Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

This fight is for everything.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When we show up, we win.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 593: President Zelenskyy Continues to Stand Up for Israel

War for Ukraine Day 593: President Zelenskyy Continues to Stand Up for Israel

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Art by NEIVANMADE of a Ukrainian painted black and outlined in blood red kneeling in grief with hands covering the face surrounded by the bodies of Ukrainians killed by Russians on a grey background. "Russia Is Committing Genocide Right Now" is across the top center of the image.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Three quick housekeeping notes. First, and this is really directed at the folks in the Israel-Hamas war update, but I wanted to make sure it was clear: knock the fucking drama off!!!!! If you have a problem with a specific comment or commenter and you think it needs to be checked out, email me using the contact a front pager tool and I’ll take a look. Don’t post a dozen comments freaking out because one person posted a trollish, inaccurate, and irritating comment and everyone just ignored them. And if you feel the need to wonder in a comment if Balloon Juice is a safe place for Jews, well I’m Jewish, or I was when I put my pants on this morning, and I’m the one writing the posts. So I’m as sure as can be that it is a safe place for Jews. Unless you’re helium voiced Ben or that psychopathic stochastic terrorist woman from LA. Those folks would not be safe here.

Second, I have a busy day tomorrow so there may not be an Israel-Hamas war update. Or, if there is, it’ll be very brief.

Third, there’s basically a lot of posting on other sites that Wagner trained the Hamas militia that attacked Israel. It all sources back to the same Ukrainian government site. Treat these reports as RUMINT in service of Ukraine’s own Information Warfare campaign until/unless you see me include something with other legitimate and verifiable sourcing in an update.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

Russia is interested in triggering a war in the Middle East to undermine world unity – address by the President of Ukraine

9 October 2023 – 20:25

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today was a very eventful day. Various meetings, and among them those related to the latest international developments are of particular importance.

I held a meeting with the heads of our intelligence, Main Intelligence Directorate and Foreign Intelligence Service, as well as with our diplomats on the situation in and around Israel and on the overall situation in the Middle East.

This is of fundamental importance for us – not only for Ukraine, but also for the entire Europe.

According to the available information – a very clear one – Russia is interested in triggering a war in the Middle East, so that a new source of pain and suffering could undermine world unity, increase discord and contradictions, and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe. We see Russian propagandists gloating. We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel. And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives. The world wars of the past started with local aggressions.

We know how to counter this threat.

We are preparing appropriate steps. And most importantly, we are defending the need for maximum unity in the world.

Today, I addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, first of all, on the issue of unity. Every state in the world must now choose how it will defend international law. Defend! Not stand aside when terror tries to take over, and when another region of the world may collapse before our eyes.

I am grateful to all the leaders and states who are now fully aware of the danger and are ready to work together to keep the situation under control, to keep the obvious sponsors of terror from broader interference.

Today I also held a meeting with Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk. We coordinated our positions for the coming weeks.

I also met with Deputy Prime Minister Fedorov, Minister of Education and Science Lisovyi, and the ministry’s team. Working issues.

One more thing.

I have replaced the Commander of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Anatoliy Barhylevych has been appointed commander instead of Ihor Tantsiura. The key task is that the development of the Territorial Defense Forces should not stop.

Thank you to everyone who cares about Ukraine and fights for our country! We are preparing a new reinforcement for our warriors.

I thank everyone in the world who has the courage to call a spade a spade and defend life and the rules-based order!

Glory to Ukraine!

As President Zelenskyy was saying:

While the Western world reacted with horror to the heart-breaking scenes of Hamas gunmen preying on Israeli civilians on October 7, the reaction in Russia was markedly different.

Kremlin-endorsed propagandists celebrated the fighting as a distraction to tear the West’s eyes from Ukraine, produced new conspiracy theories to explain the news, and delighted in the discomfort and fear of Russian Jews who have emigrated to Israel.

There’s as yet no evidence that Russia knew of the impending attack, although it has fostered ties with Hamas. In March, Hamas reportedly sent a high-level delegation to Russia and held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, warning the Kremlin that the group’s “patience” with Israel was “running out.” Senior Hamas figures also visited Russia in May and September 2022. The group has said its attack was supported by Iran and other countries but did not name them.

But while the Kremlin may not have been directly involved, many of its citizens are openly antisemitic, as are senior officials. Military correspondent Dmitry Steshin, known for his overtly genocidal statements about Ukrainians, posted on his Telegram channel Russky Tarantas that there should be “not a drop of pity or sympathy” for Israelis, including former Russian citizens. Steshin complained about people who left Russia for Israel, describing them as “relocants.”

He wrote: “We stayed here and are still standing knee-deep in blood. Let the ones responsible for our tears do that as well! Or let them run, to refresh their historical memory. Greetings to the relocants!”

Sergey Mardan, one of Russia’s best-known propagandists and host of the eponymous show on the state channel Solovyov Live, wrote on his Telegram channel that he was happy for the Russians who moved to Israel because they didn’t want to live in a country that is at war with its neighbors.

He added, “This mess is beneficial for Russia, because the globalist toad will be distracted from Ukraine and will get busy trying to put out the eternal Middle Eastern fire.” Mardan explained, “Iran is our real military ally. Israel is an ally of the United States. Therefore, choosing a side is easy!”

During his show, “Mardan,” the host made a bizarre comparison between Palestine and Russia, claiming that Russia “has been occupied since 1991” and is only now seeking to correct the situation. Russian propagandists frequently claim that Ukraine is “occupying” Russian lands, which Russia is fighting to reclaim.

Head of RT, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on her X/Twitter account, “The country that is not at war with its neighbors is again at war with its neighbors. We await the exodus of Russian pacifists. Then again, we won’t hold our breath.”

Host of the show “Morning Z” on Solovyov Live, Boris Yakemenko, blamed the violence on gender issues (presumably a reference to LGBT+ debates in the West), stating, “What is happening today in different corners of the world shows that the world has come to a dangerous point, beyond which lies the new world. Crossing into it will be preceded by horrendous casualties, because of a feeling of total injustice, insanity, a total lack of understanding of what is happening, with all of these genders, with all of these strange phenomena!”

Yakemenko read caustic messages from members of his audience, pondering which citizenship Russian relocants would choose this time. He addressed former Russian compatriots, telling them to “Go ahead and run, or hide in bomb shelters.”

During his show on October 7, Vladimir Solovyov, described the Hamas attack as a “loud slap” to Israel and its intelligence services, assigning all fault to America as a “guarantor of peace in the region” and baselessly blaming Ukraine for providing arms to Hamas. (Hamas’ main arms supplier is actually Iran).

Much, much more at the link!

Classic russian information laundering. How it works:

1, Russia promotes a nonsense story.

2, Their useful idiots & assets in the West repeat it.

3, Russian media then re-reports its nonsense but now using their own useful idiots & assets as the source of the story.

(The House Rep is Marjorie Taylor Greene, btw)

Beware: Russians continue pushing to their audience the agenda that armaments from Ukraine were used by HAMAS in the attack against Israel. As sources, they cite that silly video from two days ago and commentary from their own “political experts”. Just saw a few new articles on pro-Russian websites. These claims will inevitably emerge on this platform.

And here’s more from President Zelenskyy who wrote a very detailed thread about threats to global stability. First tweet from the thread followed by the rest from the Thread Reader App.

We see who in the world is trying to replace the power of international law with the horror of blood and disasters. We see whose deliberate investments in terror are destroying the lives of various people around the world, from Belarus to Mali. We see. And we must act together! 
No one can forget what terrorists did in Israel. Thousands of missiles against peaceful cities. Shot civilian cars. Men, women, and children. No one was spared. Streets in blood. Hostages. The terrorists themselves shared the footage of their atrocities and were proud of them. 
Israeli journalists who have been here in Ukraine, in Bucha, are now saying that they saw the same evil where Russia came. The same evil. And the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine. 
The first dangerous thing is the shocking joy of Russian state-backed propagandists. They call children who are being held hostage by terrorists in Gaza “trophies”. Such a word. Just as Russia has captured thousands of Ukrainian children during its aggression against Ukraine. 
And the second dangerous thing is the backing of what is going on… Iran can’t say it has nothing to do with what is going on in Ukraine if it sells “Shaheds” to Russia. Iran can’t say it has nothing to do with what is going on in Israel if its officials claim the support of it. 
How far can such evil go? No further than we allow it to. Our unity must and can stop evil. Our desire for peace, not their desire for blood, should determine how the world lives. Our rules-based international order, and not their attempts to make death a rule. 
Terrorist leaders ask, “What are the rules on which the international order is based?” As if they don’t understand. These rules are simple. Do not rape women. Do not kill. Do not consider children as trophies. Do not fill cities and villages with blood. Do not open fire at civilian cars. Do not hit peaceful cities with missiles and drones. And one more rule: under any circumstances, we must bring all terrorists and all those who help them to justice. Isn’t the power of the world enough to stop evil? I am sure it is. 
Everyone who values life and peace needs to be as active as possible. This is not the time to withdraw from the international arena or isolate due to internal disputes. This is not the time to remain silent or pretend that terror on one continent does not affect global affairs. 
Europe should be active. The US should be active. China. India. Arab states should feel how much can collapse if they allow terrorists to achieve their goals. Türkiye. Brazil and all of Latin America. Japan. Australia. Canada. African countries. Central Asian countries. Korea. Pakistan. Indonesia. The Caribbean. The Pacific states. Everyone should be active in the defense of life and international law! We must not give terror a single chance. 
If there are real global sanctions for any sponsorship of terror, terror will lose. If the world unites whenever someone takes women hostage and kidnaps the children of another nation, terror will have no allies. 
If the one attacked by terrorists receives all the weapons it needs to protect its people, international law will be the only force that will determine how the world lives. And the world will live in peace. This is our common goal. 
I urge states and parliaments to be even more active for the sake of global unity. Let everyone who sponsors terror feel the power of our wrath. And let everyone who needs help defending themselves against terror feel the power of our solidarity. 
Everyone can help prevent the chasm between the world and peace from widening. We must all be able to promise our children that we will pass on to them a world ruled not by blood shed by evil but by freedom guaranteed by law. 
In my address to the NATO Parliamentary Council, I stressed that our unity must and can stop the evil. Be it a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine, or other forms of terror threatening rules and international law around the world. 

• • •

Here’s the last tweet with the video in it as it doesn’t seem to have made it from the Thread Reader App.

Hroza:

Marinka:

Kherson:

Not sure where this is:

Obligatory:

Bakhmut:

Fighters of the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade took into capture a Russian officer in the rank of Major, a commander of the Alga battalion belonging to the 72nd Brigade. The video was published on their Telegram channel (subtitles added).

It’s a bit difficult to judge what exactly happened from the video, but probably the Russian battalion was unexpectedly attacked, which resulted in many casualties (by the Major’s admission).

Zaporizhzhia:

Well this is interesting:

“Recreation of the Leningrad Military District suggests that Russia is preparing for possible conflicts with Baltic states and NATO” – @TheStudyofWar

Interesting that this was noted. After the attack on Israel, which some call a “second front” (some Russians push this narrative), a test of NATO’s resolve to protect its own territory is possible. At the very least, provocations could be expected. Putin seems keen on setting as many areas on fire as possible.

I want to include this from my Israel-Hamas war update from earlier today:

Here’s the difference between the importance of Israel versus Ukraine in the US Congress as a result of the convergence of US domestic politics and religion:

Specifically, that the primary base of Israel supporters in the US is no longer Jewish Americans. Rather, it is white evangelicals who adhere to the made in America apocalyptic doctrine of dispensational premillennialism. This concept asserts that for Jesus to return that the Jews must first return to Israel where they vast majority will be killed in the battle of Armageddon. The few who convert to Christianity will be saved and survive. This doctrine is both antisemitic and genocidal. It requires the complete destruction of all Jews as part of white evangelicals apocalyptic fever dreams. However, since white evangelicals are the base of the Republican Party and have been courted and manipulated by Bibi for decades, you get unanimous Republican and conservative movement support for Israel, which is reflected in the Congressional support. Democratic support for Israel is largely based on the fact that over 75% of Jewish Americans vote Democratic and are either members of the Democratic Party or are Independents that align with and vote Democratic.

I expect that the House GOP caucus, as well as the Republicans running for president and the anti-Ukraine GOP senators, will use this to block further aid to Ukraine. The argument will be we can’t afford to support Israel, which we have to do because of our bilateral security agreement, and Ukraine at the same time. And since we don’t have a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine, well it’s just an unfortunate reality that the US is not made out of money. This will be pushed through Fox News, OANN, NewsMax, Breitbart, Bannon’s War Room, all the usual MAGA social media accounts. It will be picked up, amplified, and rebroadcast by the various Russian information warfare bot and troll accounts as well as the usual suspects in the US, the tankies, and the vatniks until it becomes conventional wisdom for the base of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.

I wish it would be otherwise, but the Biden administration’s intention to get a separate stand alone supplemental legislative package for Ukraine has been overtaken by events. They will try and I wish them the best of luck, but I fear that they have run out of time. Which means that in terms of more support from the US, the Ukrainians have run out of time as well. I will be very happy to have to come back to the front page in a future update, mark my beliefs to market, and state I was wrong on this. I do not expect that will be the case, but will do so if it should come to pass.

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

There is a new slide show at Patron’s official TikTok. Those do not embed here, so click through if you want to see it.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    Okay, I’ll get to serious stuff, but this made me giggle:

    or I was when I put my pants on this morning

    Balloon Juice After Dark!

    “We only have good news today” monsterrrrrrrrrs JFC. But do I expect any better? I do not.

    I’m so afraid of what it will mean if US aid does indeed dry up. I know other countries are giving aid too, but I don’t know if all of them would be willing or able to increase it to try to compensate for the difference. I assume not. And that scares me. The Ukrainians have boundless bravery and strength and resilience, but those things alone cannot win a war. And it feels to me like every Ukrainian life lost once our aid is cut off ought to be on the conscience and soul of every single one of us. Unfortunately, it only will be for those of us on the right side of history. The ones causing this tragedy will continue to not give a single shit, and of course they lack the necessary conscience and soul to do so.

    What a world humanity was given. What a mess we have made of it.

    Thank you as always, Adam.

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    If you all don’t get your shit together and ease up in the Israel-Hamas posts, I’m going to have to start a third set of update posts entitled “War in the Comments Day # Update…”

  8. 8.

    Argiope

    @Adam L Silverman: I look forward to the embedded and non-embedded tweets or xeets on that one…. But seriously, we’d better play nice because two wars are more than enough aggro for you to cover for one day.  Thank you for doing it.  And I for one will save the drama for Barack Obama, as my tween said in the halycon years before 2016.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Argiope: If we’re going to do two wars at a time, could we maybe pick something nice and low key. Like the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands challenge each other to a shuffle board competition. Winner gets control of both.

  10. 10.

    Alison Rose

    @Adam L Silverman: Antigua and Barbuda organize a massive Red Rover game across the 25 miles of ocean between them to see which side is hardier and has more people who can make the swim. The rest become fish food and whichever island loses gets excised from the official name.

  11. 11.

    frosty

    I called my R congressman Smucker and told him to vote to give Ukraine everything they ask for. First time I’ve done that, but not the last. He’s not a MAGAt, I don’t think, but doesn’t have much of a spine either.

  12. 12.

    Margaret

    Adam, continued thanks for your nightly Ukraine posts and now also for your Israel posts. Please don’t hesitate to post less often whenever you need to – even 1 post a day on top of your day job is a lot.

  13. 13.

    frosty

    @Adam L Silverman: I like it! Should be a simple cut’n’paste. I confess, I haven’t read all the comments and now I guess I don’t want to.

    Thanks for these posts, Adam. Take care of yourself.

  14. 14.

    J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)

    Perhaps if you slept in your pants and kept them on all of the time, perhaps your religious identity and worldview wouldn’t keep changing.  Or am I misreading the top part of the post (it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened)?

     

    On a more serious note, the information in the tweet by Yanir Cozin is quite striking.  Perhaps we could just rename large issues like climate change, the social safety net, etc. “Israel”.  That way, everyone in Congress would support progress on them.

  15. 15.

    brendancalling

    “helium voiced Ben,” OMG I needed that laugh. Thank you.

    Who’s the “psychopathic stochastic terrorist woman from LA?” Is it that Pamela person? Is she even still around? I lose track of the loonies.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian): WTF are you talking about?

    Perhaps if you slept in your pants and kept them on all of the time, perhaps your religious identity and worldview wouldn’t keep changing.  Or am I misreading the top part of the post (it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened)?

    Where do you think my religious identity and worldview keep changing?

  18. 18.

    J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)

    @Adam L Silverman:   Sorry, I was trying to make a funny.  You stated “well I am Jewish, or I was when I put my pants on this morning…”.    My attempt at making a funny fell flat, and that is certainly not the first time that has happened.

  20. 20.

    way2blue

    I would dearly love to see those in Congress who support Ukraine to speak loudly about passing legislation to fund Ukraine’s fight to free their land from Russian occupation.  (Or speak softly & carry a big stick.)  Rather than cede the messaging war to the nimrods. They’re the majority.  Make it so.  Don’t expect Biden to carry the whole load.  Ugh.

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Adam L Silverman: I echo a commenter from the Israel-Hamas thread, perhaps you can consider doing the Ukraine updates every other day. Things does not seem to be moving rapidly on the battlefield. Based on the lack of new recent progress, it seems the Russian Army has managed to contain the Ukrainian breach at Verhove & prevented a breakthrough? And/or the Ukrainian Army is running out of offensive combat power, for the time being?

    The sh*tshow that is Republican politics will remain the same sh*tshow every day.

  22. 22.

    wjca

    I wish it would be otherwise, but the Biden administration’s intention to get a separate stand alone supplemental legislative package for Ukraine has been overtaken by events. They will try and I wish them the best of luck, but I fear that they have run out of time. Which means that in terms of more support from the US, the Ukrainians have run out of time as well.

    First, let me join those thanking you for all these posts.  They give a far clearer picture of what is happening than I, at least, could get elsewhere.

    If the administration still wants to get a Ukrainian aid package thru, separate from the regular appropriations process, there appears to be an opportunity.  Albeit not, strictly speaking, a “standalone legislative package”.  Combine the Ukraine and Israel aid packages into a single bill.  Probably need to get it thru the Senate first.  Then leave the House RWNJs with the choice of bringing it (or allowing it to be brought) to a vote, or getting denounced for blocking aid to Israel.  Once it reaches the House floor, the votes are there to pass it.

  25. 25.

    tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)

    Thank you, Adam, as always. I don’t comment much, but I read. Your posts are always much more informative than what I get from the MSM and fill in so many holes in their stories. That said, I hope you make time for self-care. The information you wade through to keep us informed is disturbing and often depressing. Now with two wars to follow, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Comments are closed.