Big news everyone. Ukraine is off the reddit front page for the first time in over a month.

Now I'm seeing more anti-china stuff. Can't tell people have genuinely lost interest, or there's been a policy shift, or simply someone's PR contract expired.

I couldn't help but laugh at this apparent video of a Ukrainian POW trying to claim they're not a Nazi while telling the Russians that captured them that their phone passcode is 1488... :che-laugh:

https://t.me/asbmil/1073

Just realized the "It is currently 2:30:35 AM in Moscow" bit in the main page's sidebar is actually kind of useful now.

Dozens of Murdered civilians Found in Mariupol after Ukraine retreats (Some hands bound)

Looks like russia did another buca massacre, but this time it was behind Ukrainian lines before the Ukrainians retreated, they're truly scarily effective those russians

Br*tish liberals describing tonight’s air strikes as “Putin throwing his toys out of his pram” after the Moskva sinking really are a unique breed of insufferable.

Even if the increased tempo of sorties is retaliatory, how on Earth is that a childish response to the loss of a flagship of the main fleet involved in the conflict? People seem to have such an utterly bizarre, Hollywood view of war.

What if WW3 is fought entirely through proxy wars and hybrid warfare and it is never officially announced/recognized?

Oh wait that's just a repeat of the cold war.

So this is either leading to WW4 or Cold-war 2.

I've said nothing of value. And yet, I must post.

amid all the "russia evil" articles our state broadcaster has published an article titled "the nice and friendly boy who became a torturer"

and it's about a ww2 nazi

:what-the-hell:

deleted by creator

It's been really fun learning which of my self-identified socialist friends would take up arms alongside Nazis if push came to shove. "There's more to fight for" than the government they agree is corrupt and hostile to leftists. So nationalism I guess?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraina/comments/u5j6sx/monument_to_soviet_union_general_and_marshal/

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. Ukraine is tearing down a statue of Zhukov.

China really seems to be stepping up the rhetoric towards the Evil Empire. Mango Press reports:

🇨🇳 #China

Zhao Lijian, Chinese FM spokesman: “The USA must immediately cease all official contact with the island of Taiwan”

(This is what we call an ultimatum 😬)

🥭 @mangopress

Maybe this is not directly Ukraine-related but it fits in the general geopolitical "shit hits fan" vibes of this mega.

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/u5429f

Jesus christ, a white dude with a fucking odal rune tatooed on his forehead? Just... straight up fucking nazi shit, fresh and upvoted on :reddit-logo: .

There's a very, very, very slim possibility that he's just really fucking stupid, since the odal run doesn't have the little wings on it that the Nazi version uses, but I'm like 95% sure this guy's a nazi.

TV channels showing pro ukraine/ anti China shit 24/7. Holy shit how do you combat this

Economically:

Europe:

• Armenia begins paying for Russian gas in rubles. The Minister of the Economy, Kerobyan, says "We need to move to national currecies. There is progress in this direction from the Russian side."
• Finnish company Huhtamaki stops working in Russia.
• EU members intend to phase out oil from Russia over a transition period of at least one month.
• Poland signs law imposing embargo on Russian coal. Poland gets 15% of its coal from Russia.
• Nakedcapitalism speculates on how Ukraine will be repaired after the war.

Elsewhere:

• Daisuke Karakama, the chief economist at Mizuho Bank, says that disconnecting Russia from SWIFT will weaken the dollar; he also says that the decline in the role of the dollar in global foreign exchange reserves is a long term trend.
• China does not intend to release part of its grain reserves to ease the situation on European markets. Beijing will continue purchases on foreign markets to ensure its food security.
• FBI claims that two Korea hacking groups are responsible for stealing $620 million USD.
• Mongolia introduces a new recovery policy, which involves the privatization of some state-owned enterprises as well as price caps on basic goods and increasing infrastructure connectivity.

Diplomatically and Politically:

In/between Ukraine/Russia:

• Ukrainian soldiers filmed selling their APCs and western supplied weapons to Donbass militia for rubles.
• Russian MOD: In laboratories in Ukraine under the control of the United States, the possibilities of the spread of cholera, typhus and hepatitis by water were studied. They also say that the United States has created a special center in Ukraine for work on biological weapons, including those based on African swine fever, avian influenza pathogens, anthrax, and plague.
• Ukraine bans C, B, and F, as well as V and Z. They are prohibited from being placed on clothing as well as in advertising and social networks. The head of Crimea, Aksenov, says "It is unclear how Zelensky's first and last name will now be written in English."
• Putin creates an interdepartmental commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation to ensure technological sovereignty in the field of IT infrastructure development.
• Zelensky admits that Ukraine had started a war with Russia before this war even started: "That's why we wanted to join NATO... That's why we needed strong leadership from my team. That is why we fought with some political groups inside our country... We started this war even earlier"
• The south-east of Ukraine is denied representation in the Rada; the Speaker of parliament said that the members of parties representing the interests of these regions should be removed from Ukrainian politics.
• Russia: “We already have prisoners among the military personnel of NATO countries, we will show all this when we put them on trial. The whole world will see what really happened.”
• The city of Alyosha of the Kherson region has come under control of Russian administration, according to the city's mayor.
• Ukrainian and Donbass refugees in Russia exceed 800,000 people.

Elsewhere:

• Ukraine is requesting that the USA sells them MQ9 Reapers
• A drone was shot down on the border between Belarus and Lithuania by the Belarus border guard.
• Warsaw has announced plans to destroy 60 monuments to Soviet soldiers.
• Maduro expressed regret of the blocking of RT and Sputnik, which helped him receive news from around the world. He also criticized the censorship of Russian culture by the West, calling it "pure fascism".
• Iraq's Foreign Minister meets with the President of Iran.
• China's Global Times newspaper says: "The US has no qualification to lecture an independent India on human rights. It's high time that the US stopped dreaming of reducing India to its client state, stop riding its moral high horse and learn to deal with emerging powers."
• Russia demands that the US stops arming Ukraine, threatening "unpredictable consequences" otherwise.
• Germany, France, and the US suspend scientific co-operation with Russia. There has been a pause in co-operation with China.
• India receives more Russian missile defense systems.
• NATO announces that US nuclear bombs shared with European allies will be deployed on F-35s, saying that by the end of the decade, most if not all of NATO will have transitioned to the F-35. Thus, NATO threatens nuclear accidents all over Europe.

Militarily:

• @AOCapitulator links to a twitter thread/article about the context leading up to the war.
• Chechens say they liquidated a representative of the US intelligence agency in the Donbass.
• The Moskva confirmed to have sunk after an attempt to tow it back to Sevastapol (Crimea).
• The surrender of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol continues.
• Russian MOD says that the Illyich factory in Mariupol is now under full Russian control, leaving the last neo-Nazi stronghold in Mariupol - the Azovstal factory.
• Ukrainian Su-27 show down in Kharkov oblast.
• Ukraine shells the village of Spodaryushino in Belogorod.
• Russian MOD says that the number and scale of the missile attacks on facilities in Kiev will now increase due to their sabotage in Russian territory.
• Russia destroys 7 more military facilities.
• Russian MOD says that the Ukrainian neo-Nazis are holding 6224 foreigners hostage.
• Hal Brands, Bloomberg columnist, and author of a book about the Cold War says that Washington (and other nations) are approaching a turning point in supplying Ukraine with weaponry, as they spend a week's supply of anti-tank ammo every day, among other massive daily demands. Sooner or later western nations will need to make a serious decision between Ukraine's security or their own.
• Putin touts the idea of moving nuclear forces close to the Baltic Sea in the event that Finland or Sweden decide to join NATO.
• The Pentagon instructs the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to withdraw all remaining artillery to the cities on the eastern front - Kharkov, Dnipro, Zaporozhye - where they can fire behind civilians.
• Russia reports 30 Polish militants near Izyum have been killed.
• Air raid sirens across all major cities in Ukraine.
• Powerful explosions in Kramatorsk and Artemovsk.
• Explosions in Kharkov, Mykolaiv, Zhitomir, Berdichev. Fires in Kharkov.
• Explosions in the Kiev region, residents saying that "such a shockwave has not yet been felt for all this time."
• Bright flashes and explosions in Kiev.
• Huge areas of Kiev have no electricity due to the Russian strikes.
• Explosions in Odessa.
• Night strikes on Mirgorod and Starokonstantinov.
• Intelslava predicts that the big battle on the Donbass front will begin within 48 hours, citing the concentration of reserves; the sufficient rest of the Kiev, Chernigev and Sumy troops; the clashes south of Izyum (above the coming cauldron); and unprecendented concentrations of aircraft in close airfields.

Also:

• The Ukrainian team will replace the Russian team at the 2022 Volleyball World Championship. I was waiting for this critical announcement. I think Putin will have to stop the war now.
• China will hold military exercises near Taiwan in response to the provocations of the United States. Chinese Foreign Ministry: "Mainland China and Taiwan will definitely be united, despite the statements of the United States.". Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman: “The USA must immediately cease all official contact with the island of Taiwan”
• DPRK builds some snazzy new residential areas in Pyongyang.

When you look up Euromaidan and it's not a cool metal band like you expected :walter-breakdown: