Countdown to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Warrigal said:
I'm a bit nocturnal and I have a radio beside my bed. I often listen to the BBC news service at different times during the night and can sometimes pick up radio Netherlands. I also watch/listen to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for news and analysis. I find non commercial media much more informative than commercial radio and TV and less sensational.

I keep in mind that during conflict some things are hidden from the public and truth is often manipulated for propaganda purposes. I try to absorb what I see/hear with a degree of scepticism but that requires a level of intellectual detachment that is sometimes hard to achieve.

I am watching the Ukraine situation with a mixture of disinterest and horror. Inside I am weeping.
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Edit.

I am now listening to an interview on ABC Radio National discussing various developments in Ukraine, Europe and US. It is 8 minutes long and is worth listening to. The man being interviewed is Prof Taras Kuzio, Research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society & a Professor of political science, Kyiv's National University Mohyla Academy

Ukraine's President Zelensky gives historic address to House of Commons - RN Breakfast - ABC Radio National
 

"Although common in wars, the amount of misinformation in this conflict is significantly more than usual. Moreover, much of the misinformation appears to be coming from third parties that are independent of both militaries or governments. Individuals around the world are using social media to spread large amounts of misinformation."

"For example, supporters of both sides are posting false videos of success for the Russian and Ukrainian Air Forces. A viral video showed a Ukrainian aircraft shoot down a Russian MiG over a Ukrainian city. Meanwhile, another trending video showed a Russian MiG avoiding a barrage of surface-to-air missiles. In reality, both of these videos were from the popular videogame Arma 3 and were eventually removed from social media."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/vikram...t-role-in-russia-ukraine-war/?sh=76302c7c2f2e
 
WARSAW, March 8 (Reuters) - Poland is ready to deploy all its MIG-29 jets to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and put them at the disposal of the United States, and urges other NATO members that own planes of that type to do the same, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
 

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Oligarch Vladimir Lisin, the chairman and main shareholder of the NLMK Group, one of Russia’s largest steel makers, has called for an immediate end to the Russian war in Ukraine. The Moscow-based billionaire reportedly sent a letter to NLMK staff, which was subsequently widely shared on social networks.
 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "Regarding NATO, I have cooled down regarding this question long ago after we understood that NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine." He added "The alliance is afraid of controversial things and confrontation with Russia. I never wanted to be a country which is begging something on its knees. We are not going to be that country, and I don't want to be that president."
 
“Free Sky” artistic action: Kyiv Classic Orchestra will play a concert on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in support of the appeal of the people and the President of Ukraine to world leaders to close the sky
9 March 2022 - 09:38
On the birthday of the world-famous genius of the Ukrainian people Taras Shevchenko, an artistic action "Free Sky" in support of the call of the Ukrainian people and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the West and other countries to close the sky over our country and stop the war will take place on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv.
Under the direction of the conductor, "Artist of UNESCO in the name of peace" Herman Makarenko, musicians of the Kyiv-Classic Symphony Orchestra who remained in the Ukrainian capital will perform the National Anthems of Ukraine and Europe (a piece of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy") and a number of famous Ukrainian musical compositions.
In particular, the orchestra will perform a fragment of the ballet "Lileya" by Ukrainian composer Kostiantyn Dankevych based on the ballad of the same name by Taras Shevchenko; "Kozachok" from the first opera on the libretto in Ukrainian "Zaporozhets za Dunayem" by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky; Ukrainian folk song "Nich yaka misiachna"; fragment of the overture to the opera "Taras Bulba" by Mykola Lysenko.
"We want the music of peace, the music of life in our performance to reach the heart of every resident of the free world and the leaders of these countries to help them find a decision that would make the Ukrainian sky, under which we will perform, safe," Herman Makarenko emphasized.
The event will be broadcast
 
Radio Free Europe



KYIV -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on Russia to agree to a cease-fire to allow repairs to the Chernobyl power plant, the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters, after it was fully cut off from the electrical grid, raising the risk of radiation leaks.

Ukraine's national energy company, Ukrenergo, said on March 9 that electricity to the plant was cut off due to a disruption of an electricity line connecting the Chernobyl nuclear plant with the electricity supplier in Kyiv.

The outage puts at risk some 20 tons of waste that must be constantly cooled to keep radiation leaking and potentially endangering "Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Europe."

"The entire power supply line of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and all its nuclear facilities controlled by the Russian Army has been damaged," Kuleba said on Twitter.

"Chernobyl has lost power. I call on the entire international community to immediately call on Russia to cease fire and allow repair crews to restore the electricity supply as soon as possible," he said, noting reserve diesel generators had a 48-hour capacity to power the plant, after which the cooling systems will stop, "making radiation leaks imminent."

The cause of the outage was not given, but during the launch of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the still-radioactive site, which lies some 100 kilometers from Kyiv, was taken over by Russian forces during a pitched battle in the area.

Since then, 210 Ukrainian personnel have been working at the nuclear plant without being rotated out for fresh workers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on March 8 that Ukraine had informed it about the urgent need to rotate the nuclear plant's personnel.

"[Ukraine] asked the IAEA to lead the international support needed to prepare a plan for replacing the current personnel and for providing the facility with an effective rotation system," the IAEA said in a statement.
 
A maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been blown up in a 'direct hit' by Russian rockets leaving children buried in the rubble, President Zelensky has said, in what he described as an 'atrocity.'

Zelensky posted a video showing the badly damaged hospital buildings, filmed inside a destroyed ward room with its windows blown out and ceiling partially collapsed. More footage showed a car park covered in rubble and the smouldering wrecks of vehicles as injured families evacuated into the freezing air while snow fell.

Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,' he tweeted.

The local city council said the hospital had suffered 'colossal' damage but did not immediately give a figure of the wounded and dead. The deputy head of Mr Zelensky's office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said authorities are trying to establish the number of victims.

Mariupol has been under heavy Russian bombardment for more than a week, with food, water and electricity cut off several days ago. Just hours before the hospital was hit, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba had warned that 3,000 babies were without food or medicines and begged for a humanitarian corridor to allow them to flee. Moscow had promised a ceasefire in the city today so civilians could be evacuated, but failed for the fourth time to keep its word.

Videos of the destruction here... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...eopens-evacuation-routes-besieged-cities.html
 
What I don't get is as a result of the invasion, certain first world countries are impounding expensive toys (yachts, jets, etc.) that belong to Russian oligarchs. How come this wasn't done last year or previous years? Maybe the powers to be knew about it but just let it go? Maybe the leaders in various countries got their palms greased? Or maybe they're just fishing for a crime?
 
Three Ukrainian volunteers were gunned down by Russian troops after they delivered dog food to starving animals at a shelter near Kyiv.


Anastasiia Yalanskaya, 26, together with Serhiy Ustymenko, 25 and Maxym Kuzmenko, 28, made the perilous journey to Bucha – 18 miles from Ukraine’s capital.


It is also close to the town of Irpin, where people are being evacuated to escape heavy shelling by Vladimir Putin’s forces.


The trio are thought to have been driving to collect Serhiy’s parents when their car was deliberately targeted with ‘heavy weaponry’ by Russian troops on Thursday.

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Dmytro Zubkov, a friend of Maxym, told the Kyiv Independent the car, driven by Serhiy, was ‘obviously’ civilian.




‘Maxym was wearing a hat with a pom pom. They didn’t look like the military at all.’


The mayor of Bucha, Anatol Fedoruk, told how relentless artillery fire in the region meant people were unable to recover their loved ones.


The Kremlin claims it is only attacking military targets – but several stories of whole families being wiped out and countless photos of destroyed residential blocks paint a very different picture.

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Anastasiia’s last Instagram story on March 3 showed her sitting in the back of the vehicle with bags of dog food.


The animals had been left for three days without anything to eat as Bucha was under heavy bombardment by Russian forces.

 
Russia's defense ministry acknowledged on Wednesday that some conscripts were taking part in the conflict with Ukraine after multiple denials by President Vladimir Putin, who said only professional soldiers and officers had been sent in. The ministry said that some of them, serving in supply units, had been taken prisoner by the Ukrainian army.
 
Ukraine has said Chernobyl could be 48 hours away from leaking radiation after it was disconnected from the national grid. Authorities have called on Russia to observe an urgent ceasefire to allow for repairs at the decommissioned nuclear plant to be made. The outage could put systems for cooling nuclear material at risk, meaning radioactive substances could be released into the air.
 
Russia has said it does not intend to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky's government nor occupy Ukraine. Using the Kremlin terminology for the war, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the goals of Russia's "special military operation" were "the protection" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in the Donbas region. The areas in the eastern part of Ukraine have been the scene of conflict since 2014, following Russia's seizure of Crimea. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-zelensky-occupy-1686260
 
This is the news I just woke up to. The reporter was a seasoned foreign correspondent for the ABC and she heard the news directly from the Deputy PM of Ukraine. The DPM showed the journalists her phone with a message to the Russians requesting permission to send in a team to send a team to repair the damaged electricity supply and said there had been no reply.

Link- Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister warns of potential Chernobyl disaster due to power cut but IAEA says situation is not critical (msn.com)

ABC NEWS

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister warns of potential Chernobyl disaster due to power cut but IAEA says situation is not critical​


The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Iryna Vereschuk, has told the ABC's Four Corners that the world faces a potential nuclear catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power station after shelling cut power to the Ukrainian plant.

"Last time it was one reactor, now it’s four and none of them have power," Ms Vereschuk, said, adding that Russian military action had blocked access to the site. If Russia doesn't take this seriously and doesn't let our repair crews through, tomorrow it may be too late."

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a ceasefire to fix power issues and said reserve diesel generators could power the plant for 48 hours but after that he would be concerned about radiation leaks.

However the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was informed of the loss of power at the nuclear plant but that it presented no "critical impact on safety". However the agency said the development at the plant violated a "key safety pillar on insuring uninterrupted power supply".

The agency had earlier reported it had lost communication with sensors at the plant.

The Ukrainian National Power Company, UKRENERGO, issued a statement saying because of "Russian Occupiers" the Chernobyl power plant was fully disconnected from the power grid and the plant has no power supply. (Apparently there are generators but they only have fuel enough for 2 days)

One key issue is the 20,000 used fuel rods kept at the site.

The Ukrainian energy regulator, Energoatom, had a grimmer assessment than IAEA, saying the 20,000 spent fuel rods at the facility needed constant cooling, using electricity. The IAEA said the heat load of spent fuel and the volume of cooling water at the site meant cooling could occur without electricity supply.

Speaking to the ABC from the heavily fortified presidential headquarters in central Kyiv, Ms Vereschuk said her Russian counterparts had not responded to urgent messages requesting access to the Chernobyl site.

"This is a threat not only to Ukraine but to Russia and the whole world," she said.

When asked what her government's next move would be, Ms Vereschuk said: "We're going to call an emergency session of the UN. We're going to address world leaders and international organisations. And that is being done as we speak."
 
todalake said:
Saw a news video of Ukrainian man who had talked to his father in Russia. Son told dad, 'we are being bombed'. Dad said no, saw on tv where Russian soldiers are handing out food and warm clothing to Ukrainians. Dad would not believe son.
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Putin has total control of the Russian media and has been deceiving his people for a long time. Troops in Ukraine have been deprived of their phones and are not able to tell their folks at home exactly what is going on and what they are being asked to do. Not surprising. It is always the same during a war - letters home to Australia were read and censored before they were allowed to be posted as far back as WW I.

The words 'war' and 'invasion' are not permitted on Russian media. We do well to remember that the first casualty of war is Truth, but eventually Truth will out.
 
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One of the world's most fearsome snipers is set to join the fighting in Ukraine after answering President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for foreign volunteers to help defeat Russian invaders. The marksman, known only by his nickname 'Wali', hails from the Royal Canadian 22nd Regiment and has previous combat experience from fighting in the Kandahar theatre during the Afghanistan War between 2009 and 2011.
 
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KUTA, Indonesia: When Russian tourist Konstantin Ivanov tried to draw money from his home bank account at a cash machine on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the transaction was blocked. Unprecedented sanctions against Russia's banks over its invasion of Ukraine are taking a toll on its citizens overseas, who have been left scrambling to find cash or turn to crypto transactions to get by.
 
Warrigal said:
I'm a bit nocturnal and I have a radio beside my bed. I often listen to the BBC news service at different times during the night and can sometimes pick up radio Netherlands. I also watch/listen to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for news and analysis. I find non commercial media much more informative than commercial radio and TV and less sensational.

I keep in mind that during conflict some things are hidden from the public and truth is often manipulated for propaganda purposes. I try to absorb what I see/hear with a degree of scepticism but that requires a level of intellectual detachment that is sometimes hard to achieve.

I am watching the Ukraine situation with a mixture of disinterest and horror. Inside I am weeping.
Click to expand...
Keeping an open mind is always a good approach. The media try to manipulate us on many subjects. It's very frustrating when what we want to do is put a stop to what is happening, but all we can do is watch helplessly. At least we are able to make it clear whose side we are on.
 
mellowyellow said:
Russia has said it does not intend to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky's government nor occupy Ukraine. Using the Kremlin terminology for the war, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the goals of Russia's "special military operation" were "the protection" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in the Donbas region. The areas in the eastern part of Ukraine have been the scene of conflict since 2014, following Russia's seizure of Crimea. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-zelensky-occupy-1686260
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I don't believe anything he says.

I saw a video today; a CNN interviewer talking to a former long-time head of the Russian embassy in Ukraine (and elsewhere) who claims he knows Putin exceptionally well. He said that Putin's military generals lie to Putin rather than ever give him bad news, because they're afraid of him. In fact, he said they would place Putin under arrest and escort him out of the Kremlin before confessing to him that things aren't going so well in Ukraine.
 

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