Ukraine reacts to fears of Russian invasion as troops build up at the border

[Juubi Karakuchi]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ussian-gas

Germany to pay for gas in euros despite Russia’s rouble decree, says Scholz

Government activates emergency plan to manage supplies and pleads with households and industry to be sparing with usage

Kate Connolly and Philip Oltermann in Berlin

Thu 31 Mar 2022 17.42 BST

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he expects his country will continue to be able to pay for Russian gas in euros from Friday, after Vladimir Putin signed a decree threatening to enforce rouble payments from “unfriendly countries” and raising fears Moscow could be about to throttle gas supplies.

Energy contracts between Germany and Russia stipulated payments in euros, sometimes in dollars, Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, shortly after the Kremlin announced Putin had signed the decree. “In a conversation with the Russian president I have stated clearly that this will stay that way.”

The German gas payments in euros would be converted into roubles by Russia’s Gazprombank, German media reported on Thursday, based on the government’s understanding of the process. The Kremlin’s decree is formulated in such a way as to allow authorised banks to convert foreign currency in the payment process, as long as customers sign up to new conditions that include the opening of a rouble account.

Scholz’s reaction to the Kremlin’s decree echoed that of the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, who on Wednesday also tried to diffuse fears that Moscow would cut off supplies of gas used for heating and electricity.

Germans have nonetheless been urged to brace for a possible slow-down or halt of natural gas from Russia after the government triggered an emergency plan to manage its supplies.

Robert Habeck, the economics minister, has pleaded with private households and industry to use gas sparingly, telling them: “We are now in a situation where every kilowatt hour of energy that can be saved, is helpful.”

The first part of a three-point emergency plan that decides how and where supplies would be directed in case of a threat to the flow of gas and oil was activated on Wednesday. Hospitals and emergency services would be prioritised, followed by private households. Industries, which use a quarter of the gas delivered to Germany, would be the first expected to shut down.

Businesses are being urged to make individual cases for how much energy they would require if supplies had to be rationed, according to the plan, which was drawn up in 2017. The effect on industry would be a stark and have an immediate negative impact on the economy, including on supply chains and employment.

The head of the association of German towns and cities, Helmut Dedy, on Thursday urged the government to “get serious” about tackling the challenges. He suggested introducing a speed limit on autobahns of 100km an hour, earning the backing of the environmentalist lobby group BUND, which said it would argue for car-free Sundays and an end to short-haul flights.

Dedy said a halt in the flow of Russian gas or oil was now a realistic scenario and measures must be taken immediately, not least to prepare people for the situation. “We don’t want any hysteria, but we do need a stronger awareness by people and in the economy that we may be heading for a crisis of considerable scale,” he told the news agency DPA.

A speed limit on German roads had been proposed for environmental reasons during the negotiations prior to the formation of the current government, but had been rejected after opposition from the pro-business FDP.

Dedy said that Habeck was correct to trigger the emergency plan. “We need to be taking all possible measures at our disposal and on every level in order to prepare us for a supply stop from Russia, for both strategic and practical reasons,” he said.

The vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy has already been greatly exposed by the fact that 55% of its gas imports – higher than other European countries – come from Russia.

The government has repeatedly come under pressure from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to stop buying Russian gas.

The Lithuanian president said it was time for Europe to stop all energy trade with Russia. “The income from it simply serves to finance the attack on Ukraine,” said Gitanas Nausėda at a joint press conference with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, in Vilnius.

Germans were first urged to “turn down the thermostat” shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, anecdotally at least, increasing numbers appear to be doing just that. Orders for heat pumps as an alternative to gas central heating are reportedly at a record high and people are also heeding calls to save energy, including by not keeping electronic equipment on standby mode, or by switching to LED lights.

As businesses are called to show where they can reduce their energy consumption, some are even urging their employees to switch to laptops rather than using desktop computers, or are turning off showroom lights at night.

Berlin has said it planned to wean Germany off Russian gas, but Habeck has cautioned this would not be possible before mid-2024. He has not ruled out putting a temporary halt on a plan to close coal-burning plants, something that would have been considered unthinkable even a few weeks ago for the Green politician.

Bluff called.

On top of that, the Western donor countries have apparently agreed to send more and better weaponry to Ukraine; with particularly mentions of artillery, air-defence equipment, coastal defence equipment, and armoured vehicles other than tanks.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ister-says

The timing suggests that either the West is treating Putin's demands as an escalation, or they are feeling emboldened by the poor performance of the Russian forces. Maybe both.

[bilateralrope]

UKRAINE INVASION
Russian soldiers flee suspected radiation concerns at Chernobyl

The Ukrainian state nuclear company said on Thursday most of the Russian forces that occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station after invading Ukraine have left the defunct plant, and suggested radiation concerns had driven them away.

Though Russian troops seized control of Chernobyl soon after the Feb. 24 invasion, the plant's Ukrainian staff continued to oversee the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and supervise the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, causing the world's worst nuclear accident.

State-owned Energoatom said these workers had flagged earlier on Thursday that Russian forces were planning to leave the territory.

"The information is confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus," it said in a statement.

It said a small number of Russian troops remained at Chernobyl, but did not specify how many. Russian forces have also retreated from the nearby town of Slavutych, where workers at Chernobyl live, it said.

In a separate online post, Energoatom said the Russian side had formally agreed to hand back to Ukraine the responsibility for protecting Chernobyl. It shared the scan of a document setting out such an arrangement and signed by individuals it identified as a senior staff member at Chernobyl, the Russian military official tasked with guarding Chernobyl, and others.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the document. There was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities, who have denied that its forces have put nuclear facilities in Ukraine at risk.

'ALMOST A RIOT'

Energoatom said it had also confirmed information that Russian troops had built fortifications including trenches in the so-called Red Forest - the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl.

As a result of concerns about radiation, "almost a riot began to brew among the soldiers," it said in the statement, suggesting this was the reason for their unexpected departure.

Ukraine has repeatedly expressed safety concerns about Chernobyl and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops, whose presence prevented the rotation of the plant's personnel for a time.

Earlier this week, workers at the site told Reuters that Russian soldiers had driven without radiation protection through the Red Forest, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust.

Asked to comment on the accounts from Chernobyl staff, Russia's defence ministry did not respond.

Earlier on Thursday, the head of Energoatom urged the U.N. nuclear watchdog to help ensure Russian nuclear officials do not interfere in the operation of Chernobyl and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which is also occupied by Russian soldiers.

Reuters

So either someone finally convinced the soldiers about the dangers of radiation and/or Russia feels the need to redeploy these soldiers to a combat zone.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well apparently some of them were showing signs of radiation poisoning, so there's that. I'm more worried about the staff at the plant not being rotated out when they were supposed to and the effect on their health.

[Broomstick]

The staff at the plant were probably staying at the plant and were fully aware of both dangers and needed safety precautions. Yes, they were exposed to higher than normal radiation for a longer period than usual but it is part of their job. They said they were trying to warn the soldiers but said soldiers disregard the warnings.

Young, tough-guy soldiers who either weren't told or might have disregarded the dangers. It was the Russian occupiers who went driving around the Red Forest and digging in radioactive dirt. There is some question just how many Russians are actually suffering from acute radiation sickness vs. possibly just afraid they will become sick vs. being monitored for exposure levels.

I always expected that some invaders would stumble across something unhealthy in the Exclusion Zone simply because there are dangerous places there and soldiers are all too often young and a dumb. Just didn't expect the numbers being reported. I'm hoping most of them are just being monitored rather than actively sick at this point.

[Lord Revan]

The staff at the plant were probably staying at the plant and were fully aware of both dangers and needed safety precautions. Yes, they were exposed to higher than normal radiation for a longer period than usual but it is part of their job. They said they were trying to warn the soldiers but said soldiers disregard the warnings.

Young, tough-guy soldiers who either weren't told or might have disregarded the dangers. It was the Russian occupiers who went driving around the Red Forest and digging in radioactive dirt. There is some question just how many Russians are actually suffering from acute radiation sickness vs. possibly just afraid they will become sick vs. being monitored for exposure levels.

I always expected that some invaders would stumble across something unhealthy in the Exclusion Zone simply because there are dangerous places there and soldiers are all too often young and a dumb. Just didn't expect the numbers being reported. I'm hoping most of them are just being monitored rather than actively sick at this point.

I'd suspect the staff would also be more familiar with places to avoid, so even if Russian soldiers didn't go out of their way to go intentionally to places of high radiation as some dumb macho ritual, they might end up in those places simply due not being aware of where those spots are located.

[bilateralrope]

I'd suspect the staff would also be more familiar with places to avoid, so even if Russian soldiers didn't go out of their way to go intentionally to places of high radiation as some dumb macho ritual, they might end up in those places simply due not being aware of where those spots are located.

I heard somewhere about the soldiers setting up a checkpoint in one area that the workers try to get through quickly because it's a high radiation spot. But I can't find a source for that right now.

But I did find this article:
Chernobyl employees say Russian soldiers had no idea what the plant was and call their behavior ‘suicidal’

BY
TRISTAN BOVE
March 30, 2022 7:37 AM GMT+13

Weeks after Russian soldiers took over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, new reports reveal that the invading forces have engaged in reckless behavior at the facility beyond their initial shelling of it.

The Chernobyl power plant, which suffered a reactor meltdown in 1986 that left dangerously high radiation levels in the area, was the site of one of the first face-to-face confrontations in the Ukraine War. Russian forces won that battle, taking control of the reactors and raising concerns throughout Europe about their stewardship of them.

Recent reports show just how real those concerns were.

While the Russian army has occupied the Chernobyl plant, Ukrainian workers remain stationed there and overseeing the site’s safety protocols. Around 200 employees were still at Chernobyl as of March 7, according to the BBC, where they have continued carrying out duties despite limited food and medical supplies. Chernobyl workers are usually rotated out regularly, but since the Russian occupation employees have had to endure dangerous weeks-long shifts.

Two of these employees have reportedly witnessed instances of rash and dangerous conduct by the Russians, according to Reuters, with one source calling their behavior “suicidal.” Some soldiers had reportedly never heard about the disaster that some historians believe signaled the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union.

Shortly after the occupation started, Ukrainian officials warned that radiation levels at Chernobyl were rising due to a large number of heavy military machines disturbing the topsoil around the area. These reports have now been confirmed by employees working at Chernobyl around the time of the invasion who observed “a big convoy of military vehicles” driving straight through zones so contaminated with radiation that even trained safety workers at Chernobyl are not allowed to venture there.

Russian armored vehicles without radiation protection were seen driving through an area called the “Red Forest,” an area of woods four square miles in size surrounding the power plant. The area absorbed so much radiation from the Chernobyl explosion that its trees turned a gingery brown color, giving the forest its nickname. It is considered one of the world’s most radioactive places.

The employees said that the military vehicles kicked up a “big column of dust,” which may be what sent radiation levels soaring in the area following the invasion. The workers believed that breathing in that much radioactive dust could cause radiation poisoning, which can quickly turn lethal.

Valery Seida, the acting general of Chernobyl, has not been at the power plant since the invasion and could not verify the reports, but did confirm several witness accounts of recklessness by Russian soldiers who “drove wherever they needed to,” without heeding the warnings of plant safety officials.

The Russian army has made occupying nuclear power plants a common practice during its campaign in Ukraine. Around a week after taking Chernobyl, Russian forces took over the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear plant, in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Western officials have said that keeping radiation levels at nuclear power plants contained is of paramount importance. In a nearly two-hour call earlier in March, French President Emmanuel Macron spent most of the conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin discussing safety protocols at Chernobyl and other nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

Since being taken by Russian forces, Chernobyl has lost electrical power multiple times, which Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electrical grid operator, has said could impair the plant’s safety and containment protocols.

Ongoing military activity in the area surrounding Chernobyl has continued well into March. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Russian shelling near the plant was preventing workers from rotating their shifts after nearly weeks of continuous work, endangering the plant and its safety protocols.

Some soldiers who had never heard of the Chernobyl accident. All of them driving through areas that the workers do not go. Probably the only soldiers Russia could convince to stay there.

[Broomstick]

I'd suspect the staff would also be more familiar with places to avoid, so even if Russian soldiers didn't go out of their way to go intentionally to places of high radiation as some dumb macho ritual, they might end up in those places simply due not being aware of where those spots are located.

Apparently the Red Forest is littered with radiation warning signs in various languages as well as using the international radiation hazard symbol. Now, I suppose it's possible some young soldiers might not know that symbol, but presumably at least a few of them know how to read. Also, plant personnel warning them.

I'm still leaning towards "young and dumb" with another possibility that of being told by their commanders that actually the area was safe and what they were doing was totally OK.

I don't expect to ever really know for sure, at least not for a number of years.

[Solauren]

I can imagine the look on a Russian soldiers face - "Wait, you mean, I'm standing in a literal fucking nuclear disaster?"

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It gets worse:
Russian soldier 'dies from radiation poisoning' in Chernobyl.

The soldier was part of a unit that captured the Chernobyl plant in the first days of the war. The troops then occupied the 20-mile exclusion zone around the plant, where people are banned from living due to dangerous levels of radiation left over by the nuclear disaster in 1986.Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said Russian troops had dug trenches in the radioactive mud of the most contaminated part of the exclusion zone and had received “significant doses” of radiation.

They had reportedly camped in the dangerous zone known as the Red Forest, where radiation levels are at their highest and become ill “very quickly”.

Troops also drove their trucks along dirt roads without wearing radiation gear, disturbing poisonous radioactive dust, Reuters reported.

One employee at the plant said the move was “suicidal” because any dust inhaled by soldiers would likely cause internal radiation in their bodies.

He said: "The convoy kicked up a big column of dust. Many radiation safety sensors showed exceeded levels."

But Kremlin forces have now reportedly retreated to Belarus, which is a short distance from Chernobyl, where they are being treated for radiation poisoning.One soldier is thought to have died from being exposed to the high levels of radiation, the Telegraph reported.

Ukraine has said that members of the unit that occupied Chernobyl retreated due to sickness caused by the conditions.

The Ukraine defence ministry said: “The Russian occupiers have left the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

“Two key reasons: losses caused by the Ukrainian army and radiation exposure.”

Seven busloads of Russian soldiers believed to be suffering from the effects of radiation poisoning later arrived at the Belarusian Radiation Medicine Centre in Gomel, according to the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.

Energoatom said that troops had withdrawn from the defunct plant after “panicking at the first sign of illness”.The company said: “The information is confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus.”

Russian troops seized Chernobyl at the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Staff who were maintaining the facilities were held hostage by Kremlin troops and not allowed to leave.

Senior US defence officials said on Wednesday that Russian troops had now withdrawn from Chernobyl over a month later.

Energoatom confirmed on Friday that there were no longer “outsiders” at the plant and said that some Russian troops had been seen leaving for the Belarusian border earlier in the week.

In a statement on Thursday, Energoatom said: "This morning, the invaders announced their intentions to leave the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.”There have been reports that some soldiers did not realise they were camped in a radiation zone at the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident.

The exclusion zone is off limits to anyone who does not work at Chernobyl or has special permission to be there.

The Red Forest is so highly contaminated that even nuclear plant workers are not allowed to go there for risk of being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.

The site got its name when dozens of square miles of pine trees in the forest turned red after absorbing radiation from the explosion of a nuclear reactor in 1986.

The Russian military has claimed that troops stayed within a normal range of the plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAE) said it would seek an independent assessment of the site in the coming days and would send an “assistance and support mission” to Chernobyl.

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s atomic watchdog, said he would lead a visit to the area “very, very soon” in the first of such visits to Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

[His Divine Shadow]

I'm taking claims that anyone died from merely camping inside the exclusion zone with a very large grain of salt so far.

[Zaune]

I'm taking claims that anyone died from merely camping inside the exclusion zone with a very large grain of salt so far.

Merely camping there, sure. But they're also digging foxholes and latrine trenches literally slap bang in the middle of the Red Forest, and probably cutting brush to build campfires and hunting the local deer or boar because they're bored of tinned rations as well.

[His Divine Shadow]

all that you can take as incorporated into my original post really, since I knew about it just didn't bother writing it out.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It's not just the radiation that's poisoning Russians:
Russian soldiers reportedly killed by Ukrainians’ poison-laced pastries.

Two Russian soldiers have died and dozens more became sick after they were apparently poisoned by stuffed buns given to them by Ukrainians near the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine intelligence officials said.

The soldiers from the 3rd Motor Rifle Division were served the delicacies by citizens in the city of Izium, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine said Saturday.

“As a result, two invaders were killed at once, another 28 went to intensive care,” officials wrote in a Facebook post.

The conditions of the hospitalized soldiers were unclear.

The report came as another 500 soldiers fighting for Russian President Vladimir Putin were hospitalized because of alcohol poisoning, Ukraine asid. It’s unclear whether the Russian troops obtained the alcohol from Ukrainian citizens.

Russia has written off the incidents as “non-combat losses,” Ukrainian officials said.

Meanwhile, Russia on Sunday launched strikes on the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Odessa.

Oleh Synyehubov, the regional governor in Kharkiv, said Russian forces launched more than 20 strikes on the city and its outskirts in the country’s northeast over the past day.

A missile strike on the city of Lozovo wounded four people, and Russian tanks bombarded a hospital in the town of Balakliia, Synyehubov said.

On Sunday morning, Russian forces also launched an airstrike on the Black Sea port of Odessa in southern Ukraine. The Russian military said the targets were an oil processing plant and fuel depots around Odessa, which is the country’s largest port and home to its navy.

Ukrainian officials said they also have found brutalized bodies of women, children and local officials in the small city of Bucha near Kyiv, as Russian troops withdrew from the capital and its suburbs. Ukraine claimed some of the women had been raped and set on fire.

“There are murdered men whose bodies bear signs of torture,” added Oleksiy Arestovych, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Their hands were tied, and they were killed by shots to the back of the head.”

Sergey Nikiforov, a spokesman for Zelensky, told the BBC that the gruesome discoveries look “exactly like war crimes.”

The Kremlin has previously denied committing war crimes in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russia had promised last week that it would “radically” reduce its attacks around Kyiv and Chernihiv, though Ukraine has warned that it does not mean the cities wouldn’t become targets again, and the US and its allies predicted the move could simply mean Putin is regrouping.

[Dominus Atheos]

In case anyone wants to keep up with what the right are saying about Ukraine:

Ukrainian Police Said They Conducted “Clearing Op” in Bucha a Day Before Dead Body Videos Emerged – Summit News
Published 1 min ago on 4 April, 2022 Paul Joseph Watson
5-6 minutes

Ukrainian police posted on Facebook that they had conducted a “clearing op” in Bucha the day before videos emerged showing dead bodies scattered around the settlement, as the war of words over the alleged “war crime” continues.

NATO powers and pro-Ukraine commentators have seized upon the alleged atrocity in a bid to escalate the war, with MSNBC hosts and guests even asserting that it justifies directly attacking Russia and putting American boots on the ground in Ukraine.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi demanded “direct military involvement,” something that would almost inevitably kick off World War III, in response to the alleged incident.

MSNBC this morning is a full-fledged editorial for direct US/NATO intervention. The outright pro-war advocacy has reached another gear pic.twitter.com/KYLcxYcUEv

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 3, 2022

Former Army Major John Spencer also appeared on the same show to demand American “boots on the ground” in Ukraine.

MSNBC crossed a threshold today into outright lobbying for WWIII pic.twitter.com/XOCWHmwqtL

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 3, 2022

Moscow has vehemently denied involvement, claiming Ukraine shelled the city after Russian troops had already withdrawn.

The only evidence offered so far pointing to Russian responsibility is the claims of Ukrainian authorities, with are being breathlessly amplified by the mainstream media without an ounce of skepticism.

Margaret Brennan of CBS admitted that Ukrainian President Zelensky’s team had “handed” her the videos and they were broadcast, as journalist Michael Tracey wrote, with “zero independent corroboration.”

Margaret Brennan of CBS admits that Zelensky's "team" handed her some photos/videos, and she's now going to broadcast them on TV with zero independent corroboration. Just openly purveying a foreign country's war propaganda. This is what's considered Real Journalism™ in the US pic.twitter.com/PCXZ11w2kR

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 3, 2022

The notion that Ukrainian authorities, who have been caught staging innumerable incidents already in a bid to lobby for more NATO military involvement, would lie about this is seemingly not even a consideration.

A timeline provided from reporting by the New York Times suggests that pro-Ukrainian Azov neo-nazi militants entered Bucha after Russian troops left and after the Mayor of Bucha had announced the town’s liberation with no mention of any atrocities.

Mar 30:
Ru troops leave Bucha
Mar 31:
Mayor of Bucha announces town 'liberated', makes no mention of atrocities.https://t.co/WLAfjJOfZt
Apr 1/2:
Azov Nazis enter Buchahttps://t.co/WkSTMUJy4O
Apr 3:
Ukr MinDef publishes video of 'Russian' atrocitieshttps://t.co/HDUUYI7zex pic.twitter.com/PQUgD9izpz

— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) April 3, 2022

+https://summit.news/2022/04/04/ukrainia ... s-emerged/

On that Freeper website I mentioned earlier, things like this are the prevailing wisdom on what is actually going on. It stopped being funny when I realized that the last time I saw something like this, it was when the right was coalescing it's opposition to the vaccine which resulted in 100,000s of people dying.

[Broomstick]

I'm taking claims that anyone died from merely camping inside the exclusion zone with a very large grain of salt so far.

While much of the exclusion zone is probably relatively safe for camping, there are known "hot spots", leftover bits from the accident, and so forth. While it's not likely it is actually plausible that someone deliberately digging into the Red Forest could encounter a radiation hazard severe enough to cause effects.

It's one of those stories where more details and some corroboration would be helpful.

[Lord Revan]

I'm taking claims that anyone died from merely camping inside the exclusion zone with a very large grain of salt so far.

While much of the exclusion zone is probably relatively safe for camping, there are known "hot spots", leftover bits from the accident, and so forth. While it's not likely it is actually plausible that someone deliberately digging into the Red Forest could encounter a radiation hazard severe enough to cause effects.

It's one of those stories where more details and some corroboration would be helpful.

Yeah and IIRC one the worst hotspots looks like a pile of clothes someone forgot in the hospital basement (it's not, it's the first responders uniforms left there on purpose due how radioactive they were).

[AniThyng]

In case anyone wants to keep up with what the right are saying about Ukraine:


On that Freeper website I mentioned earlier, things like this are the prevailing wisdom on what is actually going on. It stopped being funny when I realized that the last time I saw something like this, it was when the right was coalescing it's opposition to the vaccine which resulted in 100,000s of people dying.

Honest question, what is the legitimate refutation to the timeline and what explains the initial delay and the Russian story that it was the Ukr militias doing?

[GuppyShark]

I echo the question. We're in the fog of war here. A false flag operation is a plausible scenario, especially if Azov is involved.

[Dominus Atheos]

1. The azov battalion is besieged several hundred miles south in Mariupol, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... -mariupol/

2. Satellite images show some of the mass graves being dug weeks ago, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sa ... 022-04-03/

3. Bodies on the streets were being reported as early as the 1st:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/red-cross-hea ... 948603.htm

Ukraine claims control over Kyiv region as Russia looks east
James Mackenzie
Fri, 1 April 2022, 5:49 pm·5-min read

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had seized back all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched the invasion.

As Russian troops regrouped for battles in east Ukraine, towns surrounding Kyiv bore scars of five weeks of fighting. Dead civilians laid scattered over streets, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russian forces of leaving behind mines.

Ukraine's troops have retaken more than 30 towns and villages around Kyiv since Russia pulled back from the area this week, Ukrainian officials said.

"The whole Kyiv region is liberated from the invader," Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Facebook. There was no Russian comment on the claim, which Reuters could not immediately verify.

In the recaptured town of Bucha, reached by Reuters, the sprawled remains of more than a dozen bodies lined one road. A mass grave in the grounds of a church was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top.

[GuppyShark]

Thanks. I do recall seeing a report that Azov was recruiting for help in Mariupol, so that checks out.

[Broomstick]

A Blueprint for Genocide:

There are several translations of this document published by the RIA Novosti which is absolutely chilling. It's also pretty long. A lot of places only show excerpts but I found an English translation of the entire document here.

Here are the highlights:

It calls almost every Ukrainian a Nazi who deserves death. Anyone who opposed the Russians in any way. "Besides the top leaders, a significant part of the masses are guilty as accomplices of Nazism, the passive Nazis. They supported and indulged the Nazi power."

It calls for an obliteration of culture. "De-Nazifying the population further consists in re-education through an ideological repression (suppression) of Nazi attitudes and strict censorship: not only in the political sphere, but critically, also in culture and education".

It calls for the economic and political destruction of Ukraine. Even the name will be eliminated. "Their political aspirations cannot be neutral – the expiation of guilt before Russia for treating it as an enemy can transpire through relying on Russia in the processes of restoration, revival and development. No “Marshall Plans” should be allowed for these territories. There can be no “neutrality” in the ideological and practical sense, compatible with de-Nazifying." and "De-Nazifying will inevitably also be a de-Ukrainizing, i.e., rejecting the large-scale artificial overblowing of the ethnic component in self-identification of the population of the territories of the historical Minor Russia and New Russia....[snip]....It must be returned to its natural boundaries and deprived of political functionality."

Russia does not seem willing to tolerate a neutral Ukrainian buffer state, the architects of this plan want to permanently sever Ukraine from Europe. "Therefore, de-Nazifying Ukraine is also inevitably de-Europeanization."

Civilians are to be punished because they are guilty and their suffering will be atonement for their "crimes". "The social “swamp” that actively and passively supported the Bandera elite by action and inaction must survive the hardships of the war and get the experience as a historical lesson and atonement for its guilt." (The author has a hard-on for this Bandera guy)

They want ALL of Ukraine, not just the so-called "breakaway" republics. The Western part is viewed as irredeemable and will be permanently occupied by Russia. The Eastern areas may, eventually, become part of Russia. "Over the alienation line, Ukraine will remain hostile to Russia but forcibly neutral and demilitarized, with Nazism formally banned. The Russian haters will go there....[snip]....The guarantee of the preservation of this residual Ukraine in a neutral state should be the threat of an immediate continuation of the military operation in case of non-compliance with the listed requirements....[snip]....From the alienation line to the Russian border there will be a territory of potential integration into Russian civilization."

Some of the "necessary steps" to de-Nazify (i.e. obliterate Ukrainian culture, politics, history, identity, etc.) include:
- "liquidation" of all Ukrainian armed forces and fighters.
- installation of all new (and presumably pro-Russian) government and law structures
- "installation of the Russian information space" (wow, that's a mouthful for "propaganda")
- complete re-structuring of all educational systems to be in line with Russian viewpoint and program
- "mass investigative actions to establish personal responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity." in other words, kangaroo courts for mass convictions and likely executions

There's more acknowledging that Russia will have no allies in this and will be isolated. It portrays Russia as the last bastion of European civilization, culture, and values. It also claims that this "liberation" of Ukraine is also its "de-colonization".

This is not some Facebook or Twitter post, it is a document published with the blessing of the Russian government. This is the official line for Putin. My take away is that the intention is to obliterate Ukraine as a nation. Why were civilians tortured and killed in Bucha and other places? Because anyone who doesn't welcome the invading Russians with open arms is a collaborator and Nazi and is to be punished and killed. There is a LOT of talk here of guilt and punishment, and none of it on the Russian side. The Russian-speakers in the Eastern oblasts are contaminated but redeemable and need to be cleansed of "Nazi" (that is, Ukrainian) influence and notions at which point they can become real Russians. Those in the West are hopeless - the subtext being that most of them should be wiped out so Russia can start over in that area. Russia will not settle for a "neutral" Ukraine of any sort. This is genocide, this is the Russian equivalent of the Final Solution.

It explains what we've seen with the targeting of civilians, the executions, tortures, the rape and looting (the "collaborators" must be "punished" to "atone" for their crimes against Russia), the "humanitarian corridors" that are anything but that (because anyone trying to flee away from Russia is a collaborator or Nazi and thus fair game to be killed).

And at this point I'm going to go throw up for awhile.

[Zaune]

Well... shit.

The good news is that the author doesn't appear to be directly employed by the Russian government: I'm not exactly sure what he does for a living but he seems to be some sort of Alex Jones-style pundit who's been banging on about the Ukraine's history of "collaborating" with the Nazis (as if they had any particular reason to like Stalin any better) for decades.

But the fact that this made it as far as being published in a state-owned news agency is still a bad sign, because the editor-in-chief wouldn't have given it the go-ahead unless they were very confident that the owners wouldn't raise any objections.

[Broomstick]

Not only that, but this echoes a lot of the talking points in Russian talk shows, TV, and other media that is filtering through to the West. This is not just one man and one article.\

The Russians are lying when they speak directly to the West. This is what they are telling themselves.

This viewpoint is incompatible with peace either short or long term.

I do believe we are in the early days of WWIII now.

Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong about that.

[Lord Revan]

Not only that, but this echoes a lot of the talking points in Russian talk shows, TV, and other media that is filtering through to the West. This is not just one man and one article.\

The Russians are lying when they speak directly to the West. This is what they are telling themselves.

This viewpoint is incompatible with peace either short or long term.

I do believe we are in the early days of WWIII now.

Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong about that.

Well I've seen news headlines that say the Baltic states are Putin's next target and what would be WWIII then as IIRC all 3 of those (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are NATO members.

[Crazedwraith]

Well I've seen news headlines that say the Baltic states are Putin's next target and what would be WWIII then as IIRC all 3 of those (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are NATO members.

They're clearly in no state to be attacking any one in addition to Ukraine for a long time.

Whether Putin knows that is another matter.