(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Last night, russians attacked Ukraine with 4 Kalibr cruise missiles and 4 Shached drones.
Ukraine’s air defenders shot down all of them.
By @KpsZSU— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 19, 2023
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
The evil state has no such fortifications or reserves that will stop Ukraine – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
19 June 2023 – 22:16
Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!
A report on this day.
The Staff. First of all, the frontline, specific issues of the offensive. There were reports from senior commanders and commanders directly from the battlefields. There was also a report by the Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate.
Separately and in detail, we considered the preparation and provision of equipment for the new brigades of the National Guard and our border guards – those who are waiting for their time to engage in combat operations.
In some areas our warriors are moving forward, in some areas they are defending their positions and resisting the occupiers’ assaults and intensified attacks. We have no lost positions. Only liberated ones. They have only losses. In general, it is a situation of pressure, our pressure, which allows us to pave the way for our flag. Blue and yellow colors will be all over our south and all over our east. And the evil state has no such fortifications or reserves that will stop Ukraine. Because we are on our own land, and this gives us the greatest strength.
I thank all of our warriors – every soldier, every sergeant, every officer and every general who are involved in our active offensive and defensive actions now. I thank you for each liberated and each defended position!
Today, in a conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, I outlined our current defense needs and thanked him for the defense support provided. For example, the British Storm Shadow long-range missiles are doing a very useful and accurate job at the front. As well as many other weapons supplied by the British. And this cooperation will have a significant continuation.
Of course, we discussed with Rishi, with Mr. Prime Minister, the preparations for the NATO Summit in Vilnius and the content of this meeting of the Alliance.
Today, there is also a significant political decision by the UK regarding sanctions – to maintain sanctions against Russia until the aggressor compensates for all the damage done to our people and our country. And it is very important that the assets of the aggressor state and all those associated with it, associated with the system of domination that the Kremlin has built on the territory of Russia, are used to compensate for the damage caused by the Russian war and terror. This will be fair, and I am grateful to all British people who support us on the path to justice.
We also discussed with Rishi the preparations for the conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in London. It will take place in the coming days, and we expect it to consolidate various international efforts, including those of big business, to support our recovery. A recovery that should demonstrate to the world that freedom is invincible.
I discussed the conference, financial cooperation, and our movement towards the EU with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. This week we are expecting an interim verbal assessment of our work on the European Commission’s recommendations. We discussed sanctions issues in detail, in particular the 11th sanctions package against Russia for the war.
Today I also spoke with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte and Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. As always, we paid attention to the frontline and our joint defense efforts, and I thanked them for their support and willingness to develop our cooperation for security.
I informed them about the talks with African leaders and representatives who visited Ukraine last week and then visited the terrorist state. Each such international step only convinces again and again that the world should work more actively with the Peace Formula. Because this is the only Formula that responds comprehensively enough to every aspect of Russian madness.
And one more thing.
The World Bank. I spoke with the President of the Bank today. And not only about cooperation now, but also about the post-war transformation of Ukraine. About the decisions and steps, about the new doctrine of a new Ukraine, a victorious Ukraine, steps that we will prepare and implement. All together. Just as we are now overcoming this aggression together.
I am grateful to everyone who is now in combat, at combat posts, in combat positions!
Today I would like to highlight the Artan assault unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate and its commander, Major Torkotiuk. Thank you!
And also our Special Operations Forces. Viktor, all the guys – thank you very much!
Thank you to everyone who is fighting and working for Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Piatykhatky, Zaporizhzhia Oblast:
Piatykhatky, Zaporizhia region, being liberated by the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade.
🎥 @CinC_AFU pic.twitter.com/XDgiNCL1kJ
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 19, 2023
Confirmation of the settlement of Piatykhatky liberated on 18 June by the 128th Jaeger Brigade and the 2nd Separate Rifle Battalion in Vasylivka direction. Liberation was reported by Russian channels earlier on 18 June. pic.twitter.com/1VahXxuZjs
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 19, 2023
Left bank of the Dnipro, Kherson Oblast:
When some russian occupiers blew up the Kakhovka HPP dam, they forgot about the other russian occupiers holding positions on the Dnipro's left bank. Ukrainian Navy SEALs saved enemy soldiers from drowning… and added them to the POW exchange fund.
🎥 73rd Naval Special Operations… pic.twitter.com/38oQkdEIwg— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 19, 2023
The cut off word in the tweet above is “center”. As in 73rd Naval Special Operations Center.
Since the video below is of Ukrainian SOF, I’m guessing they’re operating somewhere in occupied Ukraine:
Rykove, Kherson Oblast:
Heavy damage from a strike in Russian-occupied Rykove (Kherson Oblast) is visible in new satellite imagery.
This site is more than 105 kilometers from the front line in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/3Yb97iWKzd
— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) June 19, 2023
The Vulhedar axis:
A Ukrainian drone dies in combat while destroying a Russian stockpile of anti-tank mines. By the 72nd brigade of Ukraine. Vuhledar front. https://t.co/vjm3S2KVKm pic.twitter.com/fiXu9UW1w1
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 19, 2023
Mariupol:
In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, Ukrainian teenagers entered an argument with a Russian occupier on a bus. He apparently threatened them with a pepper spray to which they said he's not welcome there.
Teenagers marked as (M) – male, and (F) – female. pic.twitter.com/aVXiUmz2AI
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) June 19, 2023
The Kakhovka dam:
The photos obtained by AP, May 28, showed a car on Kakhovka dam -“its roof neatly cut open to reveal enormous barrels, one with what appears to be a land mine attached to the lid and a cable running toward the Russian-held side of the river.”
More details- https://t.co/Bh3cGGdbBk pic.twitter.com/Y6S8Nl0wN9— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 19, 2023
From the AP:
BERISLAV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to bring down a Ukrainian dam that collapsed earlier this month while under Russian control, according to exclusive drone photos and information obtained by The Associated Press.
Two officials said Russian troops were stationed in a crucial area inside the Kakhovka Dam where the Ukrainians say the explosion that destroyed it was centered. Images taken from above and shared with the AP also appear to show an explosives-laden car atop the structure. It’s not clear the car ever exploded and any such bomb would not have been powerful enough to bring down the dam, but Ukrainian officials say the photos show the Russians’ intent to rig it, and that they had the access and control to do so.
In the days leading up to the dam’s destruction on June 6, Ukrainian military drone videos showed dozens of Russian soldiers encamped on a bank of the Dnieper, relaxed as they walked back and forth to the dam with no cover — suggesting their confidence in their control of the area and especially the dam, which was strategically crucial.
Photos from drone footage obtained by the AP and dated May 28 showed a car parked on the dam, its roof neatly cut open to reveal enormous barrels, one with what appears to be a land mine attached to the lid and a cable running toward the Russian-held side of the river.
It’s not clear any car bomb ever went off. A satellite image from June 16 shows a fuzzy object on top of the dam that could be the vehicle — but it was taken at such a distance and resolution as to make it impossible to know for sure.
A Ukrainian special forces communications official said the drone photos are evidence the dam was rigged. He said he believed the purpose of the car was twofold: to stop any Ukrainian advance on the dam and to potentially amplify the planned explosion originating in the machine room. Even if the car exploded, it would not have been sufficient to bring down the dam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve operational secrecy.
Kakhovka is one of a series of Soviet-era dams along the Dnieper River that were built to withstand enormous force, amounting to thousands of pounds of explosives. They were constructed in the wake of the infamous World War II “Dambusters” raids that destroyed German dams. Taking out the Möhne dam in 1943, for instance, required five 4.5-ton, specially made “bouncing bombs,” according to the Imperial War Museum archives.
Ukraine is not believed to possess any single missile with that kind of power.
Sidharth Kaushal, a researcher with the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said the Ukrainians are not believed to have any missiles with a payload greater than about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms).
Nor does it seem credible that Ukrainian commandos could have sneaked in thousands of pounds of explosives to blow the dam, which was completely controlled inside and out by Russian soldiers for months.
As recently as the day before the structure’s collapse, Russians had set up a firing position inside the dam’s crucial machine room, where Ukrhydroenergo, the agency that runs the dam system, said the explosion originated. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as early as October 2022 that the dam was mined.
Zelinskyi, who is not related to the Ukrainian president, confirmed that the explosion seemed to come from the area where the machine room is located. He and an American official familiar with the intelligence both confirmed that Russian forces had been ensconced there for some time. The American spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material.
Much more at the link!
New air defense has arrived!
"I am delighted to be able to announce to you with my Italian colleague Giorgia Meloni that the Franco-Italian SAMP/T is now deployed and operational in Ukraine, where it protects key installations and lives," – French President Macron https://t.co/tBCcZjQihb pic.twitter.com/VB9g5wpplf
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 19, 2023
From RAI News:
Macron announces that Samp-T missiles are in Kiev. It is a medium-range land-to-air defense system of Franco-Italian manufacture
A medium-range SAMP / T ground-to-air defense system, of Franco-Italian manufacture, was delivered to Ukraine where it is now operational. French President Emmanuel Macron announces it, four months after promising it in Kiev. Paris announced the delivery of this Patriot equivalent in early February. “I am happy to announce with my Italian colleague Giorgia Meloni that the Franco-Italian SAMP / T is now deployed and operational in Ukraine, where it protects key installations and lives”, said the French head of state in a speech in Paris on Europe’s air and anti-missile defense.
The SAMP / T MAMBA is the first European long-range anti-missile system. It should help Ukraine cope with attacks by Russian drones, missiles and planes. With this system, its radar and its launchers armed with eight Aster missiles with a range of about 100 km, “we can counteract a wide range of air threats: short-range ballistic missiles, fighter planes, helicopters, drones and even cruise ship blanks”, a French soldier pointed out to AFP in Romania in December.
Kiev has asked for months to strengthen its land-to-air defenses, especially after a wave of Russian attacks on its infrastructure using Iranian drones last fall. A MAMBA had already been deployed to Romania to protect the highly strategic region of the port of Constanta on the Black Sea.
Once again, everyone at home say it with me: The Russians have been running the same Information Warfare strategy over and over and over again to infiltrate and influence since at least 2014 if not 2012!
Research has shown that Russian anti-vaxx amplification began in the US as early as 2014, and was arguably the first wide scale Russian social media op in the US. These early tests helped inform Russia’s consequential pro-Trump work in 2016. https://t.co/2SJpHuj0Pp
— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) June 18, 2023
It’s also time for our leaders to begin serious conversation in the US around info integrity and how malevolent actors manipulate our discourse.
Europeans are way ahead of us in this space: https://t.co/HCo1xBleZM
— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) June 18, 2023
Targeting anti-vaxers, beginning in 2014, to influence them and targeting legitimate virologists, immunologists, and related physicians and research scientists WAS NOT the first time the Russians used these tactics! My professional assessment is that the hack, data scrape, and dump of emails from the University of East Anglia in 2009, leading to Professor Michale Mann’s and other climate scientists’ email correspondence with colleagues, as well as officials of the US government, other governments, and a variety of international non-governmental organizations regarding climate change being released to both climate science skeptics and then the public was the first Russian attempt to run this type of operation at scale against a Western target. Think of it as a proof of concept. It was followed up by a similar operation in 2011 that again targeted the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. From The Guardian: (emphasis mine)
Last month, Tattersall’s blog, as well as at least four other blogs popular with climate sceptics, received a comment from a user called “FOIA” providing a link to a Russian server hosting a compressed folder containing more than 5,000 emails exchanged between climate scientists, along with a short message setting out the perpetrator’s motives. The folder also contained an encrypted subfolder containing a further 220,000 emails. It was the second time such a release had occurred.
And both of these, as well as manipulation of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and the hack and dump of John Podesta’s emails and the DNC hacks and dump all follow the same playbook. As does the 2015 RNC hack and the hack and small dump of Senator Graham’s emails. The bulk of Senator Graham’s hacked emails, as well as those from the RNC hack have never been released. This is also the same playbook used in the Macron leaks and in riling up both the Freedom Convoy folks in Canada and the Yellow Vest folks in France.
We have been in a primarily non-kinetic world war since at least 2012. It is not evenly distributed. The kinetic theaters of operations are in places that Americans largely couldn’t care less about, if they could even find them on a map: Syria, the Central African Republic, Libya, Chad, Sudan, Mali, Georgia, and Ukraine. The war is primarily being fought through the weaponization of the elements of national power other than military power and because of that it is easy to pretend it is not and has not been happening. Which is why we have been and continue to lose the war!
From page 14 of Peter Pomerantsev’s If Nothing Is True, Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia: (emphasis mine)
When I first landed in Moscow I thought these infinite transformations the expression of a country liberated, pulling on different costumes in a frenzy of freedom, pushing the limits of personality as far as it could possibly go to what the President’s vizier would call “the heights of creation.” It was only years later that I came to see these endless mutations not as freedom but as forms of delirium, in which scare-puppets and nightmare mystics become convinced they’re almost real and march toward what the President’s vizier would go on to call the “the fifth world war, the first non-linear war of all against all.
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
There is a new video at Patron’s official TikTok, but it won’t embed. So click across to see it. I think the issue is that the TikTok’s that are just a series of pictures that scroll from left to right won’t embed, while the true videos will. This seems to be the pattern I’ve observed over the past several weeks. Not sure why it is this way, but that’s the pattern.
Open thread!
Alison Rose
No disrespect to Simon, but I don’t find it at all unbelievable that Muskrat would fall for russian bullshit. He is not a smart man, no matter how many fanboys and media types want to claim otherwise.
I appreciate your thoughts on the actual arc of the disinfo campaigns and how far they reach and the implications of it all. We need to get you on the op-ed page of the FTFNYT.
BRB starting a goth cabaret club with this name.
Thank you as always, Adam. (Psst: No linky for the Patron TikTok.)
Adam L Silverman
@Alison Rose: The Russians and their useful idiots and fellow travelers outside of Russia have been working Musk, Sacks, and the rest of that crowd hard for well over a year now. Also, Musk has to stay in Putin’s good graces to do any business in Russia or the Commonwealth of Independent States now or in the future.
I added the link to Patron’s TikTok.
Adam L Silverman
As I was saying:
Anonymous At Work
Adam,
Looking at the short videos of Ukrainian victories, especially the ones with sound-tracks and other production elements, what are the chances the US military would be able to dislodge the highly-professional and professional-lodged stick up its ass to allow or even design such videos for its future operations?
HinTN
@Adam L Silverman: Welcome home, and thanks for these posts.
Adam L Silverman
@Anonymous At Work: We’ve been making them for a while.
Adam L Silverman
@HinTN: You’re most welcome!
Alison Rose
@Adam L Silverman: “The failing counteroffensive” were these fuckwagons under the impression that the counteroffensive would be a 48-hour rout that would drive every orc back across the border with their tails between their legs? I mean, sure…if you set impossible standards, then those standards will not be met. Convenient!!!
eversor
The difference in troop quality and equipment in the SOF video is telling.
Bill Arnold
@Alison Rose:
He is also gullible, and easily manipulated.
Gin & Tonic
I want Musk and Sacks – or anyone, really – to address the castration of Ukrainian POW’s. The story appeared, and … crickets. WTF? A well-documented genocidal war crime just down the fucking memory hole.
Rusty
The trench warfare video clips are heart stopping. War conducted only a few feet apart and instantly lethal. There is a part of the mind that wants to deny its real because it is so brutal. The self control to enter a trench and fight this way knowing how quickly it could go the other way. These are not the first videos I have seen of such close combat from Ukraine, but continue to be astounded at the bravery and commitment of the Ukrainian soldiers.
Bill Arnold
Any reason that you didn’t include the DNC hack(s) in that list?
(I’m moderately confident that there was Russian involvement, and very possibly Trump(-associates) involvement. And that there was more truth in the Steele dossier/memos than the current consensus.)
Agreed though that the listed hack-and-dump(/”leak) operations all fit the Russian pattern. “Attribution is hard”, but the pattern matches.
Shalimar
@Alison Rose: They know what they’re doing. It’s going to be a “failing counteroffensive” right up to the hour the tanks arrive in Baghdad.
Shalimar
@Gin & Tonic: You can always tweet at Musk and Sacks that you wish they were treated like Russians treat Ukrainian POWs. You will know from your ban that they know exactly what you meant.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose:
That’s what I was going to say!
Kent
@Alison Rose: From a purely realpolitik point of view it doesn’t really matter if Ukraine doesn’t gain an inch in their offensive. They are eroding the military capability of Russia day by day at pennies on the dollar. If we assume correctly that Russia and the west are at odds, what’s not to like? We can keep this up for 10 more years without risking American lives.
Of course we aren’t that callous. But even if we were there is no argument for capitulation to Russia. None. And anyone making one is simply parroting Russian propaganda.
Kent
@zhena gogolia: Musk spent $44 billion for a web site that was losing money. I mean for fuck’s sake, how smart can he be?
Chetan Murthy
@Kent:
Makes a guy wonder why Mearsheimer the “realist” thinks you’re wrong, eh? Here you are, being *truly* realist, seeing that we can kick our main adversary into the gutter and stomp his skull into shards, all with no fingerprints, not even muss our hairdo. And he thinks we shouldn’t do it b/c reasons. The same adversary that did us dirty not too many years ago.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Just forgot to add it to the list, I’ll make an adjustment in a few minutes.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: It is fixed.
Adam L Silverman
@Kent: We are that callous. And that cynical.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks!
Kent
@Chetan Murthy: What are you referring to? Vietnam?
In any event, they are the ones kicking their own butts. They can always pack up and go back home.
Chetan Murthy
Adam, I was unaware that this was also a RU info-op. Do you have any pointers where I can read about this ? I mean, about the attributes that caused you to conclude it was an RU operation?
Kent
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, I’m sure we are.
The point is that from a callous point of view there is no reason not to let the Russians immolate themselves in Ukraine while we pour gas on the fire.
Under what theory of geopolitics is it in the US interest to rescue Putin and Russia from their mistakes? And I don’t buy the nuclear argument. That is the all-purpose tankie excuse never to confront Russia for any reason anywhere.
Chetan Murthy
@Kent: Sorry, what I mean is (to riff on what you wrote here @Kent: ) that (as you say) *cynically speaking* we’re destroying RU’s military power for pennies on the dollar, without a single American boot on the ground, flyer in the air. They’re our main adversary, the adversary that attacked our country, our executive branch, and continues to do so. One would think that an FP “realist” like Mearsheimer would appreciate the idea of being able to gravely harm that adversary, and yet he doesn’t.
To put it pithily, us civilians imagine that FP “realism” and “realpolitik” are related somehow. But no, it seems not.
Bill Arnold
It seems to not have been widely noticed; Vova P made an explicit, detailed nuclear threat a few days ago. Cowardly Russian oligarchs; they know what to do, if they have any loyalty to Russia.
Putin says Russia put nuclear bombs in Belarus as warning to West (Andrew Osborn, June 17, 2023)
Emphasis mine:
Where a clear loss in Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine is classified by Vova as a “strategic defeat”. (Loss of Crimea especially.)
Kent
Excellent and interesting thread from Trent on the strategic implications of Ukraine’s destruction of the Rykove (Partyzany) ammo depot:
https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1670971803987058688?s=20
Kent
@Bill Arnold: The boy who cried wolf.
I think even people in power are losing interest in Russian bluster.
Will
I wonder how much Russia and China spend on blue check bots with 73627194 numeral after their name tweeting in support of Sacks and Musk’s hot takes.
Chetan Murthy
@Will: One hopes, more than they spend on socks for their soldiers.
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: OTOH, Cheryl Rofer points us to this:
VVP lies about everything. He could be lying about this, also too.
Also, remember Biden’s answer to: “how did you know that russia was going to invade?”
“We have significant intelligence capability.”
Last I saw, the DoD was saying that they hadn’t seen any change in russia’s nuclear posture. (I haven’t checked carefully though to see if that’s still the case.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sebastian
Thanks for the update, Adam. I hope the R&R brought some well-deserved rest.
Perhaps I missed it, but have we discussed the Cholera outbreak among Russian troops in the Kherson region? The Russians restarted their stupid biolab mosquitos story, which seems to me like a frontrun to explain many soon-to-dead-from-cholera mobniks.
Sebastian
Here is an amazing before and after of the huge ammo depot explosion in Rykove.
Carlo Graziani
Why, exactly, would SOF be employed in the kind of trench warfare that regular infantry specializes in? SOF is specifically and expensively trained for totally different missions—infiltration, recon/intelligence, sapping, etc. Not at all clear to me on what basis Ponomarenko would attribute that video to an SOF op.
Also, Adam, that is literally a snuff film. A warning (like the ones that you occasionally issue for offensive language) would be in order.
Chetan Murthy
@Carlo Graziani: [No idea if this accurate but] Davydov today claimed that the vid was from a mission that infiltrated RU lines and attacked that trench network from behind. That might be why. [again, no idea if this is accurate]
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Why does David Sacks & Elon Musk given any credibility at all outside of their domaine expertise, certainly when it comes to geopolitics?
& the Quincy Institute has thoroughly discredited itself by adding Davie Sacks. It is a shame, since the DC think tank scene could certainly use more diversity of opinion, that is less beholden to winning contacts from USG & attracting donations from the MIC.
Carlo Graziani
4 Kalibrs and 4 drones is a pathetic salvo. Like, not even trying.
I wonder what that says about the Russian stockpile of and supply chain for such weapons. It would be interesting to have the data on number of weapons fired per day, by date, to do a little modeling. Anyone know where one might get those numbers?
eversor
@Carlo Graziani:
They may have been in the area and helped out. We don’t know and we won’t.
It’s no more a snuff film than all the videos of stuff blowing up. It’s all people dying. Personally maybe I’m just numb to this stuff from the past but it’s rather tame. There’s also the issue that American’s as a whole don’t want to know what violence entails. This gets dragged up all the time with school shootings where “make them see the bodies” is a rallying cry. We need to grow up and accept what this all means rather than trying to look at it clinically.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor: I must agree with @Carlo Graziani: that it is indeed a snuff film. I mean, if you think we should know what violence entails, I would invite you to peruse the pictures of victims of AR-pattern rifles used in mass shootings. Over at LG&M, a commenter momentarily lost his mind and started posting high-resolution images of such victims after one of the mass shootings (I forget which). It was ….. well, all I can say is, I still can’t unsee one of those images. I blocked the guy immediately, with much profanity in multiple comments, it was so shocking.
Lots of us understand the toll of violence on Ukrainian lives, and we don’t need to see Russian soldiers dying to understand that real people are dying right now as I write these words.
And I write the above, having watched the film, and honestly not caring much that Russian soldiers are dying in it. That said, I’ve had to stop watching films in which Ukrainian soldiers are injured, b/c it’s too disturbing.
I agree with Carlo that the film deserves a content warning: there are many readers here who are less …. inured to the awfulness, who might click on it inadvertently and be disturbed.
Carlo Graziani
@eversor: I believe that I am informed of, and sensitized to, the brutality inherent in warfare.
Nonetheless, I hypothesize that there may be readers of this blog who would not choose to view a nonfictional video of a human being being shot and killed. It would cost nothing to alert such readers about the content of said video.
Chief Oshkosh
Adams, thanks again for all the work you do on these posts.
eversor
@Chetan Murthy:
I mean, I’ve seen the actual results of this stuff personally.
@Carlo Graziani:
My bad then!
Jay
Thank you again, Adam.
Chetan Murthy
this podcast is illuminating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo3LoV_U0Hc
It discusses “sharp power”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_power#:~:text=Sharp%20power%20is%20the%20use,system%20of%20a%20target%20country.
It’s an interview with a Ukrainian scholar (Maria Shuvalova) who studies propaganda in literature. Really interesting stuff. The frame is a discussion of the author Elizabeth Gilbert’s decision to delay publishing her Russia-set book until after the war, and the angry reaction from what seems to be the entire Western literary community. They discuss this a lot, and discuss what passes for contemporary Russian literature. And how it’s used as a form of propaganda — the “sharp power” I referenced above.
Here’s a snippet from near the end (my transcription, so any errors are mine):
Fascinating. Throughout, I was reminded (as G&T can certainly describe in detail) the things I’ve read about Russian edicts from the 19th century banning the Ukrainian language in print. Ms. Shuvalova mentions the “decolonial perspective” several times. OK, I’ll stop now. Really interesting podcast
ETA: Adam has been educating us all about “sharp power” for going on >7yr now. This podcast is just the particular application of that framing to “literature”.
Chetan Murthy
@eversor: Surely, then, you would want for people who are already of good faith and good will, to have some *choice* as to whether they see these things, yes ?
I mean, frankly I’m all for every gun-humper seeing the results of AR-pattern-wielding killings — the grislier the better — until they all eat bullets from the horror of it all. But we’re talking about the people who read this blog who are, for the most part, of good will and good faith, and support Ukraine in its war of national salvation.
eversor
@Chetan Murthy:
I don’t know completely for sure on that.
Sure when it comes to assholes like Ted Cruz firing an AR till bacon cooks on it I’d be all for giving him the Clockwork Orange treatment on it and toss in a bonus tar and feathering.
The thing is a society I think we run from the actual horror of things to much and it hurts us. Many of us are too sheltered from what goes on in this nation to do the right thing. Most of us have no clue what actually goes on in the world outside of it. Even then of those that do very few are truly aware of it, let alone have experience with it. I don’t think that helps. But, just my opinion here. Could be wrong.
TheMightyTrowel
@eversor: I don’t think that’s true for anyone under 40 who grew up with the persistent threat of school mass shootings. I’m at the top end of that age group so (a) columbine happened when I was a teen and (b) I never had the horror story experience of school shooting drills like my younger family members but (c) a bunch of my classmates went to war in 2003, some died, others came back so changed and traumatised it was inescapable.
Sebastian
@Carlo Graziani:
The Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) and MoD (@DefenseU) publish the numbers on Twitter. You can scroll through their timeline but I am not sure how complete the tweets are but I’d assume they tweet every attack.
Sebastian
@Chetan Murthy:
There is an enormous genre of war fiction in Russia, most of it trashy and fashy. In some of these books the Soviets and the Nazis fight together against enemies.
Chris T.
That’s because—I am virtually certain anyway—there’s some juicy kompromat in there, still in use.
Chris Johnson
THIS THIS THIS, can’t be overemphasized.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say we are LOSING this war, but I’d say this has been the real war and damn sure there have been times when we absolutely lost in it: for instance, an entire Presidential term where the country was ‘run’ by a Potemkin ‘President’. Thank fuck for the deep state is all I can say there.
And that’s how it’s waged, in simple words. It’s made me incredibly suspicious of anything that whiffs of chaos politics or ‘here’s what you should think about thus and so’, especially if it seems defeatist. I don’t think this tactic can actually win much. It’s sand trying to erode rocks.
Another Scott
While Biden’s recent comment about (roughly) “not giving Ukraine a special path to NATO membership” might strike some as disheartening, I wonder how many people saw this:
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
OverTwistWillie
Pour one out for WarGonzo.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Not very relevant; Russia has its own border with Ukraine, and the signalling by talking about the existence of such weapons is the point.
News broke that POTUS Biden is similarly concerned as I pressed send on my comment above. Less detailed, but of interest.
Biden says threat of Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is ‘real’ (Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose, June 19, 2023)
The US to Russia messaging on this should include veiled mortal threats to Putin and those in Russia advocating for use of nuclear weapons, and to Russia in general, IMO. At the very least, threats of a total embargo, including interdiction of trade (in some fashion) between other major powers and Russia.
NutmegAgain
@Gin & Tonic: I agree. I was covered, a bit in the UK press. Likely because the original story was a UK paper. But I’ve seen nothing in the US media. I mean, I think most of us get that this is beyond horrific, and press might get squeamish, or feel like it’s –what? — unnecessarily inflammatory? can’t be verified?? . Since there have been documented cases of this torture since early days in the invasion, it would seem worth following up.
Bill Arnold
A sampler of recent Russian academic argumentation about nuclear war.
A Preemptive Nuclear Strike? No! – A RESPONSE TO SERGEI KARAGANOV’S “A DIFFICULT BUT NECESSARY DECISION” (IVAN N. TIMOFEEV, 20.06.2023)
Which is a response to this, a long argument for limited nuclear war with the West. (caricature TL;DR – it would be fine, would probably stay limited, and post-nuclear-war Russia would be loved as a world savior.) It is an entertaining rant, for sure. [1]
A Difficult but Necessary Decision (SERGEI A. KARAGANOV, 13.06.2023)
[1] I am not amused.