I can no longer function, just breaking down in tears. My city, my country, my people are so beautiful, friendly, peaceful. We're fighting, and we'll keep fighting, but my beautiful country will never be the same. Nothing will ever be the same
A small story of Russian slave raids on Ukraine - my cousin's wife's family, from Mariupol, have been 'evacuated' to Russia. First they were sent to Taganrog, then Rostov, now Khabarovsk in the far east. No one tells them why they're being sent, for what reason,
And then smug motherfuckers sit thousands of miles away and smirk and say 'Why don't you surrender???'
You piece of shit. You fucking human debris.
Nothing matters, in the world, than the defeat of the fascist Reich. Fucking nothing else. Don't believe me? Come to Ukraine
Russia must be defeated. Moscovia delenda est. There is no other moral, or hell, even practical response to this sort of mass abduction. Nothing but the utter defeat of the fascist regime in the Kremlin. By any means necessary.
It is inconceivable to me that this is happening in the 21st century, in the civilized world. What will they made to do? Shipped off to a kolkhoz as free slave labor? Loyalty camp? GULAG? How will they ever get home?
or what they'll do once there. Just an endless, inhuman bureaucratic system forcefully shipping slaves wherever it desires. We don't know how to get them back to Ukraine or how to help them in Russia - just waiting and waiting to hear a scrap of news off a borrowed phone call.
I am so tired. My cousins and my aunt are fighting. My best friends are fighting. Some of my family have already lost their house. Now others have been kidnapped - they may be distant relatives, but they are still relatives.
(For context: Ze is asked if the next question can be in Russian, to which the he shrugs and puts in a translation earpiece. When the journalist instead says she'll be speaking Ukrainian, he takes the earpiece out and says "Excellent.")
Russia detained Igor Girkin, a leading nationalist critic of the country’s conduct of the war in Ukraine, in a sign that the brief Wagner mutiny has further reduced tolerance of dissent, even among those who support Moscow’s invasion.
Here's what to know.
Just to clarify:
Palestine did not mount an attack on Israel. An Iranian proxy militia did. Palestinians are by and large huddled in their homes praying that an Israeli airstrike won't kill them or theirs. Hamas is the culprit here. This isn't a decentralized grassroots thing.
I will no longer speak Russian. My entire life, I’ve been proud to speak Russian. Its my native tongue. I grew up with it, I grew up with what I thought was its beauty. Now it’s nothing more than the tongue used by the people that are committing genocide against me and my country
Can report I’m safe - out of Kyiv. Took me twelve hours and three forms of transport, but I made it. I can’t imagine what’s going on in my city right now. I’m exhausted now, but tomorrow, I’ll get back to work.
Glory to Ukraine. God save Kyiv.
The more I see of the Russian’s operational capabilities, the more convinced I am that corruption in Russia must be at such a corrosive level that the military itself is, if not a paper tiger, mostly made out of the same rotting steel as the abandoned factories across the country
Good morning. It is 0900, Mar. 1, 2022. Day 6. I am safe. Vinnitsa is still safe.
Kyiv and Kharkiv targeted by multiple strikes. Residential areas in Kharkiv hit, seemingly deliberately. I don't know how many casualties. Long Russian force heading towards Kyiv from the north.
As much as I want to celebrate the liberation of Kherson, intelligence reports suggest that at least half of the Russian garrison in the city (actual experienced soldiers) remain, and have changed into civilian clothes to conduct urban insurgent warfare.
Ukraine is so Nazi that our Jewish president, along with our Muslim Minister of Defense, are pushing forward a bill to legalize same-sex partnerships against a country that explicitly says they want to kill us all because of our identity. Just oozing Third Reich vibes. (/sarcasm)
Daily reminder that Stalinism (or Marxist-Leninism, tankies, campism, whatever you call it) is a fascist and reactionary ideology that requires constant vigilance to keep out left spaces 💅
Used me to make me proud that Ukraine was a peaceful nation committed to disarmament, but now I understand that I was just a naive and idealistic idiot and that the military-industrial complex is a necessary and desirable aspect of an independent state.
On this day, 1994, Ukraine gave up its military capabilities, including more than 1000 cruise missiles for security guarantees and guarantees to its territorial integrity.
The Azeris have been explicit, even bragging, about their intention to genocide the Armenian population of Karabakh. This isn't some minor border scuffle, this is an operation to exterminate thousands of lives on ethnic grounds.
So much for never again.
I don't know how to stress this enough. The West refusing to provide Ukraine with the tools it needs is nothing less than Western inaction against the Nazi invasion of Poland. The only way to avoid that future is to give us what we need.
It’s also straight up racist. There are literally millions of Ukrainians that are part-Slav (white, by Joy Gray’s idiotic reckoning), or not Slav at all. I’m half-Ukrainian and half-Bengali, lumping me in with ‘blue eyed blonde hair’ is literally racist erasure.
BJG "blue eyed blonde hair" argument just shows that applying US-centric race lens to any other part of the world makes no sense. She's either ignorant or purposefully flattening all of Europe to the same group of privileged white people to make a bad faith argument.
Incredibly disappointed by
@AOC
vote on the Russian asset seizure bill. Whatever point the Congresswoman thought she and her colleagues were making is entirely overshadowed by the other no votes - only from open GOP fascists.
The thing is, it fucking ain't. This is possibly the most clearly good/evil conflict we've seen since the mid-20th century.
One country - imperialist fascist tsardom.
Invades a neighboring country - social democratic welfare state, history of being oppressed by neighbor.
Nah, my problem is that the war is a complex issue (more complex than 'Ukraine = good' or whatever it was you said) and I can't be bothered to argue it with someone as obviously unprincipled and bad faith as yourself
I'm not asking why people support the Palestinian cause - I'm asking why they steadfastly refuse to mention Ukraine in any context, especially when talking about genocide
Here we go. Sanctions were imposed on Russia almost immediately + military support from superpowers. You’re not targeted, criminalised & smeared for supporting Ukraine. Palestine is the litmus test and demands our actions in the face of 76 years of inaction
Hey
@TwitterSupport
, you banned
@SpaghettiKozak
, a man literally fighting to protect free speech against a dictator, for calling an openly avowed Nazi an idiot. Is punishing Ukrainian defenders and protecting Nazis a
@Twitter
value?
Why in god's name do news outlets do this? Why? In what world does Russian claim hold any weight??? They've been occupying the plant for over a year! This isn't a fucking mystery!
Literally just yelled ‘what the fuck’ at my screen. This is straight up genocide – forcing a new generation of Ingush people (literally their future) into dying for the Tsar instead of improving their forcibly impoverished region. The level of cynicism in this move is inhuman.
1/ Colleges in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia are issuing diplomas only if the students accept a mobilisation order at the same time. If they refuse, they face being imprisoned for up to two years. ⬇️
I don’t need to be lectured by Westerners about maintaining ‘emotional stability’ right now, thanks. Talk to me when your house is blown up, when your news is filled with stories of families burning alive or being left to rot because emergency services can’t operate.
I'm not really sure what the gotcha is when people bring up Western imperialism in response to Russian imperialism? Like yes, imperialism is bad. Good job for noticing. Here's a cookie, I guess. Is that what you wanted? A headpat for knowing that everyone does bad shit?
You dumb, insulting fucksicle. We have no idea how many people died as a direct result of Chernobyl. We do know that thyroid issues spiked way the hell up, causing lasting problems in generations of Ukrainian women, including my mother and my wife.
Chernobyl killed just 31 ppl thx to competent disaster management. A far more appropriate (but less ideologically convenient) comparison is India’s Bhopal Disaster, which claimed 4-16k lives when US company Union Carbide ignored safety procedures and poisoned an entire city. 🧵
Hi Ash, as a fellow leftist and journalist, I'll explain: Ukrainian victory means the liberation of all Ukrainian territory and the end of armed aggression against our people. That's the broad strokes. We will fight until that victory is won.
Really basic questions, like what do the Conservatives and Labour *actually mean* when they say that Ukrainian victory is the only acceptable outcome, go unasked.
Recovering all territory lost since 2022? Since 2014? These are big differences, and have huge implications.
Nearly a decade of invasion, over a year and a half of full-scale war, and still people are shocked that Russians are shelling evacuation boats and rescue workers.
THE RUSSIANS HAVE REPEATEDLY SAID THEIR GOAL IS THE GENOCIDE OF UKRAINIANS. WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND??
Armored column reported heading to the northern Kyiv suburb of Irpin. Apparently, these idiots have put up Soviet flags on their vehicles, when the more accurate would be the Russian imperial crest.
Anyway our boys will soon show them what “decommunization” fucking means
Feel more weary each day. My colleagues disappearing, our cities in ruins, world headlines filled with ‘But what the Russians have legitimate concerns though?’ Much of the modern left proving to be a reactionary, imperialist grift. Just getting more and more tired every day.
The Russians finally did it, half my in-laws house is destroyed. Miraculously my FIL and their dog survived due to him sleeping in the cellar overnight, and now he's on his way to the rest of the family.
Like I very distinctly get the sense that unlike Gaza, our being invaded by Russia has something that makes the conflict something other than plainly black and white
There cannot be, fundamentally, a peace deal in this war. Russia will never, ever accept anything less than the annihilation of the Ukrainian state, and we, as Ukrainians, will never accept being annihilated. Period.
The Kremlin is dampening hopes for a peace deal with Ukraine.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, says "the degree of progress falls short of what we would like and how the dynamic of developments demands of the Ukrainian side" – meaning Russia's ongoing assault on its cities.
I don't think there's anything that wipes any thoughts of negotiations from my mind more than looking at cousin in a hospital bed barely able to focus or speak after taking a Russian shell to the head.
They did this. Every last сукин сын of them.
My cousin is stable, he opened his eyes, knows who and where he is, memory seems intact. He'll be staying in Kharkiv for a while longer.
Thank you to everyone for their well-wishes.
If you are a Western citizen, sitting at home, looking at pictures of Ukraine, and feel helpless in the face of your cowardly, do-nothing politicans - here's what can and should do:
They wrote a whole ass manifesto and published it in one of their main papers, in which they in no uncertain terms declared their explicit intent to genocide Ukrainians.
Just completely unbelievable, who tf reads this trash and takes it seriously?
They’re saying Putin is going to propagate something worse than the final solution in Ukraine?
Honestly what are we smoking at the telegraph?
I couldn't help thinking, though, "You haven't seen Mariupol? Avdiivka?" Images from our own ruined cities absolutely took headlines at the time, it was everywhere. What has been done to Gaza shocks you?
@GodzillaM18
Ukraine has supported Israel and continues to support Israel, despite being partially occupied itself. One thousand tonnes of wheat flour, however welcome, is virtually nothing.
Friend from Mariupol writes:
People in Mariupol have come to the evacuation rally point, but it's impossible to actually hold it. The Russians keep shooting at the city and the route that the evacuation convoy is supposed to take.
I've lived in Kyiv for nine years and not once did I ever see a car towed for parking violations - today I've seen two in an hour. Truly, the EU cometh.
Fun reminder that Qatar (and not only) is a slave state and all of their so-called ‘prosperity’ was built on the backs of Bengalis, Indians, and Nepalis brought to the country and forced to work without pay, or even the ability to leave.
Someone asked me what I'll do if Putin takes control of Ukraine. Let me be clear. His thugs may seize the physical buildings of government. But there's not a Ukrainian anywhere that will take that lying down. We've seen what he did to Russia. No one wants to live in his world.
90 injured, 20 dead so far, one missile basically erased an entire medical clinic at the impact site in Vinnytsia. Across the street was a prenatal medical center.
Of course, I don't mean to belittle their feelings, or run the oppression Olympics, but nonetheless, it struck me as...an odd gap. Did they avoid every headline about Bucha? Or the mass graves in every occupied city? The destruction of Kakhovka Dam?
And yeah, of course, I don't think you can look at the devastation wrought in Gaza and not despair. But what really got me was them saying that this was the first time they'd really been shaken by stuff like this,they was really shocked
They're talking so passionately about the need to stop genocide, about injustice and rights and everything nice - and yet, they don't mention the massive ongoing genocidal invasion that started not long before the one they're eulogizing about.
Cousin took a head wound form a shell fragment while liberating Kharkiv region. He's in the hospital with apiece of the shell lodged in his brain, docs didn't remove to avoid causing internal bleeding. They put him in a medical coma so we won't know how he'll be for three days.
Why is that? Why not mention it? They mention other, historical genocides. Why leave Ukraine out? When talking about empire and colonialism and ethnonationalism - ongoing Ukrainian resistance doesn't warrant anything? A comparison with Russia doesn't come to mind?
Really struggling to understand why people are afraid Biden is signaling regime change - dude expressed the entirely correct opinion that one man should not be in a position to decide whether we all die in nuclear hellfire or not based on what his ego says that day. Like what?
Daily reminder that the Russians are continuing to threaten to nuke Europe if Ukraine isn’t given to them, so the whole “What about nuclear escalation?!?!?!” stage has long passed, and to be frank, there’s not much excuse for non-intervention anymore.
Russia is sending “problematic” Ukrainian teens to Kadyrov for “patriotic education.”
In other words, Russia is sending gay Donbas teens to Kadyrov for torture, rape, and dismemberment.
Fuck negotiations.
@BenjaminSnow14
Thank you, we’re waiting to establish some sort of semi-permanent contact with them at the moment, so getting in touch with them is spotty right now
For everyone who has sent me messages of support - I'm truly, truly grateful. I haven't been able to respond individually, but I'll try my best - if I miss someone, I'm still eternally thankful.
Thank you all again.
Glory to Ukraine!
Is it actually in question who blew up the dam? How about the people occupying it for months, the ones that mined it, the ones who have repeatedly threatened to do this exact thing? Not fucking rocket science honestly
Let me make it clear, since I see a lot of misunderstandings here: if the Russians withdrew today, the war would be over. Ukraine wants peace. The world wants peace. Russia wants to slaughter every last Ukrainian and erase any vestige of Ukrainian identity. Corbyn is a disgrace.
Labour’s former leader Jeremy Corbyn condemning Britain’s crucial military aid to Ukraine in an interview he granted to a pro-Russian, pro-Assad, pro-Hezbollah, Iranian-linked propaganda media outlet. Yikes.
This is far from the only instance of Ukraine being absent - we're absent from discussion panels (often literally, with panels containing not even a single Ukrainian), we're absent from moral arguments, mention is nowhere to be found in calls to action or protests.
Imagine if the West had a socialist movement that organized dozens of mutual aid programs in cooperation with Ukrainian orgs on the ground, pushed for refugee-friendly policies in their own countries, and took a hard line stance against Russian corruption and money laundering.
I hate the Russians for forcibly conscripting Donbas men to go and die against Ukraine. But I really struggle to understand - why die to Ukrainian guns, when you could turn your weapons against your occupiers? They clearly care nothing for you. I don’t really get it.
Lemme just say that as a 5 foot 4 brown thick-ass glasses wearing nerd, I learned very early in my life that bullies will only leave you alone after you've shown that you're willing and able to use violence against them.
When will the world learn the same lesson?
"We don't talk about Ukraine because liberals already talk about Ukraine" is literally the shallowest, most asinine, empathy-lacking response one could envision. Just admit that your condemnation and opposition to fascism and genocide is not rooted in morality, but campism.
As a leftist, it is not just shameful that Russian propaganda narratives continue to propagate on the left, but downright disturbing and demoralizing.
Fellating a feudal mafia state is not really something that’s going to bring the world closer to socialism, or anywhere.
Look, ok, if entire swathes of my ideological peers got this wrong, I’d want to understand why, not double down and continue to rage at liberals. The “Left” has an endemic problem with Russian propaganda.
@MarxMidwest
The thing about Marxism, see, is that you have to deal with reality (that's the 'materialism' part.) Rawdogging fascist propaganda isn't really all that Marxist.
There's a fascist invasion going on, do these chucklefucks burn that flag? No, they burn the flag of the alliance helping the one's fighting on the anti-fascist side.
121,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly removed to Russia, Ukraine’s Ombudswoman says. Now Moscow plans to simplify the procedure for Russians to adopt these children, potentially separating them from their families forever. This calculated cruelty is astounding.
Head of Ukraine's largest opposition party arrested, handcuffed, humiliating photograph publicly shared by Ukraine's president. All signs of a healthy European democracy.
@RomeoKokriatski
You shared a map of Russian borders that's not an empire. An empire extends beyond a country's borders. Hope that helps. You really don't know what words mean.
A Russian missile strike today killed at least 41 people and wounded a further 180 at a university in Poltava.
Why is our blood considered fair payment for 'managing escalation'? Why are the lives of our children worth some idiot's political fantasies? Who the fuck decided that
@DSA_Intl_Comm
@DemSocialists
Hi, fuck you, you are fucking fascist scum. You will never be a comrade, never work for human liberation, you will only ever serve the fat and bloated interests of the capitalist and imperialist scum. You are fucking disgusting collaborationists, and you will never be forgiven.
Why the fuck the Russians are seemingly getting lost, in the modern era of fucking smartphones?
Well, as it turns out, it seems that much of the money the Russian military had allocated for secure comms and encrypted radios has been squirreled away onto dachas and villas.