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Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Apr 26, 2023 • 25 tweets • 10 min read • Read on X

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I find the collective, deliberate amnesia, as well as the refusal to acknowledge the many nuances & complexities, that both birthed & raised this tragic #UkraineRussia war, quite simply - absurd.
In this video from April 2014, acting #Ukrainian president Turchynov announces the #ATO against his own citizens in Eastern Ukraine prior to the Geneva Summit.
Consider this for a moment, why was it a Revolution of Dignity in the #Maidan yet a Terrorist Uprising in #Donbass?

On April 16, the 2nd day of the campaign, Ukrainian military moving into Sloviansk, the focal point of the pro-Russia forces, gave up their equipment. The armory was brought to the center of town where it had become a local amusement. Elsewhere, crowds of pro-Russia protesters stopped a column of Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk and made them disarm.
I believe that most people, including the army that was sent to carry out the ATO in the east, were in utter disbelief of what was happening. Those that disarmed and switched sides didn't wish to go to war against their own people.

A video from the New York Times from early spring 2014. Both sides provide insights. If you see enough of these, you should pick up on the consistencies from the pro-Russian side especially when it comes to their perception of the new government in Kyiv and their wish for self-determination.

Western coverage post the Geneva Summit on Ukraine (a precursor to Minsk I & II) and the almost immediate deterioration with both sides pointing fingers at each other despite more evidence supporting Russia's complaints.
Legacy media was still using "activists", "pro-Russian militias" & "separatists" as a term of reference. They since uniformly adopted "Russian-backed separatists or militants".

June 2014: This video is extremely hard to watch. Despite Poroshenko's calling for a cease-fire, shelling of civilians continues in Sloviansk and surrounding areas. "If Poroshenko had experienced a tiny bit of that - or his relatives had been bombed."

Meanwhile, Poroshenko

July 2014: Human Rights Watch begrudgingly admits that the evidence strongly suggests that the Ukrainian Government Forces are responsible for civilian deaths.

Aljazeera 2014 covering the shelling of Donetsk. The Ukrainian Government Forces deny the use of Grad rockets and blame the "terrorists" for trying to shed a bad light on them. Aljazeera shows footage as evidence to the contrary.

Here is the infamous Turchynov who was now the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine lying on camera about the existence of rogue militias but also saying that he would do the same thing, if it happened again. In an interview with the BBC, he admitted that in 2014, when the first volunteers went to war, he was personally giving them weapons, but not all were clean in the eyes of the law: "And I personally signed the orders for the weapons, many were worried about what would happen if they did not follow those orders with a weapons. Indeed, we didn't check anyone at that time, if they were convicted previously or not – whoever said that they are ready to defend the country, signed up, received weapons and went to the East of our country."

Newsnight 18 months post Maidan: The Far-Right Group threatening to overthrow Ukraine's government. A young Da Vinci on Poroshenko "The President is a nobody. We didn't stand on Maidan for him to give 'special status' to Donetsk. He's a nobody, he's betrayed Ukraine. NOW THERE WILL BE A THIRD MAIDAN BUT THIS TIME WITH GUNS". Wouldn't it have made more sense to include these factions on the receiving end of the ATO? One side, for the most part, wanted sovereignty and protection of their minority rights, the other wanted blood.

This is not meant as a justification, but context is important. Wouldn't a sober approach to compromise then potentially have prevented this tragedy? While we can’t change the past, demanding a return to the negotiating table may just change the future.

I posted this thread to document coverage of Ukraine in 2014 and prior to 2022. I deliberately used Western media sources. I stated that these are posted for context. Unsurprisingly, these are still deemed “fakes” and Russian propaganda and I was still called the usual variety of epithets. But …but…but…Girkin was brought up 10 times yet not a single one of those people showed any sympathy or understanding. So I guess I’m just going to continue posting.

Channel 4 News UK Feb 23, 2014 (No Girkin in sight / No little green men in Crimea). Pro-Russian protesters out to defend their municipal buildings as they are worried about who is going to get in power in Kyiv. The reporter makes note of how there are few pro-Maidan counter protestors. Crimea is even more tense, violent protests with the 🇺🇦 flag being removed and the crowds demanding independence.

BBC 2014 in Donetsk: People feeling disappointed in and abandoned by Russia for not stepping in to help.

BBC 2014 in Donetsk: Do you see what they say about us on Ukrainian TV? Do we look like terrorists? But if need be, we will become them”.

BBC 2014 in Donetsk: Everyone in Kyiv / Maidan is convinced that everyone in the East is brainwashed, everyone in the East is convinced that everyone in the West is brainwashed”. “At least give us autonomy, I don’t think Putin wants us”

BBC 2014 in Donetsk Oblast: “We just want to be heard & want order”. This family is unique, they watch both Ukrainian and Russian coverage, after showing a video of school kids shouting “hang the Russians”, he asks, we are the separatists? We are the bad guys? Some interesting closing remarks from this family as well.

Vice News 2014: An old lady, show this to the rest of Ukraine. My own daughter (who lives in Western Ukraine) doesn’t believe me, she says everything is ok here, show them this”.

Vice News 2014: Thank you, please show the world what our Ukrainian National Guard is doing to us. They are defending us by destroying everything? Where is the world, the EU, why isn’t anyone saying or doing anything as we’re getting killed? Please, for G-ds sake, help us.

Vice News 2014: This one is very hard to watch. The man wants to know why peaceful civilians are the targets. This is what a lot of new geopolitical “experts” are missing, how are these people meant to forgive and forget?

Video from August 2014: “ The Ukrainian army was aiming at the separatists, but somehow they hit the residential area again. They claim it was an accident”. They hit a hospital and residential buildings (including a direct hit in the city centre). Also a little commentary from the OSCE.

https://twitter.com/e_l_g_c_a/status/1663672937579261953?s=20

https://twitter.com/e_l_g_c_a/status/1663672937579261953?s=20

https://twitter.com/e_l_g_c_a/status/1663683415655301124?s=20

https://twitter.com/e_l_g_c_a/status/1663683415655301124?s=20

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More from @e_l_g_c_a

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Nov 27, 2024

I decided to reach out to that creator in Mariupol whose videos I’ve previously shared and he was sweet enough to get back to me. I reached out to him because voices like his are almost non-existent on any of our platforms. What we do get, for the most part, is an over abundance of the social media savvy, English-speaking, pro-Maidan, rabidly anti-Russian factions (in addition to the Western war tourists, grifters, pseudo-journalists and of course the self-appointed geopolitical experts with questionable employers).

These factions have been able to shape the narratives without any challenge from their compatriots, especially those in the East. While their voices (and I’m strictly speaking about Ukrainian voices) are most certainly important, valid, rooted in their own truths and should be heard, they have never been, nor are they now, representative of the entire collective. My primary objective here has always been to try and give a voice to these other people, people like my family who remain in Donetsk and this awesome gentleman in Mariupol. These other people whose agency has been questioned, dismissed, denied and mischaracterized by most of you. Let’s not even get into what their supposed compatriots refer to them as or the punishments they believe to be just for their “treasonous” expression of the same free will, that they, themselves, got to express to jubilant cheers from the civilized world during their Revolution of “Dignity”.

For the record, this gentleman was born in Mariupol, raised in Mariupol, lived through those first few insane months of 2022 in Mariupol and remains in Mariupol today.

I don’t want to overburden him, but if you have any specific questions for him, I can pass them on and share the responses. And if you have TikTok, I highly recommend for you to give him a follow @ mrplru.

I’ll give some context to his responses to me and post some more of his videos ⬇️

The key takeaways:

Re sharing his voice on X: X is blocked and there isn’t much of an interest to access it through VPN. He also confirmed that as far as social media platforms go, X was used by a tiny minority even before it was blocked.

So, what you do get to see and hear, especially here, isn’t even a trailer for a multi-season, multi-arc show. As I said above, I don’t want to overburden him but if you do have specific questions, I’d be happy to ask him and share his response.

I was also really curious as to how many people would he estimate to be in Mariupol currently. According to him, there are more than 350K people there now with people continuing to return mostly from Europe (as it’s more difficult to return from Ukraine). And no, it’s not the resettled Russians or the workers.

For the record, the population in January of 2022 was 425,681.

I asked him about the overall sentiment and just life in general.

According to him, the absolute majority of the natives in Mariupol are happy that they are now a part of Russia.

He said that there are of course some problems with the city still (infrastructure) but who doesn’t have those same problems.

He said that there are many positive changes, construction sites are everywhere and everything is calm.

He says there are no language restrictions now and no one is getting grabbed off the streets like in Ukraine.

Read 16 tweets

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Nov 22, 2024

The headlines following Russia's maiden IRBM use are somehow even more sensational and delusive than expected.

"Putin is terrified"
"Crippling revenge blitz"
"Clear and Big escalation"
"Insane"
"Bragging and Threatening"
"Unprecedented! New kind of weapon"
"Not really accurate" (at least according to the Ukrainian Air Force who didn't even know what weapon was fired")

If these are the best takes the legacy media could come up with, you can imagine the range of ridiculousness being offered by the self-appointed experts on this platform.

But how did we even get here?

In this clip from 2022, in response to the question about the growing threat of a nuclear war. Putin concurs that the threat is growing and explains Russia's nuclear doctrine. He proceeds with the following.

"Did we talk about the possibility of using nuclear weapons? No. The former prime minister of Great Britain, let us not mention her by name, directly and publicly said that she was willing to do it. In response to this, I had to emphasize a few things too. Right away her statements were ignored, and what we said was immediately stuck out and the statements we made used to frighten the whole world. We haven't gone crazy, we are aware of what nuclear weapons are, we have the means and they are in a more advanced and more modern form than any other nuclear country. But we are not going to brandish this weapon like a razor running around the world but of course we proceed from the fact that it is. "

End of February 2022 following the initially escalating rhetoric from the US and allies, Putin says that due to the aggressive stance by the top officials of NATO countries towards Russia, he commanded the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff to transfer the nuclear deterrence forces on high alert".

Read 13 tweets

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Aug 21, 2024

The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada has now officially passed a bill to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The UOC has existed since the baptism of Kievan Rus' in 988. It had 12,092 parishes with a membership of between 2.5 and 6 million faithful.

This religious cleanse isn’t new, since 2014 (but prior to 2022) 1,300 churches of the canonical UOC were forcibly seized and handed over to the schismatics.

And all this despite the UOC proclaiming its loyalty to Ukraine and insisting that it has broken from the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Zelensky, an atheist, said that it is “our common duty to guarantee Ukrainian spiritual independence”.

This now also gives the schismatics of Constantinople’s “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, abetted by the government, free reign to unleash their absurd campaign of Ukrainization of even the holiest of things in full force.

Many people on this platform have gone out of their way to justify, excuse, in some cases deny and even celebrate what should be universally condemned.

Here are just a few examples of what has been happening.

Under the cover of night in May 2024, the cowards demolished the Vladimir-Olginskaya chapel of the Tithe Church, which was part of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The rubble of the shrine and many of its relics were taken away by dump trucks.

Before the demolition, the entire area was cordoned off by several hundred police and militants. In addition, the authorities used means to suppress mobile communications and the Internet, after which the religious building was destroyed with the help of heavy construction equipment.

The brethren of the Tithes Monastery were prevented from entering the Vladimir-Olginsky Cathedral, and when one priest, who wanted to remove from the demolished building a copy of the icon of the Mother of God "Vladimirskaya-Desyatinnaya", representatives of the police began to twist his arms, and he had to leave the monastery grounds.

Translated screenshots from the monastery’s official TG account and the faithful paying their respects.

Read 11 tweets

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Apr 24, 2024

This Estonian fella demanded that I cease and desist spreading my “Russian propaganda - lies, manipulations, subversion”.

To be fair, I used four sources in my post:

1. A repost from the US Helsinki Commission’s official X account;
2. Screenshots of posts made by Paul Massaro on his official X account;
3. A link to a transcript from a meeting of the House Congressional Homeland Security Committee which is archived on the US website; and
4. A screenshot of an archived post made by Rep. Max Rose of New York’s 11th Congressional District on his official X account.

I have a feeling that this Estonian fella screams that everything that she does not like is “RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA” but in this case she must have taken offence with an opinion-based statement of mine, where I referred to Stepan Bandera as a war criminal and genocide purveyor.

As part of her valiant fight against those expressing opinions that are contrary to her own, she was kind enough to provide a link to an article and since I’m never averse to learning something new, I obliged and read what I’m assuming she meant to present as evidence to prove me wrong.

It was certainly a learning experience, just not the kind that she intended 👇🏼Congress.gov

The article was meant to answer an old-age question, “Who was Stepan Bandera, Ukraine’s controversial nationalist figure?”. It was published online on the Geneva Solutions website in June of 2022. It’s presented in a Q & A format with Mariana Tsymbalyuk, a Ukrainian freelance journalist based in Ivano-Frankivsk, asking all things Bandera to Yaroslav Korytchuk, also of Ivano-Frankivsk.

genevasolutions.news/ukraine-storie…

Who is Yaroslav you may be wondering? Well, he is a historian and the current director of the Stepan Bandera museum in Ivano-Frankivsk with past appointments including a position at the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists. The article goes on to state that “Korytchuk’s views represent those of many Ukrainians”.

Of all the sources our little Estonian fella could have selected, she thought the bias-king would be best (I wonder if anyone else sees the irony of this).

Read 10 tweets

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Mar 3, 2024

One would assume that Michael McFaul, @McFaul the esteemed Professor in International Studies in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, past US Ambassador to Russia, geopolitical expert and chief resident Russophobe with almost a million followers on this platform, to be a man of utmost professionalism with little time to spare. A friend of mine @ptaha51 quote tweeted one of McFaul’s usual anti-Putin tirades with his own commentary. Innocent enough, right? The ensuing verbal diarrhea was quite entertaining to say the least.

To David’s surprise, the esteemed professor sent him a rather tersely worded DM which was equal parts accusatory, rude and hilarious. As an aside, is there a CE requirement for Stanford faculty? Butchering the English language with such impunity is simply audacious.

David was somewhat measured in his response but Professor McFaul decided to double down and challenge David to prove to him that he was indeed a real Russian citizen. Puzzled but undeterred David asked me if he should indulge him. Obviously I said Hell Yeah 😂

Read 5 tweets

Anatomy of Truth 🇨🇦

@e_l_g_c_a

Feb 10, 2024

I had some time to reflect on the interview. I was certainly not the target audience and I tried to process it as objectively as possible. I am very interested in hearing what those of you who didn’t have pre-conceived (positive or negative) opinions on Putin thought of the interview.

I’ve watched many of Putin’s past townhalls, press conferences, interviews, both domestic and foreign, and addresses to the nation and there are far better and more insightful options if anyone is truly interested in what he has had to say for the past 24 years. You don’t have to like what he has to say but you should appreciate the consistency with which he made his positions and that of Russia known. Obviously, these are my personal reflections and take-aways and I’m not claiming to be right.

The easiest observation from yesterday is that Putin displayed his virility and his intellect (you may substitute these words with others, but the meaning will remain the same. I believe that he is unmatched in his ability to speak for such prolonged periods of time without teleprompters, notes and handlers). He doesn’t need gimmicks or deflections as he retains an almost-encyclopedic knowledge of pertinent topics, speaks at least three languages, has a law degree and a PhD in Economics and is inarguably a very smart and knowledgeable man.

What was most ironic yesterday was the cluster-f**k of an impromptu press conference where Biden, while being questioned about his cognitive decline (which he defended quite aggressively), mixed up the President of Egypt with the President of Mexico (I’m not sure how since Sisi and Lopez-Obrador nor Egypt and Mexico aren’t close enough to mix up – never mind the geographical aspect). This glaring juxtaposition between him and Putin was comical but it was also quite frightening. These two men preside over the two largest nuclear triad powers, and I apologize for my logical question but WTF America?

I don’t believe that Putin’s intent was to cast himself in a favourable light for the Western audience. He knows well enough that he has been demonized to a point of no return and has become a caricature of the proverbial global “villain”. He doesn’t care if you find him likeable. He was comfortable, confident, reluctantly intimidating and slightly patronizing. He spoke factually (despite some statements lacking context and nuance). He wasn’t looking for anyone’s permission or forgiveness. He wasn’t justifying the war; he was simply stating why he believes it’s just. He didn’t make it about himself, he made it about Russia. He was mostly sincere, despite a few times where he purposely feigned modesty or ignorance. Whether friend or foe, he is formidable.

I’ll include some clips here and there. In this one, in his own words he answers what it’s like to be the global villain.

I’ll only focus on a few things that stood out or resonated with me personally. I’ll start with my least favourite, which was the 1000s of years of history condensed into a 23-minute, almost uninterrupted monologue. I can completely understand why he started with this but again I’m not the target audience. Tucker said out loud what a lot of people may have been thinking…like get to the point bruh! “Imma let you finish but… Putin didn’t leave any room for the buts, he was going to finish”. With all due respect, for the most part, the Western audience (myself included on many occasions) has an attention span that is slightly bigger than that of a goldfish.

The main why (but he also did this to create the framework for the rest of the discussion):

Putin is a patriot. Throughout history, Russians have faced invasions, have fought and conquered, bled, starved, sacrificed, endured the impossible and laid down their lives for the motherland. Bringing Russia to her knees isn’t a new trend, in fact it’s one that seems to keep resurfacing. Rewriting and erasing her history and diminishing the sacrifices of her people is not acceptable. It’s the most dishonourable insult. Don’t f**k with the Russian pride.

How it came off:

Here goes the imperialist again, saying that Ukraine is just a made-up place and has no right to exist. Basically, we made you and we can unmake you at our whim, you ingrates.

This will only get weaponized and overshadow the rest of what he had to say

Read 35 tweets

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