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Wicked Blue

Wicked Blue's Journal
Wicked Blue's Journal
March 3, 2022

I'm having trouble sleeping because of Ukraine

Woke up around 4 am in a cold sweat, and rushed to my laptop for the latest news. Thank heaven Kyiv hasn't fallen, and the Ukrainians are fighting back courageously. Goddess help them. Goddess help President Zelensky.

Every time I check the news, it fills me with dread. The pictures and video clips are sickening.

Even though I'm not Ukrainian, this particular conflict hits me hard. My parents were Estonian immigrants. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may be next on that bastard's list, although they are NATO members. I have no close relatives other than 2 daughters and some grandchildren, but my only first cousin lives in Estonia.

For what it's worth, my DNA test shows some Ukrainian ancestry from way back. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that a well-armed military is killing and destroying an independent, democratic nation, at the whim of an evil madman. A madman with nuclear weapons. I hope somebody inside Russia can stop him.



March 2, 2022

Ukrainian Crowd Blocks Russian Access To Nuclear Power Plant

HuffPost
Ryan Grenoble

A crowd of hundreds of Ukrainians on Wednesday blocked the road to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as Russian troops reportedly took control of the area.

The plant, near the city of Enerhodar in the country’s southeast, is the largest in Ukraine and the whole of Europe.

Video shared on Twitter and verified by CNN shows plant workers and civilians congregating en masse on both the road into the facility and a set of railroad tracks nearby.

What appear to be garbage trucks are parked farther down the road, behind makeshift bunkers made of sandbags, parked cars and piles of tires.

https://twitter.com/KyleJGlen/status/1498959118689779715

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ukraine-crowd-nuclear-power-plant-russia_n_621f9444e4b0250871a8e06f

March 2, 2022

UN General Assembly Overwhelmingly Condemns Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Source: Voice of America News

United Nations —

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine Wednesday and called for its troops to immediately and completely withdraw, as Moscow's military bore down on several Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and troops.

Of the 193 member states, 181 participated in the vote. Of those, 141 countries supported the resolution condemning Moscow and five were against it – including Russia and a tiny group of its allies — Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea. Thirty-five countries abstained, but their numbers do not affect the two-thirds majority needed for adoption.

"The vote is a powerful message to the Russian Federation," Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters.

Nearly 100 countries co-sponsored the measure, which mimics in tone the one that Russia vetoed in the Security Council last Friday, prompting the move to the General Assembly.

Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/un-general-assembly-overwhelmingly-condemns-russia-s-invasion-of-ukraine-/6467348.html

March 2, 2022

How Open-Source Intelligence Is Helping Clear The Fog Of War In Ukraine

BUZZFEED NEWS
Peter Aldhous
Christopher Miller

Hours before Vladimir Putin announced the start of “special military operations” on the morning of Feb. 24, Moscow time, a small team of researchers based in Monterey, California, knew that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had begun.

Watching the traffic layer on Google Maps for the main road from Belgorod, Russia, to Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, analysts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies saw a “traffic jam” appear at 3:15 a.m., local time. It was right at the spot where a graduate student, Steven De La Fuente, had earlier seen the buildup of armored personnel carriers, mobile missile launchers, and other military vehicles on high-resolution images from a commercial satellite that can pierce clouds and fog using radar. He had been scouring imagery for the region after TikTok videos posted by Russian civilians appeared to show hardware including Buk surface-to-air missile launchers.

The only reasonable explanation for the signal on Google Maps was that the Russian armor was now on the road, blocking progress for the few civilians traveling at night and whose smartphones were sending location data to Google’s servers.

“Someone’s on the move,” tweeted Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert who heads the Middlebury team.

Much more at link

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/osint-ukraine-war-satellite-images-plane-tracking-social?ref=bfnsplash

March 2, 2022

REUTERS: Taiwan president to donate a month's salary for Ukraine relief efforts

March 2 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday that she, Vice President William Lai and Premier Su Tseng-chang will each donate one month's salary to aid humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine as it seeks to repel an invasion by Russia.

The war has generated widespread sympathy in Taiwan for Ukraine's people, due to the threat the island says it faces on a daily basis from giant neighbour China. Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military pressure to assert those claims.

Tsai, whose government this week send its first batch of aid in the form of 27 tonnes of medical supplies, told a meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that the determination of Ukraine's people has moved the world and Taiwan's people too.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwan-president-donate-salary-ukraine-relief-efforts-2022-03-02/

March 2, 2022

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged Jewish people around the world

Zelensky urges Jews to shout as Russia ‘erases’ Ukraine: ‘Nazism is born in silence’

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged Jewish people around the world to speak up as he accused Russia of of seeking to “erase” Ukrainians, their country and their history.

“I am now addressing all the Jews of the world. Don’t you see what is happening? That is why it is very important that millions of Jews around the world not remain silent right now,” said Zelensky, who is himself Jewish.

“Nazism is born in silence. So shout about killings of civilians. Shout about the murders of Ukrainians.”

In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said a Tuesday missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that “for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign.”


https://www.timesofisrael.com/zelensky-urges-jews-to-shout-as-russia-erases-ukraine-nazism-is-born-in-silence/
March 2, 2022

Voice message reveals Russian military unit's catastrophic losses in Ukraine

"just 18 out of 150 guys survived”

Exclusive
Kyiv independent
Illia Ponomarenko

Seven days into the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it remains unclear how many casualties Russia has sustained.

The Ukrainian government said on March 2 the “indicative” number of Russia’s losses stands at 5,840 people. Russia has only admitted it had any losses four days after it started the war, and had not given any numbers.

But multiple videos and pictures from battlefields suggest that invading forces have sustained severe casualties.

And yet another piece of evidence obtained by the Kyiv Independent sheds more light on the fate of Russia’s 35th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Much more:

https://kyivindependent.com/national/exclusive-voice-message-reveals-russian-military-units-catastrophic-losses-in-ukraine/

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Gender: Female
Hometown: Maryland
Home country: United States
Member since: Tue Aug 11, 2020, 09:58 PM
Number of posts: 6,495
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