ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

any left-wing ideas could be smeared as pro-Russian in future

FTFY

If you don't want to read that nihilist article, here's the Ishchenko piece I found most useful, a rundown on post-Soviet Ukraine's incomplete revolutions:

https://lefteast.org/contradictions-post-soviet-ukraine-failure-ukraine-new-left/

and another interview:

https://theintercept.com/2022/03/05/deconstructed-ukraine-history-identity-russia-invasion/

the nihilist article reads like a smear, it does nothing to back up its assertion of ishchenko being a "pro-kremlin tankie". opposing banning opposition parties on civil liberties grounds is hardly "whitewashing" them, he's not advocating for them as leftist allies. there's clearly longstanding beef there

& i don't think someone secretly pro-kremlin would be repeatedly suggesting that eu membership would be a good outcome for ukraine and should be on the table

http://i.imgur.com/8g4NUze.png

@ufo, this is from Feb. 20, 2021. Ishchenko states that the Opposition Party For Life "channeled dissatisfaction with the government of 30-40% of Ukraine's population," but that's not borne out by most polling data, really at any time in the last few years:

https://europeelects.eu/ukraine/

They barely clear 20% even as the Servant of the People party takes a years-long nosedive after the 2019 elections. But let's be charitable and take a look at other polling, mostly between then and now, to see if it's any better (links to all sites at the end):

December 30, 2020:

23.1% of respondents are ready to vote for the Opposition Platform - For Life party. Servant of the People with 20.9% follows.

To remind, according to the poll...from December 16 to 23, 23.8% of respondents are ready to vote for Opposition Platform - For Life. The party is followed by Servant of the People – 21.9%.

Earlier, the Democratic Initiatives Foundation published its poll results...22.5% of the respondents voted for Opposition Platform - For Life. Servant of the People follows with a significant margin – 17.3%.

How did they do in July of 2021?

According to the poll...23.1% are ready to support the Servant of the People party, 17.5% - Opposition Platform - For Life

How about a survey in fall 2021?

the Servant of the People party would receive the greatest support (14% of all respondents or 22% of those who will take part in the elections and have already made their electoral choice). Another 10% and 16% of respondents, respectively, are ready to vote for the European Solidarity. Some 8% and 13%, respectively, would cast ballots for the Opposition Platform - for Life

At the same time...against late July - early August...electoral support of the ruling Servant of the People party decreased from 17% to 14% among all respondents. Compared to January 2021, the level of electoral support of the OPZZh party dropped from 14% to 8%, which can be partly explained by the emergence in the poll of the Nashi party, which focuses on the same target audience as the OPZZh.

I don't know where Ishchenko is getting his 30-40% figure from but it doesn't seem to correlate with these polling numbers or the overall trends linked to at: https://europeelects.eu/ukraine/

As for Anatoli Sharii, he seems less complicated: an outright terrible person not worth examining in this much detail. But I'd be happy to look into him if anyone asks.

Ishchenko claims the Opposition Platform For Life "was not that hard oppositionist and way less 'pro-Russian' as it is usually presented." Their erstwhile leader Medvedchuk was the guy whose with the "golden train carriage." Putin is his daughter's godfather. The OpPlat guy in Berdyansk was looked to as a caretaker for a Russian occupation government, even though he declined the job and was subsequently kidnapped. Another member was kicked out after welcoming the invasion. Same as Sharii: if anyone wants a deep dive on this party, I can check them out more exhaustively.

Keep in mind that Facebook post of his was from February of LAST year, so his somewhat hyperbolic reaction was not him talking about THIS year's more serious events, the suspension of those 11 parties mentioned upthread.

I'm not ready to write him off as a Kremlin shill or a bad faith actor, but he seems to have his own...perspective on the situation, and it's a perspective overly charitable to OpPlat. Maybe he doesn't like neo-liberalism, though I'm not sure how OpPlat would be any different from Zelensky's guys in this respect. Also, given the USSR's legacy in Ukraine, a lot of these "leftist" parties are more conservative and traditional than they seem, looking back to a glorious/imagined Soviet past rather than the kind of racially, sexually, culturally inclusive future that modern Western communists espouse.

And as always, we have to remember that the Russian govt. does not have, or tolerate, "pro-Ukrainian" parties, Ukrainian language or viewpoint television stations, or pro-Ukrainian protests, even in the border regions with mixed Russian/Ukrainian populations. This is usually taken for granted but in light of all the hand-wringing about Zelensky kicking these parties to the curb, we should at least acknowledge the glaring disparity.

http://zagittya.com.ua/en/news/novosti/oppozicionnaja_platforma_l_za_zhizn_javljaetsja_bezuslovnym_liderom_sredi_vseh_parlamentskih_politsil_l_rezultaty_treh_sociologicheskih_oprosov_v_konce_dekabrja.html

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/press-conference/756944.html

http://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/3339409-poll-reveals-ukrainian-parties-with-highest-support-rate.html

http://ca.topnews.media/ukraine/the-russians-in-berdyansk-kidnapped-the-deputy-from-opzzh-his-enterprises-stopped-work/

introduction to podcast:

It’s not just Vladimir Putin who has staked his reputation on the war in Ukraine. The Chechen warlord and leader Ramzan Kadyrov has also led his own forces into Ukraine in lockstep with his firm ally Putin.

It’s an unlikely alliance that dates to the late 1990s. Following the implosion of the Soviet Union and the bitter and brutal Chechen wars, Kadyrov’s father Akhmad gave up fighting for the separatists and instead formed an alliance with Putin as he rose to power.

It was a grand bargain that gave him complete power over Chechnya and to stamp out separatist and Islamist militants as well as massive riches. In exchange for all this power, Putin demanded total loyalty: and a promise to remove Chechen separatism as a live issue for the Russian federation.

When Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in a car bomb, his son Ramzan took over the Chechen leadership where he has remained ever since.

As Julius Strauss tells Nosheen Iqbal, Ramzan Kadyrov makes no secret of his vast wealth and relish for violence. Now as Russian negotiators were saying they are moving their military operation away from Kyiv, Kadyrov was telling his followers on Telegram that he wanted to “end what had been started”.

Peskov fine-tunes previous statements about the role of nuclear weapons.

Peskov said "we have no doubt" Russia would achieve "all the objectives of our special military operation in Ukraine'' referring to the official Russian description of the war, "but any outcome of the operation, of course, is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon."

It seems pretty clear that Ishchenko is not talking specifically about Ukrainian domestic politics in that interview but about the broader impact on the European left in a climate where defence spending will rise, NATO will be boosted and elements of the traditional ‘anti-war / anti imperial movement’ will be marginalised and attacked. You can argue that elements of that movement, like the STWC in the UK have deeply embarrassed themselves over the last few weeks but, as he alludes to, there have also been bad-faith, factional attacks on unions, for example, as ‘pro-Putin’, even as their members have been refusing to unload Russian gas at the docks. It’s ambiguous but ‘we shouldn’t disarm ourselves and open ourselves up to right-wing attacks’ can be read both as ‘we shouldn’t abandon left-wing principles and cede ground with excessive self-criticism’ and ‘we shouldn’t do what the right-wing is going to accuse us of and take the kind of juvenile positions a small minority of the left has here’. Both would be correct.

Within Ukrainian domestic politics, it almost seems redundant to talk about the impact on the left at the moment. There is arguably going to be more space for a left to grow but no meaningful left-wing parliamentary force at present. I don’t see Zelenskiy shifting hard to the right, other than where required by the IMF, et al, as a condition of aid, but it it also seems fairly inevitable that there will be an organised, significant right-wing opposition to any government that agrees a peace settlement.

"If you don't want to read that nihilist article"

Why are you bringing such blatant smears from that 'nihilist' site in here, exactly? Especially when you've not engaged with the interview I've linked to, which as SV says talks about the wider situation in the left in Eastern Europe.

The Al-Jazeera piece I linked to here a couple of weeks ago was a measured assessment of the situation in regards of the banning of the parties.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2022/3/21/why-did-ukraine-suspend-11-pro-russia-parties?

I think the point here is that they command some of the vote and others have no impact on the vote or on Ukraine's security so Ishchenko is probing as to why ban. An important question if there is an agreement soon. He is arguing for a democratic deficit in Zelensky's actions. That you've chosen to answer this with that stupid article from the nihilist site says a lot about you.

Ishchenko fairly informed analysis beats this fucking shit any day if the week. Lol, I'm going to fix this

xpost@dow

There are no reliable sources for this, but about a month ago there was a big to-do about an amphibious assault on Odesa, followed shortly by the Russian ships and air support simply...leaving.

There was a spate of stories about a "MUTINY!!!" but without much verification; it may be that Russian soldiers refused to attack a Russian-speaking city, or that they quite rationally saw the attack on a well-defended position as a death sentence and refused to carry it out.

― The Quantum Superposition Platform - For Life (MoominTrollin), Tuesday, 29 March 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Lol @ calling this bullshit "good quality".

The mutiny part, as I pointed out, is unconfirmed and has no reliable sources. The buildup near Odessa is a different story and was pretty well covered March 2-4:

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/russia-ukraine-war-russian-military-choppers-spotted-flying-low-in-odessa-watch-articleshow.html

Eight Russian amphibious landing ships have been filmed sitting right off the western shore of Crimea. These likely include some of those we tracked from the Baltic Sea leading up to the invasion. Clearly, this is an ominous sign. Many think Odessa will be their destination.

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3418774-landing-group-of-russian-warships-moving-toward-odesa-coast-general-staff.html

Russian forces appeared to be moving to cut Ukraine off from the sea on Thursday via its key southern ports, claiming the capture of Kherson and tightening the siege of Mariupol, as a large amphibious taskforce threatened Odesa to the west.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/03/odesa-expecting-attack-russian-assault-ships-black-sea/

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-officials-predict-an-amphibious-assault-off-odesa

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/04/ukraine-russia-odessa-black-sea/

"The mutiny part, as I pointed out, is unconfirmed and has no reliable sources."

So why did you make that up?

There was a spate of stories about a "MUTINY!!!" but without much verification.

I didn't "make up" the stories about the "mutiny," but said that they existed, as well as cautioning that they did not come from reliable sources. Then I offered a one-sentence explanation that also cast doubt on the "mutiny" angle, but put the lack of an amphibious landing into some context (i.e. given the size of the attacking force relative to the preparation of defenses in Odesa, a beach landing would be a suicide mission).

"but put the lack of an amphibious landing into some context (i.e. given the size of the attacking force relative to the preparation of defenses in Odesa, a beach landing would be a suicide mission)."

Are you some kind of military analyst?

You don't have to be one in this case. The beaches were mined, Odesa was expecting an attack, and positions and defenses were set up in and around the city. None of this implies a guaranteed loss for the Russian troops, but it points to a potential landing being extremely bloody with no clear guarantee of success. Another article pointed out that the ships in the invasion force would need hours to come back to Crimea and back to Odesa again to resupply/take on more soldiers, leaving any potential survivors unsupported in the meantime.

MT, if you can't see that the US and NATO are arming an ethno-nationalist army patchwork with many right-wing fascist leanings, you have no idea what you're talking about. This is obvious to anyone who is paying attention.

Table, I've said this upthread:

After 2014, the story I kept hearing was that right wing movements got a boost because they were one of the few groups who were organized and ready to go when the Maidan protests turned violent.

After this war, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers with differing political views, and millions of non-combatatans will all have had the unifying experience of fighting or living through the war. No right-winger or fascist will be able to honestly say, though they will try, that somehow they "saved" the nation on their own, or that their efforts mattered more.

Left, right, center, the only people who will be marginalized are not leftists, but pro-Russia parties or individuals.

To the degree that Ukrainians as a whole - not just Azov or other right-wingers - have become more ethno-nationalist since this war started, I think one person above all is responsible, and they are not in the US, or NATO.

If you're talking about them arming Ukrainians before the war, my point still stands. We'd just have to trace the causes back to 2014 instead of back to February 26, 2022.

Yeah, the outcome of this war is NOT going to be great for any parties in Ukraine that are not nationalist, or don't make overtures to nationalism. Once again, whose fault is that?

Vlads

"You don't have to be one in this case."

Is that right? I see..

Tom didn't Vlads is good according to a couple of thousand 'tankie' twitter accounts? This is what we should focus on.

i also don't know where ishchenko got those numbers from in the year-old fb post, but it's not a particularly salient point - if we replace the 30-40% with a more accurate 20%, it doesn't hurt the broader point he's making there - the suppression & (since then) suspension of opposition is bad on civil liberties grounds, anti-democratic, and only furthers existing polarisation.

Ishchenko claims the Opposition Platform For Life "was not that hard oppositionist and way less 'pro-Russian' as it is usually presented."

if they were as pro-russian as often presented they would have all backed the invasion & eagerly co-operated. it's not that there aren't obvious ties and attempts to use them as influence but it's still a more nuanced story than them merely being putin's minions, even if it's just self-interest & being savvy enough to realise they'd have no longer have any local support base. think it's possible to read ishchenko as being overly defensive about the pro-russia label, seemingly out of frustration with the pro-west/pro-russia polarisation and in reaction to anyone not sufficiently nationalist being tarred with it (even zelensky in the past). but there's a big difference between that and him being any sort of pro-kremlin tankie as claimed by the nihilist article. that also doesn't change his larger points against political repression, or any of his other analysis recently linked. if you don't even really agree with the article calling him a pro-kremlin tankie then why even bother linking it, it adds nothing except this stupid derail.

Maybe he doesn't like neo-liberalism, though I'm not sure how OpPlat would be any different from Zelensky's guys in this respect. Also, given the USSR's legacy in Ukraine, a lot of these "leftist" parties are more conservative and traditional than they seem, looking back to a glorious/imagined Soviet past rather than the kind of racially, sexually, culturally inclusive future that modern Western communists espouse.

why do you keep arguing against things no one in this thread or even in linked articles has said. ishchenko's argument isn't 'these parties are good and leftist and we should support them'

And as always, we have to remember that the Russian govt. does not have, or tolerate, "pro-Ukrainian" parties, Ukrainian language or viewpoint television stations, or pro-Ukrainian protests, even in the border regions with mixed Russian/Ukrainian populations. This is usually taken for granted but in light of all the hand-wringing about Zelensky kicking these parties to the curb, we should at least acknowledge the glaring disparity.

yes, russia is bad and no one is arguing otherwise. that also obviously is not any sort of argument in favour of political repression elsewhere though

Looks interesting.

Mainstream media coverage of Russia’s invasion has been woeful. Ahistorical, jingoistic, hypocritical and biased. It’s worth listening in to this Twitter space hosted by @_VashtiMedia which put the invasion into context both from a western perspective & crucially an eastern one. https://t.co/j0xcZ1HHsB

— There’s No Point (@judeinlondon2) March 30, 2022

@ufo

if they were as pro-russian as often presented they would have all backed the invasion & eagerly co-operated.

That's not the case I was making here, but interestingly enough, at least some people high up in the Russian power vertical DEFINITELY thought this, and were even disappointed when this turned out not to be the case.

I found the Nihilist the article useful, as he laid out some of the events on Maidan and the puzzling turn of some parties to anti-USA protests in the middle of said events. He probably does have beef with Ishchenko but in the context of the article, the beef seems mutual rather than an unprovoked attack. Having seem him linked 4-5 times or more ITT, I figured it'd be good to show an opposing view. I'm sorry for the derailment.

I think we're talking past each other when it comes to the political repression part of this, though. I'm seeing it in the broader context of Russian-Ukrainian relations, and the kind of influence that Russian leaders are used to exerting over Ukraine, or even see as their natural right (Ishchenko mentions this in one of his interviews as Russia "having its own soloists in the Ukrainian choir.")

If Ukraine was in the middle of the Pacific ocean instead of on Russia's borders, all of this suppression and funneling arms to a country that's increasingly polarised and nationalist/right wing would look quite different. But at the moment it's right next to Russia, being invaded by it.

The point isn't that Russia is "bad," but that it was very clearly exercising undue influence in Ukrainian politics and had been for a long time: through tv channels, through various parties, and its own 'Ukrainian Nazis' narrative. This resulted in, or helped amplify, nationalist and right-wing sentiments in Ukraine.

This is like the third or fourth time in two hundred years that this has happened, except where they used to blame Poland, or Europe, now they can blame the USA, or NATO. The song remains the same.

Expected reaction. No way latest Ukrainian proposals would have been accepted by Putin. Especially Crimea talks and referendum. Both sides appear to believe they can achieve more militarily. https://t.co/t17nVL9srh

— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) March 30, 2022

to what extent is rightward ukrainan drift, if real, a result of nato/eu not arming or supporting ukraine directly enough? i see comments of “we’re arming fascists,” but i’m not seeing a meaningful proposal that mitigates ukraine’s plight while entirely excludes having to support some of the fascists.

And absent more robust western intervention, wouldn’t a needful ukranian public shrug and say “we must support the ukrainian fighters we have then” thereby strengthening their right? what does meaningfully supporting non-fash ukraine “mean”?

I think the pertinent question is less ‘how can we stop arming fascists?’, given the impossible situation the Ukrainian government is in, and more ‘how do we support the Ukrainian government and state against fascism when the dust settles?’.

Although I've been trying to keep my head down and follow what is happening---via field reports, whenever possible--- rather than figure out what should happen, I agree with what you're saying, ShariVari.

update on xpost forcible removal of civilians from Mariupol:

Russian forces in Ukraine have forcibly deported the staff and patients of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, sending more than 70 people to Russia, the city council said. It’s at least the second hospital to undergo that fate, with more than 20,000 people now sent to Russia against their will, the officials said.

The Russians are confiscating identity documents from people who are taken out of their city, the Mariupol City Council said on its Telegram channel. It says the Ukrainians are being sent to filtration camps and then dispersed around Russia.

Under the Geneva Conventions, it is a war crime for an occupying power to deport people to any other country or territory during an international conflict.

The city council’s version of events hasn’t been independently verified by NPR or other Western media. On Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry acknowledged it has taken tens of thousands of people out of Mariupol and other parts of eastern Ukraine -- but it characterized that action as an evacuation of refugees from a dangerous area.

It’s a return to tactics last seen during World War II, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said. He added that the city and Donetsk Region Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko are creating a database of deported Ukrainians to ensure they can return.
...Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Wednesday that evacuation routes have been agreed upon for the day, to allow people to leave Mariupol and to bring humanitarian aid to the city.

I'd read that four million refugees had left Ukraine, and that half of them were children, but not, for instance:

The U.N. estimates the war also has displaced 6.5 million people within the country.

The International Organization for Migration, which tracks not just refugees but all people on the move from their homes, reported earlier this month that more than 12 million people are estimated to be stranded in areas of Ukraine under attack or cannot leave because of security risks, the destruction of bridges and roads and a lack of information about safe destinations and lodging.

All told, more than 22 million people are either blocked from moving or have been forced to flee, IOM figures show.

___

An article of mine has appeared in @TheAtlantic , it’s to start questioning why the analysis of the Russian military was so mistaken. One thing I think we need to understand is that studying weapons and doctrine is very different than understanding war. https://t.co/WNqsvGa1Z4

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) March 31, 2022

I was wondering what would happen

Putin’s decree of the day: Spring conscription into the Russian army will run from April 1st- July 15th. Russia intends to call 134,500 men aged 18-27 for military service. At the start of the war, Putin denied that any conscripts were involved. What a difference a month makes. https://t.co/1suSp0elzY

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) March 31, 2022

(Keep in mind this isn't entirely unexpected; I'd learned some weeks ago that April 1 is essentially the start of the conscription cycle regardless. Still, in context...says something.)

And if you want an argument that this won't even help much

https://www.rand.org/blog/2022/03/russias-problems-with-military-professionalization.html

Springtime for Putin and Russia

Not really sure how well these negotiations are going. For one thing, one of Ukraine's major asks is for some kind of security guarantees from NATO countries without being part of NATO. Not sure how this could work. Seems like NATO countries so far have been kind of noncommittal without saying "no" outright, but its hard to imagine how they would agree to something that has the potential to draw them into a war with Russia over Ukraine -- the one thing they've been adamant all along that they do not want. If they're just going to be the toothless kind of guarantees that Ukraine already received when they agreed to give up their Soviet-era nukes, then I'm not sure what's the point.

Yeah, I've seen some coverage of that, very much the way you put it.

Meanwhile

Several hundred Russian soldiers were forced to hastily withdraw from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine after suffering “acute radiation sickness” from contaminated soil, according to Ukrainian officials.

The troops, who dug trenches in a contaminated Red Forest near the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, are now reportedly being treated in a special medical facility in Gomel, Belarus. The forest is so named because thousands of pine trees turned red during the 1986 nuclear disaster. The area is considered so highly toxic that not even highly specialized Chernobyl workers are allowed to enter the zone.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian agency in charge of the country’s nuclear power stations, said the Russian soldiers had panicked and fled.

...Local reports suggest that seven buses with the zapped troops arrived in Gomel early Thursday. Journalists on the ground have also reported “ghost buses” of dead soldiers being transported from Belarus to Russia under the cover of dark.

...U.S. intelligence reported Wednesday that Russian forces began withdrawing from the defunct site. Russia said the withdrawal from Chernobyl was part of a pledge to scale back the invasion. But Ukrainian media says it is actually because the troops were “irradiated” from the contaminated soil.

Digging trenches in the forest—considered the most contaminated area of the site—drew widespread ridicule from Ukrainians who work at the site.

The debacle is the latest in a series of missteps by the Russian troops struggling to keep their footing in their increasingly failed war.

Well "failed" still a bit early to say the least, but a lot of failing is part of the general mayhem every day.

Daniel_rf, I believe that the correct way to express your sentiment in this thread is actually "Vlads."

The Chernobyl radiation sickness is nonsense, as far as I can tell. It’s based on a Facebook post someone made speculating about why Russian soldiers were entering a hospital in Belarus and reported as fact. Nuclear experts have said it’s impossible to get acute poisoning at current levels.

The withdrawal of troops is real, though.

I wrote a piece on the amazing effort of the Ukrainian railways over the last month, to take millions of people to safety and continue delivering aid to the east. 64 of their employees have died since the war started https://t.co/oTmWUJui8P (with a photo essay by Jelle Krings)

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 31, 2022

Some commentary on internal political developments in Ukraine, from Strana.news, banned by Zelensky last year. Nationalist politicians, esp. Poroshenko, versus the Zelensky govt:

“Against the backdrop of a real war, a Facebook, “sofa” war is flaring up around joining / not joining the Alliance. Part of the Ukrainian elite is trying to regain positions in politics lost after the start of full-scale hostilities, to return to the big game. And, I must say, the opposition is capable of inflating a scandal around NATO , as a result of which the deal, if it is concluded, may fail, despite the fact that the Alliance has made it clear that it is not ready to accept Ukraine...Maybe it is not worth reviving the pre-war game of inflating contradictions and weakening power in the current situation of our common country? - political scientist Vadim Karasev comments to "Strana".

As recent days have shown, even hints of a future rejection of NATO have caused serious discontent among the supporters of Euro-Atlantic integration, who are many in the Ukrainian establishment. This stratum is very influential, although heterogeneous, including ex-President Petro Poroshenko, former Defense Minister and leader of the Civic Position party Anatoliy Hrytsenko, a number of journalists...including a number of those close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which, by the way, suggests the position of the leadership of the Ministry). The essence of the criticism is that no agreements with Russia are worth a penny, since Russia has never fulfilled them (for example, the Budapest Memorandum).

Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the Office of the President, [responded to this criticism] most clearly. He called his counterparts "idolaters", as well as "motherfuckers." He said that back in 2019 he predicted a big war with Russia over NATO. "In the video...I clearly say: the price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia...Ok, we paid our price. And NATO?

What specific assistance has NATO provided to Ukraine ?
What does it mean that Ukraine was not invited to an emergency NATO meeting on February 26?
What forms and ways of ensuring the security of Ukraine should we all find if we want to join NATO, but it does not want us?"

So far the only thing Russia and Ukraine are close to agreeing on is neutrality. And, apparently, that is precisely why, on this point, Zelensky's opponents inside the country began to strike.

Summary: Ukraine will avoid a new catastrophe if it starts to face the truth and take action based on the need to achieve victory in a long and difficult struggle. Betting that Russia is about to collapse because of our hatred and Western sanctions is fraught with our own defeat," Yury Romanenko said.

https://strana.news/news/382482-pochemu-vlast-i-oppozitsija-ssorjatsja-iz-za-nato.html

A follow-up article describes Zelensky's recent decree on a "unified television policy under martial law" as a response to nationalism-pushing TV channels in "Poroshenko's sphere of influence."

According to Strana's sources close to the Office of the President and Eurosolidarity, the reason for the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on a single broadcast (across the networks) are really the intensified calls of "zrada" - "treason" - around the NATO issue.

"What was Poroshenko trying to achieve? He hoped that this intensification would push Zelensky to introduce Poroshenko's people as advisers to the negotiating group, and ideally into the negotiating group itself...They were "led on" in a polite fashion. There were meetings at the middle level, but not at the highest level."

"Due to the fact that they were/felt "led on", they decided to turn up the heat, and began to intensify talk of "zrada" (treason). Including on TV channels. After that, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council appeared. And this is Poroshenko's last warning to stop shaking the situation and declaring "zrada" in the negotiations," the sources say.

Political analyst Vadim Karasev admits that the authorities may increase pressure on the Poroshenko group to force it to moderate attacks on Zelensky in the context of negotiations with Russia.

"It’s as if they were given to understand that now they need to be very careful in criticism. Indiscriminate criticism undermines the internal situation, which plays into the hands of the enemy. In general, it's a strange statement: some channels are patriotic, but those that run (state-mandated) war news marathons are not. You can't, in the middle of a war, run out in front of the train and shout "treason!" when you don’t know all the details of the negotiations, and even more so the situation on the fronts, as the supreme commander knows.

https://strana.news/articles/analysis/382606-otkljuchit-zradu-kak-v-op-otvetili-ukazom-na-napadki-poroshenko.html

Well that was a rout and a half

Unbelievable.
Two full-fledged axes of attack just collapsed and were abandoned within 1 or 2 days. They just left having achieved nothing.
We expected Russians to get entrenched to prevent Ukraine from reinforcing Donbas, but leaving completely, en masse… unbelievable.

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) April 1, 2022

EXCL: China staged a huge cyberattack on Ukraine’s military and nuclear facilities in the build-up to Russia’s invasion, according to intelligence memos obtained by The Times https://t.co/2JMkcl2iac

— Larisa Brown (@larisamlbrown) April 1, 2022

Wow. Seems big if true.

I respect @PhillipsPOBrien's work, & I recommend his book How the War Was Won to everyone (seriously, go read it). I also think he makes some great points in this article. However, there are some key misconceptions that matter for improving military analysis. 1/ https://t.co/jJ8enIJfcM

— Christopher M. Dougherty (@C_M_Dougherty) April 1, 2022

Some commentary on internal political developments in Ukraine, from Strana.news, banned by Zelensky last year. Nationalist politicians, esp. Poroshenko, versus the Zelensky govt:

Strana is arguably Ukraine’s least reliable news outlet but the issue is valid even if the details might be dodgy. I was reminded the other day where the Russian line about Zelenskiy’s government being maniacal drug addicts probably came from:

“European future of Ukraine” — a group directly associated with Poroshenko’s reelection campaign — is promoting a video in which his opponent & frontrunner Zelenskiy is hit by a truck. The video ends with suggestion he’s a drug addict & the message: “Everyone has their own way.” pic.twitter.com/OCBXy3ZRce

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 11, 2019

The big question, given their excessive influence, their links with militias and organised crime, their corruption and their underhand attempts to destabilise Zelenskiy prior to the war is how people like Poroshenko, Kolomoisky, Akhmatov, etc fit into any vision of Ukraine as an aspiring EU democracy. It seems impossible to continue on the path to European integration without somehow limiting their control.

Seems right.
More about Russians and Chernobyl (Ukraine Foreign Ministry claims were on Twitter, Energoatam's, re digging in the forest, on Telegram, among the links in this npr piece:

...When they left, Ukraine's ministry added, the Russian troops looted the power plant, taking "kettles, lab equipment, and radiation." They also took the captured Ukrainian national guard members who had been at the facility when Russia invaded in late February.

In an update on conditions at the Chernobyl plant, Energoatom, Ukraine's state power company, said on Friday that all control and monitoring systems were operating normally, despite the removal of several containers and spare parts. Ukrainian workers who remained at the plant throughout the occupation to monitor it had remained safe from radiation, it added.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday that it's still working to determine the veracity of reports that Russian soldiers received high doses of radiation in the notoriously contaminated Chernobyl Exclusion Zone during more than a month of occupation.

Energoatom has said Russian troops left the site after digging trenches and building fortifications in the Red Forest — an area it says is the most heavily polluted in the entire zone. Without providing details, the company said a panic broke out when the first signs of radiation sickness emerged. On Friday, the company reiterated that the greatest threat to the occupiers was likely posed by inhaling radioactive dust disturbed by their actions.

This morning, Ukraine would neither confirm nor deny responsibility for fire at Russian fuel depot (allegedly because two helicopters, one shot down). But now they are outright denying it. So this may or may not be the long-US-predicted Russian false flag, though that was supposedly going to be about chemical attacks---fuel depots do explode sometimes, w/o outside interference.

CNN has a video of what definitely looks like helicopters attacking that fuel depot in Belgorod, Russia

If it turns out to be Ukrainian helicopters (who else?), I say good for them

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/04/01/belgorod-fuel-depot-attack-berman-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn

False flag operations are designed for maximum political effect. Torching your own fuel depot during an ongoing war just doesn't fit that profile even remotely, since it wouldn't justify Russia doing anything it wasn't already doing or prepared to do without whatever political cover this might conceivably give them.