Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

Post Reply New Topic

This video of President Zelenskyy is a deepfake | Is this legit?
Apr 20, 2022

"
A false video that appears to show Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commanding his soldiers to “lay down their weapons'' and surrender to Russian invaders went viral across social media and was even put onto a Ukrainian news outlet by hackers. The video was actually a deepfake. During this episode, MediaWise Teen Fact-Checker Bella describes how she was able to debunk the video, and gives tips for identifying deepfakes.
"

Warnings on likely use of deepfake technology started at the very onset of this war.
Luckily, the technology is still imperfect... and there's a simpler tip: official channels.

I read an extremely dubious piece of propaganda on a Q&A platform in China.
Past records show that this author has a great fondness for the Soviet Union.

https://www.zhihu.com/question/529169949/answer/2449862354
His speech was very fragmented and I put together several of his main arguments.
Although not the original text, I use the "quoted" format for readability.

He asked when the "Bucha Massacre" investigation team would leave.
(He implied that the Butcha massacre was a forgery)

A.On April 17, the Russian army opened humanitarian channel to the steel plant. For 16 hours, no one came out of the humanitarian channel.
And this channel is not only leading to Russia.
Known as the "Mariupol Pregnant Woman", she was evacuated from Mariupol through the Russian humanitarian channel. She is now in Poland.
B."On March 5, local time, the Office of the President of Ukraine confirmed that the humanitarian access to Volnovaha and Mariupol has been opened."
This proves that Russia does have genuine and open humanitarian channels.
He therefore questioned what force prevented the 1,000 women and children in the steel plant from choosing not to be evacuated from humanitarian channels.

According to the five surrendering soldiers who ran out on April 18, they secretly ran out after seeing the leaflets of the Russian army persuading them to surrender. Their commander said: "There is no humanitarian channel.
A document was also found on their phones, issued by the Ukrainian National Guard.

The issuer is Владимир Кондратюк, First Deputy Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine
Issue date is April 17
The content of the file is:
1. It is strictly forbidden for all Ukrainian soldiers to surrender;
2. The Azov Battalion was authorized to execute all those who wanted to surrender and flee, and the power of execution was delegated to the Azov commander, Denis Prokopenko;
3. Ukrainian military personnel who refuse to comply with this order prohibiting surrender will be executed on the spot in accordance with the laws of belligerence.

He believes that this is the source of the various bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who were dumped in trash cans and executed on the side of the road. These soldiers who were handcuffed, those with their hands tied behind their backs, those who were shot in the head, and those who were shot to death, all found on or beside the Russian army's propaganda leaflet on surrender.

He suggested that we watch the video of the interview with the British mercenary captured by the Russian army, which will explain why the Ukrainian government is afraid of the final loss of Mariupol. This British mercenary explained the slaughter of civilians, the torture of prisoners of war, the time and place, and who gave the order.
Captured was British mercenary Aiden Aslin
Interviewed by British journalist Graham Phillips

This sounds rather disturbing ……. ? Hope this is fraudulent .. if not , got crazies on both sides ??????

Perhaps as one song once said, West Virginia really can be almost heaven,

Former TASS journalist on Putin's Russia: 'Everything is broken'
Jim Bissett, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Sat, April 23, 2022, 11:01 PM·6 min read
https://news.yahoo.com/former-tass-jour ... 00638.html

"
"The only thing we could do was go at that point, " Alisa said, while her husband translated. "Of course, I'll miss my loved ones still there, but I have to think about Mark and the baby."
What a long, strange trip it's been
"

"
Right now, they are just grateful for Mountaineer kindness by way of West Virginia and the U.S., they said. They're grateful for the opportunity to breathe.
"

Politics and religion indeed ...

How the image of a besieged and victimized Russia came to be so ingrained in the country's psyche
Gregory Carleton, Professor of Russian Studies, Tufts University
Sun, April 24, 2022, 8:38 AM·6 min read
https://news.yahoo.com/image-besieged-v ... 16887.html
"
The two previous capitals of Christianity – the Rome of the Vatican and the Rome of Constantinople as the capital of the Byzantine Empire – could no longer aspire to such status. After all, the first was under control of schismatics – as Orthodox Christians would view Catholics – while the second had been occupied by the Ottoman Turks since the city’s fall in 1453. That left Russia as the only place where a pure form of Christianity could reside.

At that time, no other Orthodox Christians were free of foreign rule. This undergirded the belief that the Russian land was exceptional and, as such, always set it at odds with its neighbors such as the Poles, the Turks and the Balts, who, generally speaking, were of a different faith.

The idea of Russia as an island of true Christianity, however, really gained traction in the 19th century as nationalists sought to define what made their nation and people different from – and, by implication, superior to – others. Prominent figures such as Fyodor Dostoevsky propagated this idea in his writings, as did Apollon Maikov, a famous poet who likened Russia to a besieged monastery, beset by enemies on all sides and only able to rely on itself.

That Russia at the same time was subject to foreign invasions, most notably by Napoleon, served to link the two ideas: Russia was a special place, and for that reason, others on the outside have sought to destroy the country, its culture and its religion through any means necessary.

With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin and other Russian leaders have fully embraced this image of Russia once more.
"
...

"
So Putin has turned to a more stable and, as events have shown, more viable myth to justify his actions: “Fortress Russia.”

The advantages in arguing this line are manifold. It deftly molds to the situation now at hand. Western sanctions, in seeking to isolate Russia, can also perversely confirm the country’s mythical view of itself as a special place that outsiders seek to destroy.

By this reasoning, the sanctions merely reflect the West’s continuing antagonism against Russia dating back centuries. That the invasion set these sanctions in motion can be swept under the rug.

It also paints Russia as once again defending itself against outside aggression and thereby flips the role of it being the villain in the conflict with Ukraine. It enforces the idea of Russia as the perpetual victim, always the underdog in the face of history’s injustices and inequities. Moreover, it preserves the perception of Russia as an island of goodness and beneficence in a hostile world.

The emphasis of this new narrative should not be dismissed in the West as just another propaganda ploy. As the war has turned more into a stalemate, this line, as seen in Putin’s speech of March 25, 2022, has gained more traction.
"

^ I doubt it very much.
Poland also has perpetually besieged and victimized self-image, despite being mostly Catholic.
But, so far, despite these unhealthy feelings, we haven't been doing nearly that much damage.
Unprocessed difficult past is extremely dangerous in hands of malevolent autocrats. The same happened to interbellum Germany.
It has nothing to do with religion.

And funny that people say "Russia is defined by having been invaded"... how about the whole East Europe that for the last 400 years was being redefined by being invaded by Russia? And being invaded by Russia has always been looking like what we can watch now.

We do have a number of unhealthy tendencies... but invading souvereign states is universally considered an extremely bad idea, even from the selfish point of view.

A video with anti-Ukrainian propaganda has sparked discussions in China.
The original material used is Ukrainian soldiers showing off the statue of the heroine Zoya with a noose.

Although the Soviet Union was unpopular, anti-Nazis were something everyone should support. I absolutely disapprove of this behavior.

I'm curious how common is this kind of "removal of Soviet influence" in Ukraine?
Or, who like to "remove Soviet influence" more, Russia or Ukraine?

Toppling monuments is one of the mildest aspects of revolutions. I know several monuments have been removed and several places renamed since Feb 24 and I find it easy to understand. People don't want to be daily reminded about someone who is harming them.
I haven't seen the material but I suspect a cable used to topple the monument could look like a nooze and be used in the created narrative in this way.