Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-23 and Invasion

[Tamas]

I saw this Twitter list recommended, obviously its unverified stuff but lots of pics and footage from people already, like filming cruise missiles in flight and stuff:
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1495741140452225026

[Syt]

Austrian paper says the Hungarian foreign minister has stated that Hungary supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, but that the diplomatic efforts of even the largest and strongest countries were unable to prevent these events. Absent from the statement: any mention of Russia or Putin.

[Razgovory]

Christ, this is awful.

[Tamas]

Austrian paper says the Hungarian foreign minister has stated that Hungary supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, but that the diplomatic efforts of even the largest and strongest countries were unable to prevent these events. Absent from the statement: any mention of Russia or Putin.

Yeah they struggled for days to figure out what to say internally, then they have come up with the line: Hungary must stay out of this conflict. And that's about the extent of their commitment to condemning.

[Syt]

Austrian paper says the Hungarian foreign minister has stated that Hungary supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, but that the diplomatic efforts of even the largest and strongest countries were unable to prevent these events. Absent from the statement: any mention of Russia or Putin.

Yeah they struggled for days to figure out what to say internally, then they have come up with the line: Hungary must stay out of this conflict. And that's about the extent of their commitment to condemning.

Seen a few Austrians on forums say that if Putin for whatever reason should not stop at Ukraine but pushed further West, Orban would probably wave his troops through and suddenly: oops - Russians on the Austrian border, again.

[Razgovory]

Trump was rambling on Laura Ingraham.

https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/fox-news-russia-ukraine-invasion-trump?r=7g2f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=url

[...]

A short time after the attack began, former President Donald Trump dialed in to Laura Ingraham's Fox News show to offer his reaction. Earlier in the evening, Trump delivered a speech to Mar-a-Lago club members in which he praised Putin, describing him as "smart" because he's "taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions." On Ingraham's show, Trump tried to lay blame for Putin's aggression squarely at Biden's feet, telling her ominously that the invasion couldn't have happened during his presidency for "a very good reason, and I'll explain that to you someday."

In comments indicative of much of the coverage of the invasion on right-wing TV, Ingraham and Trump teamed up to denigrate the American president, with Ingraham saying that Putin decided to "go for it" because he sees "a lot of weakness in the United States."

The former president agreed with her and then went even further, claiming that Russia's invasion is only happening "because of a rigged election." In order words, Ukrainians may be getting killed tonight, but Trump is the real victim.

Here's a transcript of Trump's rant, followed by the clip.

[Putin] sees the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity of this administration. As an American I am angry about it and saddened by it. And it all happened because of a rigged election. This would've never happened. That includes inflation and that includes millions of people pouring in on a monthly basis, far more than three million people, they are coming from 129 different countries. We have no idea what's happening and they are destroying our country.

If that sounds like the rantings of a madman, things only got weirder from there.

Ingraham at one point mentioned a report she heard about Russian troops making an amphibious landing at Odessa. But the former president thought she was talking about American troops making a landing in Ukraine to fight Russians, and started criticizing the military for not maintaining better operational secrecy.

"You know what's also very dangerous is you told me about the amphibious attack by Americans. You shouldn't be saying that, because you and everybody else shouldn't know about," Trump said. "They should do that secretly, not be doing that through the great Laura Ingraham."

Ingraham corrected him.

"No, those are the Russians," she said.

"Oh, I thought you said that we were sending people in," he said. "That'll be next."

While it's hard to believe someone who was president just 14 months ago really thought American troops are fighting Russians in Ukraine, it was easy to foresee that Fox News's primetime lineup would make plenty of excuses for Putin while trying to pin blame on Biden or, in Ingraham's case, on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who she accused of a "pathetic display" by making a speech that represented a last-ditch effort to persuade Putin not to invade.

Along similar lines, just before Russia's invasion began, Tucker Carlson described Ukraine as "a pure client state of the United States State Department. That's fine ... just don't tell us it's democracy."

But Ukraine, of course, is a democracy, with a democratically elected government that has been trying to gradually move the country further away from authoritarian Russia and closer to the West. Trump, Carlson, and Ingraham, meanwhile, seem to prefer Putin to Biden — and they're getting closer and closer to just coming right out and saying it.

In any event, it was striking to watch American coverage of an authoritarian aggressor nation invading its democratic neighbor that actually seemed sympathetic to the invaders. It's a grim reminder that Trumpism is all about owning the libs at any cost, even if you wind up siding with murderous autocrats.

God, I hate that man.

[The Brain]

Sanctions on Republicans may be in order. They are truly scum.

[The Brain]

I love Swedish journalists. The EU says that the sanctions will be their strictest ever, but the journalists don't say what the strictest sanctions so far have been for comparison.

[Threviel]

I love Swedish journalists. The EU says that the sanctions will be their strictest ever, but the journalists don't say what the strictest sanctions so far have been for comparison.

That takes both work and thinking, not something our journalists normally do, it's far outside their scope.

[Tamas]

Allegedly there's fighting in Odessa.

[Syt]

German AfD has condemned the Russian attack. They also say that Russia needs to receive credible guarantees and offers to bring them back to the negotiating table.

[jimmy olsen]

I saw someone tweet "a dictator is invading a democratic nation and half the American polity is cheering him on." Is that accurate?

Between the Right and the far Left, yeah, I would say it is close.

Is the GOP fully and visibly in the tank for Russia? Are they hemming and hawing a bit? Are they split? Or... are they all in with Tucker Carlson et. al.?

They're split about half. Bunch of GOP senators denouncing Putin and ripping on Biden for causing this by being weak

Moscow stock exchange down 45%
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1496768493588725764

[Syt]

Austrian former chancellor Kern has resigned from his post on the supervisory board of the Russian state owned railway company.

[celedhring]

Has Schröder reared his fat head since the attack began?

[Josquius]

So I'm reading a lot of Russian convoys entering from all directions but nothing of resistance？