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Megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - March 25-27
This thread is posted Monday/Wednesday/Friday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.
If you'd like to help support Ukraine, please visit the official site at https://help.gov.ua/ - an official portal for those who want to provide humanitarian or financial assistance to people of Ukraine, businesses or the government at the times of resistance against the Russian aggression.
Got a few things to say from the inside:
I'm looking to get the fuck out. Two great people are graciously helping me do so, but we have no concrete plan right now, no end point beyond "move out of Russia and we'll see". (One of those people is Tildes' very own Adys.)
If anyone is willing to sponsor this particular Russian, let me know. I have skills. I'm pretty good at acquiring more.
Fuck yeah. Be the sanctions you want to see in this world. Let's brain drain that country.
Without doxxing yourself too much, can you say something about the kinds of skills you have? Any professional qualifications, that kind of thing. Something to get the right person curious enough to PM you for details.
I speak Russian natively and English fluently. While it's extremely unlikely one would need to establish contact with Russian businesses these days, I could do the world a favor by translating Russian authors into English.
I've been doing web dev (full front end: HTML + CSS + JS) and design on and off for something like seven years now. My skills are a little rusty these days – no way to employ them – but it will all come back to me. One of the larger things I did was Intergrid, which I'd published on Tildes at some point. (The site linked in the repo is dead – I had no cash to supply it at a certain point – but you should be able to download the repo and run the app locally.) It's hardly the final product, but it should tell you that I'm capable of doing something reasonably big for a sole developer.
Lately I've been doing long-form writing about a particular major city in the US, in Russian, for a Russian-speaking audience. (If you know me, you know what city that is.) It involved a lot of research and fact-checking, as well as rudimentary visual design of each issue. Ultimately, each article came down to 25+ mins of reading time, and plenty of visual material to spruce it all up. It's something I'd've shared proudly, were it not for the fact that such would, in fact, doxx me in a big way.
This is a stretch, but I think I'm pretty good at game design. I was going to publish some writing on that as well when the war started. Now that the shock of the event is over, I might well do that.
I think I'm good at game design because I'm good at systems design. Figuring out processes comes easily to me. Nothing to show for it yet 'cause so far it's been mostly idle ruminations.
I think if you built a portfolio of your dev skills you could definitely be hired in Western Europe. Everyone is looking for programmers like crazy. So I'd definitely go in that direction because it's probably the safest. Translation requires a lot of certification, at least here in Austria the highest degree (Court translator) is required to translate official documents, that requires a certified EU C1 level of skill in both languages and also either 1 year of active translation services as a standard translator (with a 3 yr uni degree before) or 3 years without the degree.
Writing and game dev are both fields that don't bring financial stability with them which will be very important for you to establish yourself as an immigrant, since a regular income is the best way to get a workers visa which leads to a permission to stay and eventual path to citizenship after a couple of years.
Development also has the nice addition that pretty much all your colleagues speak fluent english which will make your job easier.
Just wanted to more publicly thank you for posting here. I think these types of posts are incredibly valuable perspective into Russia and having insight into how the propaganda is working, and why, is especially useful.
I feel you wanting to do your part in this and I believe communicating, helping bridge the cultural gap between Russia and the anglosphere is a huge thing. And, involved as I am, even I haven't had the opportunity to talk to many Russians since the war started.
Please stick around.
Holy shit, you’re back! I missed you, TFG. I’m so glad you’re okay for now, but I can’t imagine what you’re going through and how difficult it is to not know what lies ahead. I’m so sorry.
I'm alright, all things considered. I have access to food, water, and electricity, and I have a roof over my head that's not going anywhere. I'm keeping a low profile and doing my best to find a way to get the fuck out.
Having no resources sucked, but a friend is helping me in this regard. I'm sure I'll have enough to leave and to stay abroad until there's an opportunity to settle somewhere.
Good afternoon Tildes. 1 month and 1 day since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In that month, Russia has lost 530 tanks. Ukraine has... captured more tanks than it has lost.
Yesterday, NATO leaders met here in Brussels to discuss the situation. Here is the parting statement:
March 24 Statement by NATO Heads of State and Government (In Ukrainian, In Russian)
What it says is fairly bland, you have to read between the lines a bit as well. In short, Russia bad, war bad, attacking civilians bad.
The statement reaffirms that NATO supports Ukraine, and also explicitly says that Ukraine is in a situation of self-defence. This is actually a pretty important thing to say out loud: a variety of international laws forbid waging war, unless you are in a situation of self-defence. Here, Ukraine has official support from the alliance in pretty much anything they do, including for example retaking Crimea and even aggressively striking at Russia if they need to.
There are two other countries named outright in the statement: Belarus and China. Belarus is officially called "complicit", and China is called out as amplifying false narratives.
The statement also outright mentions NATO's Open Door Policy. The message is clear: "We will support new members who want to join the alliance, fuck you for telling us off in our expansion". This reaffirms, among other things, that Ukraine could still be a NATO member (I suspect this is to leave room as a negotiating tactic later, but who am I to guess).
Finally, further calls for humanitarian corridors and assistance and an end to anything that targets civilians, as well as an explicit call against chemical and biological weapons (note that Russia has already used some chemical weapons, so this is a very explicit escalation threat from the alliance).
President Zelenskyy addresses NATO (video + transcript in English)
Okay, there's more in there, you should probably read it. The other thing that happened yesterday and is happening today is a meeting of the European Council. Joining, both Biden (in-person) and Zelenskyy (via video).
Details and results: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2022/03/24-25/
Similar things were said here, less focus on defence and more focus on humanitarian assistance. Two interesting key points are on the reconstruction of Ukraine, with the EU setting up a trust fund for rebuilding Ukraine, as well as a strong focus on energy independence.
President Zelenskyy addresses the European Council (video + transcript in English)
In an interview, De Croo (BE PM) calls out issues with import bans on Russian oil and gas. And, well, the US has agreed to provide the EU with 15 billion cubic meters of extra gas to Europe. That is 10 percent of what it gets from Russia, with "eventual aim" to provide 50 billion total (one third). Clearly Europe has to wean off gas regardless, and find supplementary sources where it cannot.
That was the main highlight of the last couple of days. I had the honor to see the motorcade, as well as a lot of other escorted cars, and an abnormally high amount of Ukrainian license plates parked in the European heart of the city.
Some other news worth highlighting:
Summary graphic on which countries are providing what kind of military aid to Ukraine. Very insightful.
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1507647761553973252
The rise of the Twitter spies (Washington Post)
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Ukraine says 400,000 citizens have been forcibly taken to Russia - Kremlin says the relocated people wanted to go to Russia
Russia signals scaled-back war aims, Ukrainians advance near Kyiv
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ukraine-urges-halt-russias-assault-biden-heads-poland-2022-03-25/
This is a hodgepodge of an article but the titular content suggests that Russia may be adjusting due to the failure of its broader objectives.
Achievements in Ukrainian Music: Putin Khuylo
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Perhaps you can see where this is going.
Poland’s prime minister thinks the U.S. needs to do more to help Ukraine (Washington Post)
I'm not sure what to quote, but he seems very pro-escalation. Basically, give Zelensky everything he wants.
Please no. Russia’s already backing down. We don’t need to bring this to WW3 levels.
The U.S.-Poland relationship has transformed into a close partnership in the face of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
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Has anyone been following Igor Sushko's blog over the course of the war? Interesting stuff. It was the first place I read about the Chernobyl false-flag attempt.
I haven't. Which blog is this and what sort of thing does he write about?
Racing blog previously, now with a series of interesting translated posts which are alleged to be from an FSB insider to an exiled Russian human rights worker. The blog isn't well formatted, so the earliest posts seem to have been shunted off the bottom of the page, and you might have to scroll down his Twitter to read them.
Blog
Twitter