The entire Squad - @AOC, @IlhanMN, and company – along with @RoKhanna and every Democrat in the House, voted in favor of the massive lend-lease arms shipment to Ukraine, which is designed to escalate the war.

All ten votes against were by Republicans.

https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1520495981833469953

:amerikkka:

We are considering switching from these explicitly Ukraine/Russia focussed megathreads to new discussion posts/megathreads that are centered on my daily updates, which will continue as they have always been - focussed on the war, but also considering other parts of the world (and you can obviously comment what you want on them, same as on here, they don't have to only be what I've said).

If you DO want this to happen, then upbear this comment. If you DON'T want this to happen and want the megathreads in their current form to continue, then upbear my reply comment.

My coworkers were sad because apparently the Ghost of Kiev died and I had to keep from laughing at them.

In Novaya Kakhovka, the monument to Lenin, which the Ukrainian nationalists demolished in 2014, was returned to its former place. The locals managed to save the sculpture. All eight years they hid her under an awning in one of the collective farms.

https://twitter.com/bigrussianshop/status/1520559265320259584

You love to see it. :lenin-fancy:

RIP to the Ghost of Kiev, snapped his neck while attempting to suck his own dick ✊️😔

Just a personal anecdote from interacting with my relatives yesterday, here in Belarus.

Met with my sister who lives in Lithuania with her husbo and kids. They were stuck there because of covid for a while but Belarus has introduced a visa-free regime for Lithuanians and Latvians recently, for at least a month, so they came over to see ppl for the weekend. They said Lithuania is chock full of Ukraine flags, "Russians are in hiding" (Lithuania is full of Russian speakers and Russia sympathizers) and they were surprised how "calm" Belarus was in that regard.

It's true, there are no Ukraine-flag marches here, and no flash-mobs and such that you see in the media all over the EU, everyone's just going about their day. There was a pro-Russia march the other day in the capitol but it was quite small. My hunch is that maybe 30% here are staunchly pro-Ukraine, 30% pro-Russia and the rest either don't care or don't know what to think, but I'm pulling that out of my ass based on some very disparate research.

Anyway. Sister and kids decided to stay for another week , even though they weren't planning to, because the "calm." Husbo brought a jerry-can to stock up on much cheaper gas. Mind you, both of them are very much pro-Ukraine since they read the western news. It's an informational war after all. Propaganda here in Belarus tells a different story, which is also normal. But I guess it was a devious move by the "last dictator of Europe" to let Latvians and Lithuanians in, visa-free so they can buy much cheaper gas, salt and food and see it's not this insane whatever that they've been told.

On the other hand. I have a distant relative in the depths of Russia, who is very patriotic. Their mum lives here in Belarus, so they come over every summer. They are not coming this year because they think Belarus is about to get bombed. This is not my analysis (but they also have kids, so it's ok to be over cautious), but just goes on to show how fucking complicated this shit is compared to one dimensional insane stories one hears on whichever state's tv.

I'm just a bit tired personally. Sometimes giddy, sometimes doomer, always insane. Love yall XX

A video on Telegram shows wives and mothers of forcibly conscripted Ukrainian men protesting in front of a military enlistment office in Transcarpathia. The English text is a little confusing but it seems like the women were demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones, were protesting that they were not receiving proper training and equipment and were demanding their release. When the Ukrainian authorities refused to engage with the women, they started breaking windows and attacking the building.

NATO propaganda doesn't talk about it but by now lots of Ukrainians must be sick and tired of this war, and sick and tired of seeing their loved ones getting fed into a meat grinder for no good reason.

JUST IN - Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to introduce a joint resolution that would "authorize the use of U.S. Armed Forces to defend Ukraine" should Russia use chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons.

False flag time?

Kiev exports grain to Europe in exchange for weapons

Ukrainian authorities have shipped 20 million tonnes of grain crops and farm animals to Romania amid food shortages, receiving foreign weapons and ammunition in return, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, told reporters on Saturday.

Mizintsev stressed that "this is happening amid an acute shortage of foodstuffs for their own population, as well as the lack of crops in most Ukrainian regions for the spring sowing campaign.".

You can't literally eat bullets.

It's interesting how western sources are simultaneously saying that Russia's losses are catastrophic on the eastern front, which would naturally mean that Russia would go for peace soon, but also that the war will last for many more months or even years

Thanks to some reinforcement from the admins, my protracted people's war with the character limit for my updates has been indefinitely postponed, with the introduction of https://bulletins.hexbear.net/

The latest update is on there. We're also working on putting the previous ones on. And I might start putting images on there too, if I find any that are useful (not photos of combat, of course).

Enjoy!

Rehearsal for the Russian May 9th victory day parade today. T-34s with blank red banners on them. Victory over fascism was the purpose of the original may 9th parade. Victory for communism. Now the symbols are gone, and the ideology with it. It’s victory for the sake of victory. A dead, soulless husk of a celebration

Russia's army is faltering and dysfunctional but also if we don't go to war with Russia they will conquer all of Europe and resurrect the Soviet Union

:parenti:

so, by liberal logic, shouldn't the real heroes in this conflict be the Donbas separatists?

The U.S. Should Show It Can Win a Nuclear War

I don't think you can "win" a nuclear war.

The reality is that unless the U.S. prepares to win a nuclear war, it risks losing one.

...yes...

Mr. Putin had two objectives in going to war. First, he hoped to destroy Ukraine as an independent state.

No he didn't.

Russia planned to drive into Kyiv within hours, install a quisling government, and months later stage referendums throughout the country that would give the Kremlin direct control of its east and south.

No he didn't.

Aleksandr Lukashenko’s Belarus, and perhaps the Central Asian despots, would fall in line. Mr. Putin would therefore reconstitute an empire stretching to the Polish border.

No he wouldn't have.

Ukrainians thwarted that plan. Much depends on the next few weeks, as Russia stages a major offensive in the east designed to destroy the Ukrainian military’s immediate combat capacity, tear off eastern provinces, and solidify a land corridor to Crimea. But there is a serious possibility that Ukraine wins this next round of fighting. Russia has no reserves beyond its mobilized forces; its units have dwindling morale; and those formations withdrawn from around Kyiv are trained to conduct armored, mechanized, and infantry operations and poorly suited for combat. Meantime, the Ukrainians are receiving heavier weapons from the West and have begun a counteroffensive around Kharkiv, which, if successful, will spoil Russia’s attack.

If Russia’s military situation appears dire, Mr. Putin has a dual incentive to use nuclear weapons.

Perhaps a conventional response to a Russian nuclear attack would be sufficient. What if the U.S. and its allies destroyed Russian military units deployed to the Black Sea, Syria and Libya; cut all oil pipelines to Russia, and used their economic clout to threaten China, and other states conducting business with Russia, with an embargo?

The world would be cinder before you could send the order.

Most critically, if Russia used a nuclear weapon, the U.S. could use its naval power to hunt down and destroy a Russian nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine, the backbone of Russian second-strike capability.

Russia has unstoppable hypersonic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. What the fuck are you talking about?

A nuclear war should never be fought. But the Kremlin seems willing to fight one, at least a limited one. If the U.S. demonstrates it is unwilling to do so, the chance that the Kremlin will use nuclear weapons becomes dangerously real.

YOU ARE THE ONLY COUNTRY TO DROP NUKES ON ANOTHER COUNTRY IN WARTIME.