18 votes

Megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - May 9-10

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Tags: russia, ukraine, recurring, military conflict, war, geopolitics, 2022 russian invasion of ukraine

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.

15 comments

  1. [6]
    skybrian
    Link
    Ukraine is rebuilding cities as fast as Russia destroyed them (Washington Post) [...] [...]

    Ukraine is rebuilding cities as fast as Russia destroyed them (Washington Post)

    The [Bucha] market is open, and Trotsenko has restocked. Huge divots in roads where the shells fell have been paved over. The suburban train to Kyiv is running again. Water and electricity have been largely restored. Families are returning.

    [...]

    The rebuilding effort is imbued with a sense of optimism that Ukraine will outlast Russia’s assault. Volunteers are mostly carrying it out, allowing government funds to remain focused on the war.

    [...]

    In Kharkiv, Stas Bocharnikov, a manager at a distribution company, felt so restless to get back to normal that he could only bear one week in a bomb shelter at the beginning of the war. Since then, he has spent nearly every day wrangling volunteers to clear the debris from strike sites — work that allows for more-specialized crews to get on with the task of either demolishing or rebuilding damaged structures.

    Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-most-populous city, is just 25 miles from the Russian border. For more than 70 days it has been battered by artillery and air bombardment, and most buildings in the city have at least lost their windows to blast. But Bocharnikov now has enough volunteers that he fills buses with them, dispatching them every day to different parts of the city.

    Once Bocharnikov gets the word from the local emergency services unit that an area has been cleared of cluster munitions, the teams get to work, sometimes with the booms of artillery in the background.

    11 votes
    1. [5]
      unknown user
      Link Parent
      This paints a very clear picture: Ukrainians, contrary to the idea of the "Russian world" where all Eastern Slavs are "one people", stand out in stark contrast to Russians as a strong, capable,...

      This paints a very clear picture: Ukrainians, contrary to the idea of the "Russian world" where all Eastern Slavs are "one people", stand out in stark contrast to Russians as a strong, capable, and resilient nation. Every time I hear news about Ukraine's efforts to either keep going or outright rebuild, I think back to Russia and realize, with striking clarity, that Russians would not be able to do the same. Not today, not in ten years' time.

      If I had to be born a Slav, I'd rather be born a Ukrainian.

      Maybe, if Russia ever does split into smaller self-governing states as some analysts suggest it might, its former citizens would rise to the same occasion. Maybe they, too, would demand democracy and good quality of life and decent wages and freedom of press.

      Until that time, I'd rather be born Ukrainian.

      5 votes
      1. FishFingus
        Link Parent
        The before/after pics showing the clearance and rebuilding efforts are incredible. Bucha, Kharkiv...I've never seen such a day and night difference in only about a month. Rubble, munitions and...

        The before/after pics showing the clearance and rebuilding efforts are incredible. Bucha, Kharkiv...I've never seen such a day and night difference in only about a month. Rubble, munitions and vehicles cleared, streets swept, utilities reconnected. How can one be anything but awed and inspired by such people.

        3 votes
      2. [3]
        skybrian
        Link Parent
        Yes, although it's important to remember that things are still terrible there, as a volunteer effort it's quite inspiring. As is the cooperation and solidarity. There don't seem to be complaints...

        Yes, although it's important to remember that things are still terrible there, as a volunteer effort it's quite inspiring. As is the cooperation and solidarity. There don't seem to be complaints about "unpaid labor," for the time being anyway?

        Such things seem scarcely possible in the US, though there are exceptions. I'm not going to say the Mormon religion is good, but I've read interesting things about communities in Utah. There is the cliche of the "Amish barn raising," though most people don't know much about that strange community.

        One should remember that people do often band together in a crisis. Maybe it's not universal, but it happens all over the world. An invasion is the extreme version of that, but will often happen in response to a natural disaster and the like. At a small scale, I'm also quite happy about how the neighbors sometimes help my mother in upstate New York, even though in some cases they scarcely know her.

        I was hopeful for more of that early in the pandemic, before it got drowned out by partisan controversy.

        Also, it hardly seems fair to criticize people operating under repressive regimes like in Russia (or China). Things seem rather different when the government and the people are on the same side.

        1 vote
        1. streblo
          Link Parent
          I think it's important for Westerners to remember that many of the cultural 'features' that enable authoritarianism are cultivated by an education system that re-imagines history and even reality...

          Also, it hardly seems fair to criticize people operating under repressive regimes like in Russia (or China). Things seem rather different when the government and the people are on the same side.

          I think it's important for Westerners to remember that many of the cultural 'features' that enable authoritarianism are cultivated by an education system that re-imagines history and even reality to further entrench a regime's power.

          I'm not saying Western education is perfectly aligned with reality but a spectrum exists and if you are lucky enough to have been bestowed with an education that rewarded you with critical thinking skills just remember that isn't the case everywhere in the world (by design).

          6 votes
        2. unknown user
          Link Parent
          Ukrainians protested to fuck and back to earn their democracy well after the fall of the USSR and after Russian attempts to establish a puppet government. People in Russia protest, of course, but...

          Things seem rather different when the government and the people are on the same side.

          Ukrainians protested to fuck and back to earn their democracy well after the fall of the USSR and after Russian attempts to establish a puppet government.

          People in Russia protest, of course, but nothing drastic came out of it that I'm aware of. For one, Putin's still in power, stronger than ever.

          For what it's worth, there are brave men, women, and otherwise protesting even right now in Russia. These are folks who deserve a better state, a better country, and a better people. The rest of the country sitting idly by – or even condoning Putin and the war – does not help, however.

          4 votes
  2. cfabbro
    Link
    Biden Signs Lend-Lease Act to Supply More Security Assistance to Ukraine (Defense.gov)

    Biden Signs Lend-Lease Act to Supply More Security Assistance to Ukraine (Defense.gov)

    Today, President Joe Biden signed into law the "Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022."

    The act authorizes the administration, through fiscal year 2023, to lend or lease military equipment to Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. The act would exempt the administration from certain provisions of law that govern the loan or lease of military equipment to foreign countries, such as the five-year limit on the duration of the loan or the requirement that receiving countries pay all costs incurred by the United States in leasing the defense equipment.

    Any loan or lease of military equipment to Ukraine would still be subject to all applicable laws concerning the return of such equipment.

    Under current law, payments received under leasing agreements with foreign countries are deposited in the Treasury Department as miscellaneous receipts and are classified as direct spending.

    This act could increase amounts deposited in the treasury if the administration lends or leases equipment that it otherwise would not have provided under current law.

    Conversely, those deposits would decrease if the administration lends or leases equipment at a reduced cost under the act relative to amounts it otherwise would have charged under its existing authorities.

    Lend-lease has been used before, during World War II.

    At that time, total of $50.1 billion, equivalent to $690 billion in 2020, worth of supplies were shipped. In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union and the remaining $2.6 billion to other allies.

    4 votes
  3. cmccabe
    Link
    Russian satellite TV shows a Ukraine message: 'blood on your hands' https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-satellite-tv-shows-ukraine-message-blood-your-hands-2022-05-09/ … …

    Russian satellite TV shows a Ukraine message: 'blood on your hands'
    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-satellite-tv-shows-ukraine-message-blood-your-hands-2022-05-09/

    Russian satellite television menus were altered on Monday to show viewers in Moscow messages about the war in Ukraine: "You have blood on your hands", according to screenshots obtained by Reuters.

    …

    "You have the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of dead children on your hands," said one slogan.

    "The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war."

    …

    The slogans appeared just before the Victory Day parade on Red Square at which President Vladimir Putin compared the war in Ukraine to the Soviet battle to defeat Adolf Hitler in World War Two.

    4 votes
  4. AugustusFerdinand
    Link
    Downed Russian fighter jets are being found with basic GPS 'taped to the dashboards,' UK defense minister says

    Downed Russian fighter jets are being found with basic GPS 'taped to the dashboards,' UK defense minister says

    Wrecked Russian fighter jets are being found with rudimentary GPS receivers "taped to the dashboards" in Ukraine because their inbuilt navigation systems are so bad, the UK defense secretary said.

    He also said there was evidence suggesting Russian military hardware was being pushed to breaking point by the invasion of Ukraine.

    "'GPS' receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian Su-34s so the pilots knew where they were, due to the poor quality of their own systems," he said.

    "The result is that whilst Russia have large amounts of artillery and armor that they like parading, they are unable to leverage them for combined arms maneuver and just resort to mass indiscriminate barrages."

    4 votes
  5. [4]
    cfabbro
    Link
    Russian ambassador to Poland hit with red paint (AP)

    Russian ambassador to Poland hit with red paint (AP)

    Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet soldiers’ cemetery to lay flowers on Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies. The major Russian patriotic holiday was celebrated with pomp in a parade at Red Square in Moscow.

    As he arrived at the Soviet Military Cemetery in the Polish capital, Andreev was met by hundreds of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The protesters first snatched away a wreath of flowers that he had intended to lay at the cemetery and trampled it. Red paint was thrown from behind at him before a protester standing beside him threw a big blob of it in his face.

    The protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted fascists” and “murderers” at him, in Russian, while some were dressed in white sheets smeared with red, symbolizing the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s war. Other people in his entourage were also seen splattered with what appeared to be red paint.

    3 votes
    1. [3]
      unknown user
      Link Parent
      Good lord those are some excellent photographs. I love the framing: one side has protestors cheering for how the blood landed (with a man wearing a "Glory to Ukraine" t-shirt), and the other has a...

      Good lord those are some excellent photographs. I love the framing: one side has protestors cheering for how the blood landed (with a man wearing a "Glory to Ukraine" t-shirt), and the other has a woman wearing Saint George's ribbon.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Ribbon of Saint George (since I didn't understand its significance)

        Ribbon of Saint George
        (since I didn't understand its significance)

        In the early 21st century, the ribbon of Saint George has come to be used as an awareness ribbon for commemorating the veterans of the Eastern Front of the Second World War (known in post-Soviet countries as the Great Patriotic War). It is the primary symbol used associated with Victory Day. It enjoys wide popularity in Russia as a patriotic symbol, as well as a way to show public support to the Russian government. Since 2014, the symbol has become much more controversial in certain post-Soviet states such as Ukraine and the Baltic states, due to its association with pro-Russian and separatist sentiment.

        Russia

        ...

        Novaya Gazeta columnist Yulia Latynina and other journalists have speculated the Russian government introduced the ribbon as a public-relations response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine in which demonstrators had adopted orange ribbons as their symbol.

        Subsequently, Russian nationalist and government loyalist groups have adopted the ribbon. During the 2011–2013 Russian protests, protestors demonstrating against electoral fraud in the 2011 elections wore white ribbons. Supporters of Putin would counter-protest wearing Saint George's ribbons. On 28 April 2016 a group of people from the National Freedom Movement wearing St. George ribbons attacked a school competition organized by the Memorial society, pouring a toxic solution of Brilliant Green on writer Ludmila Ulitskaya and other guests and assaulting a journalist. The Russian ultranationalist group National Liberation Movement (Russian: Национально-освободительное движение - NOD) has adopted a flag of orange and black horizontal stripes as its symbol.

        During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the colors of the ribbon were used in conjuction with the "Z" military symbol, which became a pro-war symbol that appeared across Russia.

        Ukraine

        During the events of 2014 in Ukraine, anti-Maidan activists and the pro-Russian population of Ukraine (especially in the south-east regions) used the ribbon as a symbol of pro-Russian and separatist sentiment. Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine used the ribbon as a symbol of loyalty, while Ukrainians loyalists used the derogatory term "kolorady" (Russian: колорады; Ukrainian: колоради) to describe pro-Russian separatists in reference to the Colorado potato beetle, and the ribbon was referred to as the "Colorado ribbon" (Russian: колорадская лента, koloradskaya lenta; Ukrainian: колорадська стрічка, kolorads'ka strichka).

        Since 2014, incidents over the ribbon would occur during Victory Day celebrations on 9 May.

        In April 2014 the veterans of Kirovohrad banned the symbol from Victory Day celebrations "in order to prevent provocations between the activists of different movements". Instead, only Ukrainian state symbols would be used. The next month Cherkasy urged veterans and supporters not to wear the ribbon or any other party symbols.

        The Ukrainian government replaced the ribbon with a red-and-black remembrance poppy, like those associated with Remembrance Day in Western Europe in 2014.

        On 16 May 2017, the ribbon was officially banned in the country, with those who produce or promote the symbol subject to fines or temporary arrest. According to Speaker Andriy Parubiy (People's Front), the symbol had become a symbol of "Russia's war and occupation of Ukraine."

        3 votes
        1. unknown user
          Link Parent
          Long story short, it's been long appropriated as a symbol of Russia's military might, and has now been appropriated in the same fascist way the infamous Z/V symbols have been.

          Long story short, it's been long appropriated as a symbol of Russia's military might, and has now been appropriated in the same fascist way the infamous Z/V symbols have been.

          2 votes
  6. skybrian
    Link
    China ‘Deeply Alarmed’ By SpaceX’s Starlink Capabilities That Is Helping US Military Achieve Total Space Dominance (The Eurasian Times; I haven't heard of this news site before.) [...] [...] [...]

    China ‘Deeply Alarmed’ By SpaceX’s Starlink Capabilities That Is Helping US Military Achieve Total Space Dominance (The Eurasian Times; I haven't heard of this news site before.)

    A recent commentary in the official newspaper of the Chinese armed forces suggested that the international community should be on high alert for the risks associated with the Starlink satellite internet system, as the US military could potentially use it for dominating outer space.

    The article notes the SpaceX Starlink’s role during the Russia-Ukraine war, where Elon Musk provided Starlink terminals to restore communications in those parts of the country where internet or phone connection had stopped following the shelling by Russian troops.

    [...]

    “SpaceX has decided to increase the number of Starlink satellites from 12,000 to 42,000 – the program’s unchecked expansion and the company’s ambition to use it for military purposes should put the international community on high alert,” said the article on China Military Online, the official news website affiliated with the Central Military Commission (CMC), China’s highest national defense organization headed by President Xi Jinping himself.

    [...]

    “In addition to supporting communication, Starlink, as experts estimated, could also interact with UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] and, using big data and facial recognition technology, might have already played a part in Ukraine’s military operations against Russia,” said the China Military Online article.

    The Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit Aerorozvidka has been found using Starlink to monitor and coordinate UAVs enabling soldiers to fire anti-tank weapons with targeted precision. Only the system’s high data rates can provide the stable communication required.

    “We use Starlink equipment and connect the drone team with our artillery team,” an officer with the Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka told The Times. “If we use a drone with thermal vision at night, the drone must connect through Starlink to the artillery guy and create target acquisition,” the officer said.

    [...]

    The China Military Online commentary listed the numerous instances since 2019 when Starlink has cooperated with the US military, which also included the successful data transmission test conducted by the US Air Force (USAF) on March 31.

    The tests were aimed at evaluating and exploring high-speed communications in support of F-35A’s operations in remote or austere locations and the USAF stated that they witnessed connection speeds that were about 30 times faster than the current military satellite systems.

    3 votes
  7. Fal
    Link
    Czech Republic elected to replace Russia on U.N. rights council

    Czech Republic elected to replace Russia on U.N. rights council

    The United Nations General Assembly elected the Czech Republic to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Tuesday to replace Russia, which was suspended last month over its invasion of Ukraine and then immediately quit the 47-member body.

    Russia had been in its second year of a three-year term. The Czech Republic will complete that term on the council, which cannot make legally binding decisions. Its decisions carry political weight, however, and it can authorize investigations.

    The Czech Republic was elected with 157 votes in favor, while 23 countries abstained. Its terms starts immediately.

    2 votes