We start with President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier this evening. Video below, English transcript after the jump (emphasis mine):
Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!
We are getting ready for the very active weeks of the second half of August – negotiations, meetings, the Crimea Platform, new appeals to foreign communities, international legal activity – on our initiative.
This week, I will continue to expand our ties with African states and the Latin American region. Important contacts will take place at the European level tomorrow. In a few days, a ceremony of the presentation of credentials by the ambassadors of foreign countries who came to work in Kyiv will take place. Although there is a certain pause in global politics now – after all, it is August, for Ukraine, for the interests of our state, there haven’t been and will not be any pauses.
We are working on new sanctions against Russia and on stimulating the citizens of the terrorist state to feel their share of responsibility for what is happening.
The discussion about visa restrictions in Europe for holders of Russian passports is expanding every day, new states and new politicians are joining it. Ultimately, this should lead to appropriate decisions.
I am grateful to our intelligence officers, law enforcement officers, journalists and everyone who works to establish the full data on the Russian killers. Ukraine and our partners are receiving more and more information about those directly responsible for terror and torture, for the so-called filtration and deportation of our people, for looting…
All these savages will definitely be held to account.
But we must remember that when evil takes on such proportions, people’s silence approaches the level of complicity. And the rejection of the real fight against evil becomes the assistance to it. Therefore, if you have Russian citizenship and you are silent, it means that you are not fighting, it means that you are supporting it. And no matter where you are – both on the territory of Russia and abroad – your voice should sound in support of Ukraine, and therefore against this war.
In the near future, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will have to make a decision on the extension of martial law and general mobilization. An obvious decision, obvious reasons.
Ukraine has always longed and longs for peace and many times in various negotiation formats has offered the Russian leadership to end the war and free Ukrainian land from occupation. But so far, Russia believes in terror, remains in the grip of its propaganda illusions and still hopes that it can supposedly achieve something through various forms of blackmail. It won’t.
And therefore, we must defend ourselves, we must respond to every manifestation of terror, to all shelling occasions – brutal shelling that does not stop for a single day. Unfortunately, we have losses. But we must fight at all levels and on all fronts, strengthen our state as much as possible, preserve our unity and attract even more countries to our anti-war coalition.
The stronger Ukraine will be, the weaker Russia will be, and therefore, the less time this war will last. And everyone in Ukraine, everyone in the free world must do everything in their power and everything possible so that Russia and those who support the war pay an ever greater price for Russian state terror.
I am thankful to all our defenders!
I am thankful to all Ukrainians – all those who hold on, who help others, who believe in victory and bring it closer by their actions – as they can.
Each new day should bring a new result for Ukraine.
Glory to Ukraine!
There was no operational update posted today by Ukraine’s MOD.
Here is the British MOD’s analysis for today:
They did not post an updated map today.
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment and updated map of the battle for Kherson:
COMMENT: UKR has interdicted the Antonivsky bridge and the rail trestles at Kherson, the P-47 crossing of the Inhulets River at Daryivka, and the P-47 HWY bridge associated with the dam complex at Nova Kakhovka. Kherson is thoroughly isolated from the S bank of the Dnieper. pic.twitter.com/i6WzLkhJ7H
— Chuck Pfarrer (@ChuckPfarrer) August 14, 2022
Here’s video from the strike on the Antonovsky Bridge:
Ukrainian artillery struck the Antonovsky Bridge in Kherson again last night.
Some of the engineering equipment the Russians were using to repair the bridge was probably also destroyed…🔥pic.twitter.com/bgNkLkQeH0
— Jimmy (@JimmySecUK) August 14, 2022
Pfarrer also flagged this:
SAKI AIRFIELD STRIKE: The Washington Post was the first to publish the erroneous claim that the Saki airfield strike was carried out by a UKR Special Operation Force. Craters, and explosive placement are wholly inconsistent with a daylight commando raid. A Navy SEAL explains. pic.twitter.com/IkxiGXGArN
— Chuck Pfarrer (@ChuckPfarrer) August 14, 2022
Apparently The Washington Post reported on 10 August that the strike on the Russian air base in Saki was carried out by Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) and partisans.
KYIV, Ukraine — A powerful attack on a Russian air base in occupied Crimea was the work of Ukrainian special forces, a Ukrainian government official told The Washington Post on Wednesday, suggesting anincreasingly important role for covert forces operating deep behind enemy lines as the country expands efforts to expel Russian troops.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, did not disclose details of how Tuesday’s attack was carried out. The attack marks a significant escalation in the nearly six-month-old war, demonstrating a new ability by Ukrainian forces to carry out attacks further behind the front lines than had previously been thought possible.
While this is in line with my initial take, I think we still need far more information before we can be confident that we know how the strike was carried out.
This afternoon, The Washington Post posted a visual analysis of the strike on the Saki air base. You can find it at this link.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has reported that, in addition to the strike on the Antonovsky Bridge, the Ukrainians targeted more Russian logistics nodes overnight.
Ukrainian officials have reported that more Russian munitions depots were targeted by the military amid mounting safety concerns over a Russian-occupied nuclear plant in the south of the country.
“Large” depots in the Kherson region were destroyed overnight, Yuriy Sobolevskiy, the first deputy head of the Kherson regional council, said on August 14.
“There is confirmed information about the destruction of objects both in Nova Kakhovka and in Muzykivka. Quite large military warehouses with weapons and ammunition were located there. Military equipment was also stored there,” he told Ukrainian media.
Much more at the link!
I think that’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
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— Patron (@PatronDsns) August 10, 2022
And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok:
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The caption translates as:
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Open thread!
Sparkedcat
Thank-you Mr. Silverman for these updates. Slava Ukraini!
zhena gogolia
Antonovsky, not -ks
And maybe it’s Antonivsky, as in one of the tweets.
oldster
Interesting line of reasoning from the Navy Seal, but I’m pretty sure it was not ATACMS.
It was just a dropped cigarette. Drat those careless smokers!
And more careless smokers on the Antonovsky Bridge!
Seriously: the fact that the Russians still don’t know what hit them is valuable damage in itself. Let them tremble.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
This struck me when watching the video earlier. Zelenskyy often manages to convey some heavy truths in very restrained and straightforward language. And this is the way I think when people try to defend russian civilians who “have to” say they support the war because if they don’t, they might be in danger. Meanwhile, their support, however factual or not, is giving intangible but no less real aid to the side that is putting countless Ukrainian lives in actual immediate danger, that has stolen thousands of their lives.
If a madman took you hostage and sat you down in a room in front of a monitor showing a stadium full of people, aimed a gun at your head, and pointed to a big red button and said “When you push that, everyone in that stadium will die, and if you don’t, I’ll blow your brains out”, what the hell would you do?
My one life is not worth thousands and thousands of others. No one should think there’s is. But it seems like a lot of russians do. Fuck ’em.
Thank you as always, Adam.
Carlo Graziani
The unexamined assumption in Pfarrer’s dismissal of an SOF role is that the explosives came in on a backpack. Obviously that’s not what happened and not what the Washington Post is claiming happened, or there would also have been a pitched battle to storm the airfield, and/or to get away from it.
The Senior Ukrainian Official who spoke to the NYT stated that the attack was carried out by means of a “special device of exclusive Ukrainian manufacture.” The explosives were delivered by a “device”. Not a backpack. In my opinion, not by a missile, either, but the previous thread now has about a megabyte of extremely stimulating debate on that, so I won’t rehash it here.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: It is. Антонівський. Named after the settlement on the west (north) bank of the Dnipro there, Antonivka
ETA: So I would write it as “Antonivsky” in English.
PeakVT
Good news that the crossings are under regular attack, IMHO. Pushing the Russians back across the Dnipro will be a major victory when it happens. Of course, then the Russians will have a natural defensive line and will probably reduce Kherson city to rubble in revenge, but one step at a time.
We’re already into late summer, so I am wondering what the Ukrainians are thinking in terms of their timeline for action. In about 3 months winter will arrive. How will both sides respond?
lowtechcyclist
While it may not have the shape of a classical siege, where a fortified place is physically surrounded by the opposing force, it sounds as if the Russians in Kherson are effectively besieged.
At least to this non-military mind, this makes a hell of a lot more sense than any sort of direct attack, where the attacking force usually has to be much larger than the defending force, and takes a lot more casualties. Looks like Ukraine has a game plan here that sidesteps all that. Very smart.
Bill Arnold
@PeakVT:
Such Russian artillery barrages would not be like they used to be; improved Ukrainian counter-battery fire, along with active suppression of Russian ammunition resupply.
PaulB
I haven’t said this for a while, since I’ve almost exclusively been lurking on these threads, having nothing to add, but thank you for all of your efforts here. I read every one of your updates and your analysis has enhanced my understanding of the conflict immeasurably.
eversor
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
A ton of Russians are also victims of Putin. The Russian security forces have always been more about controlling Russians than they have been about being able to functionally counter external threats. The propaganda is always pointed inside.
What’s biting Putin here is that he fucked up, bigly. Ukraine are a sister peoples. It’s like the US trying to bullshit Americans about what’s going on in Mexico. Sure you can bullshit some people about it but more than enough people here have family there and work there that they damn well know what is going on.
Putin’s crimes against his own people are also horrid. This is why you see hordes of ethnic Asian Russians being marched off in rubber boots and hunting outfits with WW2 level kit into this meat grinder. These aren’t people who know what they are getting into, and it’s why Putins army can’t fight for shit.
I don’t know what the off ramp for the people of Russia is in this. But the poor saps in their 60s wearing Walmart gear being marched off to get smashed by HIMARS or the slew of middle class types with family in Ukraine did not cause this mess.
Putin needs to be fucking dead revolution style and ice his daughter while you are at it fuck them good and proper. But for the rest of the nation they are victims in this as well.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Fat fingered typo. It’s fixed.
eversor
@Bill Arnold:
They weren’t that effective to start with. They’re just lobbing shit in a general direction and hoping it hits. Which is fine if your goal is to level a few miles of a grid but is no way to combat an actual force.
Adam L Silverman
@PaulB: You are most welcome. And thanks for the kind words.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
We would all like to think we would do the right thing there, but there is a reason that people capable of sacrificing themselves for others is seen as heroic. It is not that common. The urge to survive is very strong.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@oldster: It’s going to come out the UA bribed the Russian pilots to attack their own airbase in some kind of Catch 22 Milo Mindbender stunt.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@lowtechcyclist: I was thinking the same thing. At very least it negates the Russian artillery which is the Russian’s main strength.
Gin & Tonic
@eversor:
Go fuck yourself. Do you rape and torture your sister before cutting her head off?
N M
Thanks for the post as always @Adam!
Omnes Omnibus
We thought that, but it really isn’t. They aren’t really good at it, even according to their methods. The only things I have seen the Russians be good at it in this war are brutality and terror tactics. And here those have been counter-productive at best.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: I believe it’s been mentioned most of the support for the war are from the middle aged who, like our own Chickenhawks, are sure they aren’t going to be conscripted and sent to die in probe by fire missions and their own grandkids were packed off to Armenia to sit out the war in some hotel. KOS was showing a Russian social media thing were these folks are now freaking out this war is causing a shortage of certain types of yogurt in Russia. Sounds really familiar.
eversor
@Gin & Tonic:
So what you are going to assert that Mexican’s or Canadian’s aren’t a sister peoples to the US with countless families on both sides of the border and people who travel daily for work? Cause OK then alt right.
Putin can’t keep this shit under wraps because too many Russians have family and friends in Ukraine or came from Ukraine. Toss out all the propaganda you want and you can trick a lot of people but those who’s coworkers are family are there will know what’s going on.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor: Maybe once upon a time they were. Maybe. But (as G&T has described, and as we’ve all seen) Ukrainians — younger Ukrainians especially — have turned their faces towards Europe, and are becoming European at a ….. *refreshing* pace. That cannot be said for Russia and Russians, who remain mired in their past, steadfastly facing their past, with its recriminations and hopelessly lost causes.
They’re not brethren anymore, Ukrainians and Russians. And all of this, before, again as G&T put it so well, Ukrainians had unspeakable horrors visited on them by Russia and Russians. We’ve all read the many, many accounts of Russian-speaking and -descended Ukrainians who were pro-Russia, pro-Putin, before this war, and today would personally shoot the man if given a chance.
They’re not brethren anymore, and, I think you do Ukrainians a disservice by even implying that they might be.
Gin & Tonic
@eversor: You know nothing.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor: Do you think that there wasn’t massive intermingling of Polish and German people before WWII? But do you think that after WWII, the Poles considered Germans as brethren? Really? Really?
Today, I’d bet that slowly, that’s fading away. But for God’s sake, man! This reminds me of “restorative justice” wherein the rape victim is supposed to meet her rapist and somehow forgive him? I mean, maybe that’s restorative for some, but FFS, this isn’t the time for it, and it isn’t the time for your platitudes.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor:
And we’ve seen no evidence of this at all. At. All. Instead, what we’ve seen is massive evidence that Russians with Ukrainian extended family disbelieve their family, and believe Putin. Again: this is not the time for your platitudes.
And another thing: do you think that the Bosnians and Kosovars are going to receive kindly the advice that the Serbs are “brother peoples”? Really? Again, I think you need to think again about victims and perpetrators, and where your sympathies ought to lie.
Chetan Murthy
@Gin & Tonic: G&T, may I ask you a question? We often see various Ukrainian (and even Russian) military units referred to as “separate” — e.g. something like “The 34th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade”. What does the word “separate” mean in this context? I’m only curious.
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: I don’t know why it’s there in the military context. The Ukrainian word is “окремий” or “окрема” – which is a perfectly ordinary word. But you see it in the name of seemingly every brigade.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor: Something else: perhaps you’re going to adduce the argument that Russians aren’t able to speak their true feelings about Russia’s invasion: that they’re secretly against it, even as they openly support it. In which case, I’d invite you to look up a term “inner emigration” with respect to Nazi Germany. You can’t oppose a thing by benefiting from it and merely remaining silent: you have to actually either vocally oppose it, or leave it behind.
Or as Ambassador McFaul noted yesterday: the “Russian liberals” are out in force for the first time since the war began: they’re vocal and united in their opposition to …. EU visa bans! Ha! What they were unable to achieve in opposition to a brutal and illegal war, they are more than able to achieve in opposition to a weak and undersized *response* to that war that is anything if not peaceful.
President Zelenskiyy (sp?) is 100% right when he says that Russians who stay silent are guilty of complicity. If they fear, they need to flee. If they value their comfortable lives more than their consciences, well, that’s on them.[1]
[1] just as I would say the same for comfortable American suburbanites who value their lower taxes more than their freedoms.
Adam L Silverman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: You got a link to that Kos social media piece?
Adam L Silverman
@Chetan Murthy: @Gin & Tonic: I’m pretty sure it means the brigade is operating independently of a higher echelon such as a division or a corp.
dirge
@Gin & Tonic: maybe something like the way the word “detachment” is used in a military context? E.g. part of a larger force intended to act independently. Just a guess.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I know pretty much zip about military structure and operations, so your knowledge is helpful.
counterfactual
@Adam L Silverman: since I’m quicker on the draw, it’s a Kaleel Galeev twitter thread. https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1557741431376445440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1557741431376445440%7Ctwgr%5E8584da42ce28df85caa5eb2426411a0f52a3b703%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2022%2F8%2F14%2F2116455%2F-Ukraine-Update-Russian-leadership-reportedly-retreats-from-Kherson-as-bridges-are-blown
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Omnes Omnibus: I couldn’t live with myself if I caused even one person’s death, let alone hundreds or thousands. If someone could, I want to be far, far away from them.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@eversor: Since perhaps you haven’t been paying attention, plenty of those russians with family in Ukraine have out and out called them liars for speaking the truth about the genocide being perpetrated against their country. They believe daddy putin over their own actual family. If someone was trying to murder me and I called my family to tell them and they were like “lol nuh-uh that’s fake news” they sure as shit wouldn’t be my family anymore.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: Normally, units are part of larger units. A platoon in part of a company. A company is part of a battalion. A battalion is part of a brigade. A brigade is part of a division. Etc. A separate brigade would be one that is not a part of a larger unit and operates independently of that command structure.
dirge
@lowtechcyclist: it sounds as if the Russians in Kherson are effectively besieged
And it looks like all those reinforcements they just piled into the area are going to have a hell of a time getting their heavy equipment back out, should they discover a need to leave.
I’m increasingly convinced that the loud chatter about a Kherson offensive was very much intended to lure as much Russian force as possible west of the Dnipro, where they’re hard to supply, and harder to retrieve.
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EBRMpsSeOhU
Kharkiv. Scouts from 13th Kyiv Territorial Defence Battalion under Russian fire
Nelle
@Chetan Murthy: I live in a neighborhood with at least 12 households of Bosnian refugees. The guy across the street is from Sebrenicia and the one around the corner lost his father in the massacre there. There is no forgiveness (and you better not mention Bill Clinton either).
Chetan Murthy
@Nelle: From what I remember, before the wars in former Yugoslavia, the many ethnicities were heavily intermarried and mixed: and yet, today there is a vast gulf of enmity. I can’t pretend to believe in “bothsides” on this: it seems clear to me that Serbia was the aggressor then and appears to continue to be one today. In any case, I can easily believe that old memories will not fade away for generations, at least among the victims of that war.
Carlo Graziani
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: The problem is, a number of people I know in the US have relatives who are Trumphole asshats and, morally, about 6 inches away from those Russians. In a few cases this is a matter of some psychic pain for my friends, because those idiots are at the same time loved ones who are are part of cherished memories. They can’t be so easily cast into the Lake of Fire, irrespective of what they may deserve. And based on some of their acts of kindness, maybe their idiocy hasn’t earned them a burning.
Whatever G&T may think, there are some Russians who don’t deserve burning either. But that argument always catches fire here, and this place becomes toxic as a consequence.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Carlo Graziani: I have a couple relatives who are Trump supporters, and I don’t speak to them anymore, because anyone who supports him supports violence and oppression and bigotry. I don’t give a fuck about the “oh but they’re really nice” arguments. No, they aren’t. I don’t care if someone is nice to their own family. You don’t get a damn cookie for that. Being nice to people you already like doesn’t matter–it’s how you treat people who you’ll never know that matters, and they fail on that front over and over again. If you find out someone in your family is a racist, transphobic, idiotic bastard–because that is what they are if they’re Trump supporters–then it is a test of your own character if you choose to keep that person in your life. If you met a total stranger who espoused the same views and beliefs, would you be like, hey no prob, let’s be friends? I’d hope not. Just because you share DNA with someone shouldn’t mean your morals go out the window.
(I’m using the general ‘you’ here.)
And I’ve seen you on other occasions seem to be condescending toward G&T on this issue, and I’m just going to say, you should stop that. You can choose not to comment. It’s an option.
Chetan Murthy
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: In one of Gellately’s books (or maybe Tooze’s Wages of Destruction) it is related that Himmler used to receive many letters from stalwart and fully-paid-up Nazi Party members, asking for clemency for this or that “deserving Jew”. Himmler got so fed up with them, he wrote an interoffice memo in which he thundered “there are no deserving Jews”. The point being, that you can be all nicey-nicey to the particular Jewish person or LGBTQ person or brown person that you know personally; if you vote for and support policies that will oppress that person and their kind, you’re no better than someone who hates that person.
Shorter: you are 100% right, Alison Rose.
P.S. And it goes without saying that all those “deserving Jews” got sent to the camps, too.
Chetan Murthy
@Carlo Graziani:
Two thoughts come to mind: (1) when and if we come thru this horrorshow in our country (and the Ukrainians come thru the horrorshow in theirs), we can reach out the hand of amity and try to patch things up. (2) but until then, frankly, sure, I understand that someone can’t give up their Trumpist granny or uncle: sure, I understand it. But me? IDGAF: those Trumpists are dead to me, b/c they want to put me and mine in camps.
The time for extending the kind hand of humanity is after the hostilities are over; until then, these fuckers want to kill us all. And I think the same is probably true for how Ukrainians view Russians, and I don’t blame them one fucking bit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy:
I’ll say this and then I am walking away from this thread as I frequently end up doing these days. One can oppose inhumanity without losing one’s humanity. People are treading pretty damn close to eliminationist rhetoric on these threads. It’s ugly.
Andrya
A point of history: if the US and Mexico are “sister peoples” (as I very much want them to be) it is a sisterhood that, historically, has involved familial abuse. Remember the Mexican war? We declared war on Mexico because we wanted their land for a slave empire, and because we could.
US Grant served as a junior officer in the Mexican war. Here’s what he had to say about it in his “Personal Memoirs” written (in a desperate effort to provide for his wife) when he was dying of cancer in 1885: “I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.” (Incidentally “Personal Memoirs” is a hell of a good book, and many, including me, regard it as the best book ever written by a US president.)
And, of course, American politicians have regularly demonized citizens of Mexico for wanting to emigrate to the land that WE STOLE FROM THEM.
Carlo Graziani
@Omnes Omnibus: Sigh. Yes.
No, sorry, I’m not just going to hit “Post Comment” and lean on someone else’s support. Are you people out of your fucking collective minds?
Go back and re-read what you wrote. You are Tutsis condemning all Hutus to death. Or Poles declaring that every German should be exterminated.. Or Filipinos rooting for an atom bomb on every Japanese city. You are denying the humanity of people that you have never met, but that you have formed a shallow general sociological impression of from media, and which, to the extent that even professional sociologists would not cringe from ithat take, cannot possibly be applied by any honest person to all the individuals who you would now readily have killed if someone offered you an easy button that lallowed you do so conveniently. And you don’t think that would make you a monster?
That is exactly how normal people become monsters.
For the record, I have not met a Hutu person, but I have personally met many Germans, Japanese, and even Russians, who do not hold any of the views that you appear to believe they should get the chop for. Your opinions about Russians are from my own personal acquaintance of three of them, bullshit. So go and fuck yourselves.
Fake Irishman
@Omnes Omnibus:
i have noticed this pattern of eliminationist rhetoric as well and it alarms me.
I generally keep my mouth shut in these threads because I know there are folks here with family in harm’s way who are extremely stressed and worried, have a right to be very angry and need to express that anger without me tut-tutting, mansplaining, or “not all Russians”
but since several other commenters here who operate in good faith — even when they don’t, or shouldn’t, carry the argument— have noted the pattern, I’ll feel I should be on the record saying I’ve seen it too.
Good night.
dr. luba
@Chetan Murthy:
And not for the first time.
Russians may consider Ukrainians to be a brotherly nation, due to our long and involuntarily shared history; Ukrainians no longer return that sentiment.
Mallard Filmore
@dirge:
This could be similar to the 40km vehicle lines at the beginning of the war, when Russian soldiers had to loot grocery stores for food. Taking the Kherson bridges down makes offensive operations tricky. They will even have to husband fuel to get their troops close enough to walk back across the Dnipro.
Armadillo
@adamsilverman
Have you seen these comments on different SOPs for different militaries (Ukraine vs US)?
https://twitter.com/LivFaustDieJung/status/1558946155337322497?t=PGfQYYOqpgvG7SOUBsNreg&s=19
https://twitter.com/LivFaustDieJung/status/1558949238716891138?t=N1M7TB1P55txrmBIzEGDTw&s=19
Gin & Tonic
@Carlo Graziani: If we’re going into historical analogies, then russian social media slots perfectly into the RTLM role here. You have no idea how vile and how pervasive that environment is.
Geminid
This morning the Times of Israel published a good interview with Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitshco. The title is “Kyiv mayor to ToI- Big mistake for Israel to stay neutral, ‘we are fighting for Europe’.” Klitscho speaks of the stakes in this fight for Ukraine and other democracies.
The reporter described prewar friction between the mayor and President Zelensky, but now the Mayor had nothing but praise and “big respect” for the President. Klitshco believes that someday Ukraine, with it’s agricultural resources and smart, hard working people, could be the richest country in Europe.
Carlo Graziani
@Carlo Graziani: OK, the edit button is gone. Sorry. I meant that to come out differently, but tired and frustrated. Sorry.
Look, I haven’t been around BJ as long as many of you have, but I love this place. I like all of you, and I know you are all good people. What troubles me is that I think we often don’t take seriously enough the fact that war corrupts everything.
War is evil. It is sometimes necessary, and sometimes we must choose it, but when we do we risk more than just our lives and our treasure. We also risk accepting its corruption into our values and morals. We then think with our fear, and with our hate, and our power of empathy withers. Our capacity for regarding other human beings as such dwindles away, and as it does so, we ourselves become less human. This happens in all wars, to the best, mildest people.
Anyway that’s why I lost it last night. I don’t really think of any of you that way, but, tired and frustrated. Sorry.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seconded.
In the wise words of the late Terry Pratchett, sin is treating people as things. Once you start down that road, everything’s OK because they’re not really people to you anymore.
Subsole
@Chetan Murthy: It makes sense that being that tightly intertwined would make the enmity worse.
A deeper, more intimate connection makes a deeper, more painful betrayal.
dr. luba
@Carlo Graziani:
Ukraine did not choose war. Neither did we choose to be part of the USSR, nor to be victims of a genocide in 1932-3, and again this year.
Bill Arnold
Carol Cohn is eloquent in this classic piece on the sterile (and male) language around nuclear weapons. Related.
Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals (1987, Carol Cohn)
Jinchi
@Armadillo: To me that exchange read like people talking past each other, with Chuck Pfarrer describing standard operating procedures for light forces, (specifically that they wouldn’t be carrying the amount of explosives required to create the craters seen in the imagery).
LivFaustDieJung objected to the assumption that Ukrainians would be following “rigid”, “codified” Navy Seal procedures, which misses the point that the amount of explosives required would be extremely heavy and hard to transport in a densely populated area, which is why the SEAL standards are what they are in this specific case.