“Ukraine – Russia”

As the war drags on, new narratives are emerging

Every day since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, I’ve been immersed in the world of Russian state TV, tracking the narratives that are pushed to viewers across the world’s largest country.

Nine years ago, when I began learning Russian at university, I’d not heard of either Vladimir Solovyov or Olga Skabeyeva, whose TV talk shows now dominate my working life as a media monitor.

In a studio with enormous screens showing images of purportedly fallen Ukrainian soldiers, guests stand in a circle. An enormous Z – the letter that now symbolises Russia’s invasion – is emblazoned on the floor.

The first group of civilians who have been sheltering under a steel plant that is the last redoubt for Ukrainian forces in the destroyed city of Mariupol have managed to get out.

A senior Ukrainian soldier inside the Azovstal steelworks said about 20 women and children had left, as the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, met Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, where she pledged support for his country’s “fight for freedom”. Pelosi, whose visit was not announced beforehand, is the highest-level US official to meet the Ukrainian president since the war began.

#Ukraine: An uncommon Russian T-90A, which was captured in damaged condition during the previous battles in #Sumy Oblast. This was not previously seen. pic.twitter.com/eop07PRQmG

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 30, 2022

This tank stopped working when shown a picture of Pelosi

GONZALO Lira is alive and well. If you don’t know who he is or why this is good news I’ll explain in a moment.

But first, let me ask a quick question: does it matter whether or not we get to the bottom of what’s really happening in Ukraine?

I hope you’ll agree with me that it does very much. And the same goes for all the other wars that have cost us blood and/or treasure over the last few decades from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya and Syria.

The war between Russia and Ukraine is swiftly evolving into a war between Russia and NATO. In one respect, this is good: It gives Ukraine a higher chance of repelling Moscow’s invasion and even winning. In another respect, it is risky: The wider the war spreads, and the more Russia seems to be losing, the more compelled Vladimir Putin may feel to lash out with extreme violence.

This shift in the West’s approach to the war was first signaled on Monday, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the U.S. goals in the war were not only to protect Ukraine as a democratic, sovereign country but also to “weaken” Russia as a military power. This has been obvious for some time, but even some U.S. officials were surprised to hear Austin express the fact so explicitly.

I’ll start believing we’re in a real war when Justin volunteers the Ru Paul Field Make-Up and Heels Brigade to train Ukraine’s soldiers in camo runway modelling techniques.

Russian troops have been forced to merge and redeploy units from their “failed advances” in Ukraine’s north-east, the UK Ministry of Defence has said, as both Kyiv and Moscow deal with serious losses on the frontline in the Donbas region.

“Russia hopes to rectify issues that have previously constrained its invasion by geographically concentrating combat power, shortening supply lines and simplifying command and control,” a British military intelligence report released early on Saturday said.

“It has been forced to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from the failed advances in north-east Ukraine. Many of these units are likely suffering from weakened morale.”

#Ukraine: Artillery fire from TDF "Azov" forces landed near a Russian tank somewhere in the East, damaging it. pic.twitter.com/qbDsNcX1qz

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 30, 2022

Ukraine’s prosecutor has accused 10 Russian soldiers of atrocities in the town of Bucha, where evidence of mass killings was uncovered.

Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said the 10 soldiers from Russia’s 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Ground Forces Brigade who occupied the Kyiv suburb were “involved in the torture of peaceful people”.

A former US Marine has been killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces – the first US citizen known to have died in combat in the war with Russia.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed on Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN.

They kill and maim indiscriminately and are uncommon in modern warfare

Residents of bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, report finding thousands of miniature darts embedded in buildings and cars. The metal projectiles, less than 3cm long and known as flechettes, from the French for “little arrows”, have a particularly brutal reputation and are unusual in modern warfare. Why is Russia using them?

On Thursday, Sergei Naryshkin, the chief of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), accused Washington and Warsaw of plotting to gain a sphere of influence in western Ukraine.

“According to the intelligence received by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Washington and Warsaw are working on plans to establish Poland’s tight military and political control over its historical possessions in Ukraine,” read a statement issued by the SVR, as per Reuters.

The alleged Polish-U.S. plan involves deploying Polish peacekeeping forces, without a NATO mandate, in parts of western Ukraine.

#Ukraine: Two more Russian tanks were destroyed/damaged in the vicinity of #Izyum.

Given the precision of the first strike, it is possible that a loitering munition was used, which was also suggested by the source. pic.twitter.com/Q1jGRN0lB1

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 29, 2022

#Ukraine: Remarkable video from the Ukrainian 30th Mechanized Brigade showing a BM-27 Uragan MRL resupply point of the Russian Army struck by artillery in Irmino, #Luhansk.

3x 9P140 launchers, 2x 9T452 transloaders & 5x trucks full of rockets are seen- almost entirely destroyed. pic.twitter.com/vcGCkPzyaK

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 29, 2022

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Viktor appeared nervous as masked Ukrainian security officers in full riot gear, camouflage and weapons pushed into his cluttered apartment in the northern city of Kharkiv. His hands trembled and he tried to cover his face.

The middle-aged man came to the attention of Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, after what authorities said were his social media posts praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for “fighting with the Nazis,” calling for regions to secede and labeling the national flag “a symbol of death.”

“Yes, I supported (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) a lot. I’m sorry. … I have already changed my mind,” said Viktor, his trembling voice showing clear signs of duress in the presence of the Ukrainian security officers.

Russia’s invasion cheerleaders: ‘Sisters for Victory’ don nurses’ outfits with controversial ‘Z’ emblem as they pose with occupying troops in Ukraine

Dressed in nurses’ uniforms from a bygone era, social media influencers and models pose by tanks in a crude effort to boost Russian war propaganda.

The smiling group – called ‘Sisters for Victory’ – mingled with Vladimir Putin’s troops as their uniforms displayed the Z sign promoting the brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Online posts claimed some of the women are ‘wives and girlfriends’ of servicemen fighting in Ukraine.

Of course they are. Germany and its chancellor Olaf Scholz keep talking about “Zeitenwende,” a supposed shift in policy that promises to end reliance on cheap Russian energy and a firmer commitment to investment in common security in Europe. Talk is cheap, however, when Russian energy is cheap, and it’s getting cheaper now that Vladimir Putin is getting desperate.

For every euro of military aid that Germany has given to Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion, it has paid €200 for Russian energy imports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called this “blood money.” Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski recently declared it “inadmissible from a political and moral point of view.”

It is also tragic and unnecessary. For this, we can blame former German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cynical state chicanery is costing lives on both sides.

This business of being “only a little bit at war” is a grim reminder that others stand to profit at the death of others.

Trudeau hopes to use the crisis to further his climate scam agenda.

He is engaged in Green Murder by sending arms.

The nights are the hardest, when he lies there on his cot, the whine of the air-raid sirens in his ears and his phone still buzzing beside him. Its screen makes his face look like a ghost in the dark, his eyes scanning messages he didn’t have a chance to read during the day. Some from his wife and kids, many from his advisers, a few from his troops, surrounded in their bunkers, asking him again and again for more weapons to break the Russian siege.