Ukraine Tittle-Tattle

February 25, 2022

Near full-dark this early-evening Friday here in California’s Central Valley — weather be as weather do.

Topping still all the news cycles today is/was the shit in Ukraine. Russia on the roll and Vlad Putin displaying traits of being a Hitler-like monster despite babbling near-incoherently in a late-1930s mode: ‘“Neanderthal and aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism … have been elevated in Ukraine to the rank of national policy,” he said. “How much longer can one put up with this?”‘

Bullshit lies in the exact face of reality. As I was doomscrolling through Ukraine items, I fashioned a semi-list on interesting, horrid, or weird shit, some of which you probably know already, but some just odd. I’ve kind of jotted down a few recent spots of note off a situation that most-likely will get worse, but maybe not in ways we can appreciate right now.

First off, despite the horror of war, there’s incredible Ukrainian bravery being displayed — from the top down:

Details via The New York Times late this afternoon:

As Russian missiles bombarded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky seemed to go missing.
Italy’s prime minister even told his own parliament, in a tremulous voice, that Mr. Zelensky had missed a planned call with him.

Later as Russian forces announced they had cut the city off from the western part of the country and captured strategic locations to Kyiv’s north, the Ukrainian leader emerged with one message:
“We are here,” he said in a recorded video on Friday night, standing in front of the presidency building flanked by his top advisers.
“We are in Kyiv. We are protecting Ukraine.”
…
The embattled leader, 44, who said on Thursday that his country’s intelligence services believe that he is Russia’s “number one target,” and his family the second, said he would not back down.

“Our army is here, our civil society is here, we are all here,” he said in the video, holding the camera himself and wearing military green.
“We are defending our independence, our state, and we will continue to do so.”
…
And so, Mr. Zelensky, a comedian who became the president after having played one on television, has shown himself as a determined commander in chief who was not going anywhere.

He even had the audacity to throw some sarcasm at the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, for having publicly expressed worry about him.
The reason Mr. Zelensky missed the phone call, the Ukrainian leader said in a Twitter post, was that people were dying in heavy fighting nearby.
“Next time I’ll try to move the war schedule to talk to #MarioDraghi at a specific time,” Mr. Zelensky said.
“Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to fight for its people.”

Later, Zelensky released a video address warning tonight would be the shits  — from The Washington Post‘s live blog:

President Volodymyr Zelensky in a sobering video address urged Ukrainians to be ready for the worst of the Russian assault, as forces close in on Kyiv overnight.

Russian forces suffered “very very serious losses” during the day despite “despicable, harsh and inhumane” practices, Zelensky said, crediting the bravery of soldiers and citizens taking up arms against the Russians.
But a critical battle awaits for the Ukrainian capital, he said.

“This night they will begin to storm,” Zelensky said.
“We all have to know what awaits us, and we have to withstand. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”

“We can’t lose the capital,” he added.

A series of little episodes of a looming disaster of a war — Ukraine’s UN representative Sergiy Kyslytsya

Further at C-Span.

Humane war story — from the Guardian‘s live blog late this afternoon:

Hello, this is Helen Davidson taking over the reigns of the liveblog for the next few hours. Stay with us for the latest developments as Ukraine enters what its leader has predicted will be “harder than the day”, as Russian forces threaten Kyiv.

In Kyiv, a woman has reportedly given birth in an underground metro station, where she’d been sheltering with other residents. Trains and platforms staying open to assist people. Ukrainian police said they heard screams and when they went to investigate, found a 23-year-old woman in labour.

Officer Mykola Shlapak said they helped her deliver and called an ambulance. The woman and her baby were in hospital and doing well, the force said.

Some InterWeb connections — a reverse Russkie hack:

Details at CyberNews this evening:

On Friday evening, Anonymous claimed they managed to breach the database belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Anonymous posted the database online and made it accessible to anyone. “Hackers all around the world: target Russia in the name of #Anonymous let them know we do not forgive, we do not forget. Anonymous owns fascists, always,” the group tweeted.
It seems that the database contains officials’ phone numbers, emails, and passwords. Twitter users seem excited about the news and continue discussing how they could use them to harm Putin’s regime.
“Sign them up for GOP and Trump fundraising emails. That will be enough to drive them all crazy,” one user suggested.

Many encouraged each other to send spam and malware to Russians.
The original tweet announcing the leak and containing the link to the database was taken down because it “violated the Twitter Rules.”
Anonymous updated their tweet by removing the link.

The news story has the deleted tweet.

A real-good bring-you-up-to-speed analysis/overview by Adam L. Silverman at Balloon Juice this afternoon — well worth the read, with this succulent point and the big picture:

Right now we have someone who is willing to be the tip of the spear partner in this fight. The Ukrainians are dug in, holding beyond anything I think anyone could’ve imagined on Monday. Their president is begging us, daring us, shaming us to commit. The big ask is denial of flight over Ukraine to Russian military air assets. That’s it. Fine, we can’t use NATO assets because of Putin’s ambiguity and threats. We can’t use the Finns or the Swedes for the same reason. I get it. What the fuck are the Israelis and the Jordanians doing this week? You can’t tell me King Abdullah wouldn’t put on his flight suit for this. If we can’t get a single non-NATO, non-EU partner to actually run interference for us on this, providing the necessary fig leaf, we need a complete rethink of our entire defense alliance concept.

Another real-good view today on the ramifications of this horrible Ukraine/Russia/World event comes from Andrew Weiss, noted Russian expert, in an interview on The New Republic‘s Soapbox podcast.
Great h/t to Digby and for emotionally setting up the Weiss piece with the word, ‘eek.’

Speaking with TNR editor Michael Tomasky late Friday morning, Weiss didn’t mince words about Putin’s aims in the rapidly evolving — and dire — situation in Ukraine.
Putin will not be content, Weiss says, to settle for annexing a few autonomous states in the Donbas. Rather, he asserts, Putin’s aim is clear, and has been so for a long time to those who study the region and have paid attention to the Russian president’s rhetoric: He wants to destroy an independent Ukraine.
Weiss thinks Biden’s proposed sanctions will have real bite and will “have spectacular effects.” At the same time, Putin “is loaded with cash” — some $650 billion in oil reserves.
What Putin’s doing could portend a “horrible crisis” that will consume the Biden administration and other Western governments for years.

Further — Another Doocy/Psaki moment this afternoon, reflecting the arrogant ignorance of the situation/events in Ukraine and an idiot’s attempt to act smarty-pants — cringe-worthy performance art:

Nutshell via Raw Story:

“Well, Peter, let me just take a step back and explain to everyone how diplomacy works and how our approach from the United States has worked,” Psaki replied. “What the President has done is he has built a global coalition to stand up in the face of President Putin and President Putin’s aggression and invasion of Ukraine. What he has done is he has rallied the world, our European partners, even at cost to them in some capacities, to put in place significant sanctions, historic sanctions, that would have an enormous impact on the Russian financial sector. It is President Putin’s choice to go to war and invade Ukraine. That is what he has done. It is our choice and our responsibility and the role of the President in the United States. to rally opposition and make sure they feel significant pain from that choice. That’s exactly what we have done.”

Dumb-ass in the spotlight and despite so many asshole incidents, he’s not backing down. Hard, cruel hide to shithead. We’ll just have to wait for the morrow, or later tonight — I try to leave the news and visit fictional TV tales before sleep. Must maintain some sense of dreams vs nightmares.

Guilt across the board:

Yet here we are once again…

(Illustration out front found here)

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