At least it’s consistent 
just like Bucha, right? They threw this US marine and weapons inspector Russian sympathizer off twitter again for pointing out some inconvenient facts -
like how the recently dead bodies of the Bucha victims, photographed shortly after the Russians left, were supposedly seen there two weeks earlier on satellite photos. Remember that?
Dead bodies lying around in the street aren’t gonna look like bodies two weeks later, and somehow we’re supposed to believe that was proof they were killed under Russian occupation? Just the latest example why I haven’t believed the NYT for years now. He’s got lots more too that pointed to it quite plausibly being a Ukrainian purge of local Russian sympathizers.
On April 2, an article appeared in an official Ukrainian government website, LB.ua, entitled “Special forces regiment ‘SAFARI’ began to clear Bucha of saboteurs and accomplices of Russia.” According to the article, “Special forces began clearing the liberated, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, city of Bucha of the Kiev region from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian troops.” According to the article, the Safari Regiment was comprised of personnel from various special police units, including the Rapid Operational Response Unit and the Tactical Operational Response Police.
There was other information—a video where a Ukrainian official warns the citizens of Bucha that on April 1 a “cleansing operation” was going to be conducted in Bucha, and that the citizens should remain indoors and not to panic. Another video, also from April 1, purported to show members of the Safari Regiment shooting civilians who were not wearing the blue distinguishing armbands signifying loyalty to the Ukrainian cause.
This video does not show any shooting or any civilians. The video just shows some guys walking down a street looking at destroyed military vehicles. The text says that the question on whether those without the armbands could be shot was answered in the affirmative. It’s not known who asked the question and who answered (the implication is perhaps that a soldier asked his commander?), and whether it was ever more than words is pure unadulterated (or is it adulterated) speculation. In other words, it’s horseshit. Or maybe April Fools’, which is “celebrated” in Ukraine (and probably Russia).
I don’t have telegram so I can’t view the first video (the website wants me to use the app).
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McCarthy disclaimer: I think the only good Commie is a dead Commie. Do you agree?
That is not the suggestion that I took, and I am aware that you are 100% anti-Russian re Urkaine … as of today.
The suggestion I took was to invest in the military industrial complex … or as liberals like to call it, Big (something, maybe ammo, death, guns, tanks, atoms, killing). Consequently, if you are for Ukraine, you’re supporting some of the things that liberals wrote, marched, sat, sang, and bombed against in the past.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Good call. Government arms companies have outperformed the market by around 25% or so since the start of the war.
Here’s a guy running around Mariupol reporting on the situation and trying not to get blown up. Interviews with residents. His channel has more.
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The suggestion I took was to invest in the military industrial complex …
That is certainly apt, since something like 1/3 of all javelin missiles in existence have been provided to Ukraine, at this point. Evidently that is a 5-year restock at normal production rates. And that is just one weapons system.
But it is hard not to read Xerty’s posts as separately also acting as an attempt at delegitimization of Ukraine’s self-defense - or at the very least, trolling in incredibly poor taste.
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[McCarthy disclaimer: I think the only good Commie is a dead Commie. Do you agree? Oh, and I don’t know or associate with any Commies, personally, to the best of my knowledge. I’ve also never been a member of the Communist party, to the best of my knowledge.]
I can understand if you’re Ukrainian, or related to Ukrainians, or know Ukrainians, or lived under Communism / Socialism (especially of the Russian kind), that any questions, or reports that may not be favorable to Ukrainians may seem like a smack in the face, snake in the grass, jackbooted thuggery, knee on the neck, fire hoses wide open, etc.
I like to hear different viewpoints in addition to “the party line”. I find it disconcerting when Twitter, other unsocial media platforms, and big media are all in lock step. When they start suspending/expelling/banning anyone who questions the “official” narrative, I wonder why. It also leads me to give those banned thoughtcrimes a little more due thought than if they weren’t banned in the first place. Thus, I do not take @xerty’s posts as indictments of Ukrainians, but rather as a fly in the ointment, a monkey in the wrench, a PITA to the “one story” collaborators.
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Except @xerty keeps posting things that are either total BS or have been tied to the Russian propaganda machine. I’ve multiple times had to point that out. He probably doesn’t even check what he posts half the time.
That’s not true - I check at least half the time!
But yeah, I saw the government and media lying and censoring much of the time about covid and I can tell there doing both even harder now on Ukraine. So if I view a different take as more likely to be true, even with the risk it might be a pro-Russian take on things, I guess that’s where we are.
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So if I view a different take as more likely to be true, even with the risk it might be a pro-Russian take on things, I guess that’s where we are.
If you think the version of news accounts originating from the Russian propaganda machine have meaningfully represented a truer account of events, related to Ukraine, at any point in the past 6 months, then they have successfully made you their stooge.
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I like to hear different viewpoints in addition to “the party line”.
I don’t disagree. But as scripta notes, and pointed out previously, there is a bit of a difference between questioning whether a news report is accurate / sharing an alternative account, and directly parroting or amplifying Russian propaganda.
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Reflexive questioning of American mainstream media chronicling, at least for me, has more to do with manifest distrust of their woeful reportorial integrity than with anything else.
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So you tell me which sources are definitely Russian propaganda and I’ll judge them more cautiously. And please do the US while you’re at it!
Here’s a NYT take on how the war is likely continue,
a wider war that began with a failed attempt to capture the capital will now be waged in the eastern Donbas region. With few natural barriers, the armies can try to flank and surround each other, firing fierce barrages of artillery from a distance to soften enemy positions.
“What we’re talking about is, no kidding, a conventional, very lethal battle of maneuvers where Russian forces are going to attack Ukraine’s fixed positions on ground that is more open,” said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe.
Both sides will try encirclements, military analysts say. It will become an artillery war, fought at distances of dozens of miles, where Ukraine’s edge in the motivation and morale of its soldiers could be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Russian artillery pieces, tanks and attack helicopters. Moscow is expected to use this heavy firepower to batter enemy positions before sending in ground troops to try to seize them.
which is very much in line with what some of the sources I posted before (and you dismissed as offensive or Russian propaganda) had claimed earlier on.
I don’t follow what you’re trying to say in your final sentence. Just because some stories are in line from different sources, does not imply that all those sources have the same integrity.
That’s a very fair point.
I’ll start with my seemingly obligatory, albeit idiotic, McCarthy disclaimer: I am not Russian. I am not a Democrat. I am not a member of the Biden family. I am not a Communist. I have never, to my knowledge, ever been a member of the Communist or Progressive Democrat party. To my knowledge, I have never associated with a Russian, or a member of the Communist or Progressive party, nor have I received kickbacks intended for the big guy.
I went back and looked at the first of @xerty’s quotes/links , to which you seemingly objected. I don’t know much about Ritter, other than having a negative taste in mouth about something he said/posted/hosted/screamed a decade, or two, ago. Thus, I read his article with a very jaded eye.
In both his statements of fact, and his conclusions, which I found astounding and objectionable (only on the (non)sense of it), I found nothing non-factual, non-logical, or for that matter, even questionable.
I would greatly appreciate your comments with factual data in response to his data and subsequent conclusions. Here is the most direct link I could find, since Twithead universe took it down.
Again, I am not Russian. I am not a Democrat. I am not a member of the Biden family. I am not a Communist. I have never, to my knowledge, ever been a member of the Communist or Progressive Democrat party. To my knowledge, I have never associated with a Russian, or a member of the Communist or Progressive party, nor have I received kickbacks intended for the big guy.
What a wonderfully worded sentiment … consider it stolen.
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Another series from first hand reports, aid efforts and reporting from Ukraine (but not the front lines), from a long time UK reporter. This is the 3rd in a series, the others are linked in the article.
if there is one small truth that has not met resistance in the conflict zones I have travelled to, it is: Those displaced by war do tell the truth. When a man has lost his family, a woman has lost a husband or child, and they cannot return to their homes, no longer is that person interested in the personal vagueries of war. Their outrage cuts to the bone and that bone is not opinion, it is truth, their truth and their facts. Rarely can it be denied. So, I will go to these refugee camps and investigate…
a friend, Andrew, who is Ukrainian texts me at odd hours with info from the east and it quickly becomes clear that the media in both Poland and Ukraine have intentionally made the reality of war muddy.
Zelensky has banned all media coverage in Ukraine, save one, and alternative views favouring peace are, as I would find out are a death sentence. War is the only sanctioned opinion allowed. Peace will get you arrested or shot.
This was shown yesterday April 14 when both Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician who was elected as People’s Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019 and Major General Valery Shaytanov from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), were arrested on very specious charges of “treason.” The full breadth of Western media joined in, falsely accusing both men of being “Putin’s ally.”
This is utter rubbish. I confirmed this with a recent US inside contact here in Ukraine (see: upcoming Part Four) in a call this morning and who knows both men well.
Their true crime is making the mistake of suggesting that Ukraine settle this war and accept peace. Both men know the truth: The Ukrainian army is taking staggering loses in men, materiel, and the ability to resupply both. Zelensky’s on going purge of peace and “anti-heroes” was preceded two weeks ago by his firing of both Naumov Andriy Olehovych, former chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine, and Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych,former chief of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region. Both of these men, too, are guilty of merely suggesting the new Ukrainian capital crime of “Peace.”
Part 1 - media and war
DESTINATION UKRAINE (part one) … THE IGNORANCE OF WAR. - WatchingRomeBurn
Part 2 - en route, Poland
Destination Ukraine: (Part Two) Will Poland Go Rogue? - WatchingRomeBurn
This was shown yesterday April 14 when both Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician who was elected as People’s Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019 and Major General Valery Shaytanov from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), were arrested on very specious charges of “treason.” The full breadth of Western media joined in, falsely accusing both men of being “Putin’s ally.”
Speaking of trusting sources, I find it interesting that the author here chooses to make it sound like these guys were freshly arrested for suggesting peace under the current broad invasion by Russia, versus the fact that:
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Medvedchuk was arrested in May of 2021 and was under house arrest until he escaped in the early days of the war.
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Maj Gen Shaytanov was arrested in April 2020.
Do you think the author is painting an intellectually honest presentation with their wording?
When you read the article and extracted the quote, did YOU have any idea when either of these people were actually arrested to understand that whatever they were doing had nothing to do with accepting or rejecting “peace” in the current hot conflict?
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Economic distress from our sanctions as collateral damage. Egypt Pakistan Sri Lanka Tunisia. Turkey maybe too, we’ll see.
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The war in Ukraine is making it tougher for many emerging-market governments to make debt payments to foreign creditors, fueling concerns of potential crises that could shake markets and weaken the global economic recovery.
Many of these countries accumulated mountains of debt during the past decade while inflation and interest rates were low and in the past two years when Covid-19-related costs were climbing.
Then Russia’s invasion of its neighbor and the West’s sanctions sent food, energy and other prices soaring at a time when many major central banks are raising interest rates to tame inflation.
Now, from Islamabad to Cairo to Buenos Aires, government officials are struggling with rising import prices and debt bills on top of the continuing pandemic.
On Tuesday, Sri Lanka said it would suspend foreign debt paymentsand requested emergency financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund. Its finance ministry said the Ukraine war and the pandemic, which had hurt tourism revenue, left it unable to make the payments.
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