Horrifying Photos Show Immediate Effects Of Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

Huffington Post has posted a large number of photos of the invasion. Go to the link below


Firefighters at a building in the eastern Ukraine town of Chuguiv on Thursday as Russian armed forces try to invade Ukraine from several directions. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ukraine-russia-bombings-photos_n_6217953de4b0f800ce1d42e7

Putin doesn't care about peacekeeping in Ukraine

He cares about keeping a piece of Ukraine.

CNN: Map of locations where Russian attacks have been reported

Ukraine's president says Russian forces are attempting to seize control of Chernobyl nuclear power p

Source: CNN

From CNN’s Anastasia Graham-Yooll in London and Gul Tuysuz in Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that Russian forces are attempting to seize control of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

“Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl [Nuclear Power Plant]. Our defenders are sacrificing their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelensky tweeted.

"“This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” he added. "

...

“In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chernobyl,” the ministry tweeted. “If Russia continues the war, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-24-22-intl/index.html

7 dead in Russian missile strike near Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities say

CNN

From Tim Lister in Kyiv

Ukrainian authorities say seven people have been killed and 17 wounded in a missile attack on a military area northeast of the capital of Kyiv.

The mayor of the city of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, said the attack occurred at 2:30 p.m. local time. Brovary has a Ukrainian Special Forces base.

It was one of several Russian strikes close to Kyiv on Thursday.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-24-22-intl/index.html

It's Estonian Independence Day today. Will it be the last one?

Today, February 24th, is the 104nd anniversary of the day the people of Estonia declared independence from Russia.

They fought hard for that freedom, after nearly 200 years of czarist rule. They lost that freedom again during WW2, and regained in in 1991. But now that Putin has attacked Ukraine, will he also go after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? They are EU and NATO members, but will that suffice to deter him? I don't know the answer.

For background, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are not Slavic people such as Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and others. Estonians and their language are closely related to the Finnish and more distantly to Hungarians.

Unlike nearly all other languages in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the large Indo-European family of languages, but are of separate origin. Latvian and Lithuanian are Indo-European languages.

All in all, the Estonian people suffered close to 700 years of occupation and rule by foreigners, beginning with a papal order to attack and Christianize them. (Ironically, Estonians are considered the least religious people in the world now.) The Estonians lost to the Danish and the Teutonic knights, Germany purchased Estonia from them and sent in the so-called Baltic Germans to seize land, create manors, and rule over a population reduced to serfdom.

Baltic Germans, the descendants of these original occupiers, controlled the land for centuries, even though Estonian rule passed from Germans and Danes to Swedes and Poles, and finally to the Russians in 1721. Baltic Germans in essence ran the country while native Estonians remained serfs. When Russia took over Estonia in 1721 the serfs, who had some rights, were reduced to slaves. Under the Russians, Estonians could be bought and sold, traded, beaten, and put to death for minor offenses until some time in the early to mid-19th Century. They could not own property, and before about 1835, could not even have last names.

On a personal note, I found a record in the Estonian online archives noting the sale of two of my ancestors from one manor to another.

After declaring independence in 1918, they got to enjoy freedom for a mere 20 years, before being occupied by the Germans and then forcibly annexed into the Soviet Union. Large numbers of Estonians were arrested, murdered or deported to Siberian labor camps. The USSR sent hordes of Russians to occupy Estonia. About 300,000 Russians still live there, providing Putin with a convenient pretext to invade and "defend" them, should he decide to do so.

(Again on a personal note, my parents and grandmother fled Estonia during WW2 and managed to make it to the U.S. after living in an Allied displaced persons camp in Germany for some years. At some point in the war my father was captured by Nazis and was going to be executed with some others, when their captors fled before the Allied advance.)

"Within six years of the first Soviet troops arriving in Estonia, the country lost about 25% of its population to execution, imprisonment, deportation, and escape," according to the website "The Singing Revolution."

(The following paragraphs in quote marks are from that web site)


"Most people don’t think about singing when thinking about revolutions. But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when, between 1987 and 1991, Estonians wanted to end decades of Soviet occupation.

"The Singing Revolution is the name given to the step-by-step process that led to the reestablishment of Estonian independence in 1991. This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation. It was called the Singing Revolution because of the role singing played in the protests of the mid-1980s. But singing had always been a major unifying force for Estonians while they endured fifty years of Soviet rule.The Estonians and Latvians formed a long human chain across the two countries to protest Soviet occupation."

"Momentum and courage grew. The Estonians calculated that as long as they shed no blood, Gorbachev wouldn't’t be able to send in tanks to quash demonstrations. Such blatant censorship would be an international embarrassment to his carefully cultivated image. So people pushed Moscow as far as they could, taking great care to stay non-violent.

"Matters came to a head in 1991 when Moscow hard-liners staged a coup d’état and placed Gorbachev under house arrest. As troops rolled into Estonia to quell any independence-minded thinking, Estonians decided to escalate their bid for freedom. Unarmed people faced down soldiers and tanks, while political leaders assembled to declare Estonia’s independence."

Unfortunately, the Russians, particularly Putin, have never given up the notion that they own Estonia and its Baltic neighbors.

https://singingrevolution.com/about-the-history

CNN reports places where explosions heard in Ukraine

Here's where explosions have been heard across Ukraine early Thursday

CNN reporters and witnesses in cities across Ukraine have reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Thursday.

Here's where:

Kyiv: CNN reporters in Ukraine's capital heard explosions from the east in the direction of the city's international airport. Social media users reported hearing several explosions in the Boryspil area to the east of the capital, where the international airport is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the city. CNN has not confirmed that the airport has been targeted.
Kharkiv: A CNN team in Ukraine's second biggest city, in the northeast of the country, heard a "steady stream of loud explosions."
Kramatorsk: Two people in the eastern city, located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of separatist-held Donetsk, told CNN they heard at least two massive explosions.
Mariupol: Two residents told CNN they heard explosions east of the city, which is located in the southeast of the country.
Odessa: A CNN team in the Black Sea port city heard two groups of explosions about 20 minutes apart.
Zaporizhzhia: A CNN team in the southeastern city said they heard at at least one very distant explosion.

Additionally, a CNN team in the Russian city of Belgorod, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Kharkiv, said they heard a regular stream of thuds that sounded like outgoing artillery fire.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/index.html

If the bastard is "peacekeeping" in the Donbas region

why is he firing missiles at Kiev's airport?

Rhetorical question, of course.

"denazification"

Putin is saying he seeks demilitarization and denazification in Ukraine.

Seems to me if he wants to get rid of nazis, he should start with his biggest fans in the U.S.

Russia has decided to carry out a 'special military operation' in Ukraine, Putin says

Source: Washington Post


Today at 1:30 a.m. EST|Updated today at 10:12 p.m. EST

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Kremlin had decided to carry out a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“The situation requires us to take decisive, swift action,” he said in an early morning speech, adding that Moscow would carry out the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine and end eight years of war in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv government forces have been fighting pro-Moscow separatist militants.

Explosions could be heard in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and Kharhiv, in the country’s northeast. Putin told Ukrainians to give up their weapons and to return home.

Senior Russian military commanders gathered in Moscow in the early hours of the morning, according to a U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.




Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/23/russia-ukraine-updates/