ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

Ukrainians wrecking Russian Motorized Infantry with #Molotov cocktails at improvised roadblocks on the outskirts of #Kyiv, #Ukraine.
pic.twitter.com/A7lvr0G6Hh

— Soleyman (@soleyman_1) February 26, 2022

About the micro tasking post above - why would they want to know where explosion craters are?

more on the Turkey/Black Sea access angle:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-ukraine-war-turkey-not-likely-close-bosphorus-why

xp just guessing really, but maybe to confirm accuracy; as in: did the explosion crater occur where we intended it to?

Ah that makes a lot of sense

If that Soleyman video is real .... damn.

Learned something interesting yesterday. You know how at the height of Russian interference in US affairs news there were reports that the hacking and whatnot was first attempted or tested in Ukraine? Apparently one overlooked outcome was that Ukraine built a surprisingly robust cyber security system in response, which I suspect is helping them out now. And this post:

🧵#Ukraine is using the Telegram messenger very effectively to communicate with the public during this war. Throughout the day, multiple official channels send out updates: warnings of imminent airstrikes, news on curfews, calls for public vigilance against saboteurs...

— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) February 26, 2022

Indicates a couple of years of covid has helped strengthen their communication channels as well. The Ukraine Now Telegram channel was originally built for the health ministry but has apparently quickly been repurposed.

ok, Soleyman video is from Ukraine ... in 2014

youtu.be/nIp34wW3k90

Terrell Starr is not a good person to follow fwiw. I guess while he’s there he may have interesting things to document but I don’t think he’s a trustworthy or insightful person.

Honestly good to know, thanks. I've just seen him popping up a lot. And good to know about he molotov video, too. Everything online should be taken with a grain of salt.

I mean I get it, I definitely wanted that video to be real!

I guess the video does accurately portray what a bunch of Ukrainian irregulars can do to an armored convoy ...

no worries, there’s just stuff like this (caveat - this is from years ago and Mark Ames isn’t exactly a squeaky-clean or ultra-reliable source on Ukraine) -

This is who WaPo hired to fight Russian fake news 🤔 https://t.co/r32oNNI4eq pic.twitter.com/FMONlQ6uRE

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) October 10, 2017

But anyone who writes an article in 2019 analyzing Putin through the lens of The Wire may not be the expert they claim to be.

2016 rather

The chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament had his plane turned back mid-flight by Sweden and then Finland, making him the first top Russian official to face Europe’s denial of airspace permissions in response to the invasion https://t.co/Kp215fH9pQ pic.twitter.com/ngpl3OC7IX

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) February 26, 2022

went and translated that zelensky selfie video from the streets of kyiv, just to know what he was actually saying in response to the russian reports that he had fled -- so here it is for the rest of you, plus this music naturally felt right. enjoy. pic.twitter.com/JDLXtYAq5q

— Alex Kliment (@SaoSasha) February 25, 2022

Finally got round to reading those articles table posted and want to echo the thanks - really good to see these perspectives.

!!! Ukraine's Interior ministry asked residents to take down street signs in order to confuse oncoming Russian troops. The state road-signs agency went one step further. (Roughly: all directions are to "go fuck yourselves") pic.twitter.com/8xVjceqRfx

— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) February 26, 2022

that is a pretty blatant photoshop

the tweet they posted right below

Just for avoidance of doubt: the state road agency is dismantling the road signs (here's message below); the "go fuck yourself" sign is clearly their illustrative joke, not real street signs. (for now at least). pic.twitter.com/vkIrr7yIh8

— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) February 26, 2022

1) The fate of #Ukraine is being decided tonight, but also the fate of the west. Declare a #NoFlyZone over Ukraine at the invitation of their sovereign govt. Disrupt Russias air ops to give the heroic Ukrainians a fair fight. It’s now, or later.

— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) February 25, 2022

YOLO!

Saw this post about a brewery in Ukraine:

⚡️Lviv-based Pravda brewery switches to making Molotov cocktails.

The brewery announced the plans after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry instructed civilians to make Molotov cocktails to resist invading Russian forces.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 26, 2022

I looked them up and found this translation of a recent post of theirs that had some surreal touches:

Friends!

Today, 26.02 a few of our institutions are open, which have basements and the possibility of covering in case of a threat:
Kriívka, Theater Beer "Truth", Confectionery on Lemkivskíj, Ribs "Under Arsenal", Grand Cafe Leopolis already working.
For our defenders (military, terror defense, police, national guard) free coffee / tea.

The facilities will be open until 8pm. There is an opportunity to calculate both card and cash. We remind you that for visiting institutions, it is mandatory to have a document that certifies the person. We do not serve citizens of Russia and Belarus. If you have a weapon with you, please leave it in our security and they will return it to you on the way out. This is for you and all safety visitors.

We continue to do our best to ensure the livelihood of those who are not involved in defending our country and to give a little rest and calm. In parallel we collect everything necessary to help our fellow citizens who are forced to go to Lviv from the cities under shelling.

Everything will be Ukraine!

Poland advocates an express path for Ukraine’s membership in the EU. The candidate state status should be granted immediately and talks on the membership started promptly thereafter. Ukraine must also have access to EU funds for reconstruction. This is what Ukraine deserves🇵🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺

— Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) February 26, 2022

This will not happen, for a variety of reasons, but interesting to see it mentioned at all.

Lubomyr Melnyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr2ofP0Qof4

did the explosion crater occur where we intended it to?

There was a whole thing in WWII where German bombing was adjusted by strategic deception - confirming actual impacts, but doing so selectively, so as to relocate the center of the German bombing effort

🐦[Poland advocates an express path for Ukraine’s membership in the EU. The candidate state status should be granted immediately and talks on the membership started promptly thereafter. Ukraine must also have access to EU funds for reconstruction. This is what Ukraine deserves🇵🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺
— Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) February 26, 2022🕸]🐦

This will not happen, for a variety of reasons, but interesting to see it mentioned at all.

Yes, including half of them believing in a conspiracy theory that Russia killed the President in 2010.

Even, King of the Trolls, Orban has been forced to come out and criticize this invasion.

I used to work with a Polish woman who said Poland's misfortune was to be stuck in between the two worst countries in Europe, though most Poles seem to hate Russia and not mind Germany.

Orban’s apparently on board with kicking Russia out of SWIFT too.

Yes, including half of them believing in a conspiracy theory that Russia killed the President in 2010.

― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Saturday, February 26, 2022 8:01 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, this is wild. There's a memorial to the victims of the crash at Smolensk in a Polish cemetery in rural Pennsylvania, and the whole story was told to me as perfect truth! It was quite surprising, a couple of years later, to be listening to a podcast that unpacked the conditions leading up to the crash and the likely explanation, and debunked the "Russia shot down our government" thing.

http://en.psfcu.com/News__Press_Releases_630.html?article_id=1027

russia/rest of europe seem to be closing airspace to each other’s commercial flights

This picture, my God. https://t.co/8m2EDk8cBb pic.twitter.com/YW8dZ2fI04

— Emily Ramshaw (@eramshaw) February 26, 2022

can anyone answer me why Chechens are in there fighting for Putin?! I realize they are part of Russia, but they've had, what, two major rebellions? are they part of the russian military proper and just have no choice?

Fighting and dying:

Magomed Tushayev, one of Ramzan Kadyrov’s top warlords, has been killed in action in Hostomel.
🇺🇦Ukraine’s elite Alpha Group is reportedly fighting Chechens in the airfield. pic.twitter.com/bPHgBPK8sL

— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 26, 2022

Head of Chechen Republic seems like a real sweetheart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzan_Kadyrov

Chechnya is run as a fiefdom of the Kadyrov family. In return for backing Russia, they’ve been pretty much left to do what they want. The Chechen branches of the Russian army are more or less Ramzan Kadyrov’s personal militia and he’s a close ally of Putin.

There are probably still some Chechens fighting on the other side too,

In another new twist on modern warfare, there’s a bunch of deepfakes convincing enough to fool a couple of gullible journalists circulating of Kadyrov saying the Ukrainian resistance is much stronger than he expected and he regrets getting involved.

thanks Shari.

The irony of all these scenes of citizens arming up, beauty queens with AKs, grandmas making Molotovs, action-movie caliber quotes (“I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition”)…It’s the fantasy scenario of a certain slice of American society—the slice most likely to be pro Putin.

— Michael Schaffer (@michaelschaffer) February 26, 2022

Britain can be embarrassing:

Kevin Foster on Twitter: "@LukePollard @pritipatel Hi Luke, As you will be well aware there are a number of routes, not least our seasonal worker scheme you will recall from your Shadow DEFRA days, which Ukrainians can qualify for, alongside the family route for those with relatives here." / Twitter

Hi Luke, As you will be well aware there are a number of routes, not least our seasonal worker scheme you will recall from your Shadow DEFRA days, which Ukrainians can qualify for, alongside the family route for those with relatives here.

— Kevin Foster (@kevin_j_foster) February 26, 2022

Second, we will paralyse the assets of Russia’s central bank.
 
This will freeze its transactions.
 
And it will make it impossible for the Central Bank to liquidate its assets. pic.twitter.com/8H9eWkNCW9

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 26, 2022

Not sure if the US will do the same, but potentially huge.

US is as well,.

damn

seems like they have announced they will do it but are not actually doing it yet.

my wife said there was a statement from China earlier today as well, in support? has that been posted?

in support of cutting russia off from SWIFT?

to the extent that I know anything about anything, none of this looks very good for Putin in the long term. The entire world has turned their back on him. He has fewer supporters than Assad.