worth a read from another perspective.

Thousands of Ukrainian men of military age have left the country to avoid participating in the war, according to records from regional law enforcement officials and interviews with people inside and outside Ukraine. Smuggling rings in Moldova, and possibly other European countries, have been doing a brisk business. Some people have paid up to $15,000 for a secret night-time ride out of Ukraine, Moldovan officials said.

All this has forced many Ukrainian men who don’t want to serve into taking illegal routes into Hungary, Moldova and Poland and other neighboring countries. Even among those convinced they fled for the right reasons, some said they felt guilty and ashamed.

Ukrainian politicians have threatened to put draft dodgers in prison and confiscate their homes. But within Ukrainian society, even as cities continue to be pummeled by Russian bombs, the sentiments are more divided.

But none of the more than a dozen men interviewed for this article seemed interested. Mr. Danuliv, a businessman from western Ukraine, said he wanted no part in the war. When asked if he feared being ostracized or shamed, he shook his head.

“I didn’t kill anyone. That’s what’s important to me,” he said. “I don’t care what people say.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/world/asia/ukraine-draft-dodgers.html

I support the right of anyone and everyone to choose NOT to follow mandatory conscription orders.

It should be a choice as to whether or not to pick up arms to take another human's life, and not a requirement of citizenship.

This is about protecting one's own homeland.

This is NOT about being sent to fight in a foreign war.

The conscript is 100% justified.

Regardless I will not judge those who fled. While I would hope personally I wouldn’t do it if I were in that situation, I understand why many are compelled to do so.

This is the position I'm closest to. I think general mobilization is morally justified in this case, but I can't blame anybody for wanting to keep themselves physically safe in a situation I'll (God willing) never encounter myself.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Some Ukrainian neo-Nazi scum apparently decided to give Putin a little break and serve him some microwave-ready propaganda a few weeks before the war.

The UA authorities need to dig up something on these people and take them off the streets.

https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1497747535783411714

I love how this Alex Rubinstein person expects us to believe that some gang leader is representative of Ukrainian thinking whereas the President of Russia, head of the country's largest church, news anchors on state television, etc. etc. etc. are not representative of Russian thinking.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1515275351810875392?s=20&t=RoU8EIFeniYlgo...

Well, one of those options would be an unvarnished good thing, and the other would only make the current pattern of escalation go a little faster, so...good take, I guess?