The Ukraine war thread
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How Russian Soldiers Ran a "Cleansing" Operation in Bucha
The first man arrived at 7:27 a.m. Russian soldiers covered his head and marched him up the driveway toward a nondescript office building.
Two minutes later, a pleading, gagged voice pierced the morning stillness. Then the merciless reply: “Talk! Talk, f--ing mother-f--er!”
The women and children came later, gripping hastily packed bags, their pet dogs in tow.
It was a cold, gray morning, March 4 in Bucha, Ukraine. Crows cawed. By nightfall, at least nine men would walk to their deaths at 144 Yablunska street, a building complex that Russians turned into a headquarters and the nerve center of violence that would shock the world.
In this image from March 4, 2022, surveillance video provided by the Ukrainian government, Russian troops lead nine men at gunpoint to their headquarters on Yablunska Street in Bucha, where they would be tortured and executed.
The men were picked up as part of what Russian soldiers called “zachistka” – cleansing. They hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and neutralize potential threats.
Later, when all the bodies were found strewn along the streets and packed in hasty graves, it would be easy to think the carnage was random. Residents asking how this happened would be told to make their peace, because some questions just don’t have answers.
Yet there was a method to the violence.
What happened that day in Bucha was what Russian soldiers on intercepted phone conversations called “zachistka” — cleansing. The Russians hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify potential threats. Those who didn’t pass this filtration, including volunteer fighters and civilians suspected of assisting Ukrainian troops, were tortured and executed, surveillance video, audio intercepts and interviews show.
More here:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interactive/ap-russia-war-crimes-ukraine/
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Ex KGB guy says Putin won't nuke. FWIW.
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@Mik Somewhat related, President Xi of China has said that nuclear weapons should not be used in Ukraine.
With China one of the last "friends" of Russia, this is a pretty strong message for Russia.
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Fog of war…
Link to video -
There's no question that the media has played a huge role in this war. Whenever I heard about Russian atrocities, I could not help but wonder what the Russian press was printing during our invasion of Iraq
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@Mik said in The Ukraine war thread:
Seems he brooks no criticism. Thug.
What they don’t mention for some reason is that Karpov is a former world chess champion - one of the all time greats
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There's no question that the media has played a huge role in this war. Whenever I heard about Russian atrocities, I could not help but wonder what the Russian press was printing during our invasion of Iraq
@Mik said in The Ukraine war thread:
There's no question that the media has played a huge role in this war. Whenever I heard about Russian atrocities, I could not help but wonder what the Russian press was printing during our invasion of Iraq
From what I recall, the Russian press was fairly mute about what was happening on the ground in Iraq. It was critical of the policy of regime change although it was no longer pro Ba’athist. I suspect Russia was too preoccupied with its own Chechen problems and growing concern with the nascent pro Western aspirations in Ukraine and to a lesser extent, Georgia. Remember too that Russia was still very focused on attracting foreign investment and technology and therefore wanted to appear to have a foreign policy based on soft power. We know now however that behind the scenes, Putin was methodically preparing the country to reassert itself as a hard power and challenge the global influence of Western liberalism.
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Interesting look at what was prognosticated a month before the invasion:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/28/europe/ukraine-russia-explainer-war-threat-cmd-intl/index.html
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Dovetailing with what @Mik said, Russia has lost more fighter jets in these 10 months than it did in its entire stay if Afghanistan.
Granted, the enemies are not quite the same (US support for both notwithstanding), but considering how unpopular the Afghanistan adventure was, this is telling.
