Great piece on the #KGB's reconstitution in #Russia in all-but name since the end of the Cold War, and the way this paradigm of a "counterintelligence state" undid #Putin in #Ukraine against Western intelligence systems that have absorbed new techniques. rusi.org/explore-our-re…
Offsetting the hysteria since 2016 about #Russia's government and watching the obvious failures in #Ukraine has led to some bias for the incompetence explanation over malevolence. But the malevolence really is there, much of it aimed at Russians.
https://twitter.com/ABarbashin/status/1531182054569824257
#Hungary was a key part of the problem here, though #Germany and #France remain "issues", too. Rather underlines the benefits of being out from under the #EU structure of having to gain agreement from such states to do what is necessary in a crisis.
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1531010394059423747
#Ukraine used Mi-8 Hip helicopters to resupply the besieged defenders in #Mariupol with weapons, food, medicine, comms, and 72 additional Azov Regiment fighters. Of the 16 helicopters involved in the seven missions, three were destroyed by the #Russians. thedrive.com/the-war-zone/e…
Should have been done a while ago, but good that it has been done now.
https://twitter.com/GuinieZoo_Intel/status/1531054319755309056
32-year-old Lt. Denys Antipov of #Ukraine's 95th Airborne Assault Brigade was injured by #Russian artillery in March, and went back on duty. He was killed on 11 May near the village of Dovhen'ke, in the Kharkiv region. coffeeordie.com/denys-antipov-…
Antipov spoke fluent Korean (as well as English) and had been involved in an operation that captured two North Korean spies trying to infiltrate Ukraine's space industry.
https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1531199896518373377
As #Russia closed on Kiev, a group of citizens led by Anatoliy Kybukevych from the village of Andriivka began a resistance campaign, direct and by supplying information to #Ukraine's army. The Russians took a terrible revenge, and not only on the partisans thetimes.co.uk/article/partis…
The legal Mayor of #Mariupol says that mass graves in just three districts contain the bodies of 16,000 #Ukrainians killed by the #Russian occupiers, while the total death toll is believed to exceed 22,000. When the rubble is dug out, could be much higher. t.me/mariupolrada/9…
Every little helps
https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1531203784847900675
An explanation on #Russian state TV about the role of patriotic breast implants in bringing victory in #Ukraine is the key now
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1531215281179205632
The rhetoric [on state media] is laced with a new religiosity. Hosts evoke the idea of a holy war, telling viewers that God is on Russia's side against the evil Western forces that encircle it." @TheEconomist on #Putin's wartime propaganda apparatus. economist.com/interactive/in…
#pt: "Many Russians, especially older ones, do not have the means or skills to use VPNs, and Western sanctions have made paying for them tricky, too. Plenty more consume official information by choice."
In February 1993, a shipment of 2,500 lbs of Colombian cocaine was intercepted as it crossed into #Russia. Evidence points to the involvement of the Mayor of Saint Petersburg, one of whose deputies was Vladimir Putin. Where the drugs went is a mystery. rferl.org/a/putin-cocain…
.@LawDavF looks at ways the West can help #Ukraine break the naval blockade #Russia has imposed, which is not merely a local matter, but one impacting the world economy and stability. samf.substack.com/p/breaking-the…
A lot in this piece by Russian investigative journalist Roman Anin on the path to #Putin's invasion of #Ukraine, particularly the role of the remnants of the Yanukovych government in feeding the Fifth Service of the FSB intelligence they "took upstairs" istories.media/opinions/2022/…
#pt: Anin reports on the "executive morons" like Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB Fifth Service, who staff Putin's regime. Beseda relied on ex-Yanukovych officials over Ukraine, notably Vladimir Sivkovich, whose interests are getting back to power and whose knowledge ends in 2014.
#pt: Roman Anin is also correct, obviously, to stress that there has been no change in #Putin: he and the coterie around him were always this way; the most Sovietized layer of Russia, conspiratorial and anti-American in outlook, sufferers of "Versailles Syndrome".
Anin has a neat summary of the way the former KGB officials have evolved: few maintained Communism per se, even as they kept the Sovietized vision of the US as the Main Adversary, but alongside the bust of Dzerzhinsky in their office is an Orthodox icon.
https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1531242206798962688
Had not realised properly yesterday: Sherin got a single vote out of 87 in the LDPR election - quite possibly his own. Which triggered the meltdown about the need for "depederizarion" of the LDPR, obviously alluding to the "denazification" of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1530988018085122050
After a bit of a fiasco yesterday, when the #PYD/#PKK leader Saleh Muslim appeared on Swedish television during Ankara-Stockholm talks, #Sweden has now eased some weapons export restrictions on #Turkey, presumably as a concession towards #NATO accession
https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1530947268815343617
#Poland continuing to take a leading role for #NATO
https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1530876720089288705
Rare footage of #Ukraine using an improvised explosive device (IED) against #Russia's forces
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1530812207784775680
There's a very serious point here, which is that the #US, #Germany, and others dragging their feet is getting #Ukrainians killed and wounded in larger numbers than is needed, but Kiev also has political motives to present the situation in the worst light. washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/…
Important to watch Izyum, given the knock-on effects it can have on #Russia's Donbas offensive if #Ukraine turns it around. The Russians are still making incremental gains in Donbas, but being contested in Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhia.
https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1531135850091667457
The #Russians looting Mariupol after the massacre and conquest should probably be getting some attention, as well.
https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1531135866357198848
#Britain's intel: #Russia has suffered "devastating losses" to its "mid and junior ranking officers", all the more impactful since the army "lacks the cadre of highly trained and empowered" NCOs, so the reconstituted BTGs are that much less effective.
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1531143716840284161
#Canada asking #South_Korea to backfill artillery shells sent to #Ukraine. In effect, this would mean a non-NATO state contributing to the #NATO effort against #Russia in Ukraine. reuters.com/world/having-s…
Picture from Popasna in the Luhansk Oblast of eastern #Ukraine shows #Russia's forces looting washing machines
https://twitter.com/antiputler_news/status/1531162919735631873
#France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna met #Ukraine's President Zelensky in Kiev today, where Zelensky pressed for the French to live up to their own stated values and policies by assisting in resisting #Russia's aggression. 
Unsure why #Denmark would believe pressing closer to the #EU's military structures is the answer to anything that has happened in the last three months, but there it is.
https://twitter.com/emeyersson/status/1531175029110710272
Another appalling #Russian crime in Ukraine: #French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was murdered as he left Severodonetsk in the Luhansk Oblast as part of a humanitarian evacuation, which had to be halted. No innocent explanation for the circumstances. bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur…
#Biden says: "We [the #US] are not going to send to #Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into #Russia."
This is meaningless in practical terms - rockets do not deactivate at the Russian border. But it is another dire piece of political messaging. france24.com/en/live-news/2…
This is meaningless in practical terms - rockets do not deactivate at the Russian border. But it is another dire piece of political messaging. france24.com/en/live-news/2…
A terrible scene in Rubizhne in the Luhansk Oblast
https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1531329598474043392
Looks like a scene from the Second World War, and, in fairness, for much the same reason: the zone has been ravaged as Moscow's army sweeps in from the East.
https://twitter.com/RFERL/status/1531357716970717185
#Turkey's ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to #Ukraine's President Zelensky, interestingly just a few hours after Erdogan spoke to #Russia's Vladimir Putin.
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1531358004435685377
Just not really good enough from #Germany, is it.
https://twitter.com/apolyakova/status/1531356647829950464
After #Hungary vetoed the #EU oil embargo on #Russia, a compromise has been struck that bans transfers of oil by sea, but permits them to continue by pipeline. EU Council President Charles Michel claims this amounts to a two-thirds ban on oil imports. npr.org/2022/05/30/110…
Interesting: looks like #Russia's plans for annexing parts of #Georgia are off
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1531422454421196800
Good layout of #France's view. Problem: #Macron's position that a "ceasefire", rather than #Russia's "defeat", is the way to end this: (a) *does* mean leaving parts of #Ukraine under Russian occupation; and (b) was what was tried in 2014, which got us here
https://twitter.com/Mij_Europe/status/1531289886099132416
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