Share this page!

Kyle Orton Profile picture
Twitter logo
Apr 4 • 58 tweets • 36 min read
Thread: 4 April 2022: Day 40 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
Not exactly subtle from #Russia, and quite funny to include #Belarus, which has been stripped of even the minimal sovereignty it had before the war on #Ukraine began.
#Russia's troops ransacked and looted Trostyanets, one of the towns retaken by #Ukraine's army near Sumy in the northeast. Among the victims was an elderly man who fought for the Soviets in Afghanistan, because he wouldn't give up his home.
This behaviour from #Russia's forces - and there should be no mistake (there cannot now really be any illusion): #Wagner is a Russian state entity - is proof that the atrocities in #Ukraine are not aberrational; this happens the world over.
If the West has to answer at the end of this for not sending in weapons sooner to #Ukraine, President Zelensky likewise has to account for the failure to prepare: there is no excuse for not doing it, and it is now clear it would have made a real difference
Grotesque from #Israel's Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman to be echoing the #Russian line over the atrocities in #Ukraine
#pt: It is hardly a one-off that #Israel's Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman is taking the #Russian line after some outrage: here he is after the chemical attack on the Skripals in Britain
Better from #Germany: several #Russian diplomats thrown out presumably for being intelligence officers
Important #Ukraine is helped prepare for WMD attacks, particularly with chemicals and biological weapons: #Russia has signalled pretty clearly since the start of this that such things are on its mind - and their recent quiet on the issue is not reassuring
One wishes #Britain would drop this terminology of "mercenaries" for #Wagner - senior British officials have publicly stated the truth about these forces, that they are #Russian state operatives.
Head of #Britain's SIS/MI6 says it was clear #Russia had prepared atrocities against #Ukraine from the beginning - and since the Russians were expecting a swift campaign and collapse of Kiev, the implications are rather stark.
Disheartening that popular discourse in #Russia has settled on a denialist line over the atrocities in #Ukraine
#China's media has essentially ignored the atrocities by #Russian forces that were discovered over the weekend in #Ukraine, alluding to them only by quoting Russian officials denying them.
Horrible
No doubt about the #Wagner presence in the Donbas, a unit of the #Russian military led and overwhelmingly staffed by Nazis and other far-Right elements.
#pt: on the composition of Wagner
The documentation of #Russia's forces using rape as a weapon of war against #Ukraine continues to pile up
#Australia quickly getting armoured vehicles to #Ukraine
#Germany continues to be a problem for the Alliance in setting policy on #Russia
#pt: Britain trying to get Germany to correct course
Article for #Russia's state RIA Novosti by Timofei Sergeitsev: #Ukraine's nazified elite has to be "liquidated" and the nazified masses, who can't be tried as war criminals, have to suffer through this war to atone, ending with Ukraine as a state abolished
Painting of the current state of the Russian Orthodox Church, a corrupted creature whose Patriarch has put one (rather Satanic) man above loyalty to God. instagram.com/p/Cb6QuQCqlfK/
Horrible sacrilege from #Russia's forces in #Ukraine
Narrative now becoming prevalent in #Russia's media that the West (with an outsize role for #Britain) is fabricating the evidence of genocidal conduct by the Russian army in #Ukraine, just as NATO apparently did in Jugoslavija, to justify intervention
#Russia has clearly not given up the effort to take Kyiv. Whether it can is a different issue, but it will try again.
#Russia completely set now in its response to the revelations of what its army did in Bucha and elsewhere in #Ukraine.
#Ukraine's President Zelensky's speech last night: "Concentrated evil has come to our land. Murderers. Torturers. Rapists. Looters. ... [People] who deserve only death after what they did. ... This is the nature of the Russian military."
Again, a truly national war
#European states beginning to ask that #Russia's war on #Ukraine be investigated as a genocide
#Ukraine's President Zelensky has visited Bucha, the town near Kyiv where hundreds of murdered civilians were discovered after the withdrawal of #Russian forces.
#Baltics lead the way, as ever.
#Norway's Prime Minister trying to bring some reality to #Putin; had little effect, of course.
#Austria, whose capital is a notorious playground for Russian (and other) spies, will not join in energy sanctions on #Russia
Beginning to get statements of public support for #Putin's war from various sectors of #Russian society, which had heretofore either been quiet or actually issuing notices of protest (very much including the oligarchs, universities, and the Church).
#Lithuania's Foreign Minister warns that what has been seen of #Russian conduct in Bucha and surrounding areas of #Ukraine is just the beginning
The resistance in #Belarus continues
#Biden reiterating that #Putin is a war criminal, says more sanctions are coming, calls for the gathering of evidence to settle this account later, and in the meanwhile ensuring #Ukraine is provided what is needed to prevail
Further evidence on the systemic nature of the issue with the #Russian Army's behaviour
One understands the sentiment, but if you start imposing standards at the United Nations it'll unravel the whole apparatus
A subunit of #Russia's Wagner, Rusich ("Rus person"), a virulent neo-Nazi outfit, is operating in eastern #Ukraine.
A story of its own
Mariupol has held on much longer than anyone expected, but the collapse was inevitable.
The key is that #Russia's government is not preparing for a de-escalation, a ceasefire, a compromise, or any of these other things that so many Western states hope will rescue them from the need to see this through to a #Ukrainian victory
Satellite pictures make absolutely clear #Russia is responsible for the anti-civilian massacres in Bucha, the suburb around #Ukraine's capital, Kyiv: the bodies can be seen in the streets three weeks ago when the Russians occupied the area.
nytimes.com/2022/04/04/wor…
Again, systemic, not aberrational: all over Ukraine, in Syria, in Africa, and anywhere else the Russians have deployed
The incrementalist #EU response to #Russia really isn't working
Positive signs from the #Czech Republic
A man from #Afghanistan who saw his homeland destroyed by #Russia is fighting to help #Ukraine avoid the same fate
Interesting. Potentially the first solid evidence the Asad regime has sent people to fight in Putin's war on Ukraine.
The #US administration keeps doing this: interpreting good news about the flow of the war as a chance to pull back, rather than as providing them time and space to help #Ukraine build-up and plan for victory over #Russia.
#Russia looking to expand the number of its troops sent into #Ukraine under the #Wagner flag
#Ukraine expecting worse from Borodyanka than even what happened in Bucha
How strange: Corbyn does not mention "Russia" or "Putin" in connection with the massacres in Ukraine, and demands a ceasefire that would freeze the gains of aggression in place, leaving thousands of Ukrainians under the rule of the people that did this
#US dissimulating, but not denying, over tank transfers to #Ukraine.
#pt ... on the other hand
#pt:
Interesting
A Red Cross team heading to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the city in south-east #Ukraine besieged and on the brink of falling to the Russians, is being "held" in nearby Manhush by #Russia. "It's not a hostage situation," a spokesman said. reuters.com/world/europe/r…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Kyle Orton

Kyle Orton Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @KyleWOrton

Kyle Orton Profile picture
Apr 5
Thread: 5 April 2022: Day 41 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
The Pentagon believes #Russia has temporarily reoriented to focus on conquering eastern #Ukraine first, after its attempt to seize the capital in the west was repelled.
The #US briefing suggests that #Russia's switch to conquering #Ukraine east to west (after its attempt for the reverse failed) still includes #Odessa as an immediate target, which the Russians would have to land at from the sea.
Read 32 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Apr 3
Thread: 3 April 2022: Day 39 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
#Ukraine beginning to de-mine the areas around Kyiv that they have taken back from #Russia, a process that will take years. Sadly, it's also likely some of these areas will have to be fought over again after Moscow resets and tries again for the capital.
#pt
Read 59 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Mar 23
Thread: 23 March 2022: Day 28 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
#Poland is throwing out nearly fifty #Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover at the Embassy
"The evidence of Putin's chosen path was never concealed"
Read 37 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Mar 22
This has been a depressing aspect of this war. Small, in the grand scheme, sure, but notable and lasting: there are a number of people now who one admired or at least found interesting before this war that have to be written off as terminally unreliable.
There are different streams of the "anti-woke" failure over #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine, with the wilful contrarians who just cannot stand consensus on one side, and the ideologists who hate the liberal West and thus either by conviction or default admire Putin on the other.
Some of the "anti-woke" lunacy over Ukraine has revealed certain people to be quite stupid, but simple stupidity would produce "takes" all over the map and these reliably go in one direction - namely, anti-Ukraine and/or pro-Russia. Kremlin agitprop was pushing at an open door.
Read 5 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Mar 22
From Putin's July 2021 essay: "I said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people—a single whole. These words were not driven by some short-term considerations or prompted by the current political context. It is what I have said on numerous occasions and what I firmly believe."
More from Putin's July 2021 essay: "These territories were referred to as 'Malorossia' (Little Russia). The name 'Ukraine' was used more often in the meaning of the Old Russian word 'okraina' (periphery) ... , referring to various border territories ... "
"... And the word 'Ukrainian', judging by archival documents, originally referred to frontier guards who protected the external borders."
Read 10 tweets
Kyle Orton Profile picture
Mar 22
Thread: 22 March 2022: Day 27 of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine
#Russia continues to hold Brittney Griner, an #American professional basketball player, hostage. Ms. Griner was "arrested" on fabricated charges on Feb. 17, clearly intended as leverage during the invasion of #Ukraine, which began exactly a week later.
At least five #Russian Generals have been killed in #Ukraine because Moscow has no choice but to have them at the front: the communications are not working, and morale/discipline are deeply troubled; without Generals on the spot, things would fall apart. foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/21/rus…
Read 68 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @KyleWOrton has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @KyleWOrton!

Read all threads by @KyleWOrton

:(