1/4 In his 1919 memoir, the leader of the Ukrainian State (1918) Pavlo Skoropadsky mentions Russian "spiteful" oppression on Ukrainians quite often. In one instance, he points his finger directly at the representatives of the Russian culture.

[Quote below] ⤵️ 2/4 "It would seem that the [Russian] cultural classes should refrain from that, but in reality it isn't so. On the contrary, those cultural classes are themselves the most intolerant to any kind of Ukrainianness," he writes.

Further on, he writes... ⤵️

1/6 It's a long-standing tradition in the West to equate USSR to Russia. It's incorrect: it was an involuntary union of nations ruled by Russia, not simply Russia.

This common mistake often leads to critical misunderstandings and very much helps Russian propaganda⤵️ 2/6 I.e. the Westerners often read the Russian claim "NATO promised Gorbatchev not to expand eastward" as "NATO promised 🇷🇺 not to expand eastward".

In reality, if the story is true at all, the promise would've been made to a country with borders that ceased to exist in 1991⤵️

1/7 My last thread has revealed there are still people trying to spread the Soviet propaganda myth about Symon Petliura, the leader of the Ukrainian People's Republic of 1919-1920, being an "antisemite" and the "organizer of anti-Jewish pogroms".

Let's turn to facts and docs ⬇️ 2/7 There were indeed massive anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine at the time and Petliura's army did participate in them. A multitude of social reasons caused it, but not a single one of them may excuse the atrocities.

But did Petliura himself condone it? Quite the opposite. ⬇️

1/5 In 1920, when virtually all of Ukraine had already fallen to Bolshevik Russia, the leader of the Ukrainian People's Republic Symon Petliura has joined forces with Poland.

By "fighting the historical enemy", he said, 🇺🇦&🇵🇱 "will correct the mistakes of our past." ⬇️ 2/5 In April 1920, Poles and Ukrainians launched their Kyiv offensive. In May, they retook the capital of Ukrainian People's Republic, taking about 20 000 (!) Red Army troops prisoner.

On May 9th, a victory parade has been held on Khreshchatyk. ⬇️

1/4 If you need proof that 🇷🇺Russian withdrawal from the grain deal has nothing to do with 🇺🇦Ukrainian drone strikes in Sevastopol, remember: Russia repeatedly indicated its intention to withdraw.⤵️ 2/4 In September, 🇷🇺Putin has at least twice complained about how 🇺🇦Ukrainian grain only went to the rich countries and not to the poor ones (which was a blatant lie).

"Russia has been grossly duped!" he said on Sep 7th, adding that Ukrainian grain export should be restricted.⤵️

1/4 A journalist, unable to establish a simple timeline, and an Elon, unable to stop misleading.

@MelnykAndrij's "recommendation" came AFTER @elonmusk's company letter to the Pentagon. 2/4 "Documents obtained by CNN show that LAST MONTH Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has.", according to @CNN. edition.cnn.com/2022/10/13/pol…

1/5 There's a lot of talk about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis lately, because of Russia's nuclear blackmail.

But there is another reason to talk about it - to remember once more how it's a tradition for Kremlin to barefacedly lie. ⤵️ 2/5 During the @UN Security Council on Oct 25th 1962, Moscow's rep. Zorin obscenely lied when faced with a US-presented photo evidence of USSR having placed nukes in Cuba:

"Falsity is what the United States has in its hands, false evidence!". ⤵️

1/6 Even now, certain politicians and "experts" still insist on negotiating with Putin.

As the "Hitler reminder" seems to be getting quite old, let's find another example to explain why negotiating with murderous tyrants is a disastrous idea. This guy 👇Slobodan Milošević. 2/6 In 1995, you'd think that an atrocity like the Srebrenica massacre (8,372 Bosniaks killed in a genocidal frenzy) would make of Milošević an untouchable pariah.

That wasn't so for the Western diplomacy. The West wanted to sit down and negotiate.

1/4 The European Political Community, imagined by 🇫🇷@EmmanuelMacron, seems to happening. 🇺🇦Ukraine received an invitation to its first summit, scheduled for early October.

I still see this project as highly suspicious. Because, yet again, we have seen it before ⤵️ 2/4 @EmmanuelMacron's idea appeared as a reaction to 🇺🇦Ukraine's, 🇲🇩Moldova's and 🇬🇪Georgia's bids for the 🇪🇺EU membership.

That's almost exactly the same idea that the 🇫🇷French President Mitterrand had for the Central&Eastern European countries after the fall of Communism ⤵️

1/7 🇷🇺Russian atrocities and war crimes in 🇺🇦Ukraine in 2022 are a suprise only to those Westerners who haven't been paying attention. Actually, to those who refused to pay attention.

Let's take Anna Politkovskaya's book on the 2nd Chechen War - "A Small Corner of Hell" ⤵️ 2/7 The book itself was published in Russian in 2002, translated in English in 2003. In it, Politkovskaya described 🇷🇺Russian war crimes in Chechnya in great detail.

And made some observations on the West's reaction ⤵️

1/7 This is 🇭🇺Viktor Orban in 1989, calling for a withdrawal of Kremlin's troops from Hungary in a speech dedicated to the reburial of the leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Imre Nagy.

Given Hungary's 1956 experience, its pro-Kremlin stance in 2022 is baffling ⤵️ 2/7 🇭🇺Hungarians know what it's like to be occupied by Moscow. They know what it's like to have Russian tanks on their streets. Kremlin's brutal invasion is very much present in their minds even now, 66 years later.

And yet... ⤵️

1/4 When after WW2 🇺🇦Ukrainians started to speak out about the Holodomor (1932/33 Stalin's artificial famine that had killed millions of Ukrainians), Moscow branded those studying Holodomor as... "nazis" and "fascists" ⤵️ 2/4 "The ‘Nazi’ and ‘nationalist’ associations were intended, simply, to smear anyone who wrote about the famine at all." ⤵️

1/4 🇺🇦Ukrainian journalist Kostiantyn Ryzhenko lives in Kherson under 🇷🇺Russian occupation. He's being hunted. He has to hide, lay low and change his location constantly to avoid being detained by Russians.

His posts on Facebook are haunting ⤵️ 2/4 "There are searches everywhere, the feeling of someone breathing down your neck doesn’t subside even for a minute", he posted yesterday ⤵️

1/5 There are many things wrong with the new @amnesty report. First and foremost, it's a blatant example of shifting the blame away from the aggressor.

You'd think it obvious that 🇷🇺Russian shellings, air&missile strikes are endangering civilians in 🇺🇦. It isn't to Amnesty.⤵️ 2/5 Following the same logic, 🇺🇦Ukraine is itself "endangering civilians" - by simply existing and resisting. If Ukraine didn't resist or, even better, exist, 🇷🇺Russians wouldn't bomb cities and the civilians wouldn't be in danger. Amnesty would be happy.

There's more though⤵️

1/1 🇫🇷@Le_Figaro keeps on publishing "special reports" from the Russian-occupied parts of 🇺🇦Ukraine. Their reporters get special access to the Russian occupants - and somehow almost exclusively quote pro-Russian locals.

Their new report is from the occupied Melitopol⬇️ 2/2 In the report it is kinda mentioned that pro-Russian/pro-Ukrainian proportion in 🇺🇦Melitopol might be 50/50.

But the story itself doesn't include a single pro-Ukrainian comment from the locals - only pro-Russian and neutral ones.

And it gets even worse⬇️

1/6 🇩🇪MFA @ABaerbock admitted that Germany pressured 🇨🇦Canada to export a gas turbine for Nord Stream 1.

The turbine would go to 🇷🇺Russia and that would basically amount to circumventing sanctions.

Baerbock's quote is quite stunning ⬇️ 2/6 "If we don't get the gas turbine, then we won't get any more gas, and then we won't be able to provide any more support for 🇺🇦Ukraine, because then we'll be busy with popular uprisings", 🇩🇪Baerbock admitted having conveyed to 🇨🇦Canada, according to @welt. ⬇️

1/5 After the 🇷🇺Russian missile strike on 🇺🇦Kyiv this morning (a civilian building has been hit, injuring a little girl and killing her father), I have already seen three different Russian propaganda messages.

They may serve as a reminder of how the Russian propaganda works. ⬇️ 2/5 The messages are:

1. The building was empty, there was no one inside.
2. The 🇺🇦Ukrainian air defence is to blame for shooting down a missile near the building.
3. It's all "fake", just like the "White helmets" stuff in 🇸🇾Syria was fake.

There probably are (or will be) more.

1/4 In the span of just 2 days, @guardian has published two "You see, sanctions against 🇷🇺Russia don't work!" op-eds. With manipulative arguments like the one on the screenshot.

Now, I'm no economist, but I can definitely say 3 politically obvious things. ⬇️ 2/4 "In 3 months Russian economy hasn't crumbled and Russians haven't retreated from 🇺🇦, so we conclude that sanctions don't work" is a kid's argument.

Sanctions were never thought to be an instant solution. An economy the size of Russia's takes a lot longer to seriously damage.

1/4 In 2005, Ukrainian President Yushchenko wrote an op-ed for @Le_Figaro defending a future for 🇺🇦 in the 🇪🇺EU. Putting an imaginary wall between the EU and 🇺🇦, he wrote, would be a repetition of Yalta 1945.

I read it as a 3rd-year student of political sciences in 🇫🇷Paris. 2/4 By then, I was already "infected" by the French way of seeing geopolitics, so I was sceptical. "Maybe in the distant future", I thought. Also, the 🇪🇺EU was dealing with much more important issues at the time, 🇺🇦Yushchenko was too short-sighted to see that, I thought.

1/5 The defenders of #Mariupol are facing imminent death. Upon surrendering they are unlikely to survive. A 3rd party (i.e. 🇹🇷Turkey) extracting them wouldn't be a military intervention - just a prevention of yet another war crime.

For "But Putin promised..." believers: see⬇️. 2/5 Yes, Putin did promise. On April 21st, during his meeting with Shoigu, he publicly suggested that the defenders of #Mariupol surrender, promised they would be treated according to the international law, and added: "All the wounded will receive a qualified medical assistance".

1/7 Let's break down the Kremlin propaganda piece published today by @guardian. It's authored by an ex-PR advisor to the Kremlin, Angus Roxburgh. And it's quite indicative of how the "export" variant of Russian propaganda works.

A🧵incoming. 2/7 It's still about the same Kremlin's message "Stop arming 🇺🇦Ukraine!".

But to "sell" this message in the UK, you first have to say how bad Putin is, how unprovoked and unjust the Russian invasion is, and how it is the right thing to support Ukraine. Roxburgh does just that.