Russia is running a global scheme to lure, coerce, and traffic migrants and students into its war on Ukraine—using fake jobs, passport traps, and threats. Recruits come from over 20 countries. Most get no training, no pay, and no way out.

Here's how it works

🧵1/10 In April 2025, Ukraine captured two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia — part of over 155 identified on the front lines. This script is not rare: according to UK intelligence, Russia has recruited over 1,500 fighters since April 2023, mainly from across the Global South.

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On May 18, 1944, the Soviet regime deported the entire Crimean Tatar population—nearly half perished. Few know they were already a minority by then, after centuries of repression.

Together with @qirimlia, we explore Russia’s long campaign to erase them.

🧵1/13 The 1944 deportation was the tragic culmination of a long history of persecution that began with the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire in 1783. Before the annexation, Crimean Tatars comprised about 90% of the peninsula’s population.

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Ukrainians in Auschwitz were largely invisible not because they were absent, but because the Nazis registered prisoners by official nationality rather than ethnic identity.

🧵1/8 Ukrainians from western regions were often recorded as Poles; those born in the Soviet Union were listed as Russians or Soviet citizens; others were classified as Czechs or Romanians.

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The Soviet Union transformed May 1st into a propaganda showpiece — parades, flags, and slogans celebrating workers’ rights that often existed only on paper.

Behind the spectacle was a much harsher reality. Here’s what May Day didn’t show

🧵1/10 Artificial loyalty

May Day parades claimed to celebrate workers’ rights — but even refusing to march wasn’t allowed. Just days after the Chornobyl disaster, 120,000 Kyiv residents, including children, were forced into the streets.

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📢 "Russian imperialism does not know the concept of borders."

Oksana Zabuzhko, a renowned Ukrainian writer, explains how Russian imperialism disregards borders, history, and sovereignty—an issue that even Ukraine’s allies have never fully addressed.

🧵1/10 Oksana Zabuzhko’s works have been translated into 20+ languages. In 2023, she was named one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women, and in 2024, she joined the jury of the Berlin International Film Festival.

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In our episode of Ukraine Through the Eyes of Others, a German political scientist @andreasumland sheds light on the historical context that has contributed to the speed of Germany's delivery of military assistance to Ukraine. “The German approach to Ukraine has a somewhat complex history, which can be seen as a downside of the so-called 'Ostpolitik' pursued over the last five decades. This policy has seen some peculiar developments, notably during the 1980s...”

Beginning of December in #Ukraine Power supply continues to be restored in liberated Kherson.

Russification is an example of destroying the #national identity, and it is also a part of #genocide. A crucial element of this #crime is the intention to fully or partially destroy #Ukrainians as a national group.

Do you know how is it to starve to death?
Ukrainians do.
Holodomor is the artificial starving organised by the soviet regime in 1932-1933 aimed at the destruction of the Ukrainian nation.

The same regime is trying to do it now, in 2022, by waging a fierce war, cutting Ukrainians from food and water supplies, burning Ukrainian harvests, and blocking the export of grains in the Black Sea.

November 26th is the commemoration day of all the victims of these inhuman actions…