Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[American2020]

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1644356016589381632

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Is it just me or is Ukraine putting any forces on the Kinburn Split f**king insane? It's totally indefensible. If this is just Ukraine using artillery to force Russia out, fine, but trying to occupy it is just ridiculous right now. You'd be trapped on a peninsula.

The Ukrainians are purposely saying they drove Russians out of the Kinburn Split, the thin patch. Not the Kinburn peninsula itself. They are being vague.

This is what they are talking about. The green patch is the Kinburn split:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Kinburn_map_ukr.png

So about as much territory as the Russian push on Bakhmut/

[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.

[NOVA Green]

Looks like there is a mole somewhere...

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

https://twitter.com/reshetz/status/1644244409582604291

[Storr]

Looks like there is a mole somewhere...

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

Of course the biggest US intelligence leak in years somehow involves Minecraft:

"All of the materials, according to open source analysts, can be traced back to a Discord user named “MrLucca,” who claimed to have originally received them on another, now-deleted server, named for a notorious American racial epithet used to describe Black people, before reposting them onto a channel primarily about the popular video game Minecraft. The leaks apparently began in early February, but only gained significant attention in the last few days. After his posting of the sensitive documents became international news, “MrLucca” deleted his account, with his final message being “ILY (short for “I love you”) bros, see you on the flipside”."

https://news.yahoo.com/purported-tranche-of-us-and-allied-military-secrets-leaked-online-in-major-intelligence-breach-222137953.html

[Storr]

Occupied Zaporizhia Oblast:

https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1644364119401807872?s=20

[American2020]

Nobel economist Paul Krugman says Putin's plot to weaponize natural gas prices is a failure, and Russia's superpower status is a facade

Putin's plan to weaponize the natural gas market has so far been a failure, and Russia is merely an imitation of a global superpower, according to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.

In an op-ed for the New York Times on Thursday, Krugman pointed to Russia's efforts to slash its natural gas supplies from global markets, a move that sparked chaos in energy markets last year. In particular, Europe was said to be at major risk of tipping into an energy crisis this winter, with electricity prices notching an all-time high after Russian gas flows were halted on the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

But Russia's attempt to hit back at sanctions has largely flopped, Krugman said, as Europe got through last winter just fine. EU nations built up an impressive stockpile of natural gas that went largely unused amid warmer temperatures, and the eurozone avoided a financial catastrophe, managing high inflation without spiking unemployment.

https://us.yahoo.com/finance/news/nobel-economist-paul-krugman-says-233524453.html

https://twitter.com/reshetz/status/1644324877975842816

[Woody]

Bakhmut (Major news): Russians finally reached the site of the former airplane monument, cutting off Chaikovskogo st. Another supply line cut for the Ukrainians left in the city.

https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1644637179295981571
https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1644642943276396547

[Woody]

This is the dangerous route that the Ukrainians continue to use to keep it's grouping alive in Bakhmut (through Khromovo).

https://twitter.com/War_cube_/status/1644641278997536768?cxt=HHwWgIC9mfKh-NItAAA...
https://twitter.com/eng_vp/status/1644090642379812869

[Lord Halifax]

https://mobile.twitter.com/pati_marins64/status/1644078412309381121
“Global South” in shambles

Maybe you should try leaning portuguese first? hahahaha

Lula said this:

“Putin não pode ficar com o terreno da Ucrânia. Talvez nem se discuta a Crimeia, mas o que ele invadiu (em 2022) vai ter de repensar”, ressaltou o presidente. “O (Volodymyr) Zelensky não pode querer também tudo o que ele pensa que vai querer.”

No café desta quinta, Lula repetiu a defesa da “integridade territorial de cada nação”. Segundo ele, porém, “o mundo desenvolvido, sobretudo a União Europeia e os Estados Unidos, não poderia ter aceitado entrar na guerra da forma como entrou, com rapidez, sem antes gastar muito tempo tentando negociar”

“A guerra começou e alguém tem que parar. Os dois não vão tomar a iniciativa de parar. Alguém de fora tem que ajudar”, reforçou. “A paz é mais complicada do que a guerra. Guerra é um desejo insano, mas a guerra tem de ser construída.”

Pretty much continues the neutral both sides conciliation position he always had. And clearly BLAMES western nations for putting fire on the war to stimulate it instead of trying to construct peace.

He’s still demanding Russia return the stolen land back. Cope

Your fear is so funny.

fear is only funny to psychopaths

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

https://mobile.twitter.com/pati_marins64/status/1644078412309381121
“Global South” in shambles

Maybe you should try leaning portuguese first? hahahaha

Lula said this:

“Putin não pode ficar com o terreno da Ucrânia. Talvez nem se discuta a Crimeia, mas o que ele invadiu (em 2022) vai ter de repensar”, ressaltou o presidente. “O (Volodymyr) Zelensky não pode querer também tudo o que ele pensa que vai querer.”

No café desta quinta, Lula repetiu a defesa da “integridade territorial de cada nação”. Segundo ele, porém, “o mundo desenvolvido, sobretudo a União Europeia e os Estados Unidos, não poderia ter aceitado entrar na guerra da forma como entrou, com rapidez, sem antes gastar muito tempo tentando negociar”

“A guerra começou e alguém tem que parar. Os dois não vão tomar a iniciativa de parar. Alguém de fora tem que ajudar”, reforçou. “A paz é mais complicada do que a guerra. Guerra é um desejo insano, mas a guerra tem de ser construída.”

Pretty much continues the neutral both sides conciliation position he always had. And clearly BLAMES western nations for putting fire on the war to stimulate it instead of trying to construct peace.

He’s still demanding Russia return the stolen land back. Cope

Your fear is so funny.

fear is only funny to psychopaths

You are being way too categorical here.

[Torie]

Looks like there is a mole somewhere...

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

The documents on Ukraine’s military appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans.

The "other plans" bit seems particularly concerning, e.g. just where the counteroffensive route is. What do you do with a mole that knows far too much when you find the person?

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/oryxspioenkop/status/1644659476249686016

[Red Velvet]

https://mobile.twitter.com/pati_marins64/status/1644078412309381121
“Global South” in shambles

Maybe you should try leaning portuguese first? hahahaha

Lula said this:

“Putin não pode ficar com o terreno da Ucrânia. Talvez nem se discuta a Crimeia, mas o que ele invadiu (em 2022) vai ter de repensar”, ressaltou o presidente. “O (Volodymyr) Zelensky não pode querer também tudo o que ele pensa que vai querer.”

No café desta quinta, Lula repetiu a defesa da “integridade territorial de cada nação”. Segundo ele, porém, “o mundo desenvolvido, sobretudo a União Europeia e os Estados Unidos, não poderia ter aceitado entrar na guerra da forma como entrou, com rapidez, sem antes gastar muito tempo tentando negociar”

“A guerra começou e alguém tem que parar. Os dois não vão tomar a iniciativa de parar. Alguém de fora tem que ajudar”, reforçou. “A paz é mais complicada do que a guerra. Guerra é um desejo insano, mas a guerra tem de ser construída.”

Pretty much continues the neutral both sides conciliation position he always had. And clearly BLAMES western nations for putting fire on the war to stimulate it instead of trying to construct peace.

He’s still demanding Russia return the stolen land back. Cope

Your fear is so funny.

fear is only funny to psychopaths

Not really. When you discover the school bully is actually sh**tting on his pants it is funny as hell for everyone. The king is naked kind of vibes.

It’s the exact same situation regarding the clear fear the West is showing about a more economically integrated and independent Global South. The Americans in my timeline are obsessed with Brazil and China agreeing to drop the dollar lmao. Even Marco Rubio decided to chime in and I never really saw that guy giving a sh**t about Brazil before tbh.

BRICS is inevitable. The West has to accept that they cannot make the same economical unilateral decisions they did in XX century for the sake of advancing their geopolitical interests while punishing others. Global economy stability cannot be played like the way it’s being currently just because Westerners have some political goal.

Either you start seeing yourself as one more in the table, like you are, or you will be substituted by other partners because no one wants a partnership with someone who thinks they’re a higher ground above you, as if only to take advantage. And that’s a much faster path into irrelevance, I can guarantee you this.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/pati_marins64/status/1644078412309381121
“Global South” in shambles

Maybe you should try leaning portuguese first? hahahaha

Lula said this:

“Putin não pode ficar com o terreno da Ucrânia. Talvez nem se discuta a Crimeia, mas o que ele invadiu (em 2022) vai ter de repensar”, ressaltou o presidente. “O (Volodymyr) Zelensky não pode querer também tudo o que ele pensa que vai querer.”

No café desta quinta, Lula repetiu a defesa da “integridade territorial de cada nação”. Segundo ele, porém, “o mundo desenvolvido, sobretudo a União Europeia e os Estados Unidos, não poderia ter aceitado entrar na guerra da forma como entrou, com rapidez, sem antes gastar muito tempo tentando negociar”

“A guerra começou e alguém tem que parar. Os dois não vão tomar a iniciativa de parar. Alguém de fora tem que ajudar”, reforçou. “A paz é mais complicada do que a guerra. Guerra é um desejo insano, mas a guerra tem de ser construída.”

Pretty much continues the neutral both sides conciliation position he always had. And clearly BLAMES western nations for putting fire on the war to stimulate it instead of trying to construct peace.

He’s still demanding Russia return the stolen land back. Cope

Your fear is so funny.

fear is only funny to psychopaths

Not really. When you discover the school bully is actually sh**tting on his pants it is funny as hell for everyone. The king is naked kind of vibes.

It’s the exact same situation regarding the clear fear the West is showing about a more economically integrated and independent Global South. The Americans in my timeline are obsessed with Brazil and China agreeing to drop the dollar lmao. Even Marco Rubio decided to chime in and I never really saw that guy giving a sh**t about Brazil before tbh.

BRICS is inevitable. The West has to accept that they cannot make the same economical unilateral decisions they did in XX century for the sake of advancing their geopolitical interests while punishing others. Global economy stability cannot be played like the way it’s being currently just because Westerners have some political goal.

Either you start seeing yourself as one more in the table, like you are, or you will be substituted by other partners because no one wants a partnership with someone who thinks they’re a higher ground above you, as if only to take advantage. And that’s a much faster path into irrelevance, I can guarantee you this.

There is only 1 school bully in this conflict and it’s the side you keep rooting for so talk about having no self awareness

[NOVA Green]

Looks like there is a mole somewhere...

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

The documents on Ukraine’s military appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans.

The "other plans" bit seems particularly concerning, e.g. just where the counteroffensive route is. What do you do with a mole that knows far too much when you find the person?

One of the "other plans" part the NYT story this morning also makes clear is that US intelligence agencies have been able to significantly penetrate Russian agencies, as well as spying on our Ukrainian allies.

I don't believe we have seen anything yet regarding the much vaunted Ukrainian "Spring Offensive" such as timing and locations, etc... not to say that more won't be leaked in the future.

The documents paint a portrait of a depleted Russian military that is struggling in its war in Ukraine and of a military apparatus that is deeply compromised. They contain daily real-time warnings to American intelligence agencies on the timing of Moscow’s strikes and even its specific targets. Such intelligence has allowed the United States to pass on to Ukraine crucial information on how to defend itself.

The documents show that nearly every Russian security service appears penetrated by the United States in some way. For example, one entry, marked top secret, discusses the Russian General Staff’s plans to counter the tanks NATO countries were providing to Ukraine, including creating different “fire zones” and beginning training of Russian soldiers on the vulnerabilities of different allied tanks.

Another entry talks about an information campaign being planned by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence unit, in Africa trying to shape public opinion against the United States and “promote Russian foreign policy.”

While some of the intelligence briefs offer analysis and broad warnings of Russian plans, others are the kind of actionable information that Ukraine could use to defend itself. One entry talks about the Russian Defense Ministry formulating plans to conduct missile strikes on Ukraine’s forces at specific sites in Odesa and Mykolaiv on March 3, an attack that the U.S. intelligence agencies believed would be designed to destroy a drone storage area, an air defense gun and kill Ukrainian soldiers.

Still another entry discusses a report in February disseminated by Russia’s National Defense Command Center about the “decreased combat capability” of Russia’s forces in Eastern Ukraine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/us/politics/leaked-documents-russia-ukraine-war.html

[jaichind]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/04/08/ukraine-ammunition-shortage-shells-ration/

"Facing critical ammunition shortage, Ukrainian troops ration shells"

Artillery rounds for Ukraine's Soviet-era guns, which make up the majority of their arsenal, have long been in short supply. That has forced a reliance on the artillery provided by Kyiv's Western allies because they use 155mm caliber shells, which Ukraine has more of for now but for far fewer guns.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Looks like there is a mole somewhere...

A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.

The Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leaks and was in communication with the Defense Department but declined to comment further.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/us/politics/classified-documents-leak.html

The documents on Ukraine’s military appear as photographs of charts of anticipated weapons deliveries, troop and battalion strengths, and other plans.

The "other plans" bit seems particularly concerning, e.g. just where the counteroffensive route is. What do you do with a mole that knows far too much when you find the person?

One of the "other plans" part the NYT story this morning also makes clear is that US intelligence agencies have been able to significantly penetrate Russian agencies, as well as spying on our Ukrainian allies.

I don't believe we have seen anything yet regarding the much vaunted Ukrainian "Spring Offensive" such as timing and locations, etc... not to say that more won't be leaked in the future.

The documents paint a portrait of a depleted Russian military that is struggling in its war in Ukraine and of a military apparatus that is deeply compromised. They contain daily real-time warnings to American intelligence agencies on the timing of Moscow’s strikes and even its specific targets. Such intelligence has allowed the United States to pass on to Ukraine crucial information on how to defend itself.

The documents show that nearly every Russian security service appears penetrated by the United States in some way. For example, one entry, marked top secret, discusses the Russian General Staff’s plans to counter the tanks NATO countries were providing to Ukraine, including creating different “fire zones” and beginning training of Russian soldiers on the vulnerabilities of different allied tanks.

Another entry talks about an information campaign being planned by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence unit, in Africa trying to shape public opinion against the United States and “promote Russian foreign policy.”

While some of the intelligence briefs offer analysis and broad warnings of Russian plans, others are the kind of actionable information that Ukraine could use to defend itself. One entry talks about the Russian Defense Ministry formulating plans to conduct missile strikes on Ukraine’s forces at specific sites in Odesa and Mykolaiv on March 3, an attack that the U.S. intelligence agencies believed would be designed to destroy a drone storage area, an air defense gun and kill Ukrainian soldiers.

Still another entry discusses a report in February disseminated by Russia’s National Defense Command Center about the “decreased combat capability” of Russia’s forces in Eastern Ukraine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/us/politics/leaked-documents-russia-ukraine-war.html

Gepardkommandant (the German ex-air defence commander whose commentary has been posted here before) expressed skepticism that the air defence documents were completely real/legitimate because he did not believe the situation would be allowed to get this bad. If he's wrong and the estimates within are close to accurate, they will be pretty useful for the Russian military and might go some way to explaining why we've (anecdotally) seen more use of Russian glide bombs in recent weeks.

One of the alleged documents uses the term "Vagner" - a Russian transliteration rather than the traditional English spelling for the Wagner group (depressingly, the context is an alleged Wagner Group plan to install a contingent of theirs in Haiti). On balance, I think it's probably a real leak, but I'm not at all confident.

The leak validates Ukrainian unwillingness to share intel with the US, an unwillingness which was relaxed (according to mainstream reporting) in the wake of the Kharkiv counteroffensive. I can't imagine they're particularly pleased by the reports detailing American spying of their leaders, either.

[Storr]

https://mobile.twitter.com/oryxspioenkop/status/1644659476249686016

https://twitter.com/robbertt4321/status/1644659988424531968?s=20

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1644782487435087873?s=20

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/Seveerity/status/1644677663024455681?s=20

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1642491090392748032?s=20

Afterwards, a large crowd gathered in front of the church protesting in support of the soldier.

For Clarification the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is the church subordinate to and a part of the the Russian Orthodox Church, while the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is pro-government and independent from the ROC.

[tweet snip]

https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1644754736426496004?s=20

[Storr]

There's definitely got to be some sort of security guarantee long-term. I do worry NATO might not happen in the end, or at least for a long time, because of one or more member countries trying to appease Russia, and/or other larger western powers ultimately deciding the risk of Article 5 with Russia is too great and isn't worth the potential cost or risk to the alliance itself, particularly for the US when they are trying to reorient their focus in the world. I can't help but think this every time I see handwringing about "escalation" when this war comes up.

Eastern European countries (specifically the Baltic states and Poland) are the NATO members pushing for a firmer timeline on Ukrainian NATO membership. Bolding for emphasis added by me:

"The Estonian minister argued that the only way to achieve European security was for Ukraine to join NATO.

"To speak about every type of security guarantee, they are false replicas of NATO membership", Reinsalu said.

"NATO is the only consistent security guarantee to Ukraine, and also for Europe to evade a new war of aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation.""

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1644773432687566849?s=20

[Oleg 🇰🇿🤝🇺🇦]

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

...and paintings by one of Ukraine’s most beloved artists, Maria Prymachenko, whose work was hailed by Pablo Picasso as an “artistic miracle.”

I guess they considered this picture another "discredit of the Russian army": May That Nuclear War Be Cursed!