Їne Back Їversen Profile picture
International journalist, writer & reporter. News correspondent in Ukraine. @ https://t.co/bvq2Vg5F3k 🇳🇴🇺🇸🇺🇦 Donate @u24_gov_ua & @backandalive

May 22, 2024, 20 tweets

1/20
This might be a difficult 🧵 to read.

It’s a hard topic to digest.
Hard images to see.
Hard questions.
About everything russia is doing,
and everything we aren’t doing.
It’s the hard truth.

But maybe right now, is a good time to take a long, hard look in the mirror.


2/20 Again we watch russia turn an area of Ukraine into crumbled concrete & burnt wood. In Kharkiv, sirens sounds up to 16hours a day. The villages we saw be evacuated yesterday, are nearly gone today.

We say: we’ll help you rebuild.
But our promise was; we’ll help you protect.

3/20 The Kharkiv mayor recently said that all Kharkiv Oblast need to keep the sky closed and people & homes protected from russias air attacks, is 2 Patriots! TWO‼️this is what triggered this thread for me. Because there’s a painful reality here, that somehow we fail to address.

4/20 Firstly, I struggling to understand how all allies together, G7, NATO, EU etc manages to talk so loud about support, yet fail to supply the bare minimum of what is needed for the second largest city in Ukraine to be able to defend itself against attacks we knew were coming.

5/20 "There is a lot of destruction and explosions. There are 3-7 explosions in one day.” Says Kharkivs Mayor, and President Zelenskyy recently said russias advantage right now, is that they’ve accumulated 10k S-300 missiles.

How come we still allow russia to gain advantages?

6/20 And yes, I ask why “WE ALLOW” it. Because I’m trying to understand how WE: the nations & governments that have endlessly vouched to “support Ukraine with everything needed to win the war”still fail to do so, and what gets delivered, comes with restrictions, far from helpful.

7/20 As a Norwegian citizen, I’ll start there: Norways latest aid announcement to Ukraine, was more or less purely support for rebuilding in the future, specifically the energy sector. Since then(1month ago) russia targeted 24 energy facilities; hit 12, some completely destroyed.

8/20 seems out aid policy is backwards. Had we focused on giving aid to Ukraine to prevent & protect from such attacks instead, there’d be 12 less facilities needing rebuilding today. And It’s not that we don’t have such aid. We do. We even got money to assist in purchasing it.


9/20 The way we speak regarding aid also feels upside down. I’ve said it before: “we support Ukraine for as long as it takes” is infuriating to hear! The focus should’ve always been: Support Ukraine enough to DEFEND themselves & DEFEAT russia, as fast as possible to end the war!

10/20 Narratives of “Aiding Ukraine prolongs the war” & “we don’t want to escalate” is simply ridiculous.
A: NOT aiding Ukraine enough is what prolongs the war.
B: Our delays & flip-flopping has given russia time to resupply, partner with other terrorists & evade sanctions.

11/20 This war has escalated, but not from us aiding Ukraine. The aggressor, who on top of what’s mentioned above, is also;
• conducting cyberattacks
• collecting data
• jamming air traffic
• commit espionage on other countries.
The source of escalation 👉🏼russia

12/20 It’s deliberate acts done by russia. They are the ones who has involved all of us, not the other way around. It’s calculated & targeted attacks. And instead of addressing it & take action, even for our own protection; our response is instead: “we don’t want to escalate”.


13/20 Let’s be blunt; we see russia continue their illegal invasion of Ukraine, commit war crimes, make deals with Iran, North Korea, China, map out infrastructure & commit sabotage in other countries, and by not giving them consequences: we are complicit. cbsnews.com/news/russian-s…

14/20 By standing by & do nothing but watch as one nation fights to death against our common enemy. By not providing enough weapons. By not even punishing russia for the crimes they commit, we’re on a he sidelines allowing the stealing, murdering,the crimes, the terrorist attack!

15/20 If we keep turning our head to look away every time russia commits another crime against humanity, who are we really supporting? Not Ukraine. Not ourself. We’re simply enabling terror to happen without consequences! And to me, that is scarier than any threat russia gives.

16/20 Again it raises the question “what is support”? Because this; little drops of aid & promises here & there; is not it! To me it’s seems we’re trying to save face, rather than Ukraine. Save reputation, rather than life. When truth is, our face & reputation shows: hypocrisy.

17/20 I’ll end by adding context to some of the heartbreaking photos in this 🧵 Taken by @Liberov in Vovchansk.

“Bodies of 2 civilian women. Next to them are 2 small, craters. For those who understand, it is immediately clear that this is not a random mine or artillery strike…”

18/20 «With a 90% probability, these are targeted drops from a drone. The women are wearing bright clothing. It is impossible to mistake them for military personnel even from a height.»The city is filled with death. Civilian bodies are on the streets and under the rubble»@Liberov

19/20
This is the hard truth.
The hard, painful, soul crushing reality.

The cost of delays, cost of not allowing Ukraine the full means to defend itself.

The cost of us not providing Ukraine enough aid to end the russian aggression and reach full victory & independence.

20/20
I hope the world see it, and take the responsibilities needed.

I hope that the hard truths will hit us in a way that we actually make those not so hard decisions;

To properly provide Ukraine with all that will finally cost russia, more than it cost Ukraine.#СлаваУкраїні

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