[OFFICIAL] Ukraine Thread

[Paddy]

Many years ago I was chatting with my Austrian friend's mother. She was an ex-Nazi. She showed me phots of voting tents used in the Anschluss referendum. She was dressed in a swimsuit outside the Yes Tent and the were armed soldiers outside the No Tent.

[NotAllThere]

I see it's the half of Zaporizhzhia that doesn't include the capital of the oblast.

[vetran]

You'd think they'd at least pretend to make the results look believably in their favour.

How do you vote Comrade? Voting for Russia means I save a bullet!

[d000hg]

Russian state media has announced the preliminary results of the so-called referendums being held in occupied parts of Ukraine. With about a fifth of votes counted, it is reported that an overwhelming majority have voted in favour of joining Russia:

• 97% in Kherson region
• 98% in Zaporizhzhia
• 98% in “Donetsk People’s Republic”
• 98% in “Luhansk People’s Republic”

Ukraine and Western nations have called the process a sham, claiming the results had already been decided.
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You'd think they'd at least pretend to make the results look believably in their favour.

[Paddy]

[Paddy]

Looks like one frigate is going to Moscow...

Putin's parade boat sinking now

[DealorNoDeal]

Has Putin always had this rhetoric and it was simply largely unreported when it was mere words, or is it a new development that he's suddenly gone off the rails since the invasion began?

It looks like the Nazi rhetoric has been going on for a long time.

https://euvsdisinfo.eu/grotesque-kre...bloody-tragedy

"We examined six months’ worth of Ukraine-related rhetoric from Russian state media outlets, pro-Kremlin outlets linked to the Russian state, and Russian official diplomatic accounts on Twitter.

We started by calculating the volume of mentions of Ukraine-related keywords in combination with keywords representing casus belli narratives, or fabrications used as pretexts for invading Ukraine.

For example, pro-Kremlin outlets have consistently portrayed Ukraine as a ‘Nazi’ state to vilify Ukrainians, particularly in the eyes of domestic Russian audiences, and thus to justify Kremlin aggression. We have seen this tactic a number of times, including in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and of course in the past six months, as shown in the diagram below.

It is exactly this framing of Ukraine as a ‘Nazi’ state that has enabled Russian state-controlled outlets and now-sanctioned(opens in a new tab) politicians to make gruesome and completely fabricated allegations of genocide in Donbas and to spin wild conspiracy theories about Ukraine using chemical and other prohibited weapons."

[d000hg]

Has Putin always had this rhetoric and it was simply largely unreported when it was mere words, or is it a new development that he's suddenly gone off the rails since the invasion began?

[SueEllen]

The drugs are strong -

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/09/e...ntl/index.html

In his reverence for Soviet war heroes who helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II -- the reason Russia celebrates Victory Day -- Putin referred to new Nazi threats in Ukraine, repeating his baseless justification for the invasion as an operation to "denazify" the nation.

In reference to the threat of NATO troops in Europe, Putin said: "Everything indicated that a clash with neo-Nazis, Banderites [Ukrainian nationalists], on whom the United States and their younger partners counted on, would be inevitable."

"Danger was increasing every day. Russia repelled this aggression in a preventative way. This was the only correct decision, and it was a timely decision. The decision of an independent, sovereign and powerful nation," he said.

[AtW]

Looks like one frigate is going to Moscow...