It’s a hard topic to digest.
Hard images to see.
Hard questions.
About everything russia is doing,
and everything we aren’t doing.
It’s the hard truth.
But maybe right now, is a good time to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
2/20 Again we watch russia turn an area of Ukraine into crumbled concrete & burnt wood. In Kharkiv, sirens sounds up to 16hours a day. The villages we saw be evacuated yesterday, are nearly gone today.
We say: we’ll help you rebuild.
But our promise was; we’ll help you protect.
3/20 The Kharkiv mayor recently said that all Kharkiv Oblast need to keep the sky closed and people & homes protected from russias air attacks, is 2 Patriots! TWO‼️this is what triggered this thread for me. Because there’s a painful reality here, that somehow we fail to address.
4/20 Firstly, I struggling to understand how all allies together, G7, NATO, EU etc manages to talk so loud about support, yet fail to supply the bare minimum of what is needed for the second largest city in Ukraine to be able to defend itself against attacks we knew were coming.
5/20 "There is a lot of destruction and explosions. There are 3-7 explosions in one day.” Says Kharkivs Mayor, and President Zelenskyy recently said russias advantage right now, is that they’ve accumulated 10k S-300 missiles.
How come we still allow russia to gain advantages?
6/20 And yes, I ask why “WE ALLOW” it. Because I’m trying to understand how WE: the nations & governments that have endlessly vouched to “support Ukraine with everything needed to win the war”still fail to do so, and what gets delivered, comes with restrictions, far from helpful.
7/20 As a Norwegian citizen, I’ll start there: Norways latest aid announcement to Ukraine, was more or less purely support for rebuilding in the future, specifically the energy sector. Since then(1month ago) russia targeted 24 energy facilities; hit 12, some completely destroyed.
8/20 seems out aid policy is backwards. Had we focused on giving aid to Ukraine to prevent & protect from such attacks instead, there’d be 12 less facilities needing rebuilding today. And It’s not that we don’t have such aid. We do. We even got money to assist in purchasing it.
9/20 The way we speak regarding aid also feels upside down. I’ve said it before: “we support Ukraine for as long as it takes” is infuriating to hear! The focus should’ve always been: Support Ukraine enough to DEFEND themselves & DEFEAT russia, as fast as possible to end the war!
10/20 Narratives of “Aiding Ukraine prolongs the war” & “we don’t want to escalate” is simply ridiculous.
A: NOT aiding Ukraine enough is what prolongs the war.
B: Our delays & flip-flopping has given russia time to resupply, partner with other terrorists & evade sanctions.
11/20 This war has escalated, but not from us aiding Ukraine. The aggressor, who on top of what’s mentioned above, is also;
• conducting cyberattacks
• collecting data
• jamming air traffic
• commit espionage on other countries.
The source of escalation 👉🏼russia
12/20 It’s deliberate acts done by russia. They are the ones who has involved all of us, not the other way around. It’s calculated & targeted attacks. And instead of addressing it & take action, even for our own protection; our response is instead: “we don’t want to escalate”.
13/20 Let’s be blunt; we see russia continue their illegal invasion of Ukraine, commit war crimes, make deals with Iran, North Korea, China, map out infrastructure & commit sabotage in other countries, and by not giving them consequences: we are complicit. cbsnews.com/news/russian-s…
14/20 By standing by & do nothing but watch as one nation fights to death against our common enemy. By not providing enough weapons. By not even punishing russia for the crimes they commit, we’re on a he sidelines allowing the stealing, murdering,the crimes, the terrorist attack!
15/20 If we keep turning our head to look away every time russia commits another crime against humanity, who are we really supporting? Not Ukraine. Not ourself. We’re simply enabling terror to happen without consequences! And to me, that is scarier than any threat russia gives.
16/20 Again it raises the question “what is support”? Because this; little drops of aid & promises here & there; is not it! To me it’s seems we’re trying to save face, rather than Ukraine. Save reputation, rather than life. When truth is, our face & reputation shows: hypocrisy.
17/20 I’ll end by adding context to some of the heartbreaking photos in this 🧵 Taken by @Liberov in Vovchansk.
“Bodies of 2 civilian women. Next to them are 2 small, craters. For those who understand, it is immediately clear that this is not a random mine or artillery strike…”
18/20 «With a 90% probability, these are targeted drops from a drone. The women are wearing bright clothing. It is impossible to mistake them for military personnel even from a height.»The city is filled with death. Civilian bodies are on the streets and under the rubble»@Liberov
19/20
This is the hard truth.
The hard, painful, soul crushing reality.
The cost of delays, cost of not allowing Ukraine the full means to defend itself.
The cost of us not providing Ukraine enough aid to end the russian aggression and reach full victory & independence.
20/20
I hope the world see it, and take the responsibilities needed.
I hope that the hard truths will hit us in a way that we actually make those not so hard decisions;
To properly provide Ukraine with all that will finally cost russia, more than it cost Ukraine.#СлаваУкраїні
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🧵1/24 18th of May marks the 80th anniversary & Commemoration of the mass Deportation of the Crimean Tatars: The Sürgünlik
Labeled as one of history’s least known, but most traumatic genocides.
And exactly why it makes it all the more important for everyone learn this history⤵️
2/24 In the early morning of May 18, 1944, under Stalin's orders, the entire Crimean Tatar population, more than 200 000 people, was deported from their homeland by the russian army. Given only 15 minutes to gather belongings and brutally dragged away from their homes.
3/24 If you think russia recently started the nonsense “Nazi cleansing” as an excuse for their criminal actions and atrocities against other nationalities, you are sadly mistaken. Because most of the murders done by Russia have been done with baseless labels of “threat of nazis”
3days ago I wrote a thread, with footage & stories of the evacuations in Vovchansk told by the rescuers and volunteers there documenting it. Today we see this video, how russia now is mass shelling the area, smoke rising from those same homes we just saw people leaving in tears.
I don’t have the right word for the emotions I’m currently feeling it’s anger, grief, helplessness, empathy..overwhelming. It’s a knot of emotions and none of them are good. These people don’t des this. Ukraine don’t deserve this.
The terror, violence and evil of russia never surprised me, it just keeps growing. What has surprised me, is how little consequence there are. Why can it keep growing, even when everyone is watching. And the support that was promised. The punishments that was voiced. Where is it?
🧵1/15 Happy День вишиванки🇺🇦Vyshyvanka Day, which Ukraine celebrates on the 3rd Thursday of May. The Vyshyvanka is a part of Ukrainian national clothing and is traditional embroideries with a variety of meanings of identity & heritage.
Let’s look at the Vyshyvanka history!💙💛
2/15 Vyshyvankas aren’t just beautiful garments; Traditionally, vyshyvanka is a hand-made blouse sewn of natural materials. Most often, the frontal part of the shirt and sleeves are embroidered.
3/15 The embroidered shirt is highly symbolic, every pattern, motif & even colors have their own meaning and is often individually picked out for the person it’s made for. There’s also patterns connect to the various oblasts across Ukraine.
🧵 🇬🇪1) Let’s go through the past 24h in Tbilisi, Georgia. A lot has happened during the night and morning hours. From the result today, we know, this is not the end.
Protesters have gathered for days already, but this night was of particular importance.
Here’s a breakdown :
2) May 13th “The Russian law” is set to be considered in the parliament, it can go into effect tomorrow. Therefore a large protest was planned for people to stay outside of the parliament building during the whole night.
Many bringing sleeping bags, ballgames and music.
🔴 3) 22:00 - the rally in front of parliament was set to begin. Already long before this people were making their way to the center. Including by the subway that was packed long before the planned start.
🎥Formula
🇬🇪 World, are you still watching? Tonight might have just been the biggest gathering of Georgians marching in Tbilisi against the russian violations and law infiltrating the Georgian government! Please watch, share, stand with the brave people of Georgia!🇬🇪 #NoToRussianlaw
1/14: May 8th day of remembrance Honoring those we lost in World War II.
We remember the promise "Never again."
The promise we broke.
We’re here in a war torn Europe where one nation is fighting for everyone against an aggression who have declared being at war with us all
2/14: russias illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014, is a chilling reminder that history's lessons can all too fast be forgotten. We see the images today, that our grandparents told us about. Images we only saw in history books. Now we are living them.
3/14 As we reflect on the millions of lives lost in WWII. One question will always be running in my mind: how did we let this happen again? From 1991 we’ve seen the russian aggression invade, destroy life & land in Georgia, Moldova/Transnistria, Ukraine, not to mention Chechnya.