Special Operations Forces of #UAarmy raise the flag of Ukraine in the liberated village of Nevske.
Step by step, we are liberating the region of Luhansk.
🎥 @SOF_UKR pic.twitter.com/oqEkEeDw4M— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 27, 2022
Іду на ви!/I Come At You!
Here’s President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
Good evening, warriors of light!
Energetic people who are always ready to fight! Its 246th day is coming to an end.
We continue our resistance. The aggressor continues his terror. We are again attacked from the sky by a flock of their crows.
More than 30 drones were launched in two days. The defenders of our sky prevented the enemy’s vultures from breaking into the rear of the country and downed 23 Shaheds. In addition, the Kh-59 guided air missile, two Ka-52 attack helicopters and another Su-25 attack aircraft were turned into scrap metal. In total, during this period, Russia carried out 4,500 missile strikes and more than 8,000 air raids. But we are fighting, we will shoot down more.
I thank the guardians of our sky.
I am grateful to everyone who participated in the fundraising for the “catchers” of such “Shaheds”. Only on the U24 platform those are 665,000 people from 70 countries. Together, we will certainly clip the wings of all metal monsters, no matter how many of them and from where they fly in the direction of Ukraine. Enemy planes will fall. Enemy helicopters will fall. “Shaheds” will fall. It is only the Ukrainian people who will not fall! A heroic people who will definitely go down in world history. Actually, like this day. It is already history.
It’s already midnight on the clock. October 28 is already on the calendar. Every year on this day, we celebrate the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi occupiers. We pay tribute to the Ukrainians who fought and defeated Nazism during World War II. Today we do it, holding not flowers in our hands, but weapons. Today, preserving the memory of the exploits of our ancestors means protecting their achievements. We remember the expulsion of the Nazis, approaching the expulsion of the Rashists.
Evil, which seemed to have been finally defeated and burned to the ground in 1945, is reborn from the ashes 80 years later. Gets on its feet. It becomes possible. How did it turn out? Imperceptibly. And very quickly. Just as one day changes another. Instantly. A new day and a new evil are coming instantly. At the very moment when the world does not notice. Some are sleepy, some are fast asleep. Some are not paying attention. Some do not care. And in general, everyone is silent and thinks the same: I will not be affected. The war is somewhere far away. Somewhere in Transnistria. This is the problem of Moldovans. Somewhere in Abkhazia and Ossetia. This is the problem of Georgians. Somewhere in Crimea and Donbas. This is the problem of Ukrainians. We will not be affected. It will not cause damage to us. They will not come for us. Unfortunately, as a result, it becomes everyone’s problem.
Sooner or later, memories of a terrible war become a terrible reality. The neighbor becomes the aggressor. The aggressor becomes a terrorist. And Nazism becomes an example to follow. It may come in a new guise, with new slogans, but with the same goal. Unfortunately, it is not from books that we know about it. We know how evil can break into your house in the last century, eight years ago and eight months ago. Violate the western borders or come from the north, east and annexed Crimea. Attack peaceful cities with bombs or cruise missiles.
Mine the Dnipro HPP or seize the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Drop bombs despite the red cross or the “Children” inscription. Steal grain according to the “Hunger Plan” or threaten the entire planet with hunger.
Abduct and deport people. Abduct and deport children. The form of evil has changed, but the essence has remained unchanged.
Evil always begins in the same way. The invaders call themselves liberators. The invasion of one’s army is called self-defense. As 80 years ago, the Ukrainian people stand up for the defense of their native land. And the enemy’s blitzkrieg plan becomes a failure.
Evil always acts in the same way. Kills civilians, assuring that it hits military targets only. Arranges blockades and filtration camps. And Syrets becomes Olenivka. Destroys cities and villages. And Koryukivka becomes Bucha.
But sooner or later war crimes become known. The reaction of the world becomes painful. The policy of appeasement becomes a tough countermeasure.
The evil finds itself in a zugzwang.
So evil always ends the same way. The occupier becomes a capitulator. The invader becomes a fugitive. War criminals become defendants, aggression becomes a sentence. Destruction becomes reparations. Enemy equipment becomes museum exhibits. The feats of grandfathers become the victories of grandchildren.
The day of the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis on the 247th day of our struggle becomes a symbol: the result of our struggle definitely becomes the liberation of our Ukraine. The captured territory becomes free. This has always been the case in the past, and will certainly be the case in the future. In the future of Kherson, Donbas, Luhansk, Crimea. Because our land always becomes free. Resistance becomes pride. Struggle becomes victory. And Ukraine becomes united!
Today, Russia’s only tactic has become terror. Defeat is the only possible outcome of such tactics. Terror became a proof of their weakness and a test of our resilience.
We will not be broken by shelling. The enemy’s rockets in our sky are less scarier than hearing the enemy’s anthem on our land. We are not afraid of the dark.
The darkest times for us are not without light, but without freedom. Our warriors are strong, volunteers are tireless, partners are reliable, and people are indomitable.
The second army of the world will become smaller and smaller. The losses of the enemy will become bigger and bigger. I am confident that enemy propaganda does not work, provocations do not work, threats do not scare. Any hard winter will not scare us as well.
We know that the darkest night comes before dawn. We know that all invaders flee our land in the same way. Gauleiters and self-appointed “governors” end up the same.
Reichskommissariats and quasi-republics die equally. And all our cities will definitely have our flags. Both Junkers and kamikaze drones fall equally. And in our sky there will definitely be our birds, our blue sky, our “Mriya”!
Glory to all who fought against Nazism during World War II! Glory to all who are fighting for Ukraine today!
Glory to our people who will go down in history!
Glory to Ukraine!
In contrast, Putin gave another batshit crazy speech today. The Financial Times‘ Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon has the details:
Putin's big foreign policy speech is underway.
He accuses the west of "escalating" tensions worldwide by "fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, provocations in Taiwan," and creating the global food crisis. pic.twitter.com/GmzdP4u82f
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 27, 2022
This has quickly descended into a long rant about cancel culture.
"Everything that happens in the world is because of the hand of the Kremlin.Are we really so all-powerful? This is nonsense! Stop blaming everything on us!"
But Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, and Pushkin will live on.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 27, 2022
"Russia is not challenging the western elite. We are not trying to become the hegemon," Putin says. He says Russia only wants to "defend its right to exist" and "won't let itself be destroyed and wiped off the geopolitical map."
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 27, 2022
Alexander Prokhanov, the KGB-aligned novelist, is here! His TV appearances are a bellwether for how far into ultranationalism the Kremlin wants to go. He tells Putin Russia should make the “religion of justice” its state ideology pic.twitter.com/ga6Ja1rONI
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 27, 2022
I just want to take a moment here and focus not so much on the words of Putin’s address and his answers to questions, but to what is actually going on. Putin is doing what we’ve discussed here all too often over the past seven years (we really need to get lives…), which is using the social learning/social behavioral techniques known as neutralization. From my 9 AUG 2016 post:
In the 1950s Sykes and Matza put forth a variant of social learning theory called neutralization and drift. Their intention was to clarify the social behavioral pathway that leads to delinquency, deviance, and crime. Sykes and Matza theorized that delinquency, deviancy, and crime are based on justifications that are used to rationalize behavior. And they called these justifications the techniques of neutralization, which allow one to drift into crime, deviance, and delinquency. Or in the cases we’re interested in extremism, terrorism, and/or mass violence. They are divided into five types of neutralization: 1) denial of responsibility; 2) denial of injury; 3) denial of victim; 4) condemnation of the condemners; and the 5) appeal to higher loyalties. The first three justifications all deal with denial. They allow the offender to rationalize his behavior as outside of his control. He or she is not really hurting anyone. And even if someone is hurt they may have deserved it. The fourth justification allows the offender to invert the knowledge of her wrongdoing back upon those criticizing it by asserting that the condemners are hypocrites, do equally bad things, or are out to get her. Finally, the fifth rationalization allows for the justification of behavior on the basis of loyalty to one’s group rather than one’s society.
What Putin is trying to do, aside from reasserting the fictionalized history and embellished mythology of Russia, the Russian people, Russian Orthodox Christianity that he has adopted and then contributed to, is provide anyone willing to listen to him uncritically the justifications for beginning to or continuing to support him, to stop supporting Ukraine, and to blame the US. Putin hit all five techniques of neutralization over and over and over in his rant today. And, unfortunately, there are far too many people that will listen to him uncritically. Especially when he’s amplified by the likes of Greenwald, Mate, Blumenthal, Gabbard, Trump, Carlson, Greene, Massie, Gaetz, and the other fellow travelers and useful idiots.
Putin’s remarks are also aimed at white Evangelical Christians in the US:
It's time for Christians in every country to come to the aid of the Russians.
— Rick Wiles (@realRickWiles) October 26, 2022
If you want to see him expand on this, there’s video at this link.
Here’s the ADL’s description of Wiles:
TruNews is a fundamentalist Christian streaming news and opinion platform that has increasingly featured anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content, and also has a long record of disseminating radical Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ messages. Founded in 1999 by Rick Wiles and affiliated with Flowing Streams Church in Vero Beach, FL, where Wiles is senior pastor, TruNews was previously known as America’s Hope, American Freedom News, and briefly as Christian News Channel.
TruNews programming generally consists of Rick Wiles and one or more cohosts or guests praying, reading biblical passages, discussing current events, talking breathlessly about the “End Times” and asking for money. Wiles and his guests frequently espouse extreme conspiracy theories, including alleging that the U.S. government planned to spread the Ebola virus on U.S. soil, that the U.S. and Israel created ISIS and that “western intelligence agencies” were training ISIS soldiers, and that mass shootings are false flag operations carried out by “super-secret covert killing teams” as a way of rallying public support for eliminating the Second Amendment and for “capitulat[ing] to a globalist agenda.”
Wiles was accredited by the Trump administration as part of the presidential press corps. And he knows exactly what he’s doing in terms of rhetoric. He used to be an advertising and marketing executive until he was born again.
Wiles is a conduit to mainstream Putinism directly into white Evangelical Christians in the US.
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment of the situation in Kherson:
KHERSON/ 26-27 OCT/ UKR art’y continues to target barge bridge/ferry ops adjacent to the M-14 HWY. RU video footage from 26-27 OCT shows hits and 2ndry explosions on RU equipment and ordinance. UKR Partisans /SOF are suspected in a 26 OCT attack on an RU-staffed police station. pic.twitter.com/JEIwVRk5Vb
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) October 27, 2022
Tallyho!
Video of low-flying Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft flying over Ukrainian troops.https://t.co/vqtUAD9W9M pic.twitter.com/QguDzj6W1q
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 27, 2022
Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Mary C. D. Hamilton (1915)
Petroleum facility go boom!
The oil depot in Russian occupied-Shakhtarsk, Ukraine 🇺🇦 is on fire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YfAspYXfam
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) October 26, 2022
NO PLACE TO HIDE: Necro Mancer@666_mancer reports on a UKR strike on a RU fuel depot at Shakhtarsk, deep in occupied Donetsk. This facility was more that 60Km (36 miles) from the front. UKR Partisans & deeply inserted SOF provide updated targeting data on lucrative RU targets. https://t.co/Ek1Hau3nnf pic.twitter.com/6nVNAprTUS
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) October 27, 2022
Іду на ви!/I Come At You!
How’s the mobilization going?
A 46-year-old from Magadan was mobilized and deployed to Ukraine despite such serious knee arthrosis that he struggled to walk. https://t.co/YvykkL0Rqo pic.twitter.com/40oJj6X5LC
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 27, 2022
Maybe Meduza has better news to report?
Colonel General Alexander Lapin, commander of the Russian army group Center in Ukraine, used a pistol to personally threaten the commander of a mobilized unit, which retreated from the front lines without orders. One conscript from Moscow spoke about it as part of an official complaint, reports outlet Sota. The publication didn’t name the man but writes that they know his name, and that they have copies of his complaint and his call-up papers, which he sent the outlet.
The Moscow resident was mobilized on September 22, and was already in Ukraine on October 7. According to Sota, he received a rusty gun and no training “apart from one day of shooting practice.” He and his fellow conscripts were sent to an area near the city of Svatove in the annexed Luhansk region. They were under fire for at least a day and a half, as a result of which no fewer than 10 men were killed. The Moscow man and his fellow conscripts decided to retreat to Svatove to get new orders.
“Since there were no officers or command, we set ourselves the task of finding headquarters and asking about further actions. We were standing at a refueling station when Colonel General Lapin came up to us with his personal security detail. When he found out about the situation with the retreat, he held his pistol to Lieutenant V’s head, the commander of the fifth company, and ordered us to go back [to the front]. He also addressed a number of insults at us (traitors, deserters, and a lot of more offensive words),” says the complaint.
Not so much…
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— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) October 27, 2022
That’s enough for tonight.
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Open thread!
War for Ukraine Day 246: Ukrainian SOF Is On the HuntPost + Comments (80)