Two quick housekeeping notes tonight. First, Rosie had her three month post-chemo check in with the vet today. The vet is thrilled with how she’s doing and everything looks good.
Second, I’m just going to run through the basics tonight.
The cost:
⚡️ 41-year-old Latvian volunteer soldier killed in Luhansk Oblast on Christmas.
Edgars Platonovs, a 41-year-old Latvian volunteer soldier fighting for Ukraine, was killed in action in December on the eastern front, the Latvian Armed Forces reported on Jan. 10.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 11, 2025 at 11:00 AM
From The Kyiv Post:
Edgars Platonovs, a 41-year-old Latvian volunteer soldier fighting for Ukraine, was killed in action in December on the eastern front, the Latvian Armed Forces reported on Jan. 10.
Platonovs was fighting in the areas near the village of Novoiehorivka in the largely Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast as part of the Ukrainian military’s International Legion, composed of mostly foreign volunteers, according to the Latvian Armed Forces. The military said that the volunteer was killed on Dec. 25, 2024.
Platonovs’ death is among the huge costs that Ukraine and those helping the country have had to pay to fend off the relentless Russian offensives since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Many foreign fighters – like Platonovs – were killed and wounded in Ukraine, but Kyiv has not disclosed the casualty figures.
“Another of our volunteer soldiers has died defending the freedom and independence of Ukraine. Our deepest condolences to the relatives and comrades of Edgars Platonovs,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on social media platform X, adding: “Eternal memory to the hero!”
Unlike many other foreign volunteers, Platonovs had not served in the Latvian Armed Forces before arriving in Ukraine. His family praised him as a “loving son, our older, strong and caring brother, who always did everything with all his heart and conviction,” as cited by Delfi news website.
“Edgars was a kind, sincere and always positive person who never lost faith in himself and his principles,” his family said, according to Delfi.
Earlier in October 2023, a Russian drone attack had killed another Lithuanian – 28-year-old Vitalijs Smirnovs – in the Lyman area of Donetsk Oblast.
Here’s President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
A Joint Task for Arms Manufacturers, Government Officials, and All Those Involved – to Make This Year a Record One in Terms of Drones – Address by the President
11 January 2025 – 14:37
I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!
I have just held a Staff meeting.
The main focus was on our drone operations and procurement for this year, procurement of everything the Defense Forces need.
Today reports were made on contracts – those that are already being implemented and those that are still planned.
It is a joint task for arms manufacturers, our Government officials, and all those involved – to make this year a record one in terms of all types of drones, as well as to significantly increase the production of Ukrainian missiles, artillery, and all the necessary equipment.
I have given instructions to increase the number of orders for drones. This is already being implemented.
Our arsenals are one of the guarantees of our independence, just as the precision of our warriors is.
And I thank all our units that carry out strikes on Russia’s territory: on military facilities, on the occupier’s military logistics. More and more such important results should be achieved.
A good sanctions strike was also carried out this week, and I am grateful to our partners for that.
We have American sanctions against Russia’s oil sector – sanctions against the shadow tanker fleet, against companies like Surgutneftegaz, which is Putin’s personal wallet. I am also grateful for the sanctions against Rosatom officials, and it is important to put pressure on the Russian nuclear industry for still holding our Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant hostage.
The United Kingdom is also taking its own new sanctions steps to limit Moscow’s energy revenues. We also have a new sanctions package from Japan against Russian arms production: it restricts the supply of components and some significant schemes that support Russia’s arms production.
These days, during my visit to Italy, we also had discussions, in particular, about sanctions. Italy firmly supports this pressure on Russia. I am grateful for the assistance in blocking Russian sanction bypassing schemes. As well as for our joint efforts within the EU to continue applying all forms of pressure on Russia to make it seek peace.
Today, Minister of Defense Umerov also reported on his talks with partners at Ramstein: our defense coalitions – they are working effectively.
And another result of this week. Our guys from the Special Operations Forces, namely the Tactical Group No. 84, as well as airborne warriors, have taken two soldiers from North Korea prisoners. Both are alive and have already been brought to Kyiv. They were captured in the Kursk region, and it was not easy: other North Korean soldiers and Russians keep trying to finish off their wounded Koreans – specifically to prevent them from being captured. Now these two are receiving medical care and talking to SSU investigators. Russians issue their documents to these Koreans, but they will not deceive anyone. Russia is the one doing everything to prolong and escalate the war, and it will be held accountable.
Glory to all our warriors! Glory to Ukraine!
Slovakia:
🤣 Slovak PM calls Zelenskyy beggar and blackmailer
— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
From Ukrainska Pravda:
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has harshly criticised Ukraine as an unreliable partner and said he is tired of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelling around Europe “begging” and “blackmailing others”.
Source: Robert Fico in a speech at a parliamentary committee on Friday, a video of which he posted on his Facebook page, as reported by European Pravda.
Details: The parliamentary committee meeting had been convened by the Slovak opposition, which demanded that Fico explain his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow and provide information about Slovakia’s next steps regarding the termination of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
Fico said that two solutions to the issue of gas transit from Ukraine to Slovakia had been prepared and claimed Ukraineʼs Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal had agreed to them.
One of these was to have been an arrangement between Russia and Azerbaijan allowing Slovakia to receive Azerbaijani gas, but according to Fico, Zelenskyy thwarted the arrangement.
The second option was a proposal for SPP, the Slovak state-owned energy supplier, to set up a subsidiary on the Russian-Ukrainian border so that gas could be transported to Slovakia via Ukraine.
Fico called Ukraine’s president unreliable and said he sometimes gets “fed up with him”.
Quote from Fico: “He [Zelenskyy] goes around Europe just begging and blackmailing others, asking for money. It just has to stop.”
More details: The Slovak prime minister said Russia, on the other hand, has always been a reliable partner when it comes to energy supply.
Quote from Fico: “Russia has never deceived us, unlike Ukraine. I remember the situation in 2009 when I was in Ukraine and asked Ukrainian Prime Minister [Yulia] Tymoshenko to give us some gas from the reservoirs they have in the western part of Ukraine, and I was told to go to hell. These are typical Ukrainians.”
Background:
- Fico became anti-Ukrainian because of his resentment towards Tymoshenko.
- Slovak President Peter Pellegrini said that he refused to pay an official visit to Kyiv because Ukraine had stopped the transit of Russian gas.
- Fico has also made a range of threats against Kyiv, including threatening to veto EU decisions on Ukraine.
Yeesh, this guy…
Moscow a Lago:
⚡️ Putin to push for barring Ukraine’s NATO accession in expected talks with Trump, FT reports.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main goals in any peace negotiations include prohibiting Ukraine from ever entering NATO and reducing allied military presence in the eastern flank, the Financial Times reported, citing a former Kremlin official and a source who discussed the matter with Putin.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Here are the details from The Kyiv Independent:
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main goals in any peace negotiations include prohibiting Ukraine from ever entering NATO and reducing allied military presence in the eastern flank, the Financial Times reported on Jan. 10, citing a former Kremlin official and a source who discussed the matter with Putin.
The news comes as the Kremlin signaled willingness to meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to hammer out a deal on ending Russia‘s war against Ukraine. No concrete plans or date have been set, though Moscow said any face-to-face meeting would occur only after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Trump vowed to bring Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table and swiftly end the full-scale war that nears its third anniversary. Earlier this week, he told reporters that arrangements for a meeting with Putin are underway.
The U.S. president-elect said previously that specific peace proposals are still being worked out. A pitch leaked from Trump’s team — freezing the front lines, postponing Ukraine’s NATO accession by 20 years, and deploying European peacekeepers on the ground — has already been rejected by Russia.
Trump’s incoming peace envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that the president-elect’s aim is not to “give something to Putin or the Russians” but to “save Ukraine and save their sovereignty.” Nevertheless, Trump has often voiced sympathies for the Russian leader, prompting fears he might cut a deal unfavorable to Ukraine.
Putin’s two reported main goals mirror demands raised by Moscow shortly before the start of the full-scale invasion. The Biden administration and NATO allies rejected the demands at the time.
Ukraine has ramped up its efforts to join the alliance after the outbreak of the full-scale war, calling in the best possible guarantee that Russia will not resume its aggression in the future. President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Ukraine could enter NATO gradually, with the collective defense principle initially not extending to occupied territories.
The push for peace talks comes as both Kyiv and Moscow face mounting challenges connected to the ongoing war.
Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russia’s advance in the east due to manpower shortages while the future of Western support grows uncertain under Trump. Chances of retaking the fifth of Ukraine’s territory that Russia occupies appear increasingly slim, at least in the foreseeable future.
In turn, Russia grapples with soaring inflation caused by record military spending, and its casualties are believed to range between 600,000-800,000 dead and wounded, outpacing all of Moscow’s post-World War II conflicts combined.
Yeesh, these guys…
Germany:
AfD leader Alice Weidel said during the party congress she would restore Russian Nord Stream: “We demand that Nord Stream be put back into operation. When we are at the helm, we will demolish all the wind turbines. Down with these shameful windmills”
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Yeesh, this gal…
This concludes the Yeesh portion of tonight’s update.
Georgia:
Meanwhile, citizens have gathered on Rustaveli Avenue. It is the 45th day of the protests.
#GeorgiaProtests
📷 Natia Leverashvili/Publika
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
#GeorgiaProtests continue in Tbilisi. Several marches were held, including one against poverty, which joined citizens gathered on Rustaveli Avenue. On the 45th day of the protests, Rustaveli is blocked.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Day 45. Solidarity to sit-in student protesters as they march on Rustaveli in Tbilisi. Tbilisi and Kutaisi disobeyed dictatorial laws today. Things get tense again as 10 arrested in Batumi. 1 detainee in Tbilisi was tortured in the early days. #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Publika— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 1:38 PM
“Today, there is no two #Georgia; there is a regime and there is the society”, Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili, visited the western Georgian city of Zugdidi on January 11.
She addressed the #GeorgiaProtests in the center of Zugdidi.
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 11, 2025 at 9:21 AM
🟥 Mzia Amaglobeli and a few others have been released from detention.
We are working on verifying other details.#GeorgiaProtests
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 11, 2025 at 3:39 PM
1/ During a protest in Batumi, the manager and founder of the “Batumelebi”, Mzia Amaglobeli, was detained. According to a journalist from “Batumelebi,” Amaglobeli was arrested for placing a poster. The poster read: “Georgia goes on strike on January 15 at 3:00 PM.
#GeorgiaProtests
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 2:09 PM
2/ In total, 10 people were detained in Batumi during the protest for placing posters.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 2:09 PM
3/ Batumelebi’s editor, Eter Turadze, said:
“It seems we are entering a phase that has never been experienced in this country before. This is what we read about in Russian media – how they were persecuted, how everything associated with freedom was suppressed.”
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 2:10 PM
⭕️After the second arrest, the police are preventing the lawyers from visiting Mzia Amaghlobeli, leaving them unaware of the grounds for the arrest.
#GeorgiaProtests
#TerrorInGeorgia
#RepressionInGeorgiabsky.app/profile/netg…
— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
1/2
🟥 Mzia Amaghlobeli is being denied access to a lawyer, despite a visit from a representative of the Public Defender. During the visit, Amaglobeli informed the representative that she had been ill-treated following his arrest.
#GeorgiaProtests— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 11, 2025 at 6:23 PM
2/2
🟥 Amaglobeli explained that after her first arrest, she was in a stampede and felt pain in her hand from being tightly restrained. In trying to free it, she accidentally struck a police officer, later revealed to be the Head of Batumi Police, who then re-arrested her.— Batumelebi&Netgazeti (@netgazeti.org) January 11, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Professional communities & beyond are particularly outraged over the detention of Mzia Amaglobeli, the director of Batumelebi/Netgazeti news agency in Batumi.
Due to multiple arrests in Batumi, many will join people there from Tbilisi tomorrow. #GeorgiaProtests #terrorinGeorgia— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 6:12 PM
“I’ll show you who’s a Russian shill,” says this policeman as he grabs the woman. #terrorinGeorgia
— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Police detained disability rights activist Gia Jvarsheishvili today on Rustaveli Avenue.
Jvarsheishvili was previously detained on the night of December 1-2, when he was brutally beaten.
Publika is trying to clarify details with the MIA.
#GrorgiaProtests
#terrorinGeorgia— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 1:42 PM
The video was captured by Nana Malashkhia, a member of the “Coalition for Changes”.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I don’t get why the regime needed new arrests since it fuels people. The last one was on December 29, before New Year’s.
They thought we’d go home over the holidays, and when that didn’t happen, they got short-tempered and assumed they had to do something? Hard to tell.— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 6:19 PM
The review process for the pre-trial measures of the eight individuals detained during the protests continues at the court. Simultaneously, a protest rally is taking place. The crowd is chanting: “Police everywhere, justice nowhere”, “No justice, no peace.”
#GeorgiaProtests
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 9:37 AM
The Kursk cross border offensive:
‼️North Koreans captured on the Kursk front:
“Our warriors captured North Korean soldiers on the Kursk front. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv, and are communicating with Security Service of Ukraine investigators.” – Zelenskyy
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 6:56 AM
🔒 Ukrainian Armed Forces videos show North Korean prisoner being evacuated
— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
From Ukrainska Pravda:
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) have released a video showing their operatives capturing and transporting a North Korean soldier, an event previously reported by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Source: SOF; Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces
Details: The Ukrainian military reported that SOF operatives had provided first aid to the North Korean prisoner after evacuating him from the battlefield.
Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces reported that the North Korean soldier had been captured during his first combat mission, specifically during an assault on the positions of the 95th Air Assault Brigade Polissia. The prisoner was found to be armed with Russian-made equipment and weapons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwS5F_ifLSo
⚡️ Ukraine captures 2 North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Zelensky says.
“This task was not easy,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that other North Korean soldiers usually “finish off their wounded” to prevent capture.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 11, 2025 at 7:15 AM
From The Kyiv Independent:
Ukrainian troops captured two North Korean soldiers as prisoners of war (POWs) in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 11.
“This task was not easy,” he said in a Telegram post.
“Usually, Russia and other North Korean military personnel finish off their wounded and do everything possible to ensure that no evidence of the participation of another state — North Korea — in the war against Ukraine is preserved.”
The two wounded soldiers received necessary medical care and are in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kyiv, according to Zelensky. The president applauded Ukrainian paratroopers and soldiers from the Special Operation Forces for capturing the North Koreans.
North Korea deployed around 12,000 soldiers in Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border incursion in August 2024 to bring the war to Russia, a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the intelligence told the Kyiv Independent in December 2024.
Zelensky’s statement comes nearly two weeks after the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that Ukrainian troops had captured a wounded North Korean soldier in late December who died soon of his wounds.
“We confirmed through a friendly nation’s intelligence organization that a North Korean soldier, captured alive on Dec. 26, died a short while ago as (his) wounds worsened,” the NIS said on Dec. 27,as cited by South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
Applauding the “irrefutable evidence” of North Korean soldiers’ participation in the Russian war against Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Jan. 11 that the POWs are being questioned with the help of Korean translators and South Korean intelligence.
One of the North Korean POWs said he was born in 2005 and was a rifleman who had been going through military service in North Korea since 2021, according to the SBU.
“It is noteworthy that the prisoner, like the Russian military at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, emphasizes that he was supposedly going for training and not for a war against Ukraine,” the SBU said in its Telegram post.
The other POW was born in 1999 and has served in the North Korean army since 2016 as a sniper reconnaissance officer, the SBU said, citing its preliminary data.
The first POW was issued with an ID document under the name of another person from Russia’s Tuva Republic, while the second one had no documents at all.
The Special Operation Forces shared a video purporting to show the capture of the North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast by operatives of the Tactical Group 84.
“After evacuating them from the battlefield, the Special Operation Forces operatives provided first aid to the North Korean captives,” the statement read.
North Korean troops have thus far suffered over 1,000 casualties since December, though other estimates are much higher, Austin said on Jan. 9. Zelensky placed the number of North Korean casualties as high as 4,000, but the figures cannot be independently verified.
Only limited videos of the North Korean soldiers appeared online, making it difficult to draw conclusions about their combat abilities.
It’s intriguing that the military ID of the captured North Korean soldier mentioned by Zelensky lists his name as Aranzyn Antonin Akhsovich and claims he was supposedly born in the Republic of Tuva.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Zaporizhzhia Oblast:
I thought this was very cute. Contemporary artist from Zaporizhzhia Iryna Korotych, visited a special needs school and held an Integration performance “The World Through the Eyes of Children”
While russia destroys. We create❤️— Sofia (@sofiaukraini.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Pokrovsk:
🚨⚠️ Russians bypass Pokrovsk from south and approach Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
From Ukrainska Pravda:
The Russian army has decided not to assault Pokrovsk head-on, but to go around it from the south to the west, thus approaching Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Source: two Ukrainska Pravda sources among the military on the Pokrovsk front, including Serhii Filimonov, commander of the 108th Da Vinci Wolves Separate Mechanised Battalion
Details: The Russians are currently advancing towards Kotlyne and Udachne, two settlements located on the Mezhova-Pokrovsk road. According to the map maintained by the Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState, the Russians are less than 2 km away, but Ukrainska Pravda has information that they are less than a kilometre away.
This means that the Russians have completely blocked the Mezhova-Pokrovsk road, an important logistical artery for Ukraine’s defence forces that connects Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with Pokrovsk.
The distance from the Russian ledge near Kotlyne and Udachne to the administrative boundary of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is 7 km.
Quote from Filimonov: “It was obvious. The Russians want to cut off the logistics and take the city [Pokrovsk – UP] without a fight.”
Details: However, another Ukrainska Pravda source is convinced that Pokrovsk is not a target for the Russians. Their key objective is to reach Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and develop their offensive there.
Kharkiv Oblast:
💥 🔥 3rd Assault Brigade demolishes 20 pieces of Russian equipment in Kharkiv Oblast – video
— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) January 11, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Ukrainska Pravda has the details.
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade published footage of combat action on 8 and 9 January in Kharkiv Oblast, during which the Russians lost 20 pieces of equipment.
Details: The brigade noted that “it was almost like a Battle of Brody”, as the Russians lost 20 pieces of equipment during combat. [The Battle of Brody, fought from 23 to 30 June 1941, was a significant tank battle in the early phase of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet forces inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, they were outmanoeuvred and suffered substantial tank losses due to poor logistics, German air superiority and a breakdown in command. The battle is recognised as one of the largest tank engagements of World War II.]
Quote: “On 8 and 9 January, the occupiers headed towards the brigade’s positions with the forces of the 4th Guards Tank Division of the 1st Red Tank Army to make a breakthrough.
Part of the column was stopped on the way by anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) strikes. The BMP infantry combat vehicles and tanks pulled off the route and started blowing up mines. The enemy attacked using FPV. The pontoon crossing was demolished, and a tank sank. Shells and artillery fire were directed towards the enemy infantry. The survivors began their escape.
The enemy lost an entire column but attempted an assault again, this time with an armoured group from four directions. After being targeted by the brigade’s soldiers, enemy vehicles were destroyed by ATGMs and unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan Oblast, Russia:
There is a fire at the Taneco oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Russia. Preliminary, one of the columns is on fire. An air raid alarm is sounding. According to eyewitnesses, employees are currently being evacuated from the plant. There are no casualties, presumably.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Russian oil refinery in Tatarstan is on fire for some reason 👀
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
The Engels-2 air base, Saratov Oblast, Russia:
The oil depot in Engels, russia, has been burning for four days.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 6:02 AM
The oil depot near Russia’s Engels-2 air base in Saratov Oblast, hit by Ukrainian drones on Jan. 9, is burning for a fourth day. The air base is home to Russia’s Tu-160 bomber fleet and also hosts some of its Tu-95 bombers – regularly used in mass missile attacks on Ukraine.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 4:22 AM
If it burns for four more days, Ukrainian Jews get a new winter holiday. I do not make the rules!
That’s enough for tonight.
Your daily Patron!
A new video from Patron’s official TikTok.
@patron__dsns Зловив конячий кренделик 🤠🥨 #песпатрон
Here’s the machine translation of the caption:
Caught a horse pretzel 🤠🥨#песпатрон
Open thread!
trollhattan
LOL’d at that one Adam. Mazel tov!
Can this battle toll possibly be accurate? Dateline today on Ukraine Pravda.
Breakdown at the link: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/01/11/7493013/
Bill Arnold
I don’t normally laugh while reading these reports, but laughed out loud at that.
Do you have an impression that you’re willing to voice about AfD?
(Thanks, as usual. Have read all of these (day 1053?), pretty sure.)
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: It is possible.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: The AfD are neo-NAZIs. Anyone who supports them is a neo-NAZI. If you show up at a dinner party for ten, nine people are already there, they’re wearing SS uniforms, and you decide to sit down and join them, there are ten NAZIs seated at the table.
Jay
Thank you, Adam.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
So, to name a couple of names, Elon Musk, and to a lesser extent, JD Vance.
Any others (known) in the coming USA administration?
Jay
3 min vid in link.
https://nitter.poast.org/wartranslated/status/1877823636481933392#m
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Unthinkable, the lives and resources being shredded against the grindstone of war to no conclusion, and yet here we are. Had hopes this thing would burn itself out in 2023 and boy, was I wrong. Looks like now “we’re fighting to the last Korean.”
trollhattan
@Jay: It’s quite the video.
KatKapCC
If one of our resident Ukrainian speakers is around this evening — On Zelensky’s FB page, he posts his nightly address twice. The first is without subtitles and the post itself is in Ukrainian, and the second video has English subtitles and the post is in English. I presume the text of both is roughly the same. On the second one today, the first sentence of his post is “I have just held a staff meeting”. On the Ukrainian one, the first sentence is “Щойно провів Ставку”, which Facebook translates to “Just passed the pond” and Google translates to “Just placed a bet”. I know that transliterating between different alphabets is tricky (that’s why we have like 17 ways to spell Chanukah) but I’m curious how the word for “staff” (or “meeting”?) could become both “pond” and “bet” in the minds of translation bots. Is there a specific letter in Ukrainian that the bots struggle with?
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/Gerashchenko_en/status/1878122304917402050#m
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Yes.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Yep.
Chetan Murthy
I saw some headlines about Scholz blocking $3B aid to Ukraine in the last 24hr ? Don’t know if it’s real, b/c only saw it on one site (Times of India) and if this were real, it’d be everywhere.
@jay: That video is something out of The Road Warrior. Just horrifying.
KatKapCC
@Chetan Murthy: Adam had it in the post last night.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
It has a happy ending, fucker was wounded in the end.
Adam L Silverman
@Chetan Murthy: I started last night’s update with it. Even had it in the title.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/NOELreports/status/1878119288537567286#m
Chetan Murthy
@Jay: I saw.
@Adam L Silverman: Sorry, Adam. My oversight.
trollhattan
@Jay:
Alternate title: “Overachiever drone makes other drones seem like slackers.”
Gin & Tonic
@KatKapCC: I’m not on FB, but you gave me enough. The word “Ставка” is the issue. It’s an old term in both russian and Ukrainian used for staff headquarters, or general staff, in a military context. Dates to WW I or before. In Ukrainian it is also the word for wager, and it is very similar to the word for pond or reservoir. Machine translation has problems with context.
Incidentally, I’m reading Nick Lloyd’s masterful The Eastern Front where the word comes up often.
Chetan Murthy
@Adam L Silverman: A few days ago, you made a wry comment about Scholz going for his end-of-job performance review before his last day of work. Aka a one-on-one with Putin, before the next round of elections. Sigh.
KatKapCC
@Gin & Tonic: Interesting. Sometimes bot translations are at least good for a laugh, if nothing else.
Gin & Tonic
@KatKapCC: Also should mention that Ukrainian has seven noun cases, which determine the ending of each noun depending on its use in a sentence (these are called declensions,) so reasonably similar words, like pond and wager, can end up nearly identical in certain declensions. Machine translation doesn’t (yet) do well with this.
Sometimes, if you have access only to a botched translation, it can be an interesting puzzle to try to figure out where it fucked up.
Jay
@trollhattan:
Well, there was that Sea Baby drone a week or so ago, that shot down 2 MI-8 helicopters, crippled a 3rd and killed and wounded it’s crew, then blew up a ruZZian occupied gas platform in the Black sea being used as a base.
AlaskaReader
Thanks Adam