Ukraine

[LFC]

WTF? Who are the idiotic, stunted, misogynistic man-children who came up with this?

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has defended its decision to train female soldiers to march in high heels, following an outcry from local lawmakers.

Women from the Ukrainian armed forces will march in a parade to mark the 30th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, according to a statement from Army Inform, the defense ministry's official news agency, published Thursday.

They have been training twice a day to master the steps and are progressing well, Major Eugene Balabushka told Army Inform. Balabushka confirmed the plan to wear high heels during the parade.

Ivanna Medvid, a cadet at the Military Institute of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev, has been training for more than a month. "Today, for the first time, training takes place in high-heeled shoes," she told Army Inform. "It's a little harder than in boots, but we try."

However, the decision to march in high heels angered a number of lawmakers after local media picked up images published by the defense ministry.

The picture from the video that comes up by default looks like a bad joke from The Onion. I call it "the Rockettes meet the rockets."

[goldenvalley]

Is this to be heels with silk stockings and a lovely evening gown or cocktail dress uniform?

[LFC]

Jul 6, 2021 16:24:00 GMT goldenvalley said:

Is this to be heels with silk stockings and a lovely evening gown or cocktail dress uniform?

That would give a whole new meaning to the term "knock 'em dead."

[llewop]

Yep, high heels are very very very interesting but more sinister stuff is happening. Repression of free speech and political comment for example. But nah, not newsworthy. Judges removed and in threat , nah. Proliferation of nazi paramilitary, nah, nah, nah. Journalists in fear of death, nah. Unbridled corruption, er - nah. What I really want is an update on these shoes. Until then I am just biding time, come on, come on, I must know.

www.osce.org/fom/116021?page=6

[LFC]

Sept 24, 2021 11:05:47 GMT llewop said:

Repression of free speech and political comment for example. But nah, not newsworthy. Judges removed and in threat , nah. Proliferation of nazi paramilitary, nah, nah, nah. Journalists in fear of death, nah. Unbridled corruption, er - nah.

Sadly this seems to be a growing trend around the world. It appears that 20-30 years from now fascism could be much more popular and accepted in the world, changing governments on multiple continents.

[pnwguy]

Sept 24, 2021 14:48:11 GMT LFC said:

Sadly this seems to be a growing trend around the world. It appears that 20-30 years from now fascism could be much more popular and accepted in the world, changing governments on multiple continents.

Anne Applebaum's book, Twilight of Democracy, chronicles that around the world.  It's a scarier future world than most people think, and it's not just "over there".  The jackboots are here too.

[goldenvalley]

Sept 24, 2021 15:37:25 GMT pnwguy said:

Sept 24, 2021 14:48:11 GMT LFC said:

Sadly this seems to be a growing trend around the world. It appears that 20-30 years from now fascism could be much more popular and accepted in the world, changing governments on multiple continents.

Anne Applebaum's book, Twilight of Democracy, chronicles that around the world.  It's a scarier future world than most people think, and it's not just "over there".  The jackboots are here too.

Someday if we survive long enough I'd like to see a book on the fascism and social media.  I suspect the fascists were always among us and in higher numbers than we like to see, but they couldn't find each other as easily before the internet helped them connect with each other...and not just within a particular country, but globally.

[llewop]

Sept 24, 2021 14:48:11 GMT LFC said:

Sept 24, 2021 11:05:47 GMT llewop said:

Repression of free speech and political comment for example. But nah, not newsworthy. Judges removed and in threat , nah. Proliferation of nazi paramilitary, nah, nah, nah. Journalists in fear of death, nah. Unbridled corruption, er - nah.

Sadly this seems to be a growing trend around the world. It appears that 20-30 years from now fascism could be much more popular and accepted in the world, changing governments on multiple continents.

Unfortunately you are so right. If more people took the time to analyse the news instead of reading it then our (only) hope might be that we would use our vote wisely. But with tons of free cool-aid delivered to our doorstep it does not seem likely.

[LFC]

F***ing Putin. He has driven his country into the dirt with his inability to actually govern and bungled Russia's COVID horrendously so he's going to start a war with Ukraine to cover his own inadequacy. Now Biden and NATO are saying they'll supply troops to protect the nation. Rinse, wash, repeat. [sigh]

The White House is reportedly making plans to fight back as Vladimir Putin gathers more and more Russian troops at the border of Ukraine. Up until now, President Joe Biden has sounded cautious when asked about the prospect of a military intervention in the event of a Russian invasion. But, in a report from The New York Times, it’s claimed Biden is now moving toward a more forceful strategy. The Times reports Biden was presented with a plan at Camp David on Saturday to deploy an initial 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European nations, with the option to “increase that number tenfold” if the situation worsens. However, none of the plans under consideration include sending U.S. troops to Ukraine itself, the report states. Meanwhile, NATO confirmed Monday that it was putting troops on standby and bolstering Eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in preparation for a possible invasion. The Kremlin has denied it has any plans to invade, despite amassing some 100,000 troops.

It's gotten to the point where Biden is telling Americans to get out.

The U.S. State Department is ordering family members of U.S. diplomats in Ukraine to evacuate the country in the coming days and authorizing non-emergency personnel to leave as well, in yet another signal of just how dire the situation between Ukraine and Russia has become in recent days.

“Military action by Russia could come at any time,” a senior State Department official said on a call with reporters Sunday night. “The United States government will not be in a position to evacuate U.S. citizens in such a contingency.”

As Russia has built up hundreds of thousands of troops and equipment along the border of Ukraine in recent months, concerns have mounted that Russia may be prepared to launch an all-out assault in Ukraine at a moment’s notice.

The State Department’s decision is yet another indication of just how concerning the situation in Ukraine has become, as diplomatic efforts to thwart a Russian invasion of Ukraine have stalled, and another clear sign that the Biden administration anticipates Russia to carry out attacks—probably sooner rather than later.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 24, 2022 16:13:12 GMT LFC said:

F***ing Putin. He has driven his country into the dirt with his inability to actually govern and bungled Russia's COVID horrendously so he's going to start a war with Ukraine to cover his own inadequacy. Now Biden and NATO are saying they'll supply troops to protect the nation. Rinse, wash, repeat. [sigh]

The White House is reportedly making plans to fight back as Vladimir Putin gathers more and more Russian troops at the border of Ukraine. Up until now, President Joe Biden has sounded cautious when asked about the prospect of a military intervention in the event of a Russian invasion. But, in a report from The New York Times, it’s claimed Biden is now moving toward a more forceful strategy. The Times reports Biden was presented with a plan at Camp David on Saturday to deploy an initial 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European nations, with the option to “increase that number tenfold” if the situation worsens. However, none of the plans under consideration include sending U.S. troops to Ukraine itself, the report states. Meanwhile, NATO confirmed Monday that it was putting troops on standby and bolstering Eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in preparation for a possible invasion. The Kremlin has denied it has any plans to invade, despite amassing some 100,000 troops.

It's gotten to the point where Biden is telling Americans to get out.

The U.S. State Department is ordering family members of U.S. diplomats in Ukraine to evacuate the country in the coming days and authorizing non-emergency personnel to leave as well, in yet another signal of just how dire the situation between Ukraine and Russia has become in recent days.

“Military action by Russia could come at any time,” a senior State Department official said on a call with reporters Sunday night. “The United States government will not be in a position to evacuate U.S. citizens in such a contingency.”

As Russia has built up hundreds of thousands of troops and equipment along the border of Ukraine in recent months, concerns have mounted that Russia may be prepared to launch an all-out assault in Ukraine at a moment’s notice.

The State Department’s decision is yet another indication of just how concerning the situation in Ukraine has become, as diplomatic efforts to thwart a Russian invasion of Ukraine have stalled, and another clear sign that the Biden administration anticipates Russia to carry out attacks—probably sooner rather than later.

I'd love to see what the Russian domestic situation is.  Putin's always been pissed about former Soviet states joining NATO and he's been picking on Ukraine for a while, but there must be something going on right now that's compelling him to start a confrontation with the US and NATO.  

And I note at one time a military campaign in January/February would have been unthinkable but with air power in general and drones, no one balks at a winter campaign.  

[LFC]

...but there must be something going on right now that's compelling him to start a confrontation with the US and NATO.

Is he just a bigger, less ridiculous, more dangerous Kim Jong-un?

[andydp]

Jan 24, 2022 17:41:57 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 24, 2022 16:13:12 GMT LFC said:

F***ing Putin. He has driven his country into the dirt with his inability to actually govern and bungled Russia's COVID horrendously so he's going to start a war with Ukraine to cover his own inadequacy. Now Biden and NATO are saying they'll supply troops to protect the nation. Rinse, wash, repeat. [sigh]

It's gotten to the point where Biden is telling Americans to get out.

I'd love to see what the Russian domestic situation is.  Putin's always been pissed about former Soviet states joining NATO and he's been picking on Ukraine for a while, but there must be something going on right now that's compelling him to start a confrontation with the US and NATO.  

And I note at one time a military campaign in January/February would have been unthinkable but with air power in general and drones, no one balks at a winter campaign.  

Russia has historically wanted "buffer states" between it and likely enemies.  If you attacked Russia during the Cold War you'd have to fight your battles in places like Poland and Hungary.  THOSE countries would get the devastation.  Go back a few years to WWII and you'd find most east west roads in Russia were unpaved and became mud baths in spring and fall, the railroads were of a different gauge to impede progress.

Having a NATO member Ukraine would literally be having a dagger ready to enter the motherland. With the result that pitched battles would be fought on Russian soil.  Something Putin would not want.  

Why is he acting up ?  I don't purport to know, but the emergence of large scale wind farms for electrical production, his gas pipelines would not be crucial for the EU to survive and lose their bargaining power.  This would make him a loser with an "oil embargo" threat.

[LFC]

Jan 24, 2022 19:08:36 GMT andydp said:

Having a NATO member Ukraine would literally be having a dagger ready to enter the motherland. With the result that pitched battles would be fought on Russian soil.  Something Putin would not want.

I did a quick look at a map to see what the lay of the land really is. I never realized just how much of Russia's population is jammed up against Eastern Europe. Plus Moscow is roughly 300 miles from the Ukranian border. That's about the same distance as the widest part of Pennsylvania.

[LFC]

Some "hacktivists" are unhappy that Belarus is aiding Russia's threats to Ukraine.

Hacktivists in Belarus said on Monday they had infected the network of the country’s state-run railroad system with ransomware and would provide the decryption key only if Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stopped aiding Russian troops ahead of a possible invasion of Ukraine.

Referring to the Belarus Railway, a group calling itself Cyber ​​Partisans wrote on Telegram:

BelZhD, at the command of the terrorist Lukashenko, these days allows the occupying troops to enter our land. As part of the "Peklo" cyber campaign, we encrypted the bulk of the servers, databases and workstations of the BelZhD in order to slow down and disrupt the operation of the road. The backups have been destroyed.

Dozens of databases have been cyberattacked, including AS-Sledd, AS-USOGDP, SAP, AC-Pred, pass.rw.by, uprava, IRC, etc.

⚠️ Automation and security systems were deliberately NOT affected by a cyber attack in order to avoid emergency situations.

The group also announced the attack on Twitter.

[LFC]

The right-wing isn't united on what to do about Ukraine, despite Tucker's oral servicing of Putin. I hate to admit it but here's one case where Michael Flynn is (gasp!) actually correct. This is crazy talk to be tossing around so casually.

The Republican Party can’t figure out what to do on Ukraine.

A yawning split has emerged. On one side is the MAGA right, skeptical of any U.S. support for Ukraine. On the other are Republicans animated by ideas that linger from the pre-Trump GOP, including a blind commitment to American intervention overseas, regardless of the cost.

It’s produced some fiery exchanges.

“I would not rule out American troops on the ground,” mused Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the armed service committee, in a December Fox interview.

“We don’t rule out first-use nuclear action,” he added.

That prompted denunciation from none other than MAGA celebrity Michael Flynn. “First-use nuclear action rhetoric is not only extremely dangerous, but these types of nonsensical remarks also threaten the stability of the entire world,” the retired general and Big Lie booster observed.

[pnwguy]

Jan 28, 2022 20:15:43 GMT LFC said:

The right-wing isn't united on what to do about Ukraine, despite Tucker's oral servicing of Putin. I hate to admit it but here's one case where Michael Flynn is (gasp!) actually correct. This is crazy talk to be tossing around so casually.

The Republican Party can’t figure out what to do on Ukraine.

A yawning split has emerged. On one side is the MAGA right, skeptical of any U.S. support for Ukraine. On the other are Republicans animated by ideas that linger from the pre-Trump GOP, including a blind commitment to American intervention overseas, regardless of the cost.

It’s produced some fiery exchanges.

“I would not rule out American troops on the ground,” mused Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the armed service committee, in a December Fox interview.

“We don’t rule out first-use nuclear action,” he added.

That prompted denunciation from none other than MAGA celebrity Michael Flynn. “First-use nuclear action rhetoric is not only extremely dangerous, but these types of nonsensical remarks also threaten the stability of the entire world,” the retired general and Big Lie booster observed.

Flynn has to make sure we have those nukes available to divert hurricanes when he's back in Trump's cabinet.

[LFC]

A Russian invasion seems to be more and more likely.

The US and its allies have new intelligence that suggests Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine even before the end of the Olympics, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Previous assessments had suggested that Russia was unlikely to move into Ukraine until after the Olympics end on Feb. 20, US officials had told CNN in the past. The revelation of the new intelligence comes as administration officials have dramatically ramped up the urgency of their public warnings related to Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine "could begin at any time," including during the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the United States continues "to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border."

Kyiv is among the targets identified in the Russian planning, three sources familiar with the new intelligence tell CNN.

[LFC]

Russia has started their assault on Ukraine, in cyberspace. Allegedly.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry and two banks were knocked offline on Tuesday by a flood of malicious traffic designed to prevent people from visiting the sites, Ukraine's information security center said.

The distributed denial-of-service attacks targeted the websites for Ukraine's defense ministry, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and two banks, Privatbank and Oschadbank, the country's State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection reported. At the time this post was being reported, the Defense Ministry site remained completely unreachable. Meanwhile, only the homepage for PrivatBank was available, and it was defaced. Oschadbank's site provided only limited access.

The malicious data floods were also reported by the Ukrainian cyberpolice, but at the time this post was being reported, attempts to visit most of the department's website were unsuccessful. The homepage said: "We apologize for the inconvenience. The site is under maintenance."

On Twitter, department personnel also said they had identified individuals who were sending texts reporting fraudulent ATM failures. Ukraine's Security Service website was also not loading.

[LFC]

Josh Marshall makes a good case that Russia's reasons are economic and have much more to do with the EU than NATO.

On its face, the current Ukraine crisis is over the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. Russia wants a binding commitment that that will never happen. The U.S. and NATO refuse to offer such a firm and binding commitment. What’s easy to miss if you haven’t been following this story over the last two decades is that Ukraine has never gotten an invitation to join NATO. Not even close. There’s really no reason to think such an offer is or would have been coming any time soon. Successive U.S. Presidents have not been willing to take that step, even as they’ve worked to support Western-leaning governments in Kyiv. It’s been seen — rightly, I think — as just a bridge too far for the reasons I noted yesterday. Indeed, the backdrop to the current high stakes brinksmanship over whether Ukraine will be allowed to join NATO is that it’s a discussion of such a highly notional possibility. That fact must come up again and again in high level discussions.

The issue seems more one of Europeanization. Remember that the original crisis of 2014-15 was over increased integration with the European Union — in that case with a real eye to eventual membership. The Russia-aligned former President Viktor Yanukovich pulled back from an association agreement with EU in favor or an alternative association with a Russia-led customs union of former Soviet states. That decision set off the protests which led to Yanukovich’s fall from power and, in response, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and proxy warfare in separatist provinces in eastern Ukraine.

So the precipitating crisis from which the current situation developed was about the EU. The current one is probably best seen in the same light. This is about deepening economic integration with an economic union that Russia will never be a part of — or at least could never be more than a junior member of. It’s also about the various governmental and human rights norms that come with EU membership, though those look iffier today than they did a decade ago with the nationalist/authoritarian-leaning governments in Hungary and Poland. NATO membership is something that simply wasn’t in the cards. But it’s a proxy for this broader Europeanization of Ukraine.

[LFC]

A lot of Russians are good with invading Ukraine if NATO is the excuse. Predictably Ukrainians not so much. Interestingly Russians aren't so keen on invading to reunite Ukraine for a mini-USSR.

As the world waits to see if Russia will invade Ukraine, an exclusive new poll of both countries for CNN finds that twice as many Russians believe it would be right for Moscow to use military force to prevent Kyiv from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as say it would be wrong.

One out of every two Russians (50%) says it would be right, while only a quarter (25%) say it would be wrong. The other quarter (25%) are unsure, according to the survey.

But the poll also found that more Russians think it would be wrong than right to use military force “to reunite Russia and Ukraine” – two countries with a long and complicated history of being intertwined.

[Bact PhD]

(Could also go in Russia thread)

Well, Fuck.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/23/russia-attack-ukraine/

Russia on Thursday launched a multipronged attack against Ukraine, with explosions audible in some of the country’s largest cities, including Kyiv, the capital, in what President Biden called “a premeditated war.”
The assault came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on state television that Russia was beginning a military operation for the “demilitarization and denazification” of eastern Ukraine. He said that Russia did not intend to occupy the country. But explosions were occurring across a wide swath of Ukraine’s territory, not just near separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, suggesting that at least for now, Russia intended a far wider operation.
Flashes could be seen and explosions could be heard in Kyiv, …

[LFC]

But Putin was "smart" by declaring it a "peacekeeping" mission so it's all legit, right?

[LFC]

Donald Trump explained that the invasion was because of "a rigged election." Good to know.

Never one to stray from the big lie, former President Donald Trump called in to Fox News while Russia attacked Ukraine to claim that the invasion “happened because of a rigged election.”

In between winding tangents on Afghanistan interrupted by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump spent most of the call beating up on President Joe Biden and expressing his affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t think he’s monitoring, I think he’s probably sleeping right now,” Trump said of Biden. “He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, it’s an absolute disgrace.”

Trump said that the invasion never would have happened under his administration, since he and Putin “get along fantastically.”

“I really don’t believe he wanted to do this initially,” Trump said of Putin attacking Ukraine. “Then he saw the weakness.”

Ingraham happily mimicked Trump’s posture, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for peace earlier Wednesday “a pathetic display” and accusing the United States of weakness.

The man idiot man-child that bowed and scraped before Putin at every turn is calling Biden weak? What a pathetic joke from Putin's little bitch.

[goldenvalley]

So the Russians have moved to Chernobyl according to an unconfirmed report.  I didn't realize how close it was to Belarus.  

There was no immediate way to confirm what Russian forces were doing in the zone, located about 80 miles north of Kyiv and 12 miles from the border with Belarus. Russia massed forces in Belarus in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s attack on Ukraine.

A Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser, Anton Gerashchenko, said Russian forces arriving from Belarus battled Ukrainian national guardsmen, who were “fighting hard” to protect storage facilities for “unsafe nuclear radioactive waste.” His account could not immediately be confirmed.

If artillery hits the facilities, “radioactive nuclear dust can be spread over the territory of Ukraine, Belarus” and European Union countries, he warned.

I didn't realize this either:

For Russia, the site may hold particular significance, since the accident there 36 years ago led to social changes and new cooperation with the West that transformed the Soviet Union.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev later suggested that the Chernobyl disaster was “perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union” — more so than his liberalizing reforms.

[goldenvalley]

 Ukrainian refugees are going to be the next issue for Europe.  The people leaving the country now are going to end up staying a long time.  A lot of Europe didn't want Iraqi or other Middle Easterners in their countries. But Ukrainians aren't dark skinned or Muslim.

Some 368,000 Ukrainians have fled to European neighbors — mainly to Poland, as well as to Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania — since Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the United Nations refugee agency said Sunday.

Thousands more are still trying to get through the clogged borders, waiting in the cold for hours on end in cars or on foot with just the bare minimal belongings. As of Saturday, there was a nearly nine-mile backlog at the crossing into Poland, with some people waiting for 40 hours in 28-degree temperatures at night, according to a spokesperson with the U.N. refugee agency, Chris Melzer

The scale of the exodus has not been seen in Europe in years. What could become Europe’s biggest humanitarian emergency since 2015 — when more than 1 million refugees mainly from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan arrived and triggered a continentwide crisis over whether to accept or reject those fleeing — is swiftly unfolding.