Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (Official Thread)

Mister Terrific

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You still got the leash around your neck, c00n? :russ: Massa's calling c00n, go run! Why are you talking about pro black when you literally carry water for white supremacy you c00n fakkit :mjlol: -or cac? :mjgrin:. What's your white daddy Zelensky and his Nazi battalions done for black folk again? Apart from treat them like shyt at the start of the war? This is how it's apparent what you really are



You know plenty of countries do not allow dual citizenship (especially to countries regarded as rogue states) you dumb imbecile, you aren't really this stupid, right :dead:

Ok - so you are confirming you want Ukraine to continue to let their innocent civilians needlessly die to the defenses of the current most moral army in the world, Russia. You are really a sick fukk. :scust:
All this talking and you still haven’t grabbed my swishers :gucci:
 

MushroomX

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Putin really thought he can create USSR ver 2.0, but he strengthened NATO and basically is causing the Russian Federation to splinter. Time will be kind to him short-term, but long-term he will be seen as a massive failure.
 

Mister Terrific

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Executed Renaissance: The Erasure of Ukrainian Cultural Heritage in the Times of the Soviet Union​


I am writing to you as the sun is shining outside my window – and, oh goodness, how difficult I find it to restrain myself so as not to scream – about how good life is, about how wonderful the future of a person, who owns the right to that future, is. I’m sending you a kiss, my dear, and ask that you remember the date of this letter as a date of one of my best days.’
These words were etched on paper by poet Ievhen Pluzhnyk in a letter to his wife on 28 March 1935, soon after his sentencing by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union to execution by firing squad. Though his sentence was later changed to long-term incarceration in a Solovki concentration camp, the poet died of tuberculosis the following year, his resting place thousands of miles away from his homeland of Ukraine.

The early history of Soviet Ukraine would soon become associated with the purposeful elimination of a generation of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, dubbed the ‘Executed Renaissance’ by Jerzy Giedroyc during his initiative on the creation of an anthology of Ukrainian literature of 1917-1933. Comprised of writers and artists, the Renaissance represented a challenge to the consolidation of power by the newly established Soviet Union, a conglomeration of independent thought and faith, an artistic rebellion. The 1920s in Ukraine were defined by an aura of excitement hanging in the air, exuding intense feelings of creativity and determination to embolden the Ukrainian identity by way of outpouring artistry and underground activity by numerous literary circles.

To understand the Renaissance-like character of the early twentieth century in Ukraine, one must understand the context of its origins. Ukrainians fell victim to persecution as an ethnic group, their culture and language subjugated to persistent attempts of imposed structural erasure as early as 1627 when, under Tsar Mikhail’s orders, all copies of Ukrainian Didactic gospels were destroyed. What followed was an almost 300 year long campaign of attacks on the language, from the issuing of Peter I’s decree banning printing in Ukrainian to the signing of a secret decree titled the ‘Valuev Circular’ in 1863 by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire Pyotr Valuev, that made most of publications in the Ukrainian language forbidden. It is Valuev’s words that may aptly summarize the rhetoric with which the de-facto process of Russification of Ukrainians took place: ‘The Ukrainian language never existed, does not exist, and shall never exist.’

As such, that centuries-old process would have continued, were it not for its temporary interruption by the introduction of the indigenisation (“korenizatsiya”/коренизация) policy by the Soviet Union in the 1920s. As part of its attempts to appeal to the very nations it engulfed and institutionalise social control, the policy sought to promote representatives of the titular nation and their national minorities into administrative levels of local governments and reverse the Russification policies of the imperial period. Established under the banner of ‘Socialist in content, but national in form’, the policy effectively communicated that expression of patriotic sentiments was allowed so long as it lay within an over-arching theme of Soviet utopia. What soon became clear was that instead of satiating the appetite of the people for freedom to live and think as they pleased, the policies whetted it, highlighting the prevalence of a dichotomy of powers Ukraine continuously found itself subjected to: Russia and the West.

Consequently, the assertion of Russian cultural hegemony through a centralised Soviet regime ensured that any independence-driven ambitious cultural movements saw no exposure on a state-wide level – instead, they faced repression and direct opposition from all governmental organs. Those parts of the intelligentsia therefore found themselves at an implicit “choice” of consequences that lay between suicide, repressions and concentration camps, systemic silencing, emigration, or the writing of “programmed” prose on behalf of the Communist Party. After the policy of indigenisation had served as a social equivalent of water breaking a dam, the only way of stop the overflow was to dry out and eliminate the sources.

An early example of such efforts was the show trial of the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine v Soviet Union in 1930: beginning with 45 defendants, a total of 474 people were accused of anti-state activities, of which 15 were sentenced to execution, 192 sent away to concentration camps, 87 sent away outside of the borders of Ukrainian SSR, 3 sentenced to probation, and 124 released. The accusations were such that the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine (SVU) was an underground organization, its purpose of existence aimed at liberating the Ukrainian people across their ethnographic territory and establishing an independent parliamentary and democratic Ukrainian republic that would give its citizens the right to private property. As such, the accusations asserted that the SVU was to be held accountable for allegedly inciting and supporting popular uprisings while in close communication with the Ukrainian diaspora. In retrospect, the prevalent theory within contemporary Ukrainian analysis of early Soviet history is that SVU never existed as an organization – it was simply a fictitious body created by the authorities, a metaphor representing the movement of Ukrainian patriots of that time, who channeled their work into the collective efforts of initiating a Ukrainian cultural renaissance.

What followed the trial was the beginning of a campaign to remove and exterminate any and all members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia that lasted between 1934-1940. The campaign ultimately culminated during the 1938-1938 Great Purge, resulting in 223 writers being imprisoned or executed. A painful mark of twentieth century Ukrainian history; its tragic peak – the mass execution of nearly three hundred members of the Ukrainian renaissance at Sandarmokh, a mass killing site in Karelia, northwest Russia. Some estimates assert that nearly 30,000 Ukrainian intellectuals were repressed during the Stalinist Yezhovschina, and its impact on literary contributions can be seen in the change in publication trends of that decade. While in 1930, the works of 259 Ukrainian writers were published, by 1938 only 36 of those writers remained – the rest were executed, exiled, had disappeared, or committed suicide.

The story of the Executed Renaissance is one of tragedy, its existence a reminder to us of the privilege that is the freedom to think and express without consequences, to create in the name of art and higher purposes, to have personal convictions. It is, however, a story of hope, for the attempts to silence, repress, and erase any potential sources of a free-thinking Ukrainian culture were unsuccessful – decades later, an independent Ukrainian state that so many of the Renaissance envisioned lives on, its existence a testament to the efficacy of the collective struggle for freedom.

 

bnew

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Putin really thought he can create USSR ver 2.0, but he strengthened NATO and basically is causing the Russian Federation to splinter. Time will be kind to him short-term, but long-term he will be seen as a massive failure.

dude has so much control over his country, not as much as Xi does in china or MBS in saudia arabia but he could have done a lot to develop his country and make it more prosperous. instead he worried more about gathering power and stealing the wealth of his countries for him and his cronies. in the long term putin and his regime will be castigated as reason russian are worse off than they were before the war in ukraine. they claim to be liberating parts of ukraine but russians have fewer freedoms now than when the war began.
 

ADevilYouKhow

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Potemkin leader visits Potemkin country!
 
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bnew

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Russian troops surrender to an elite brigade as the Kharkiv front holds, Ukraine says​

Cameron Manley

Screenshot from the 3rd Assault Brigade video of the capture of a Russian soldier (center) in the Vovchansk sector, the soldier later appeared in a video showing him as one of 24 prisoners taken in the sector.

A screenshot from Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade's video appearing to show Russian soldiers being captured in the Vovchansk region. Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade


  • Dozens of Russian soldiers have surrendered in Vovchansk in recent weeks, Ukraine says.
  • A video released by Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade appears to show Russian prisoners of war.
  • The Russians reported major losses, poor conditions, and a lack of support from senior officers.

Russian soldiers have been surrendering to an elite Ukrainian combat brigade in the northern town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, reports say.

A video released on Wednesday by Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade appears to show Russian troops emerging from a trench with their hands raised or tied behind their backs.

The video seems to confirm recent reports that dozens of Russian soldiers have been surrendering around Vovchansk, where heavy fighting has raged since Moscow launched a cross-border offensive toward Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, last month.

The prisoners of war were later filmed and interviewed, sitting in what appeared to be a school classroom.

Business Insider couldn't independently verify the video.

Several of the captured soldiers said they'd been forced into the Russian army because of financial or legal trouble. Some said they'd received as little as one week of training before being sent to the front.

Food and water were limited, and often, they had to buy supplies with their own money, they said.

Almost all the prisoners said their units had suffered severe losses during attacks against Ukrainian positions.

"We received an order to attack positions inside a chemical factory. I don't know, maybe there were 70 of us. We drove there at night," one POW said.

"The drones came out of nowhere and wiped almost everyone out. Most of us were hit. Only seven of us survived, and we were wounded. Then we were taken prisoner," he said.

Russia had a golden opportunity to open a new front in Ukraine but is squandering it, military experts say


Another soldier said he'd been taken prisoner after being the "only survivor" in his unit.

Many complained about the leadership of their officers, who, they said, didn't participate in the costly assaults.

Russian soldiers lined up in a video.

Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade published footage of Russian soldiers it says it captured in recent fighting. Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade

The video appears to confirm major Russian losses and surrenders in the region, supporting the idea that Russia's attempt to open a second front in Ukraine's north has stalled.

Last week, Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson for the Khortytsia Regional Command, which is responsible for ground operations in the area, said that "close to 60 Russians" were captured in a single day of combat.

Vovchansk, 3 miles from the Russian border, was 70% under Ukrainian control, Voloshyn said.

An earlier video published on June 6 by Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade appeared to show two Russian soldiers, both wounded, being captured during a Ukrainian counterattack in Vovchansk.

In February, some 30,000 Russian troops began pouring over Ukraine's northern border into the Kharkiv region, opening up a new front for Ukraine's already-stretched defenses.

Yet four months later, Russian forces have stalled, and the White House national-security communications advisor, John Kirby, has declared the offensive "all but over."

The Institute for the Study of War said that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have rushed the offensive in an attempt to get ahead of incoming Western aid, fielding "an understrength force" in the process.

The RAND geopolitical strategist Ann Marie Dailey previously told BI that Putin probably never had the means to capture Kharkiv city but hoped to create a buffer zone to shield the border region of Belgorod from Ukrainian attacks.

Nonetheless, Dailey told BI, "I think that there's a broader offensive effort that you'll see from Russia later in this summer."

Correction: June 17, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the time between when Russian troops first entered Kharkiv in February and John Kirby's statement about the offensive. It was four months, not four weeks. An earlier version of the story also misspelled Khortytsia.
 
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