The Russian Evil Does Not Diminish Its Desire to Bring Ruins Even on the Eve of Easter – Address by the President

4 May 2024 – 20:52

Dear Ukrainians!

Today, all day long, our defenders of the sky had a lot of work. Kharkiv, Odesa, the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions. Only this morning our warriors have already shot down thirteen “Shahed” drones. During the day, Russian terrorists used 8 missiles of various types and almost 70 guided aerial bombs against our border communities and positions at the front. The Russian evil does not diminish its desire to bring ruins even on the eve of Easter. And it is only up to us – all of us and everyone who really helps Ukraine – to determine where these ruins will be stopped and when the occupier will lose.

Now I want to thank each warrior in our mobile firing groups, in the Air Force, in air defense units of other types and branches of the military forces – all those who are protecting now and will continue to protect the Ukrainian skies from Russian terror. It is important to be as attentive as possible these days.

I would also like to give special mention to the soldiers of the 110th separate mechanized brigade for shooting down another Russian Su-25 in the Donetsk region today. Good job, guys!

I thank all our warriors at the front, on combat missions, at combat posts – all those who despite the intense Russian pressure, despite all the difficulties of the current situation destroy the occupier. Every combat brigade of ours that holds its positions firmly, every warrior who ensures the result for himself, for his brothers-in-arms, and for his unit, defends the whole of Ukraine and preserves the opportunity for Ukraine not only to withstand but also to repel the occupier.

This morning Oleksandr Syrskyi delivered a long report. The Commander-in-Chief spoke particularly about our frontline positions, concrete actions of our units, and particular directions. I thank each of our warriors for their resilience! The Chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov also delivered a report today. We are aware of all the aspects of the current situation.

All of us should remember that Russia can only be forced to leave Ukraine alone. And this will happen. Our strength will definitely make it happen. The strength of our people, our military strength, the strength of our unity with the world, the strength of our partners – the strength of our diplomacy. I thank everyone in the team of our country – in my team, and in the teams of our partner countries – who are already working these days to ensure that in June all of us – all the countries of the world that value life – achieve a truly significant political result. The Global Peace Summit will be held, and it has to be successful, no matter how hard they try to sabotage it. Putin does not want peace, he is insane, and every day his state does new things to prove it. And to overcome this evil, to overcome the war, we need the maximum unity of the world. We achieve the results together.

I thank everyone who is fighting and working for the sake of our country and people! I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine! I thank everyone who really provides us with timely and strong support!

Glory to Ukraine!

The cost and the reason:

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1786760118807187571

The reason:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786641652997624248

https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1786477372885053450

It’s Easter time in Ukraine. And it’s one of the darkest Easters in my lifetime.

I grew up with my Mom & Dad in a standard Soviet one-room apartment called “gostinka”. 12 m² at first. Then upgraded to 19 m². Every evening and every morning I heard my Mom pray. When I was 10, she said kiddo it’s time for you to learn praying, but I already knew how. I learned by ear.

I’m a Christian from the Soviet time, when being a believer was hard. Yet, I never had a harder time believing in God, than now, with darkness being in the march and with religious leaders of the world either accepting, or tolerating it. With russian orthodox (and Buddhist, and Muslim) leadership blessing it. With many “Christians first” aching to see Ukraine dead. With the Pope condemning the war but not even naming the one conducting it.

“If there is God, I hate him”, wrote someone recently on 🇺🇦 Twitter. It’s not how I feel, but I understand the despair. I remember Aleppo getting killed by Russians. Bomb after bomb. Block after block. Young Syrians tweeting for the last time. And the world just watching. It feels increasingly like that in some Ukrainian cities now.

All these “Christians first”, who embrace Ukraine’s killing – what do they have to do with Christ? They want to see Ukraine crucified. Would Christ want anybody crucified? For me, it’s an insane, dark, merciless version of Christianity.

Decent, kind, faithful people stand with Ukraine. Unkind, cruel, fake people – don’t. And, as it turns out, there’re A LOT of them. Like the Bible says, their name is legion.

With this thought, I go into the night of Good Friday, faithful that there will be another day for Ukraine. And thanking you – Christian or not, believers or not – who even amid this hour of darkness embrace light and refuse to be fooled by the devil.

#StandWithUkraine

PS. The photo is from around the time when I learned praying.

 

https://twitter.com/U24_gov_ua/status/1786802053769003045

DC:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786732000277152160

Russia spends about 25% of the state budget on militarization.

Putin continues to believe there is a threat to Russia from NATO and is willing to spend an increasing amount of the budget on armaments, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said at a congressional hearing.

“Putin has increased defense spending to nearly 7 percent of GDP, almost double the historical average. Russia’s defense budget now accounts for about 25% of all spending,” Haines said.

She also believes that China’s supply of dual-use goods to Russia has played in favor of Moscow and its defense industry. Because of this, RF is making progress in Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.

📹 Voice of America

Last night in comments there was a discussion of ATACMS. The material Jay posted was originally reported on 2 May 2024 in PoliticoPro’s Morning Defense and their PoliticoPro subscription only service. I get the former, thanks to a former client that signed me up, but I don’t subscribe to the latter. Here is what is available before the paywall kicks in:

The production lines making the Army Tactical Missile System are cranking out enough of the long-range missiles that the Pentagon is no longer worried about depleting its own stocks by sending them to Ukraine.

The update on the production came from Army acquisition chief Doug Bush on Thursday, who said that “a significant number of missiles that were ordered years ago … is now hitting at just the right time to be able to support how we’re supporting Ukraine without taking a hit to readiness.”

That increase in missile deliveries, which Bush said is a “surge” of dozens of missiles every few months, will last until at least the rest of the year. “There are a lot of ATACMS coming off that line,” he said. 

Background: After two years of saying the U.S. didn’t have enough ATACMS to share with Ukraine, a small number of shorter-range versions were sent last fall, with a new batch of the longer, 200-mile-range missiles arriving in March.

What is below the paywall, and was in the email, was that Bush went on to say that they started producing a surplus on the ATACMS in December 2023, as a result the US is not worried about sending them to Ukraine depleting US stocks, especially as production of the munition replacing the ATAMCS is also now being produced.

I am very glad we’re sending them now. I’m very glad that Bush and his people were able to get the defense industrial base sorted ahead of schedule. But we didn’t increase what we were sending, using emergency executive authority, until March 2024. More and longer range ATACMS in March 2024 are great. They were absolutely essential in December 2023.

The head of the Kyiv School of Economics also brings us news that the Biden administration has been waving sanctions on Russian banks. From the Thread Reader App:

Recently, there’ve been reports of the U.S. easing Russian sanctions

Is this a carrot& stick game after the passing the aid? Is this signaling to Russia that the U.S. is willing to “de escalate” if… Or is this a sign of some covert negotiations with Russia?

Specifically, 1/

The reports said that U.S. now allows transactions related to energy with the Russian banks.

The problem is that it is quite misleading.

It is true that the sanctions have been eased relative to the start of the invasion. 2/ 

But the decision is not new and happened many months ago

What is immediately new is that easing of the sanctions s works through an exemption. And this exemption was set to expire last week. The U.S. renewed it until November. 3/ 

So, yes, the sanctions technically are eased because they were supposed to come into effect. But the U.S. keeps doing it and now it has become a technicality.

What is really the exemption? The U.S. allows transactions related to energy. 4/ 

Energy is broadly understood as “extraction, production, refinement, liquefaction, gasification, regasification, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, transport, or purchase of petroleum, including crude oil” but even 5/ 

“coal, wood, or agricultural products used to manufacture biofuels, or uranium in any form, as well as the development, production, generation, transmission, or exchange of power, through any means, including nuclear, thermal, and renewable energy sources 4/ 

The banks that are de-sanctioned are:

The Central Bank of Russia

Vnesheconombank

Otkritie

Sovcombank Open Joint Stock Company

Sberbank of Russia;

VTB Bank

Alfa-Bank

Rosbank

Bank Zenit

Bank Saint-Petersburg 5X 

It is the slow rolling of the decision-making of what to supply and when, as well as waving sanctions for no good or apparent reasons that were all too leaky to begin with, that speaks more loudly and clearly about the Biden administration’s policy and strategy than the actual official statements made by administration officials.

Germany:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786374108168519854

German Chancellor Scholz answered a question about the reasons for his reluctance to transfer long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine:

“There are weapons that can only be supplied if there is control over everything that is done with them. And you can’t have a debate here, as if between friends, “Don’t you trust me?” Of course I trust my friend. But still, I wouldn’t give all the weapons to everyone,” Scholz said.

Weapons save our lives and bring the end of the war in Europe closer.
Delay, partial assistance and procrastination are lost lives of Ukrainians.
And in the long run, it means spreading the war further, thousands of new victims and lost lives.

I know that Germany is a true friend of Ukraine. Germany has recently given Ukraine another Patriot as well as so much other military aid. So I believe that Ukraine will receive Taurus missiles at a time when it can really make a difference on the battlefield.

For want of a nail!

Odesa:

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1786799034344100100

The Donbas:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786689853121245369

The Avdiivka front:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1786750360675090676

Not quite sure where in Ukraine this is:

https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1786670746397216968

Vuhledar:

From the Thread Reader App:

Folks! My friend Andrii from the 58 brigade told me that Russians at his direction are constantly attacking their positions near Vuhledar.

The 5 tank brigade, 37 motorised brigade and 40 marine brigade are attacking and losing a lot of armed vehicles🧵👇

4 BTR-82A and one BMP-1:

Two MTLBs and three BMP-1:

5 more destroyed BMPs:

Destroyed T-80BV and damaged and abandoned T-62M:

Damaged and abandoned T-72B3, destroyed BMP-1, damaged and abandoned T-72B3 and BREM-1, another destroyed T-72B3 and MTLB and destroyed T-80BV:

Damaged and abandoned T-62M, destroyed BMP-1 and two more destroyed tanks:

Another destroyed tank, damaged and abandoned T-62M (from the previous post), destroyed BMP-2:

Damaged and abandoned T-72B3. Later was destroyed:

Right now fellas from the Ukrainian 58 brigade desperately need at least two drones (one is 3E).

If it’s possible, please, help:

PP: [email protected]

BMAC: buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarine…

Wishlist | freedomfighterThe main goal of this page is to share my memories and thoughts about the war.https://buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarines/wishlist

We have 40%! Thanks everyone for donation and/or repost!

Let’s keep going🔥

BTW, one of the tanks decided to take a bath.

Three other tanks from the previous attacks. Definitely not a calm part of the battlefield.

adsd

Belgorod Oblast, Russia:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786772425901785413

A Russian aircraft that was conducting strikes with guided bombs on Kharkiv dropped a bomb on the Russian city of Belgorod.

It fell right on a residential sector and exploded. Sooner or later it was bound to happen.

Governor Gladkov did not disclose the cause of the explosion, but reported that 30 private residences and 10 cars were damaged in the city, and the residents of the house that sustained the most serious damage were “miraculously” survived.

Putin, his trusted agents, his surrogates, and the Russian educational system they have further perverted from what was inherited from the Soviet Union is leaving heavily into the mythology and factually inaccurate history of the Great Patriotic War, the cult of the Immortals, and Pobedobesie.

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1786803967566975362

From last May:

https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1655524869407227905?cxt=HHwWgoC-3Z3GzfktAAAA

Here’s the rest from the Thread Reader App:

#Pobedobesie is a pejorative term used to describe the “hyperbolic celebrations” of Victory Day in #Russia. This has been dubbed the Victory Cult.

2/x

#Pobedobesie includes weaponisation of the legacy of World War II to justify #Russia‘s aggressive policies and an increase of militarism, using the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany for propaganda purposes.

3/x

Significant part of #Pobedobesie is militarisation of education in Russia, including at preschool and primary school levels.

Children aged as young as 3-4 yo are dressed in military uniforms, and the idea of military service is “normalised”.

4/x 

Within #Pobedobesie, Russian children are indoctrinated in the idea that their main motivation should be “to become defenders of the Motherland”.

They are told that “it’s not scary to die”. And parents and teachers applaud such “lessons”:

5/x

https://twitter.com/adagamov/status/1655220272843169793/video/1

According to @irgarner, Putin has reconstructed the Soviet “cult of the Great Patriotic War” in a “manner that has all the hallmarks of a religion”, and that the state’s cult has been incorporated into Orthodox Christianity, and vice versa”

6/x

#Pobedobesie occasionally takes on comic form: with “patriotic” bread, vodka and other products.

7/x

But overall #Pobedobesie remains a dangerous cult of militaristic fetishisation, which drives Russia’s aggression against neighbours, most notably against Ukraine, which is seeking freedom and European integration.

8/x

Read more about #Pobedobesie here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pobedobes…

9/9

End of the thread. 

Pobedobesie – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pobedobesie

And here’s a bonus for you: #Pobedobesie in #Russia|n-occupied #Sevastopol, in Ukraine’s #Crimea peninsula

• • •

https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1655553655964160000

And a couple of follow ons:

https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1655882585703174146

https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1655995817549783040

Well that’s one way to celebrate Victory in Europe Day! As they say in the Ranger Regiment: That’s a technique!

That’s enough for tonight!

Your daily Patron!

There are no new Patron tweets tonight. So here’s some adjacent material from the Ukrainian Army Cats and Dogs feed:

https://twitter.com/UAarmy_animals/status/1785275309224231126

https://twitter.com/UAarmy_animals/status/1785272999387558362

And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

🧚🏻🧚🏻🧚🏻 #песпатрон

♬ she was a fairy – ⋆. 𐙚 ̊Dee ❀

Open thread!