#Russia is in a very unhappy place. Little else that can be said.
https://twitter.com/tkesho3/status/1520117348891570177
#pt: If one was waging a war of aggression under the banner of "denazifying" a neighbouring state, eschewing fascist aesthetic might be considered a propaganda necessity.
https://twitter.com/irgarner/status/1520161751073017857
The temptation is for an analogy with Nicholas II taking personal charge of the army in 1915, but the truth of it is that Vladimir Putin has had centralised control over the war on Ukraine from the outset; hardly anyone else even knew it was being launched
https://twitter.com/Mij_Europe/status/1520020783967444993
An intercepted call between a #Russian soldier and his wife. She worries that this latest offensive is intended for the Donbas and Kharkiv, when the Russians can't even take Azovstal, but he reassures her Putin will use CWMD and eradicate #Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1520176923619610659
#pt: Russian soldier: "It all needs to be eradicated, so this country [Ukraine] wouldn't exist anymore ... [it] needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. ... I'll shoot everything ... I'll draw a swastika on their forehead with a knife. I'll draw it personally."
A "military expert" on #Russia's state television celebrates the creation of a "filtration camp" that can hold 100,000 people, and says the camps created in Donetsk - a hideous network of GULAGs - are the model.
Well this is strange:
The Times, citing "Ukrainian sources", says it has identified the "Ghost of Kyiv", a fighter pilot who has down 40+ Russian aircraft, as Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29.
But Russia hasn't lost 40 jets and "the Ghost" does not exist.
thetimes.co.uk/article/ghost-…
The Times, citing "Ukrainian sources", says it has identified the "Ghost of Kyiv", a fighter pilot who has down 40+ Russian aircraft, as Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29.
But Russia hasn't lost 40 jets and "the Ghost" does not exist.
thetimes.co.uk/article/ghost-…
What a photograph
https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1520221412128133121
The Pentagon spokesman gets choked up speaking about what Putin's army has done in Ukraine
https://twitter.com/JimLaPorta/status/1520122037896982530
#Britain public intelligence estimate points to #Russia's attempt to "merge and redeploy" the "depleted and disparate units" from the attack on Kiev in the east, says they are "likely suffering from weakened morale". Logistics problems still present.
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1520275307713945600
#Ukraine continuing to push back #Russia's forces around Kharkiv
https://twitter.com/guyelster/status/1520300491653189633
A nice gesture from #Spain's Queen
https://twitter.com/expatua/status/1520116916374978565
Re the reports of Putin taking personal command of the military: such a "formal" move, while making no practical difference to how the army runs, is presumably tied up with the political argument about making the "special operation" a "war", enabling inter alia mass mobilisation.
In that sense, this political/PR move could have a practical effect: it would be part of the Russian escalation in Ukraine to be announced/enacted on 9 May.
https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1520320071566073856
Putin "formally" taking charge of the army would also have the political impact abroad of preventing him evading the war crimes charges that are surely coming over Ukraine, and domestically it means there would be no scapegoat if the Donbas offensive turns into a disaster.
Zelensky's latest says #Russia is razing Donbas. Mariupol, one of the most developed cities in east, "is [now] simply a Russian concentration camp". Thanks #US for Lend-Lease, helping #Ukraine beat "the ideological successors of the Nazis". aleph.wtf/29001/ v @no_itsmyturn
#pt: Zelensky says the West's help to shows "freedom is still able to defend itself". Comments on the fuel problem in Ukraine. Thanks Britain and others for returning Embassies to Kiev. Russia is preparing to hive off Kherson. Condolences for Radio Liberty journalist Vera Hyrych.
"The more evil head of the [Anglo-American] dragon" is a moniker #Britain could live with. And he's right, too, that even at the moment of apparent alliance between Britain and the Soviets in the Second World War there was no such thing.
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1520120085133897728
The Radio Liberty journalist President Zelensky mentioned in his latest statement, Vira Hyrych, was killed by #Russia in a precision strike on #Ukraine's capital. Hyrych had been an employee at #Israel's Embassy, too.
https://twitter.com/SimonOstrovsky/status/1520029649132216321
#Kosovo helping train people from #Ukraine who will be de-mining their country for decades to come after what #Russia has done
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1520337160427167746
#Britain being abandoned for the #UAE by #Russian oligarchs. How awful 🥲
https://twitter.com/borzou/status/1520344023050952705
Thread on #Russia's blockade of the Black Sea ports, which has effectively stopped #Ukraine's exports, thus creating terrible stresses on the economy. The current workarounds - rail exports through Poland and Western aid - can't really make up for this
https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1520333220964933632
Thread. BLUF: #Russia almost certainly cannot mobilise the manpower for the Donbas offensive to succeed before #Ukraine has the weapons to stop it, and if Moscow tries a lightning strike it will go like Kiev, since RU doesn't have the logistics capacity
https://twitter.com/edwardstrngr/status/1520062147270610944
Few too many for coincidence
https://twitter.com/OlgaNYC1211/status/1520289925656154113
"The oil embargo [on #Russia] will be the biggest and most important new step in the #EU's sixth package of sanctions ... Barring an unlikely last-minute demand by Hungary, ... the process should be completed without requiring an EU leaders’ meeting" bdnews24.com/world/2022/04/…
#Russia's forces in Kherson
https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1520360254936080385
#Russia using cruise missiles from submarines to attack #Ukraine, likely to make up for the depletion of precision missiles
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1520371628521238530
Must it always be this way, #Germany
https://twitter.com/andersostlund/status/1520269785589760003
An effort, however risible, by the #Russian government to forge ideological and patronage relationships with people in occupied #Ukraine
https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1520416616164601856
A #Russian drone intended for civil use has been shot down in #Ukraine. Strange for the Russians to do this. Perhaps an indicator that supplies are running low on all fronts?
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1520419984417169409
Can see while out about: "With Christ, for Russia" 
#Russia is digging mass graves around #Mariupol to cover up its war crimes
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1520485394202124290
#Azerbaijan all in, at least rhetorically, for #Ukraine
https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1520388882445045761
One for all the people having a go at me earlier: #Ukraine officially rejects the idea "Ghost of Kyiv" is an individual and that any single person has shot down 40 Russian aircraft
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1520469409944551427
Many such #Russian """accidents""" to come
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1520492334496067584
#Ukraine's President Zelensky clearly unwilling to countenance the "deals" being urged upon him by Realists that reward #Russian aggression
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1520527963745398785
Think that would be the tenth #Russian General down (if confirmed)
https://twitter.com/KyleJGlen/status/1520466607591538688
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