(Image by NEIVANMADE)
A housekeeping note before we start. The troll who turned up early this morning before I went to sleep has been banned. His comments have been trashed as well.
To the troll, and any others who might consider popping up in the comments, I have the email address you used to post here and the IP you were using as well. I also now have your current blog; your old blog; your Twitter account; your Reddit profile, your Instagram, the different nym you use on that platform, and your real name since you were stupid enough to include it at the top of your Instagram page. I know the city were you live, the part of that city, and the country you are originally from.
Do us all a favor, just stay away.
Russia launched Iranian made Shahed drones at civilian targets in multiple parts of Ukraine overnight.
Overnight, russian terrorists attacked Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Odesa regions with 38 Shahed drones. 26 of them were shot down. Infrastructure objects in Cherkasy and Odesa regions were damaged. The drones also hit Orlivka-Isakcea ferry crossing. Two people were… pic.twitter.com/snwtr0dHFR
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2023
Overnight, russian terrorists attacked Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Odesa regions with 38 Shahed drones. 26 of them were shot down. Infrastructure objects in Cherkasy and Odesa regions were damaged. The drones also hit Orlivka-Isakcea ferry crossing. Two people were injured.
Flakpanzer Gepard fires at Shahed-136/131 on the night of September 26, 2023. Southern Ukraine. https://t.co/cyeiZwiOL0 pic.twitter.com/KHioTKo5X4
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) September 26, 2023
Russia attacked Orlivka-Isaccea – ferry crossing on the border with Romania: dozens of trucks damaged, international crossing currently not operational pic.twitter.com/jtw8JGmu34
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) September 26, 2023
These trucks were waiting to unload crops in Izmail, through which Ukraine is exporting harvested grain to countries in need. Russia once again attacked port infrastructure tonight, weaponizing hunger. pic.twitter.com/H9jDFysMnQ
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) September 26, 2023
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
There will be more Ukrainian actions against the terrorist state — address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
26 September 2023 – 20:23
I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!
A report on the day. I held a meeting of the Staff. Several key points. The first is the actual situation at the front, our offensive and defensive operations. Important reports on the east and south. On the destruction of logistics and headquarters of the occupiers. There are good details. Loud details. I thank all the Ukrainian warriors who distinguished themselves!
The second issue is the supply of shells. This is a topic we are dealing with on a daily basis. Supplies from partners. Searching for new opportunities in the world — we know exactly how to secure supplies. And we are gradually increasing the volume of Ukrainian production. This is one of our top priorities.
Today, by the way, in addition to the reports at the meeting of the Staff, there was a separate meeting with the Ministry of Strategic Industries.
There was also a separate informative intelligence report on the situation in the Russian military-industrial complex.
We clearly see the areas where pressure on Russia needs to be increased so that terrorist capabilities do not grow.
Sanctions are not enough. There will be more. There will be more of our own, Ukrainian actions against the terrorist state. As long as Russia’s aggression continues, Russia’s losses must be tangible.
And, of course, our work with partners to end the war on Ukrainian terms, based on our Peace Formula. A totally fair one.
Today I met with the President of the National Council of Austria, who was on a visit to Ukraine.
We discussed in detail our efforts to get the world majority to join the implementation of the Peace Formula. And I appreciate Austria’s willingness to join in.
Of course, we also discussed our European course. I spoke about Ukraine’s implementation of seven recommendations of the European Commission. And we rely on Austria’s continued support for Ukraine’s European integration.
One more thing.
Every day, Russian terrorists hit our cities and villages with missiles and “Shaheds”. Almost every night, dozens of drones and various types of missiles are destroyed in the Ukrainian sky. Unfortunately, there are hits. There is also falling debris… And our rescuers, our police, doctors, volunteers, utilities — all emergency services — are always working 24/7 to help people and save our infrastructure.
Today I want to thank these people who have distinguished themselves over the past weeks. In Odesa region, Poltava region, Cherkasy region.
Employees of the State Emergency Service of Odesa region: Chief Master Sergeant Oleksiy Zhaboriuk, Sergeant Serhiy Chobu, Sergeant Oleksandr Vieliev.
Odesa police officers: Colonel Vyacheslav Barba and Major Mykola Perekrestov.
Firefighters of the Odesa branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority: senior firefighter Hennadiy Maystrenko and firefighter Andriy Kohut.
Thank you all, guys, for your work!
State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region: Sergeants Yevhen Bilokobylskyi and Volodymyr Smyk, Captain Serhiy Kyrychenko — thank you!
Police of Poltava region: Senior Lieutenant Anton Tryholov and Captain Oleh Nikisha.
Kseniya Kushko, a doctor at the Poltava Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine. Feldsher Ihor Hevelia.
Poltava volunteers: Tetiana Shakhovtseva and Ihor Shtefan. Thank you for your courage!
Cherkasy. Morning of September 20, a strike on the city, on the Cherkasy Hotel.
Employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Cherkasy region: Lieutenant Colonel Dmytro Mokiyenko, Chief Master Sergeant Mykola Oliynyk, Sergeant Andriy Kutsevol. Cherkasy police: Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Brelakha, Senior Lieutenant Vadym Ruban. Thank you, guys!
Cherkasy regional organization of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, head of the organization Yuliya Kholodna — thank you for your help!
Paramedic Oleksandra Ekzarkho — thank you!
Cherkasy utility workers: Mykhailo Vasyliev and Dmytro Zadorozhnyi — thank you!
I thank everyone who works tirelessly for people. Those who do their job, which helps the entire state to do its job.
Glory to everyone who adds to Ukraine’s power! Glory to all who fight!
Glory to Ukraine!
Frontline situation, enemy plans, our offensive and defensive operations, frontline supplies, increased domestic arms production, particularly drones, and the state of the Russian army and military-industrial complex. These were the key subjects of today’s meeting of the Staff.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 26, 2023
Minister @rustem_umerov in his interview to @amanpour:
We need more weapons that make the game change… Soon hopefully the jets will come and we will make progress.
We need these weapons to regain the territories and have advantage on the battlefield.— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2023
From Lieutenant General Steur, Commanding General, Netherlands Air Force:
Training of Ukrainian F-16 Weapons Loading Crews @Kon_Luchtmacht @Defensie It was an honor to meet you🙏🏽💪🏽 @DefenceU @KpsZSU @CinC_AFU @UKRinNLD pic.twitter.com/9qZeopIScQ
— André Steur (@andresteur) September 26, 2023
The cost:
WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC IMAGES!! WARNING!! WARNING!!
This is to remind you of the daily sacrifice of our brave soldiers.
Those heroes need your help and support.
We need your support. We need it now.#StandWithUkraine📷 @Liberov pic.twitter.com/Ft3Iqn9XJT
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2023
This was my hotel. I dreamed of building a beautiful, modern promenade in Odessa. I've invested millions of dollars, bought out a stake from private investors, and despite the war, went on to finalize the deal with the government. pic.twitter.com/nOCcVJivNH
— Stavnitser Andrey (@stavnitser) September 25, 2023
We will rebuild everything. Odessa will be as beautiful as russians could never imagine in their dreadful nightmares.
Thank God, there were no casualties in the hotel – but 2 people died in the port nearby. Deepest condolences to the families.— Stavnitser Andrey (@stavnitser) September 25, 2023
Kherson Oblast:
Ukrainian security service sources tell @ukrpravda_news a HIMARS attack on a Russian command post in occupied Kherson region killed 8 officers and wounded 7 more. No independent confirmation yet. Attack would be among the biggest in past months, following Black Sea Fleet HQ. https://t.co/4TYHPmlkzR
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) September 26, 2023
Russian occupied Sevastopol:
It is reported that the Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was present at the board of the Ministry of Defense https://t.co/prs9flexNh pic.twitter.com/YA1h0yUwUc
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) September 26, 2023
Apparently he’s Schroedinger’s general.
Ukrainska Pravda‘s tweet machine translates as:
HIMARS “visited” the occupiers near Kherson for a meeting
For those of you who like watching Russian stuff go kablooey:
«Follow the Moskva…»
Scorpions pic.twitter.com/mJ70sKTsbH— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2023
And for you railroad and logistics enthusiasts, here is a thread by Tatarigami. First tweet from the thread, followed by the rest of the thread from the Thread Reader App.
Russian railroads are a critical component of their logistics, allowing the rapid and cost-efficient movement of substantial quantities of ammunition, vehicles, fuel, construction materials, and personnel. Here's a brief 🧵thread with an update on their logistical operations: pic.twitter.com/QzN5u8f8ml
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
2/ For a better understanding, let’s examine Kantemirovka, a train station in Voronezh Oblast, right across the northern part of Luhansk Oblast, situated out of the range of artillery and HIMARS. It’s located only a few hours from critical logistical hubs like Starobilsk3/ In this case, the satellite has recorded the unloading of equipment and vehicles from the train. This typically starts either late at night or early in the morning and finishes by dawn or noon, respectively. Here, many trucks with ammo and equipment had already left.4/ Russian occupational forces frequently unload trains during late nights and early mornings. Firstly, it allows them to reduce the number of witnesses who could record a video or take a photo. Moreover, it helps them avoid detection by optical satellites like this one.5/ Regrettably, the destruction of a single railway track does not inflict significant damage, as it can be quickly repaired. Moreover, due to the number of available tracks, the russians can easily reroute those trains, resulting in a relatively minor increase in transit time.6/ Following the offloading process, trucks transport the cargo to smaller facilities at the battalion or even company level. Consequently, attempting to target such a limited quantity with longer-range missiles would be an inefficient use, given their limited availability.7/ While this approach adds logistical strain, initially, the russians heavily relied on civilian trucks during the refurbishment and recovery of their older truck fleet. At the time of writing, it appears they’ve successfully transitioned to military trucks for these operations.8/ As the war continues and drone technology advances, I think that the deployment of expendable drones with modest production costs and reasonable payloads, capable of being delivered over several hundred kilometers, will become a significant risk factor for russian logistics9/ Additionally, I want to highlight that systems like Storm Shadow and ATACMS cannot be used against russian territory. This leaves limited alternatives, primarily domestic production (with its own constraints), and increasingly, drones, as a viable option for deeper strikes10/ I kindly request your support through likes, follows, and shares of the first message in the thread.I’m grateful to everyone who continues to support through Buy Me A Coffee, as it enables me to acquire and share imagery with analysis, including this one
If it was so easy, why it hasn't happened after a year and a half on a noticeable scale? There are two options:
a) Nobody has thought of this idea, and you offer something unique here
b) It's not as easy as you suggest which is why it doesn't happen.— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
Sounds good in theory, and we have seen it happening. However, sabotage requires risking people's lives. Given that it doesn't take too long to fix the railway and sabotage teams get caught, drones might be more efficient at this
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
Yes and no. They can move without electrified rails as well.
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
No, it's not that I don't believe; they don't occur for a valid reason. If I were you, I'd refrain from continuously posting the same thing across various accounts for over a year, hoping for different outcomes. You're not contributing anything new or valuable in this regard.
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
They are civilian, russia doesn’t have that many designated for military use only, it’s mostly mixed with civilians
— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) September 26, 2023
Ordinary Ukrainians are helping our army in occupied territories, even risking their own lives to do so. Sofia Bila, a Kherson Oblast resident, saved three wounded Ukrainian soldiers. She kept them hidden in her basement for two month until her village was liberated. pic.twitter.com/XZPD1wjZJ8
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 26, 2023
A couple of month’s back Jim Caviezel, who is both a religious fanatic and a full on Qnut, was doing publicity events to promote the biopic about the sex pest and founder of Operation Underground Railroad, decided that he would tie the untrue QAnon child sex trafficking and organ harvesting conspiracies, which are lies, to the Ukrainians. Caviezel claimed that Ukrainians were trafficking their own children for sex, as well as organ harvesting in the US funded biolabs, which is also a lie.
The disgraced conspiracy addled LTG (ret) Flynn also promoted these same lies.
In addition to being lies, this is all Russian agitprop and misinformation.
I bet you cannot guess who decided to promote these Russian lies on the steps of the Capitol today? Go to the 4:13 mark of the video in the embedded tweet below and you can watch an actual member of Congress promote agitprop and misinformation on the steps of the US Capitol.
I’m on the steps of the Capitol letting every one of my colleagues know: NO FUNDING TO THE PROXY WAR IN UKRAINE! https://t.co/vAQVZvKrLN
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) September 26, 2023
At the same time that Taylor Greene was promoting Russian lies and agitprop, Speaker (in name only) McCarthy was holding a press availability where he had this to say about the Ukraine funding in the DOD appropriations bill:
Whether White House’s Ukraine aid request would be part of CR: “My answer would be no. That should be dealt with in a supplemental [funding package] when you do it. So, those are two separate things.”
Unlike the two people that McCarthy believes Putin is paying, McCarthy and Taylor Greene are willing to do Putin’s bidding for free. McCarthy’s empowering and protection of Taylor Greene shows a level of infiltration and influence at the highest levels of the Republican Party. It is a clear and present danger to the US.
That is enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!
@patron__dsns Я трішки змінив текст, але від цього він зовсім не втратив свій сенс. А сенс тут дуже простий: цінуйте і любіть своїх чотирилапих друзів!❤️
Here’s the machine translation of the caption:
I changed the text a little bit, but it hasn’t lost its meaning at all. And the meaning is very simple: appreciate and love your four-legged friends! ❤️
Open thread!
TheMightyTrowel
nice targeted drone strike on the troll Adam. very kaboom.
Dagaetch
Note to self: don’t upset Adam :)
This is a bit random, but I’m curious. I don’t think there’s really any historical parallel for the daily updates that President Zelenskyy has been delivering. Have they become required viewing for most Ukrainians, are they ignored by many, or somewhere in between?
Gin & Tonic
The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons has resigned following the issue discussed in last night’s update.
Additionally, russia’s ministry of foreign affairs has floated a 100% made-up story that Ukrainian Post issued a postage stamp honoring Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian in question. I won’t be linking to that, but I am trying to imagine any other nation’s official government foreign affairs ministry/department just making shit up out of whole cloth.
Gin & Tonic
@Dagaetch: To a fairly large degree, Zelensky is playing to an outside audience. Not saying that Ukrainians don’t follow his updates, but he is working very hard to maintain the degree of US/UK/EU support necessary to continue to prosecute this war effort.
Anne Laurie
Adam, I’m *not* trolling, but I am curious — Patrick Chovanec, who I follow on twitter, is pushing a GoFundMe campaign to ferry ambulances to Ukraine:
https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1705563802299765039
In your expert opinion: Legitimate, misguided, or wrong?
Gin & Tonic
Adam, FYI, there was some more noise from that person this morning in last night’s thread.
Dagaetch
@Gin & Tonic: thanks, that makes sense. I’ve definitely noticed how positive the majority of them are to their foreign allies.
Adam L Silverman
@Dagaetch: I think the closest were FDR’s fireside chats during the Great Depression and WW II. He did thirty total, so nowhere near what Zelenskyy does each day.
HinTN
Adam – I realize that Russia has a substantial military budget but the consistent expenditure of millions of dollars worth of ordnance every night has to have a limit, does it not? How is this sustainable?
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: They also announced that they’ve destroyed an Abrams tank near Bakhmut. The picture they used was of an Abrams destroyed in the desert.
Ksmiami
Should we bribe other countries w enough carrots to stop them from doing any business/trade w Russia? I just don’t see a path forward as long as Putin’s Russia continues.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I’m aware, I blacklisted him this afternoon. So he’s done. We’ll keep an eye out for further attempts at intrusion.
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: I think Gin & Tonic is better positioned to answer this one. I’ve never heard anything bad about Chovanec, but my guess is G&T has a better idea of which of these are and are not kosher.
Adam L Silverman
@HinTN: I didn’t include it tonight, but FT just published a piece reporting that Russia’s economy has weathered the sanctions and is stable. At this point the issue is not Russia’s economy, but how much Iranian ordnance it can purchase and get into circulation as it draws down its own stocks.
Adam L Silverman
@Ksmiami: Wouldn’t work.
delphinium
Thanks again Adam for doing these daily posts-always very informative, as are the comments.
Tony G
@HinTN: Russia being Russia, there’s also the question of how much money and war material is just being stolen in Russia.
Tony G
@Adam L Silverman: The legendary desert sands of Ukraine!
Adam L Silverman
@delphinium: Thank you for the kind words. You are most welcome.
Adam L Silverman
@Tony G: Yep.
Alison Rose
Adam, you the real MVP. And I get doing that kind of trolling on Twitter or whatever, where there are many stupid people who will lap it up. WTF is the point of doing it here? Like anyone here will be like “whoa ur right they all nazis” because of one loser troll comment? God, get a better hobby.
Much as we all like seeing trolls get banned, we also all enjoy seeing russian stuff go kablooey. I would like to see someone go minor-kablooey in MTG’s face next.
Thank you as always, Adam.
Betty
@Adam L Silverman: Can you explain the significance of the Abrams now reaching Ukraine? Thanks for all you do here.
Jay
Thank you Adam, for all the posts, and the Vatnick Extermination Program.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I have not heard of this particular initiative, but it looks legit.
YY_Sima Qian
In what hopes to be the final post-script to the Waffen SS veteran honored by Canadian Parliament scandal, it appears that the government of Poland is assessing whether to potentially extradite Hunka. I am not sure if this posturing by Poland’s right wing government, in advance of national elections, & following the fracas w/ Ukraine on the latter’s agricultural exports. I am also not sure if Poland has any specific evidence that might implicate Hunka in atrocities (very unlikely), or if he is getting scrutinized for simply being a former member of the Waffen SS Galizien division.
Did the Galizien division commit atrocities in modern day Poland, or against Poles in modern day Western Ukraine?
Redshift
@Alison Rose: Trolling isn’t ever really an attempt to convince anyone. Its purpose is spoiling the gathering places of people you disagree with so they’ll go away, or make it so they’re talking about the troll rather than what they want to be talking about.
Jay
@Anne Laurie:
@Adam L Silverman:
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s legit. This will be the second set of “Trauma” ambulances they have delivered to Ukraine.
trollhattan
Overnight on BBC World Service was an interview with a Brit journalist reporting from Kherson–sorry, can’t find a transcript nor remember his name but an experienced war reporter. He said after interviewing a couple residents under a sheltering tree, that night the Russians shelled and destroyed the house behind the tree. The next night, the house he was staying was damaged when the Russians shelled the house next door. Conclusion is Russian collaborators are giving targeting info to their military and he, for one, is being hunted.
He estimated Kherson had fewer than ten thousand residents from a prewar population of 280k.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yes, and no.
Bill Arnold
@Gin & Tonic:
“Russian Embassy, UK@RussianEmbassy” is the vilest IMO; worse than “MFA Russia@mfa_russia”. Their lying is extremely offensive. Irritating.
The stamp tweet now has a community note, saying that the bar code is for a different product.
bookworm1398
A question for Adam, if you can/ want to answer.
The Economist podcast yesterday had a section on what Ukraine needs to do to prepare for the next year. One thing mentioned was that the Ukrainian army isn’t getting more volunteers. Makes sense, those who wanted to volunteer would have done so already. So they need to rely on conscription which lowers the quality of the force.
Do you think this is true? And how much of a difference would it make?
Adam L Silverman
@Betty: The Abrams are some of the most advancement tanks in anyone’s inventory. We’ve seen just how fragile Russia’s most advanced main battle tank is and how few they have. How much actual use they’ll get I cannot say, but they’re symbolic value is significant.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: You’re most welcome.
Adam L Silverman
Thanks @Gin & Tonic: this should be a big help to @Anne Laurie:
Adam L Silverman
@YY_Sima Qian: My guess is that Poland is signatory to the same international convention that allowed Spain to prosecute Pinochet.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: So, this sounds like pre-election grandstanding by parts of the Polish government.
Adam L Silverman
@bookworm1398: Conscription lowers the quality of the force in regard to you are now taking anyone and everyone who is within the parameters of the draft. But that can be overcome with proper training, mentoring, and leadership.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s Poland’s Ag Minister making the noises. So it’s theatre.
Gin & Tonic
@YY_Sima Qian: The answer to your question is “it depends.” Ukrainian and Polish commissions reached different conclusions. This article is fairly well-balanced. That said, I think the Polish action is for show, and I find it exceedingly unlikely that Canada will extradite Mr. Hunka at age 98.
For reference, here is where you will find a large number of former members of the Galician Division.
YY_Sima Qian
@Adam L Silverman: Legally, you are probably right. However, this situation just developed in the past couple of days, no way Poland has any incriminating evidence (or even circumstantial evidence) against Hunka so quickly. Unless Poland has been doggedly running a decades long program to investigate & extradite former members of the Galizien division living overseas, launching one now against Hunka (& doing so loudly), is surely political posturing. But probably highly effective w/ domestic Polish audiences.
tobie
@Ksmiami: It’s odd to me but much of the developing world has either taken Russia’s side in this conflict or adopted the position that this is a European conflict and doesn’t concern them. India and Pakistan are both buying Russian oil and gas. Saw this article online today:
Gin & Tonic
@YY_Sima Qian:
There are very few still living.
Alison Rose
@Redshift: It’s pathetic. People who enjoy being that much of a loser really have something wrong with them.
Jinchi
McCarthy is quite the stickler for following proper procedure, apparently. To bad he doesn’t think that threatening to shut down the government on a regular basis is out of order.
Lyrebird
I’m guessing that your interpretation (posturing) is right on, and I hope that the 98 yr old is left alone. (ETA: given what G&T said about more disinformation, Andrya’s thought that the Canadian Speaker was set up seems more and more plausible. Mr. H was clearly not at Pinochet’s level, and it would be so wrong for someone to get investigated as a result of being used as a prop by Ruzzian disinformers)
Given your interest I just wanted to clarify – atrocities committed in what is now Western Ukraine slaughtered people who were then citizens of Poland, bc that is who was ruling that territory. It was part of Austro Hungary at some point before that. I have probably offended at least one person with my wording, but that was not my intent.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Loved this teaser from the Ukraine Defense Ministry–“The Abrams Family.”
https://nitter.net/DefenceU/status/1705236114234122605#m
Jay
@Lyrebird:
the easiest way to put it. is “they killed each other” and had since the end of the First World War.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Yep, saw that.
Another Scott
@trollhattan: I heard that as well earlier today. (It can be really hard to find stuff on the BBC website, but I lucked out tonight.)
From: Newsday – Documenting Kherson: the plight of the civilians (6:19 audio segment)
Well worth a listen.
(found via Newsday Clips)
Cheers,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the link, very comprehensive! The SS police & Waffen SS units all given the Galizien moniker is probably causing confusion, as is police units being later integrated into the Waffen SS unit.
Roberto el oso
@Lyrebird: thank you for being considerate regarding your wording. My mother was born in the village of Borislaw in Galicia, which was part of Poland in 1926, having been part of the Austro-Hungarian empire before that. The 2 largest nearby towns were Drohobych and Lviv, or, as it was called in the period when she was born, Lvow. Her mother died when she was 7 and her father, who was working as an engineer in the Amazon, sent for her a couple years later. Neither her grandparents nor her many many cousins, aunts, and uncles survived the war. She got out just in the nick of time. She had a lifelong burning hatred of Germany and all things German, and though she was fully aware of the centuries-long antagonisms between Poles and Ukrainians and Russians, she didn’t feel the same way towards them, being fellow Slavs and therefore family.
History is indeed a nightmare.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Hitler forbade the use of the term Ukrainian. so they were called Galizien to harken back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to make them a “lesser Ayrian” and not a “Slav”.
teezyskeezy
Heh, and here I use an email address with my real name here because 1. mostly I’m lazy about security, but also 2. just to see if anyone (such as you, Adam) bothers to look up my shit (which would offer the perverse incentive for me to amuse myself by talking about stuff I know to see if anyone tells me I don’t know anything about it while you can see what cards I’m willing to hold)
But you tracking down this troll’s Twitter account, I’m genuinely curious how hard it was, but I guess you probably don’t want to show your cards.
Odie Hugh Manatee
You’re quite the housekeeper, Adam…lol! Detailed, tidy, no wasted effort and quickly done. BLAM!
Nice mop up… 👍
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Warning TheHill.com:
The circus in the House about the 4 appropriations bills won’t do anything to prevent a shutdown on October 1 – it’s not a Continuing Resolution. That is all theater. The action in the Senate is a path to a CR – if there is one.
We’ll see what happens…
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@teezyskeezy: Took me about ten minutes total to get everything.
I don’t go looking unless I have a reason. I try not to invade the privacy of the people that are commenting here no matter how frequent they comment. Occasionally, if I have a reason, I pull an email address and send someone an email offline from the blog. Otherwise, I don’t check.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: The House won’t pass this. The shutdown is going to happen.
YY_Sima Qian
@Lyrebird: & Poland seized the area during its expansionist phase after it regained independence following WW I, probably to reassert control over some of the areas formerly part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even if the regional demographics were no longer majority Polish.
How many people remember that Poland & Hungary took advantage when Nazi Germany seized all of Czechoslovakia, and grabbed parts of the latter for themselves, or that Poland pre-WW II was a right wing military dictatorship. It does not justify anything that Nazi Germany or the USSR did to Poland, & the Polish cause against the aggression from its two neighbors certainly had broad based support. However, history is full of nuance & complexity, rarely conform to neat delineations of “good” & “bad”, “moral” & “immoral”, especially the “good” & the “moral”.
Well, Chiang Kai-Shek’s KMT regime that was leading China’s national resistance against Imperial Japanese aggression was a right wing, ethno-nationalist, Fascistic dictatorship w/ a Leninist party organization, & immensely corrupt. Mao & the CPC insurgency were not exactly liberal humanitarians, either. Like in Eastern Europe, nationalist movements in European colonies in SE Asia often allied w/ Imperial Japan as the lesser of evils (nominally independent Thailand, Aung San & his Burma Independence Army, Subhas Chandra Bose & his Indian National Army, Sukarno in the Dutch East Indies, etc.).
It is interesting how differently the ethno-nationalist movements in E. Europe & SE Asia post-WW II are perceived even in the West, even today.
teezyskeezy
@Adam L Silverman: I know of the kind of services you can use to run IP addresses, but very little about what data they are aggregating. I’m always curious how much is just tracking cookie data getting released or how much is actual hacked data, or how much is he was so careless he trolls with his real name and publishes that same email address right in his twitter banner or if it is some other obvious and blatant connection.
trollhattan
@Another Scott: That’s it, thanks so much!
He was in Syria, injured, lost a comrade reporter, and when he compares the war on civilians between the two conflicts is well informed in doing so.
Which makes Russia’s demands to be let back into the UN Human Rights Council totally understandable.
wjca
Agreed. But with the Senate bill, the House can at least act promptly, once enough members decide the pain isn’t worth the (pretty much nonexistent) candle.
YY_Sima Qian
@Roberto el oso:
She might feel differently now.
Sebastian
@Jay:
Don’t forget that Hitler was Austrian and fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in WW1.
Austrians were numerous and influential in the German bureaucracy.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Yes, some of the Nazi regime’s foibles would be amusing, if it wasn’t so murderous.
Sebastian
@YY_Sima Qian:
It’s very easy for us to judge now but people forget that Nationalism started to appear in the early 20th century and many countries still had a king or emperor during WW1. The Great Depression contributed to a lot of radicalism, both Communism and extreme Nationalism.
Sebastian
Thank you for taking care of that troll, Adam. It was very irritating.
Ksmiami
@tobie: we should counter Russian moves the same way we did during the Cold War. I really think there’s room to make countries supporting Russia fold. But it will be a costly though worthwhile effort.
Anoniminous
In general the over-whelming problem with the 70 ton Abrams tank is it is a 70 ton tank with the 70 tons spread across two tracks ~10 meters long and 63.5 cm wide and having ~4.5 cm ground clearance. We should expect the Abrams to model the battle field experience of the Elefant, aka Panzerjäger Tiger (P), Sd.Kfz. 184, which fought in the same general area, under the same general conditions. To wit: it’s operational terrain will be severely restricted but will be devastating when and where it can be deployed.
Anoniminous
@Sebastian:
Hitler was a soldier in the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division of the Imperial German Army.
Jay
@Sebastian:
Germany. Hitler served in the Bavarian Army Corp of the German Army. He had left the Austro-Hungarian several years earlier and taken German Citizenship.
Sebastian
@Anoniminous:
@Jay:
Thanks. Even though I grew up and went to school in Austria, I forgot that detail. Could have sworn he was in the Austrian Army. In my defense, if he was in the Bavarian Army he wasn’t really in the German Army (jk).
Chetan Murthy
@Ksmiami: I just got thru reading Tony Judt’s _Postwar_. He discusses the beginning of the Cold War at length, and it’s clear that the US economy was so large, we could basically subsidize many countries around the world — subsidize them enough to have enormous sway over their foreign policy. Our economy was so gigantic, our industrial output was such a giant proportion of the world’s, that we could really set terms. That’s no longer true today, and it probably will never be true again. We can’t tell China, Turkey, many of our allies, that they must not trade with Russia: it’s simply out of our power to do so.
Whether you like it or not, that’s the world in which we live.
teezyskeezy
@Ksmiami: Not that you need to be lectured on this, we all know it, but it’s all different now. The West used to have a leg up on Russia leveraging money and greed to make these third world countries’ leaders capitulate to our interests. Now Russia plays that game just as well if not better. For example, how would we make inroads into CAR? Idealism? That’s a heavy lift.
Anyway, add to that way too many US dollars are held (either domestically or abroad) by entities who have no interest in Western democracy and in fact find it an obstacle to their grandiose designs.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
It wasn’t just the Nazi’s or just WWII. The “Galicians” in 1944 became the 1st Ukrainian Army. The Soviets, despite everything they had done, (genocide, starvation, murder) to suppress Ukrainian Nationalism, created several Ukrainian Front Armies, including Crimean’s, to tap into the fact that nationalism, common languages and backstories, made better fighting units.
Austro-Hungary did the same thing in WWI to less effect.
The weird thing was, “Galicians” could be Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Ruethians.
Redshift
@Jinchi: @Another Scott:
From some Twitter replies I have inadvertently read, the Freedumb Caucus (or wingnut media, more likely) has apparently sold a lot of their supporters on the idea that somehow not following proper procedure is what’s wrong with mainstream representatives. An omnibus appropriations bill or a continuing resolution is somehow illegitimate. (No, I don’t understand it either.) So there were cheers from their peanut gallery when they announced after failing to do any real work during the summer and leaving no time for “proper procedure,” they announced they were going to pass all of the individual appropriations bills after failing to vote on even one.
It’s all very bizarre, but I take comfort in the fact that no one else cares how appropriations bills are passed, and attempting to explain how that’s the real reason for the shutdown will lose the GOP even more normies.
Jay
@Sebastian:
Except that the “Bavarian” Army was just a sub Corp of the German Army, like the Saxon Army. Just appeals to tradition.
I was a Seaforth. Never wore a kilt. (In the military, I own two, family tartan). Only the Band wore kilts, and only on parades.
teezyskeezy
@tobie: With much respect–because we are all trying to navigate the dystopia that seems to be developing across the globe and it is *truly* confounding in a moral sense–why do you find it surprising?
Roberto el oso
@YY_Sima Qian: Most likely, yes. The Russians have proved to be exhausting in their dramatic indulging of self-pity and resentment and the feeling I get from the Eastern Europeans I know (with the exception of the Serbs), is that the vast majority of them, whether Slavs or Baltics or Magyar, just wish the Russians would, at long last, leave them alone.
Chetan Murthy
@teezyskeezy: @tobie: i also wondered the same thing: after all, it is not so much that these developing countries populations are easy to bribe, but that their leaders are easy to bribe. And why should their leaders care about offending Western countries? We’re all a bunch of soft do-gooders And we’ll come back around with our development aid soon enough.
Chetan Murthy
@Roberto el oso:
In Tony Judt’s _Postwar_ there’s a lovely scene he retells where Victor Orban is recalling the Russian suppression of the Hungarian spring of 1956, and the murder of its leader Imre Nagy. This happened in 1989 when Russia was kicked out of Hungary and Nagy’s remains were reburied with honor. Orban doesn’t pull any punches and he’s very clear that the Russians were to blame and that they snuffed out that moment of Hungarian nationalism and democracy. And yet here we are, 30 years later and he carries water for the Russians. I know that the Hungarian people Don’t have that sort of love for the Russians, But their elected officials do not serve them well.
Chetan Murthy
@Chetan Murthy: Here we go:
It’s ironic that Orban ended up Moscow’s water-carrier, given where he started, given these so-clearly-expressed anti-Russian sentiments.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: I thought the Soviet Army named & renamed their Fronts based on the geographical region the Fronts were intended to fight in. That is, until the Soviet Army pushed out of USSR territory & into CEE.
Eolirin
@Chetan Murthy: We used to foment coups to deal with that problem
Not to suggest that it worked terribly well, but.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy: Orban is a cynical opportunist, his words then jived w/ the no longer suppressable nationalist sentiments in CEE countries at the end of the Cold War.
Jay
So, for those interested, my friend Slava and his unit have been pulled from the line. 2 weeks off, then 4 weeks training. The Rocksil has arrived so Slava will be spending his two weeks off, insulating his rebuilt house in Odessa.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: How does he still have the energy?!
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
It started that way. By 1943 they had realized that Armies fight better on their “home turf”, for a bunch of reasons, and reorganized.
Even today, the RuZZian Military is about 80% minorities, who don’t have the language skills, etc, to be greatly effective outside their home regions. Case in point, Chechens.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
He’s building a home for his family that he could never afford in Canada.
And Coffee.
I send him a case of Kicking Horse 454 Horsepower once a month.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sebastian: Hitler enlisted in the Imperial German army and fought on the western front, in France. Where he was gassed and injured, and actually earned the Iron Cross.
On Edit: I didn’t read all the posts between yours and mine, but just did, several folks explained all this.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roberto el oso: The Serbs seem to have long viewed the Russians as their “big brother”, and the Russians encouraged this notion. Also, the Serbs have aggrievement chops that rival the Russians. Their endless wailing over Kosovo (the battle was fought nearly 750 years ago) stands out as an example.
Anne Laurie
Thanks to you both!
Anne Laurie
@Jay: Thank you, also!
ETA: I don’t have a problem personally, but I know there are people who have qualms about private contributions to ‘war materials’ who don’t have an issue with ‘humanitarian aid’, such as ambulances.
Shalimar
@Jinchi: The one valid point Gaetz makes is that the House hasn’t followed proper procedure for spending bills in more than a decade. He leaves out the part where the problem has been Freedom Caucus assholes like him gumming up the process. But he is right that the House has been seriously damaged for a long time.
Jay
@Anne Laurie:
Trauma ambulances.
They are much more than an “ambulance”, they are basically an ER on wheels, which is why $100k buys 2.
Yes, Ukraine has people who can staff them.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Reuters:
Good, good.
Baby steps…
Cheers,
Scott m
Geminid
@Eolirin: Turkiye had military coups in 1960 and 1980, and two other times the Army forced government changes through a Military Memorandum-essentially soft coups- the second in 1997. The US did not foment them, but the Turkish military knew we would not object since Turkish military leadership was committed to the Nato alliance.
An interesting aspect of these coups was the relative brevity of direct military control. Wayward parties were banned and their politicians were imprisoned- except in 1960 when the civilian leaders were hanged. There were new elections and the new governments made no attempt to punish the generals who had toppled the previous governments.
This may show the power of what came to be called the Turkish “Deep State.” an alliance of generals, intelligence chiefs, judges and prosecutors, and at times organized crime. It was anti-Leftist, anti-Kurd, anti-Islamist and hyper-Secularist, and essentially anti-democratic. Much of Turkiye’s politics in the last 20 years has been about Erdogan and the AKP cutting the “Deep State” down to size, and replacing its cadres with his own loyalists.
.
glc
@teezyskeezy: My recollection of that is the fellow used his usual Faustian nym and could be found by a search engine. Someone put a link to his blog in the comments as well. I’m confident there have been more subtle problems to deal with.
When I was (rarely) blocking people on a guestbook I just checked off a box, but in principle I could have gone and looked in the log file, just using the basic privileges afforded by my web host. (I found the log files handy for fixing the occasional incomprehensible error, as the error message is more detailed than the page shown to the user.)