#russia ukrain crisis

[opanas-opanasovych-opanasenko]

Imagine your city is fucking gone. Really sit with that thought. Let it germinate within your mind. It's no longer there. The streets you lived in, where you played with your friends as a kid, where you fell in love. Gone. It's a pile of smoking rubble. It's not there. You can't go back there. It's not there. It no longer exists. This is what russia did to Avdiivka. This is what they did to Bakhmut earlier, and to many other cities and towns. All because Western aid is being stalled. Because a lunatic religious fanatic is the Speaker of the House, and his party is full of self-serving traitors to the country. Because Polish farmers are blocking transit of important military aid at our border. Because all of you drank up russian psy-ops like thirsty wanderers in the desert. Because we gave away the weapons that could've prevented this to the perpetrator of this, in exchange for a deal to "guarantee our sovereignty" which one of the signatories broke and the other two are afraid to fulfill.

So sit with that thought now, and draw conclusions, and be better, and do whatever is in your power to prevent it from happening in the future, because if they aren't stopped in Ukraine, they won't stop with Ukraine. Do everything you can, so that the thought is a hypothetical, not a premonition.

[blondemiso]

No bc what the hell is happening

[edit] good news guys it looks like it’s being ruled as an accident although it is slightly up in the air. My heart goes out to the families in Poland who lost someone or were affected. The intent behind this post was to raise awareness about how this doesn’t just affect Ukrainian people. I should have mentioned that. I have never seen this meme format used for humor but rather to spread information 🤷🏼‍♀️

[beauty-funny-trippy]

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸 🚨

UNITED STATES CONGRESS PASSES SERIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC AND PRO-WAR BILLS DESPITE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The United States Congress and Senate passed a series of bills, including three controversial anti-democratic and pro-war bills, two of which were tied together, on Saturday, bypassing public opinion and popular opposition to the profligate, pro-war, globalist, Neolib/Neocon agenda currently driving United States domestic and foreign policy.

Included in the bills passed was a bill to force TikTok to divest from its connections with China at risk of being banned immediately, which naturally was tied to a Foreign aid bill.

However, as even Republican Senator Rand Paul mentioned in an opinion piece in Reason Magazine, the Bill is almost certain to lead to more power for American political elites and their administrations to pressure companies like Apple and Google to further ban apps and sites that offer contradictory opinions to that of the invented narratives of the American Political class.

Before long, Americans, many of whom are already poorly informed, and heavily misinformed by their mainstream media, could lose access to critical information that contradicts the narratives of the United States government and corporate elites.

Horrifically, this only the start. The US Congress also extended the newly revised FISA spy laws, which gives the United States government the power to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners, while also conveniently sweeping up the conversations of millions of Americans, as we learned years ago thanks to the sacrifices of whistle blowers and journalists like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

The new FISA Law goes further than this, however, granting US Intelligence agencies the power to spy on the wireless communications of Americans in completely new ways.

A recent Jacobin article describes these new powers as a, "radical expansion of government surveillance that would be ripe for abuse by a future authoritarian leader", or it could just be used by the authoritarian leadership we have right now, and have had for decades.

In fact, when one commentator described the new powers as "Stasi-like," Edward Snowden himself replied with a long post in which he remarked, "invocation of "Stasi-like" is not only a fair characterization of Himes' amendment, it's probably generous. The Stasi dared not even dream of what the Himes amendment provides."

The amendment in question just "tweaks" the current law's definition of an "electronic communication provider," which is being changed to "any service provider," something extremely likely to be abused by the government to force anyone with a business, a modem and people using their broadband to collect the electronic communications of those people, while also forcing their victims into silence.

The government could essentially force Americans to spy on other people and remain silent about it. Cafe's, restaurants, hotels, business landlords, shared workspaces all could get swept up into the investigations of the Intelligence agencies.

Worse still, because picking out the communications of a single user would be next to impossible, all of their victim's data would end up being surrendered to the authorities.

Sadly, the assault on Americans by their own political elites didn't end there, to top this historic day in Congress, at time when the United States public debt is growing at an astounding rate of $1 trillion every 100 days, US lawmakers also passed a series of pro-war aid packages to American allies (vassals) totalling some $95 billion.

Included in the foreign aid bill are aid packages totalling $61 billion for the Ukraine scam, $26 billion for Israel's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific to provoke WWIII with China, at the same time we're also provoking a nuclear holocaust with the Russian Federation.

Also buried in these aid packages is the authorization for the United States government to outright steal the oversees investments of the Russian Federation, and thereby the Russian taxpayers.

Astonishingly, and in direct opposition to the wishes of their own voters, Republican support was won without the possibility of conditioning the aid to any kind of border security, this despite the issue being among the top biggest concerns of Republican voters.

Although much of the money is to be used replenishing the heavily depleted stocks of America's weapons and munitions, it remains unclear where the munitions are expected to come from, as US defense production has remained sluggish and slow to expand despite heavy investments and demand in recent years, despite the rapid urgency with which the policy elite describe the situation.

It bodes poorly for working Americans that only a relatively small handful of lawmakers opposed the bills, producing unlikely bedfellows like Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, opposing the FISA bill.

While in the House, the loudest opposition to the foreign aid bill mostly came from populist Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Goser. Only 58 Congresmembers voted against the Foreign Aid Bill in which the TikTok ban was tucked.

Not one word from American politicians about the need to raise the minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 2009 despite considerable inflation, nor a word about America's endlessly growing homelessness crises, property crime increases, or the 40-year stagnation of American wages, the deterioration of infrastructure, and precious little was said besides complaints about border security over the immigration crises sparked by American Imperialist adventures and US sanctions.

What we've learned today is that we are highly unlikely to see any changes to the insane behavior of the US and its allies any time soon, neither with regards to the absolutely bonkers Neocon foreign policy leading us to the edge of abyss, nor the spending-for-the-rich/austerity-for-the-poor Neoliberal domestic policy of the last 45 years.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

Blue: titles are opinion pieces or analysis, and may or may not contain sources.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s Lula digs heels on Ukraine war during Iberian trip

President’s comments highlight EU difficulty in convincing global south to hold Russia accountable for invasion

Brazil’s president is touring the Iberian peninsula in an attempt to boost ties with the EU, but his persistent claims that both Russia and Ukraine are responsible for the ongoing war highlight the bloc’s difficulty in winning over the global south.

During his stay in Portugal, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that Ukraine “does not want to stop” the war and insisted peace talks should begin, even though Moscow continues its missile attacks on civilian targets and Russian troops are still occupying parts of Ukraine.

Lula’s rhetoric on the war, which the US earlier condemned as “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda”, has underscored the challenge facing the EU and its allies at it struggles to build a global coalition seeking to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine, and exposed its lack of political influence over swaths of the non-western world.

While Lula made clear that he condemned the invasion of a sovereign state, he did not disavow comments made last week in the United Arab Emirates that Russia and Ukraine bore joint responsibility and that the US and EU were “contributing” to the conflict.

“We are not in favour of war. We want peace,” Lula said in Lisbon on Saturday alongside Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Portugal’s president. In the case of the ongoing conflict, Lula added: “Russia does not want to stop and Ukraine does not want to stop. And if you don’t talk about peace, you are contributing to war.”

The global response to the war in Ukraine has provided a startling wake-up call to EU diplomats who have failed to convince major nations in Latin America, Africa and south-east Asia to oppose Moscow’s invasion.

Continue reading.

[thenuclearmallard]

Russian imperialism and genocides of their Indigenous part 2

[jesperfaheys-defenseattorney]

Reminder there's genocide going on in Ukraine as well as in Gaza. As someone with a largely Slavic family, it makes me very upset that everyone seems to have forgotten about Ukraine when we were so supportive before. We can support both Palestine and Ukraine at the same time.

I know we're protesting for Palestine because the U.S is backing Ukraine and not Palestine, but it's never wrong to continue to raise attention and encourage donations and spread news so people have correct information. Support both however you can. For most of us it's just a couple taps on your phone, really. Do what you can.

If you don't think Ukraine and Palestine are facing genocide you're wrong and here's why: Israel tries to justify their genocide on Gaza, war crimes against Ukraine by Russia that qualifies the conflict as genocide on Ukraine.

[ohsalome]

[jloisse]

[opanas-opanasovych-opanasenko]

After seeing Westerners bully a 14-year old boy from Odesa for not wanting to potentially interact with people who are committing genocide of his people on twitter, I felt compelled to return to that hellsite for a while to write a thread to explain why we might feel that way. Here it is, I feel it might be useful for those who don't understand why we're like this when it's "not all russians":

Thread screenshots after the break:

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Gary Wilson

The U.S. is in a steadily expanding military buildup of unprecedented proportions. But the economic basis for sustaining military expansion — for war on three fronts — is in virtual ruin.

[the-restisconfetti]

[workersolidarity]

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 🚨

INTENSE BATTLES AS RUSSIAN FORCES BREAK THROUGH UKRAINIAN DEFENSES NEAR ROBOTINO IN ZAPOROZHYE

📹 Ukrainian footage showing the breakthrough of Russian Forces of Ukraine's defensive belt near the village of Robotino in the Zaporozhye sector.

Russian Forces from the Southern Military District and Airborne Forces launch a powerful attack on the Ukrainian defensive belt, pushing more than 2km into Ukrainian-held territory, won through great sacrifice during last year's Ukrainian offensive in the Zaporozhye direction.

In the footage, Ukrainian forces destroy several pieces of Russian equipment and systems, though it does little to slow the Russian advance, with one tank being hit directly, only to storm forward mostly undamaged.

Russian landing forces then disembark from armored vehicles under BMP suppressive fire and secure several enemy positions.

Russian Forces manage to breakthrough into the village of Robotino, capturing positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and capturing or killing many Ukrainian militants.

In another operation, Russian Forces also announced the capture of the village of Pobeda, south of the recently captured city of Marinka in the South Donetsk direction.

“In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern Group of Forces liberated the village of Pobeda,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian forces in the South Donetsk direction lost over 410 servicemembers, one tank, three armored vehicles, five military vehicles, one Polish-made Krab and one Bogdan self-propelled artillery systems, one D-20 howitzer, and a self-propelled Gvozdika artillery system.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

[thenuclearmallard]

Russian imperialism/genocide part 1

[ohsalome]

Apologies for shitty auto-translation