No. And I will explain all the facts in this thread 🧵:
Yesterday the @nytimes published an article about the dead russians in Makiivka... and didn't bother to ask a single military expert, officer, weapons expert, or Ukrainian.
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Instead they went to an Assistant Adjunct Professor for Epidemiology at UC Berkeley, who is quoted: “It looks like most of them were shot in the head,” Dr. Rohini Haar, medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, said in an interview.
Wrong. And a military expert would
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have told the NY Times that this is nonsense.
First: here are the videos of the before and after of the incident. Video 2 in the linked tweet is before and Video 3 is after.
Here is a screenshot from Video 2.
There is a Ukrainian machine gunner on the ground (red circle). I added his line of fire in yellow.
We can also spot a toy car and a tree trunk. Those are important later.
There are two additional Ukrainian soldiers in this video, but they 4/n
will move before the next video so I did not mark them. Here is a video taken by a Ukrainian soldier that participated in the events.
Now let's analyze this video. 5/n
Here is the machine gunner from earlier. He uses a PKM machine gun. The machine gun is level with the heads of the dead russians later. His job is to keep the surrendering russians in check.
And again we see the toy car. 6/n
The toy car, a children's swing and to the right another Ukrainian soldier (which the NY Times forgot to count).
And this Ukrainian soldier doesn't have his rifle up. He is not expecting any resistance. 7/n
Two more Ukrainian troops. One with his foot on the aforementioned trunk, the other to the side behind the machine gunner. Both with their rifles pointing down. They too aren't ready for any shootout.
So we have five Ukrainian soldiers, with one filming, three having their 8/n
rifles down, and only the machine gunner ready to fire.
If we add those four Ukrainian soldiers to the overhead shot we see that only one had a clear shot of the russian (green circle) that came out last and attacked the Ukrainians. And that the filming soldier (blue circle) 9/n
was the attackers target (he is the injured soldier at the end of his video).
This is the approximate view of the machine gunner and his line of fire in yellow. Also note the wall section, the position of the 10th russian soldiers, & the hands of the first russian soldiers. 10/n
If we add the position of the Ukrainian troops and their lines of fire over a screenshot of the aftermath video, you can see that two Ukrainian troops and the machine gunner had the russians on the ground in their line of fire. Only one Ukrainian soldier had a clear shot of 11/n
attacking russian. Once this russian attacks, the soldier filming drops to the ground injured and the soldier, who had his foot on the trunk moves forward to engage. And you can hear the machine gun starting to fire - but more of that later. 12/n
After the shooting.
Bullet holes have appeared on the wall behind the dead russians. How did these get there if the russians were "shot in the head"?? 13/n
And if the russians were shot were they lay, how come that the 10th did move behind the wall?
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"shot in the head", but the helmets didn't move? I can show you videos from the war in Syria and the Armenia-Azerbaijan war: a headshot with a Kalashnikov at that range and the helmet flies off with half the skull and most of the brain. 15/n
These russian were hit by the much more powerful bullets of the PKM machine gun. How powerful?
Well, the first russian soldier's left hand got hit by one of the machine guns' 7.62×54mm bullets...
The destructive power and rate of fire of the PKM machine gun alone was enough 16/n
to kill all these russians. It was not an execution, it was not a war crime.
It was a team of 5 Ukrainian troops, four of which weren't doing their job but fooling around, who tried to take 11 russian prisoner. One russian decided to rather die than surrender, and the only
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Ukrainian soldier ready to fire did as is expected in such a situation. The soldier filming goes down = the machine gunner fires to neutralize any threat. That's it.
If the NY Times had asked a military or weapons expert instead of epidemiologists and lawyers, they wouldn't
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have provided the russian propaganda with this gift.
If you still have doubts: here is a PKM machine gun being fired, and after that I added three times the audio from the last second of the Ukrainian soldier's video.
You be the judge what we hear in that last second.
19/end
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Italy's 61º Stormo received enough of the new T-345A basic jet trainers to begin pilot training this June.
As everyone knows, I am all for growing European militaries and adding capabilities... but why does EVERYTHING have to be with US engines?
Europe must stop buying US
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made kit, components and weapon systems.
The Italian T-345A (left) and the Czech L-39 Skyfox (right) are the only two basic jet trainers currently in production in Europe... and both use a Williams International FJ44-4M turbofan made in Ogden, Utah.
Yes, there are more 2/n
American components than just the engines in both, but as aircraft are designed around their engines Europe needs to stop buying American and start building engines again.
Both planes the T-345A and L-39 Skyfox replace used European engines: the Italian MB-339 (pic) 3/n
To my American followers: it is time to plan for exile.
Doesn't mean you will have to leave, but based on experiences of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany after 1933 here are a few things to make escape and exile easier:
1) get an up to date passport (the regime might no issue you
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one in the future thus stranding you) 2) if possible get a passport from another nation. It doesn't matter which; just get a passport the regime can't cancel. 3) open bank accounts in a foreign nation (I can't stress this enough! The regime will freeze your American accounts,
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which will prevent you i.e. from booking a flight; and you will arrive in another nation penniless if you do not shift your funds into a non-American bank in a non-American nation ASAP) 4) plan for the regime putting you on a no-fly list. How can you get to the border and to
3/n
I am sorry 🇸🇪 Sweden, but I must talk about the Blekinge-class submarine procurement disaster.
Because it exemplifies what happens, when a nation guts its defence budget AND nonetheless demands from its defence industry to deliver cutting edge systems.
This never works!
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Sweden built its first submarine HM Hajen (pic) in 1904.
Since then Sweden continuously built submarines at Kockums' shipyard in Malmö and at the state owned Karlskrona shipyard.
Between December 1954 and December 1988 (34 years) the two yards launched 24 newly built and 2/n
6 upgraded submarines (The latter, the Jaktubåtarna boats, were extensively reconstructed WWII era coastal submarines).
From 1960 to 1979 Swedish defence spending was always above 3%... in 1980 the decline began, but when the last Västergötland-class submarine was launched 3/n
Those of us, who have been at Euromaidan, know that Ukrainians are fearless, fight for freedom, and never surrender.
Even if the US betrays them, they will fight on.
If you ever met a Ukrainian, you would know that.
Trump etc. have no clue, about these people. 1/9
Ukrainians stood their ground and defend their capital against these russian stormtroopers for months... in the deepest winter.
Ukrainians, like the English, Scottish, Welsh and North Irish during the Blitz 1940, never surrender. They will continue the fight even if alone. 2/9
I lived in Ukraine from 2009 to 2015... the Ukrainian people want to be European and free.
They already fought two revolutions in this century for freedom and Europe.
Now Ukrainians fight bloodiest war in 80 years to keep Europe safe from tyranny and destruction. 3/9