In 2018, I visited Bakhmut, bought some soda from this decommissioned German DHL delivery truck re-used as a mobile shop, and got a digital award for staying in “Hotel Bakhmut” in the city center. Now the city does not exist anymore because of the Russian terror.
There was a stadium behind the hotel - I tried to make my jogging exercise there, but it was extremely hot at noon in July, and I gave up after 3 km (instead of planned 10). Neither the hotel nor the stadium exist anymore.
Next day, we went to Mayorske checkpoint about 40 km from Bakhmut - the last Ukraine-controlled position before the Russia-occupied territory. People could cross the contact line there. Of course on the days when the Russians did not shell the checkpoint (they did it regularly).
The way to the checkpoint and back was quite depressing. But it was nothing compared to 2023.
There were signs warning about landlines everywhere. Street signs were pierced by the Russian bullets - as the Russians shot at “Kharkiv” name after they realized they will not get the city. Now there is much more mines and UXOs, and Kharkiv ist still free. #RussiaUkraineWar
On that 3,500-km trip around Ukraine we also visited Mariupol, including the Illicha steel plant (the older one, out of two: Illicha and AzovStal).
I jogged in Mariupol too, up to AzovStal steel plant from my hotel Reikartz (the pic). Neither the plant nor the hotel exist anymore. Where you see “8” at my map, it was the theater which the Russians bombed killing hundreds of civilians #RussiaUkraineWar#RussiaisATerroristState
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Tu-95 strategic bombers, destroyed en mass today by Ukraine's FPV drones, are not only a backbone of russia's aviation. Tu-95 was designed in 1950s, with its NK-12 engines created by a Nazi SS colonel Ferdinand Brandner, a POW in the USSR. It is a flying diesel punk Nazi crap ⬇️
Brandner was a Nazi engine designer, taken by the Soviets. He started to work for another genocidal regime, and has created the NK-12 engine, until today the largest turboprop engine. After his release in 1955, Brandner worked for antisemitic Egypt and for communist China. ⬇️
Tu-95 remains the only reliable plane for the russians, as it can carry a necessary payload of multiple cruise missiles (as many missiles fail by start, and 70-80% get shot down by Ukrainian AirDefense, russia depends on massive launches, so Tu-160 or Tu-22M cannot do this job)⬇️
A brilliant Ukrainian scholar Valery Pekar nails it: as @realDonaldTrump says, #Putin went crazy, smth happened to him, he started killing people, this marks a core Western delusion about russia: "they are organically democratic and good, the current war is just a deviation". ⬇️
Too many Western decision takers, thinkers, multiplicators believe that russia is basically a democratic culture with great culture, and any terror phase is a sort of a "mental disease", a deviation which can be healed (for instance, by removing Putin and installing Navalny).⬇️
In reality, the opposite is true: being a genocidal empire is a natural, healthy condition for russia. The concept of russia was created in the 1700s exactly as a borderless, perpetually expanding body, built on terror. It can mimic democratic institutions but never adopts them⬇️
THREAD What we witness now from the White House, is a clear smearing campaign aimed not only at @ZelenskyyUa but on Ukraine at whole. Zelensky is being used as a target, but with a goal to weaken Ukraine in whole, and to strengthen Moscow. Let me explain: 👇
President @ZelenskyyUa was verbally attacked by President Trump many times, with the following four main accusation lines:
a) Zelensky is ungrateful
b) Zelensky is corrupt
c) Zelensky is a dictator
d) Zelensky has started the war / is interested in war.
Nothing is true. 2/x👇
@ZelenskyyUa President Zelensky has thanked the U.S. people dozens of times for the help provided. "Corruption" is a typical russian lie, used also by russia-friendly voices, who claimed with no proves that Ukraine-delivered arms were "stolen". But let us address other accusations 3/x👇
Some thoughts on recent russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities 1) russia is facing a huge and growing problem with its offensive slowing down, unsustainably high losses, and even some Ukrainian counter-offensive in Pokrovsk region; 2) russia uses two tactics to counter it:👇
3) First, russia starts "negotiations". The goal is to slow Ukraine down, to limit Ukrainian striking freedom (ban Ukrainian strikes on the Black Sea navy, on russian oil refineries etc.), while accumulating military power; 4) Second, russia increases PsyOps against Ukraine. 👇
4.1) russia's missile strikes on Ukraine's cities are demonstratively brutal: ballistic missiles with cluster munition warheads aiming civilians' gatherings, incl. children playgrounds;
4.2) at the same time, russia spreads false info that they have targeted military personnel👇
THREAD: Ok, let us have a sober look at the U.S. - Ukraine - Russia - EU constellation. First: the U.S. - Ukraine agreement was not necessary for Ukraine. It was not necessary for the U.S. as well. It was necessary only for Trump, therefore he is vulnerable. Let me explain. /1
The "agreement" didn't provide Ukraine with anything. It was aimed on payment for the U.S. from Ukraine (and practically allowed the U.S. to mine Ukrainian resources on Russia-occupied lands). Trump needed it to prove that he is a great dealer. But why did Ukraine need it? /2
The agreement did not foresee any U.S. military support, guarantees, even "commitments". Ukraine paid retrospective for what they have got for free. So for Ukraine, it was a pure cost factor, for Trump - pure profit factor. And he needed it asap. Therefore - he was vulnerable. /3
In four weeks, Feb. 23rd, Germany will have preliminary elections. In this THREAD I will try to explain what it is about, who would probably win, where are bottlenecks, and what it means for the world and for Ukraine. /1 ⬇️
First, we need to understand: German electoral system is designed to dilute votes. No job higher than a city mayor gets elected directly. The reason is the Nazi past: no politician may claim being elected by the PEOPLE. So people vote for parties, and they name politicians. /2⬇️
So people vote for parties, and parties need 50%+1 vote to name a head of a region, or a chancellor. Normally, no party gets over 50%, so a coalition is needed (on a federal level, conservatives from the CDU under Adenauer have got 50,2% in 1957, but still formed a coalition)/3⬇️