The Russia-Ukraine War has begun

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Verifying Device

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link

This could easily be my mom in this sort of situation.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

During the siege of Kharkiv, two zoo workers stayed behind to feed the animals while the rest of the staff evacuated.

Both of them were shot and killed. The returning zoo staff found their bodies dumped in a back room.

Ukrainian zoo workers found shot to death and dumped in barricaded room, say owners

A Ukrainian zoo says two workers who stayed at the park to feed the animals after Russia launched its invasion have been found dead.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Ukraine lobbies for cuts in Russian Nord Stream 1 gas shipments

WASHINGTON — Ukraine is working behind the scenes to convince Western allies to shift Russia’s shipments of natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to…

financialpost.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Russian soldiers celebrate birthday of ‘comrade and friend’ Hitler

Russian soldiers have wished Hitler a happy birthday and described him as a “comrade and a friend”.Two Russian soldiers posed for a picture in front of a military van emblazoned with the letter “Z”, a symbol used for the war in Ukraine. The windscreen of the truck also bore the number 88, a white su

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

How Ukraine Won the Battle for Kyiv

Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to ravage the country. But it is far from the swift victory Putin no doubt anticipated

www.rollingstone.co.uk

 

[Soen Eber]

My first thought when seeing this was: How ... Trumpian.

They really are alike. All of them

 

[Tirellia]

Interesting!

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Interesting!

my guess is that Russia too has 'white roses', just like germany in the 1930s-40s

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Let's talk about some stuff which barely get's discussed: we all do agree on that the Russian invasion in Ukraine is bad, and Russian aggression. What many don't realise though is that this invasion will help to keep Zelensky in the office, if he is able to survive that war, because without that war he would probably would not get reelected at all.

Before the war broke loose, Zelensky's star was already quite low, sinking very quickly. The Ukrainians had high hopes into him, which he disappointed at large quickly. Zelensky didn't fight the corruption and lack of justice, nor the oligarchs as many hoped he would do. Furthermore he stripped the still somewhat functioning independent bodies of the Ukraine, so the central bank as well the federal public attorney, of their independent status.

The intelligence agency SBU, corrupt courts and other institutions remained unchanged. Also he tried to strip the anti corruption office NABU of its independence because it would investigate against some people working for him. Even the IMF back then denied more credits for the Ukraine before be didn't start to implement real reforms.

So in short instead of draining the swamp, what was his promise to his supporters, he helped to enlarge it. And this lead many Ukrainians before the invasion to become dissatisfied with Zelensky's presidency.

Ukraine 2021: Krieg und Korruption ohne Ende

SZ-Text von Februar 2021: Präsident Selenskij führt das postsowjetische System einfach fort und verliert massiv an Vertrauen. Ob ihn Joe Biden stoppen kann?

www-sueddeutsche-de.translate.goog

All of this is at the moment of course not relevant right now - but it will become relevant again for the time after the war.

Also you don't have to take my word on this alone, this is what the European Parliament back in February 2021 had to say about the Ukraine. It was quite desastrous, there are valid reasons why the Ukraine is being listed as hybrid regime in the democracy index. More interestingly even is that until 2010 the Ukraine was listed as "flawed democracy" in that index with a score of 6.30, but in 2021 the score was at 5.57. This means that the Ukraine has been turning more and more over the last decade from a somewhat functioning democracy into something more towards the other end of the scale, turning less and less democratic every year.

To give the definitions:

Flawed democracies are nations where elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured but may have issues (e.g. media freedom infringement and minor suppression of political opposition and critics). These nations have significant faults in other democratic aspects, including underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.​

​

Hybrid regimes are nations with regular electoral frauds, preventing them from being fair and free democracies. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opposition, non-independent judiciaries, widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anaemic rule of law, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies in the realms of underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.​

Since these points are more or less unchanged still today, they are also the reason why Ukraine now joining the EU quickly will not happen.

Texts adopted - EU Association Agreement with Ukraine - Thursday, 11 February 2021

www.europarl.europa.eu

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Breaking news - Putin has now a short table. Very, very short... and is looking quite unhappy! Well might be because he's been briefed by his defence minister.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Twitter thread contains a couple of other video clips that he says suggest Putin might have some kind of neuropathy going on on his right side, e.g. from a TIA or Parkinson's or something like this and is for instance clutching the table in that meeting so that his hand can't be seen shaking.

I dunno. Maybe, maybe not. It's not exactly a slam-dunk.

 

[Noodles]

Let's talk about some stuff which barely get's discussed: we all do agree on that the Russian invasion in Ukraine is bad, and Russian aggression. What many don't realise though is that this invasion will help to keep Zelensky in the office, if he is able to survive that war, because without that war he would probably would not get reelected at all.

Yeah, its something that has come up in the back of my mind a bit as this goes on and everyone supports Ukraine. Russia attacking is terrible, but also was Ukraine not terrible before and what happens afterwards now that they will have an inflated idea of where they sit on the international stage.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

On a scale of terrible, Ukraine was like maybe 8 and Russia was already several million and has rarely gone below that in the memory of anyone now living.

 

[Soen Eber]

Post-War (if they survive) they will either need to go full democracy, or people will rapidly forget about them. I'm tired of supporting corrupt regimes.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well while I really really do hope that the Ukrainians are able to achieve that, I doubt that. Their post-USSR way so far has been from honest proper democratic beginnings down the road to something like Thailand.

And as long as nobody challenges the power of the oligarchs this will not change. Sadly so far Zelensky was not that kind of person.

 

[Beebo Brink]

And as long as nobody challenges the power of the oligarchs this will not change.

That assumes there are some oligarchs left by the end of all this mess.

Two Russian Oligarchs Die in Mysterious Circumstances 24 Hours Apart

As well as Western sanctions on oligarchs, Russian President Vladimir Putin also appeared to target billionaires during a rant about Westernized Russians last month.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Marita]

 

[Khamon]

How does someone challenge the Oligarchs? I don’t see that happening in the US, or any other country, so don't understand the process. What is the expectation?

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

So, apparently, TFG hates Ukraine because they weren't corrupt enough to tolerate his businesses,

And I know I shared a comparison, but Ukraine has less of a right wing/fascism problem than most Western European countries.