Merry Christmas, with thoughts of Ukraine

 Merry Christmas everyone!

The public Christmas tree of Kyiv (source).

Ukrainian air forces detected Santa's sledge in the air space of the country (generally closed for civilian aircraft) and guaranteed him a safe flight (source).

Winter Is Coming

The hat and scarf that I decided to keep because of their problematic color pattern. The hat is an industrial product, and the scarf has been knit by me to match (but I hadn't the exact same red yarn).

It is late October, and Europe is bracing itself for a difficult winter, with fuel and electric shortages due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Among the most vulnerable are the Ukrainian refugees. The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, yesterday asked them to stay where they are until the spring. The reason is that Ukraine’s energy system, all but destroyed by recent Russian attacks, would not cope if they return. However, in a relatively poor and disorderly country such as Bulgaria, their situation is precarious even in peacetime. Volunteers try to help as best as they can. 

Near my workplace is a bar run by Vasko Krapkata ("Vasko the Patch"), a renowned freedom-loving blues singer. His people periodically collect items and money donations and then distribute them among Ukrainian mothers and children who have found refuge in Bulgaria. In addition to new purchases, reused clothes, blankets and toys are welcome. This is also a nice opportunity to part with things that we no longer need but cannot simply discard because of their good quality and/or sentimental value.

Today, I gave away some things, including a baby blanket which I had kept unused for more than a decade. It is surprisingly difficult to find a nice baby blanket to buy. So what? I am well into post-reproductive age, and shall never have another baby. If in a vague and distant future a baby of a new generation appears in the family, we'll find a new blanket somehow. The same is valid for a ton of my sons' toys and puzzles which I had kept until now.

A vest which was an early knitting success for me. Off it goes!

A coat which I bought long ago for another difficult winter. It was too thin, but a true winter coat simply couldn't be found at the market. My late mother modified it and made it warm by adding a layer of woolen cloth from inside. I wore this coat for years, even during my honeymoon. But I haven't worn it recently, though it is still good. Off it goes!

My sons' childhood winter hats, and scarves I have knit to match them. Off they go! My sons are in their late teens now. In the last moment, I brought a hat and a scarf out of the bag because I realized that their broad blue, red and white stripes resembled the Russian flag. Putin has created aversion to an otherwise nice combination of colors (though this is the very least of his evils). So this particular set may not be the best for a Ukrainian refugee child. It will go to someone else.

I was just a little bit sad to part with these material traces of the past, but now I feel lighter. It is true that memories can weigh you down. For their new owners, they will be nothing more than means to help make it through the winter, probably to be discarded in spring.

Edward Snowden Adopted by Putin's Russia

Russian president, bloody dictator and genocidal warmonger Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to the wretched US traitor Edward Snowden. I think that these two creeps fully fit and deserve each other. It would be best if they embrace as good buddies and together embark on the well-known route of the Russian warship.

In Iran, another victim of the Islamic headscarf

 

As we all know, theocrats in Iran insist that women cover their heads with hijabs (Islamic headscarves), whereas many women do not want this at all. That's why the theocrats maintain morality police to enforce the Islamic dress code. Mahsa Amini (22, pictured) was arrested by the morality police on Tuesday for "education about the hijab", beaten inside the police van, and brought to a hospital several hours later in a coma. She died today.

Putin abandoned rhetoric, admitted land grab

 From the Daily Star:

"Putin hails Peter the Great, admits his own war on Ukraine is land grab

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Thursday to Tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.

"Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned (what was Russia's)," Putin said after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the tsar.

In televised comments on day 106 of his war in Ukraine, he compared Peter's campaign with the task facing Russia today.

"Apparently, it also fell to us to return (what is Russia's) and strengthen (the country). And if we proceed from the fact that these basic values form the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in solving the tasks that we face."

...Putin has repeatedly sought to justify Russia's actions in Ukraine, where his forces have devastated cities, killed thousands and put millions of people to flight, by propounding a view of history that asserts Ukraine has no real national identity or tradition of statehood...

In July 2021, the Kremlin published a long essay by Putin in which he argued that Russia and Ukraine were one nation, artificially divided. It laid the groundwork for his deployment of troops to Ukraine.

Moscow says it acted to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour. Ukraine and its allies say Putin has launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

In the run up to what Russia calls its "special military operation", Putin blamed Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, for creating Ukraine on what Putin said was historically Russian territory."

 

 

Western leaders criticized over war in Ukraine

 From Simon Tisdall at the Guardian:

"Timid Biden condemns Ukrainians to an agonising war without end

It seems odd, to put it mildly, that Joe Biden is happy to supply Ukraine with advanced rockets as long as it does not fire them at Russia. Vladimir Putin can aim missiles at Ukrainians from across the border whenever he wants – but Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s troops can’t shoot back at their tormentors.

Strange, too, that the UN is seeking Russia’s agreement for convoys to escort grain from Odesa and other Ukrainian ports. It’s Putin who is preventing 22 million tonnes of grain reaching the Middle East and Africa, where millions face famine. Don’t ask permission. Send a multinational force to smash his illegal blockade.

The US and UK have made a big fuss in the past about preserving freedom of navigation in international waters, including the Black Sea. Puzzlingly, they in effect ceded these waters on 24 February to Russia, whose navy bombards and besieges Ukraine’s cities and ports at will...

Left to fight alone, Zelenskiy pleads for heavy weapons but his pleas still often go unmet or responses are delayed. “We need to get serious about supplying [Ukraine’s] army so that it can do what the world is asking it to do: fight a world superpower alone on the battlefield,” says US Gen Philip Breedlove, formerly NATO commander in Europe. He’s right.

It’s no good relying on sanctions, as the EU proved again last week. Its decision to let Hungary’s mini-Putin, Viktor Orbán, water down an oil embargo was weird. Yet Germany’s Olaf Scholz and fellow euro-wobblers are content. Duty done on oil, they will now more stubbornly resist what their bankers and businessmen most fear: sanctions on gas.

Hardest of all to understand, perhaps, is why some Western governments persist in attempting business as usual with Putin, who they know, for certain, is overseeing atrocities and war crimes. Scholz and France’s Emmanuel Macron hold regular phone chats with him. It’s said they are realists seeking peace. No. They are dupes, normalising mass murder...

Another puzzle: why is Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s shameless spewing of disinformation tolerated around the world? Why do Russia’s ambassadors get free airtime to spin their lies?...

One reason such impunity endures is that China and India, though sworn to uphold the UN charter and international law, prefer instead to profit from Ukraine’s agony by buying cut-price Russian energy...

But, ultimately, it’s the western allies’ own policy contradictions and timidity that most undermine Kyiv at a critical moment, 100 days into the war. Half-measures are their default position. They won’t go the whole hog.

Intimidated by Putin’s nuclear hints, fearful of escalation, and alarmed at rising domestic costs, western leaders are scared, deep down, that Ukraine may win. At the same time, they are committed – politically, morally, rhetorically – to ensuring it does not lose.

The resulting confusion, representing the worst of both worlds, is personified by Biden. Ostensibly clarifying US war aims last week, he insisted Russia that must “pay a heavy price”. If it went unpunished, it would “open the door to aggression elsewhere, with catastrophic consequences the world over”.

Yet even as he raised the stakes, Biden avoided any mention of Ukrainian victory. There was nothing about winning. Instead, he spoke vaguely of future negotiations while offering personal assurances to Putin. The US did not seek his overthrow, he said. Nor would NATO attack unless attacked...

Biden’s too-modest war aims are a manifesto for the muddled middle. Where does this leave Ukraine? Still solitary, still lacking essential modern weapons, and still fighting for its life with one hand tied behind its back – by its closest friends.

And where does it leave the West? Afraid, in equal measure, of victory and defeat, and hoping, fingers crossed, for some form of shabby compromise...

This weak-kneed approach guarantees only one thing: the war will run and run. Diplomacy is stalled. Sanctions are having limited effect and, in terms of energy prices, are harming Europe more than Russia. Only increased direct and indirect NATO military pressure can shift this dynamic.

Campaigning in 2020, Biden pledged an end to what he called America’s “forever wars”. Now, tremulously pulling their punches, he and other Western leaders condemn Ukrainians to exactly that."

Diplomatic solution in Ukraine "augurs horrifying prospects"

 From Benjamin Teitelbaum, Daily Beast / Yahoo!News:

"Russia won't return occupied land. So don't ask

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recently roiled the foreign policy community by becoming the most prominent voice urging Ukraine to pursue peace talks with Russia.

Kissinger prioritized Putin appeasement over Ukrainian victory, critics alleged, exposing his wanton priorities in the process. But critics did him a favor by ignoring the specifics of his vision...

Kissinger stands out among advocates of a ceasefire because of how much detail he was willing to offer. Most others avoid discussing specifics about the content, prospects, and consequences of their diplomatic solutions. You won’t hear meaningful details from leftist academics like Noam Chomsky, nor The New York Times editorial board, nor foreign policy experts like Charles Kupchan, nor the ragtag gang of German intellectuals urging their country’s chancellor to withhold military support for Kyiv...

Voices pushing Ukraine to trade land for peace rarely specify how much territory should be sacrificed, or where.

Russian forces currently occupy an area stretching from pieces of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine’s north, circling around the Donbas in the east, and extending along the country’s southern Black Sea coast near the city of Mykolaiv. The occupied territories include rich agricultural land, multiple seaports, and a nuclear power plant. Russia has sacrificed considerably for some of it, especially in places like Mariupol, along front lines in the Donbas, and on the outskirts of Kherson city. Putin is building local governments in some of these areas, too, and his share of the Donbas is increasing.

If this is the territory Ukraine should sacrifice, hardly anyone seems willing to say so. Kissinger came close, as did Columbia University professor Jeffrey D. Sachs...

Perhaps one reason nobody wants to talk specifically or realistically about a diplomatic solution is that it, like war, augurs horrifying prospects.

Consider a peace that leaves all occupied territory in Russian hands. In reality, this would mean Ukraine loses seaports, much of its core agricultural base, and substantial, vital energy sources. Alternatively, any deal that incentivized Russia to return to the 2014 boundaries would likely entail spectacular concessions.

Indeed, it is hard to conceive of a settlement that maintains Ukraine’s fundamental nationhood while not emboldening Russian expansionism. Rather, toleration of Putin’s land-grab or offering major bounty in exchange will likely forge a new order not simply honoring Russia’s borders, but also accepting that its foreign escapades—however immoral or poorly executed—get to succeed.

Why would an agreement hold? To abandon military resistance in favor of diplomacy at this point is to put exceptional faith in the Russian government. This is the same government that, in recent decades, habitually invaded its neighbors while lying about its actions and intentions up to and during the operations themselves.

Forget the emotional impact of trying to engage in a dialogue with the unrepentant perpetrators of the massacre of civilians in Bucha. Can Kyiv trust a military that marched into Crimea in 2014 with unmarked uniforms; that told the world it was withdrawing its troops from Ukraine’s borders before invading this year; and whose obvious battlefield effort to take Kyiv diverged from its stated war aims?

Then there’s the long-term challenge of ideology. Western commentators seldom take seriously the depth of Russian nationalists’ assertion that Ukrainians are an artificial people maintaining an artificial state. Russia’s pseudo-religious claims to Ukraine are not only the pastime of obscure fanatics; they animated Putin’s speech at the outset of the invasion (“Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” he said). Why would this Russian leadership and intelligentsia ever affirm Ukraine’s sovereignty?

The advocates of “negotiation” should not be excused from addressing these topics.

Perhaps they think that Ukraine should be sacrificed and crimes against humanity tolerated for the sake of preventing inflation, food and energy crises, or a power vacuum in Russia. Fine. Let them then argue for it.

But the current strategy of proclaiming the consequences of war but not its alternatives amounts to little more than a petulant moan. At best, generic odes to diplomacy will be meaningless, given that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges that the war will end in negotiations.

A more concerning prospect is that these calls will distract from the urgent task of assisting a society under heinous attack from a nuclear-armed madman."

Fundraising campain in support of Raif Badawi

 I have written before (e.g. here) about the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for posts that the authorities did not like. After the first 50 lashes led to worldwide protests, this part of the sentence was quietly abandoned but the prison term remained.

These days, I checked to see whether Raif has been released. It turned out that he has, but he is not allowed to emigrate to Canada where his family is until he pays the hefty fine that was also included in the sentence. Therefore, a fundraising campaign is underway, under the auspice of the Giordano Bruno Foundation. I believe that nobody who reads this blog likes the idea of pouring money into the budget of Saudi Arabia of all states, but for the sake of Raif, you might consider it if you wish.

Russian invaders booby-trap dead bodies

When Ukrainian troops liberate a town from Russian invaders, they warn residents to return with caution because retreating Russians often booby-trap homes, cars, playgrounds, and even dead bodies. An example is described by Azmi Haroun, Yahoo!News:

"Russian soldiers killed a Ukrainian army volunteer on the outskirts of Kyiv and left his dead body in his car trunk fitted with a mine that later exploded when Ukrainian forces attempted to move him, according to Politico.

Lyudmyla Kyrpach, the soldier's widow, told Politico... that the day after the invasion began in late February, Oleksandr, a mechanic, organized volunteer fighters in his village of Kalynivka, near Kyiv.

By March 1, days after Russian troops had encroached on their village, Oleksandr's friends set out driving to see if they could source more intel about Russian troop movements up close... After they failed to return, he set out to find them.

"He said he would be right back," Lyudmyla told Politico. Oleksandr never returned, and unable to sleep, Lyudmyla set out the following day with her friends to find him.

She noticed his sedan on the road, with the keys in the ignition but no passengers in the car, she told Politico.

Lyudmyla's friend noticed that the trunk was riddled with bullets... and they opened the trunk to find Oleksandr's dead body. Her friend pulled her away from the car in fear that the trunk could be booby-trapped...

 

By March 4 they returned to the scene with Ukrainian soldiers.

 

According to the report, the soldiers tied ropes to his limbs and moved far from the car to pull slowly and see if the car was rigged. As soon as they pulled, the "car exploded in a ball of flames." Russian soldiers had placed weight-triggered mine under Oleksandr, Lyudmyla told Politico.

 

"Lyudmyla picked up the pieces of the man she had spent decades with and placed them in a box," Politico reported. Later, she buried him in the garden where they used to plant vegetables together."

A Russian Antigone

 From Allison Quinn at the Daily Beast:

"Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied city of Donetsk are tossing the bodies of their dead soldiers in a secret dump “by the thousands” and charging their loved ones money to find them.

That’s according to a new audio recording released by Ukraine’s Security Service on Tuesday, which is purportedly an intercepted telephone conversation between two Russians discussing how one of their missing friends was finally found.

In the two-and-a-half minute recording, an unidentified man tells his female relative that the fate of “Inna’s brother” is finally known after he went missing a month ago.

“It’s better that you don’t hear this,” the man says at first, reluctant to spill all the grim details.

After more urging, he finally explains that the unidentified dead man’s “sister went to Donetsk, and there, basically, roughly speaking, is a dump.”

“They just toss them there. And then later it’s easier to make as if they disappeared without a trace. It’s easier for them to pretend they are just missing, and that’s it,” he said, noting that “there are thousands.”

“There’s nowhere left to place them. It’s a dump. I’m telling you in plain Russian—a dump. It’s as tall as a person,” he said, adding that the site is “fenced off, sealed, they don’t let anyone in.”

According to him, the only reason local authorities at the dump site let the woman find her brother was because she paid “good money.”

After that, he said, “they rearranged it until she found [the body.]”

“It’s not a morgue, it’s a dump.… They are bringing [bodies] by the thousands,” he said, calling it a “shitshow.”...

The disturbing intercept comes after Al Jazeera on Monday released footage of refrigerated train cars holding the unclaimed bodies of Russian troops killed in Ukraine. Inside, there appeared to be human-size bodies stacked on top of each other in white bags. Ukrainian authorities said Moscow has refused to take the bodies back home, apparently to keep the lid on the sky-high death toll..."

Wake up, Russia!

Bulgaria now to give Ukraine "phantom" military aid

 From Tsvetelia Tsolova / Reuters:

"Bulgaria approves repairs to Ukrainian military equipment, not military aid

Bulgaria's parliament voted on Wednesday to allow repairs of Ukrainian heavy military equipment and seek ways to help Ukrainian exports of grains and electricity, sidestepping proposals to provide direct military aid to Kyiv.

 

European Union and NATO member state Bulgaria has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supported sanctions against Moscow, refused to pay for Russian gas with roubles and hosted over 90,000 Ukrainian refugees.

 

But the Black Sea country remains one of the few in the 27-member EU to have not sent arms and ammunitions to Kyiv as one of the four coalition partners, the Russia-friendly Socialists, opposed the move and threatened to bolt if it were approved.

 

Lawmakers voted to allow the government to provide military-technical support to Ukraine and see how it can repair Ukrainian heavy military equipment...

 

Two other proposals that supported sending military aid to Ukraine did not win enough support in the chamber."

Repairmen who showed Hunter Biden's laptop now suing media

 From Caroline Downey / National Review:

 

"Hunter Biden Laptop Whistleblower Sues Schiff, CNN, the Daily Beast , Politico

 

The Delaware computer repairman who alerted authorities to the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop sued on Tuesday Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, CNN, the Daily Beast and Politico, claiming that he suffered financial and reputational damage after they alleged that the leak was Russian disinformation.

 

Business owner John Paul Mac Isaac filed for the suit, he told the New York Post, because his livelihood was significantly disrupted by tech platforms, mainstream media, and Delaware locals after he turned in the laptop, which would eventually become the subject of a federal investigation.

 

“After fighting to reveal the truth, all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation,” Mac Isaac told the Post...

Mac Isaac said he came into possession of the laptop when President Biden’s son Hunter dropped it off at his shop for repairs in April 2019 and never came back to claim it. Authorities have since unearthed questionable content on the device relating to Hunter’s foreign business dealings and the president’s knowledge of them. The store owner first gave the laptop hard drive to the FBI in December 2019 and then to former head of the Trump campaign legal team Rudy Giuliani, who provided a copy of the hard drive to The Post.

 

After the story surfaced in October 2020 right before the presidential election, Twitter and Facebook made a concerted effort to bury it and censored the Post’s article, arguing it was unsubstantiated and illegitimate reporting. Biden and over 50 former intelligence officials smeared the laptop revelation as part of a Russian disinformation operation. Over a year later, the New York Times and the Washington Post finally confirmed the story after dismissing it as unsubstantiated for months. Hunter Biden had previously admitted that the laptop did in fact belong to him.

 

Some Republicans have argued that the early tech and liberal media suppression of the story misled the public and may have effected the results of the 2020 election. Mac Isaac said he suffered great harm as a result of the conduct of the social media companies after the story went live.

 

“Twitter initially labeled my action hacking, so for the first day after my information was leaked, I was bombarded with hate mail and death threats revolving around the idea that I was a hacker, a thief and a criminal,” he told The Post. Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, “has some explaining” to do after he rejected the new information outright back in October 2020 in what looks like an act of political favoritism, Mac Isaac noted.

 

“Without any intel, the head of the intel committee decided to share with CNN and its viewers a complete and utter lie,” Mac Isaac said. “A lie issued in the protection of a preferred presidential candidate.”

 

Mac Isaac alleges that Schiff and those around him unfairly labeled him a prop of the Russian regime for submitting the laptop to the FBI. The lawsuit includes a defamation allegation stemming from Schiff’s interview with CNN two days after The Post broke the story, during which he claimed Moscow was involved.

 

“Well we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That’s been clear for well over a year now that they’ve been pushing this false narrative about the Vice President and his son,” Schiff told CNN host Wolf Blitzer, according to the suit...

 

As a result of the false accusations, Mac Isaac says he faced intimidation and hostility at his business. He shut down the shop after people started throwing vegetables, eggs and dog excrement at his store, he told the Post. Mac Isaac is seeking “at least $1 million in compensatory damages [and] punitive damages which will be the much bigger number and will be determined at trial,” his lawyer Brian Della Rocca confirmed to the publication."

The Pope is mad

From today's article Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’by Barbie Latza Nadeau / Daily Beast: 

"Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.

“I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.”

Never mind that the 85-year-old pontiff is unable to walk after tearing a ligament in his knee (for which he says he will soon have surgery), or that Putin won’t even answer his calls. Francis repeated comments he has made in general audiences and in other interviews that the war is nothing more than a giant opportunity for a “trade in arms” and that it is still ongoing because of the constant shuttling of weapons to Ukraine. He has spoken twice by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but mostly to urge him not to fight back...

“I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done.”

Whether the Italian journalists didn’t ask—or whether he didn’t answer— there was no mention about what would happen if Ukrainians were not fiercely fighting back, whether it would mean a full annexation of the entire country, millions of deaths, or empowering an already insatiably power-hungry Putin.

Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything possible to stop the war.”..."

Russia learned the wrong lessons from previous wars

 From David Volodzko / Daily Beast, The Embarassing Truth Behind Putin's War Failures:

"Russia has been forced, humiliatingly, to withdraw some 40,000 troops from around Kyiv and Chernihiv, having failed to make any significant progress in those regions—falling back to their old targets in eastern Ukraine. This raises the question of exactly what the Kremlin learned in Syria and, more importantly, what it should have learned but obviously has not...

Some of the lessons that were not learned well enough include use of drones for artillery spotting, the danger of MANPADS on the contested battlefield, and the need for secure supply lines. Each of these factors has proven devastating for Russian forces in Ukraine...

Russia learned a few more things in Syria. Namely, how to destroy cities, terror tactics to make civilians flee, and the use of proxies as holding forces/cannon fodder.

So what went wrong? For one thing, Russia is one of the most corrupt nations in the world, and by far the most corrupt major power. Ruling a mafia state has its advantages if you’re the Godfather, but it’s hard to know whom to trust. Moscow recently purged 150 Federal Security Service (FSB) agents and sent Sergei Beseda, the head of the FSB’s 5th Service, which handles intelligence in Ukraine, to Lefortovo Prison, which was used under Stalin to conduct torture-based interrogations and mass executions. One theory says Beseda gave information to the CIA, but the official reason, which may very well be true, is that he lied to the state and stole funds meant for espionage activities in Ukraine. If true, this means Putin’s own spy chiefs not only let him bring a knife to a gun fight—they sold off the combat blade and bought a cheap butter spreader...

Russian communications are very lowbrow, and they are using unencrypted mobile phones in Ukraine, a bad habit picked up in Syria, where few opponents could understand Russian or had the technical competence to intercept...

One thing’s for certain, Russia looked at Ukraine and mistook a tiger for a cat. Now even if it decides to cut its losses and completely withdraw, it may not be so easy. As the old Chinese saying goes, when you’re riding a tiger, the hard part is getting off."

Bulgaria still refuses military aid to Ukraine

 From a yesterday's report by Tsvetelia Tsolova / Reuters:

"Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appealed to NATO and EU member Bulgaria on Thursday to provide sorely needed military aid to help his country survive Russia's invasion.

Bulgaria has condemned the invasion, voted to support European Union sanctions against Russia and is hosting more than 90,000 Ukrainian refugees, but the four-party ruling coalition remains split over whether to send arms and ammunition to Kyiv.

Kuleba, who arrived in the Black Sea country on Tuesday, said he has still not received a clear answer from Sofia on military aid.

"The best way to bring peace closer today is to stand by Ukraine, not to stand neutral," Kuleba said in the Bulgarian parliament at the opening of a photo exhibition depicting the war in Ukraine.

"Sometimes you have to make a choice, you cannot be in between, you cannot come up with endless arguments. You have to take a side and you have to take the side of truth. So all I can say is it is time to make a choice," he said...

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov's centrist PP party has proposed a compromise of sending "technical assistance for defence purposes" to Ukraine... Kuleba dismissed the PP's compromise proposal.

"If you have a helmet and a bulletproof vest, but you do not have a gun in your hands, you are doomed. So this half-measure is nice politically, but basically the message is: 'We want you to die protected'," he said.

Thousands of people have died, cities and towns have been heavily bombarded and some 11 million people - about a quarter of Ukraine's population - displaced in the war since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24.

Bulgaria's parliament is expected to debate next week, after the Orthodox Easter weekend, how to support Ukraine further.

Bulgaria was Moscow's closest ally in eastern Europe in Communist times. It has retained important cultural, tourism and trade links and is still heavily reliant on Russian gas and oil."

"Wholesale destruction of civilian neighborhoods" by Russian military

 Scott Pelley, a correspondent and anchor at CBS News and 60 Minutes, to Jack Holmes:

"In Kyiv, we went all the way up into the northern suburbs yesterday, including Bucha and Irpin. And I'll tell you, Jack, in 40 years of covering wars, I have never seen such wholesale destruction of civilian neighborhoods, absolutely senseless. It could only have been done to kill the people. There's no military reason for it. 10-story apartment buildings, blown to bits, entire neighborhoods [destroyed]. I was talking to the residents about what happened to a very large 10-story apartment building that was completely a burned out shell. And they said it had been hit by a helicopter gunship that launched rockets into it.

"Behind a church, the St. Andrew's Orthodox church, we found a mass grave. The Russians had left and retreated in such haste that they didn't bother to bury the evidence. And so the grave was open, and there were a number of people in the grave, a number of bodies in the grave, all clearly civilian women and men, elderly men, just piled up there, just waiting for mercy, just waiting for someone at some point to lift them out of that trench that they were lying in and properly bury them."

Russian teacher betrayed by students faces jail for anti-war views

 From Matthew Loh / Business Insider through Yahoo!News:

 

"A Russian teacher is facing a prison sentence, and several others were fined or fired after their students reported them for making anti-war comments, BBC Russia first reported.

Irina Gen, 55, an English teacher in the western Russian city of Penza, was speaking to eighth-grade athletes who complained that they couldn't compete in international sporting events, per the BBC, who spoke with Gen's lawyer. Many sporting bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, banned Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Gen was recorded on March 18 telling the schoolgirls that she believed the West's decision was correct. "Until Russia starts behaving in a civilized way, this will go on forever," she said. "We are living in a totalitarian regime. Any dissent is considered a crime."

According to the BBC, she told the students that Russia intended to overthrow another nation's government and that Ukraine is a sovereign state.

The teacher received a call from Russia's federal security service five days later and was told by the authorities that they had received footage of her criticizing Moscow's direction, The Guardian reported.

Gen told The Guardian she had "no idea" she was being recorded. She said she told authorities she was "merely citing respected western outlets like AP and BBC," which she believed were professional and objective.

An excerpt of her conversation with the students was posted to the Russian Telegram channel Baza. Baza reported that the schoolgirls had disagreed with Gen and handed the recording to the law."

 

Reporting any words of disagreement with the party line to the authorities is a tradition in Russia, as it was in Bulgaria during communism. To Westerners, the incident may be reminiscent of the murder of French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist over blasphemous cartoons shown in the classroom.

Resume of Russian military activities around Kyiv

 Reporter Illia Ponomarenko: 

“Russians basically came to Kyiv with an unbelievably stupid and unrealistic plan, killed a lot of people, ruined a lot of homes, and sustained heavy casualties. No results, no reserves.

Now they just have to leave before they get slaughtered in a pocket northwest of Kyiv.”

Nevzorov: Let Putin steal lest he murders!

 From Amy Kellogg / Fox News, March 27:

"A case has been opened against Alexander Nevzorov for calling the bombing of a Ukrainian maternity hospital...the bombing of a Ukrainian maternity hospital.

 Russia's Investigative Committee accuses Nevzorov, a Russian journalist and former MP, of deliberately spreading false information about the event which happened in Mariupol, Ukraine earlier this month. Conviction for such a crime could carry fifteen years in prison...

Nevzorov is out of the country... Meantime, he has a wish for President Vladimir Putin.

"For God's sake, give him 100 more palaces, give him 500 more female gymnasts!" he says, gymnasts being a reference to Alina Kabaeva...

"Just," Nevzorov continued his train of thought, "so he will not carry out his schizophrenic schemes to become lord of the world. Let him play with such palaces, let him be engaged with his personal life, let him steal as much as he wants just to take his mind off his mania to murder."

...He said most average Russians don't grasp Putin's motivations.

"Our people are in an absolute zombie state, in an absolutely false and extremely grave state of mind," Nevzorov said. "And Putin has the ability to constantly feed on this state... They want to remain trapped by propaganda.""

Ukrainian couples training together for war

Instead of planning their weddings or enjoying their marital life, these young people are preparing to fight. Source: Natalie Thomas / Reuters, reporting from Odessa on March 19.

Ukrainian defenders bid their wives and children farewell

 The photos are from the railway station in Kyiv. Men who will fight for their country say goodbye to their wives and children who evacuate by trains. Source: a March 4 report by Dylan Stableford.

 

US psychiatrists gone crazy, call grief a disorder

There is a joke that after enough years of practicing psychiatry, the profession becomes a diagnosis. For the leading figures in US psychiatry, this certainly seems true. They have added "prolonged grief" to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, defining it as inability to return to previous activities a year after a loss.

To me, the idea that an individual who has suffered a loss is expected ever to get over it completely, is crazy. Yet the addition to the Manual will open a wide door to medicate people whose only "pathology" is still mourning their deceased parent, sibling, spouse or child two or three years after his death. Overmedicating people in pain is dangerous. Not so long ago, other medical professionals, including those of the FDA itself, helpfully guided by pharmaceutical companies eager to sell their painkillers, created an opioid epidemic which has killed hundred of thousands of people and still continues.

Ukrainian warriors say goodbye to their beloved

 Photos from the railway station in Lviv on March 9 (source).

No True Russian

You may have heard about the "no true Scotsman" fallacy:

Person A: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
Person B: "But my uncle Angus is a Scotsman and he puts sugar on his porridge."
Person A: "But no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge." 

Now, it has a variety, "no true Russian": "Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday said that citizens who were speaking out against the war are not "real" Russians."

 

For what Russians are arrested

Arrests and other repressions against Russians protesting the war in Ukraine have reached absurdities that would have been comic if the entire situation was not tragic.

On March 12 in Moscow, a young man was arrested for displaying asterisks:

On March 13 in Nizhny Novgorod, a young woman was arrested for displaying a blank sheet:

Source (in Bulgarian).

Russia is trying to destroy Ukraine

 Putin's Russia has attacked freedom-loving Ukraine with full force, using rockets to ruin cities. Brave Ukrainians do wonders to defend their country. Brave Russians protest against the war and Putin and, as expected, get arrested and beaten. The West provides some help and imposes some sanctions but it seems too little too late. Why don't we stop trade with Russia altogether? The West is selling its soul for the damn Russian natural gas and the oligarch's dirty money.

Loss always hurts

 My father died the day before yesterday, and today was the funeral. He had lived to the ripe old age of 99. It was even announced that he had been the last army officer of the Kingdom of Bulgaria (my country has been a republic since 1946). And he was increasingly confused by the end. Still, the loss hurts.