Ukraine Slaps Back - Maybe

It's semi-unconfirmed, in that I haven't seen it on "regular news" yet.

About 10 miles north of the border

NY Post & AFP via News.com.au:

Ukraine appears to strike back for first time with missile hit on Russian military camp

Ukraine appears to have hit Russia directly for the first time since the invasion began, with a missile reportedly hitting a military camp.

Ukrainian forces may have struck back inside Russia on Tuesday with their first significant shelling.

A Ukrainian missile appeared to have hit a temporary Russian military encampment outside Belgorod, in Russia’s village of Krasny Oktyabr, about 64km from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said the Russian state-run news agency Tass.

Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said there were no casualties, but an emergency service worker told Tass that four Russian soldiers were injured, the NY Post reports.

“Explosions were heard on the territory of Belgorod and the Belgorod region,” Mr Gladkov said.

“The incident took place near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr. The head of the village is in direct contact with me and has given me all the information. There are no casualties or injuries among the residents. I‘ll post the reason for this later.”

Video posted online from two local Belgorod news outlets appeared to show ammunition blowing up, but the source of the explosion could not be immediately confirmed outside of Tass.

If verified, the strike would apparently be the first that struck a military target inside Russia and wounded soldiers.

Last week, Tass said two men were hurt when a shell from Ukraine exploded in the same area.

The attack came as Moscow’s negotiators said Tuesday that Russia would “radically” reduce its military activity in northern Ukraine, including near the capital Kyiv, after “meaningful” talks in Istanbul.

“Given that the talks on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine have moved into a practical field... a decision has been made to radically... reduce the military activity in the areas of Kyiv and Chernigiv,” Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said.

Chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said there had been a “meaningful discussion” at the talks and that Ukrainian proposals would be put to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He also said that Mr Putin could meet Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. “After today’s meaningful discussion we have agreed on and propose a solution, according to which the meeting of the heads of state is possible simultaneously with the foreign ministers initialling the treaty,” Mr Medinsky added.

“On the condition of quick work on the agreement and finding the required compromise, the possibility to make peace will become much closer.”

- more -

Kleptocracy

About halfway through this clip the guy makes the point that going after the oligarchs won't deter Putin, or make him change policies, because they've been subordinated to the regime in Moscow, and they just don't have the power they once had.

But It's not just the influence on Putin and Russian politics that matters. There's way too much dark money being poured into electoral processes everywhere. These rich boogers are buying up Coin-Operated Politicians all over this planet. And that needs to be dealt with if we don't want to live under the thumb of a global plutocracy.

Jan6 Stuff

Glenn Kirschner - Justice Matters

Talking about Burdens Of Proof and other niceties of our clunky. clumsy, smarmspace riddled system.

1. Reasonable Articulable Suspicion - a cop can stop you and ask questions
2. Probable Cause - you can be arrested and possibly indicted
3. Preponderance of the Evidence - what the fuck are you waiting for, Mr Garland?

COVID-19 Update

I may be experiencing a wave of "fuck this pandemic shit - I'm sick of it". For whatever reason, I failed to post an update again yesterday.

It's hard for me to tell if the thing is starting to make a comeback, or if this is the standard last scene of the spooky movie where they think the monster has been vanquished and the hero's about to get all mushy with his one true love, and then - surprise - not quite dead yet!

So I don't know if I'll skip it altogether, or just fall back to a position of posting something once in a while - if there's news - or try to find a different rhythm or what.

Anyway, here's what I've got today:

WaPo: (freebie)

CDC: If you got J&J’s vaccine and booster, consider an mRNA shot now

Combining single-dose shot with Pfizer, Moderna boosters offers better protection against severe covid, study shows

The nearly 17 million Americans who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine are less protected against serious illness and hospitalizations than those who got the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots, according to federal data released Tuesday.

The latest data suggest Johnson & Johnson recipients should get a booster with one of the messenger RNA vaccines, if they haven’t already done so — and even consider a second messenger RNA booster for the greatest protection. The data come from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that analyzed the results of mix-and-match vaccine-and-booster combinations during a four-month period when the highly transmissible omicron variant was dominant.

Even combining a Johnson & Johnson vaccine with a booster of either Johnson & Johnson, or one of the two messenger RNA vaccines, wasn’t as strong as three shots of the messenger RNA vaccines in preventing emergency room visits or hospitalizations, according to the report.

Shortly after the study’s release, the CDC greenlighted a second booster, either of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots, for those who received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and booster at least four months ago. It did not formally recommend the second booster but said people may get it if they choose. More than 1.3 million people received the Johnson & Johnson vaccines and booster, according to CDC data.

- more -

Friendly reminder; it wasn’t the CEOs and billionaires who saved us from Covid-19. It was the janitors, nurses, grocery, and food workers…

— mohamad safa (@mhdksafa) March 30, 2022

Today's Operator Starsky

Ukrainian soldier - YouTuber who posts under the name Operator Starsky - takes on Russian Propaganda.

I don't know how much credence to lend this guy. I absolutely admit to my bias, so I don't a whole lot of convincing that the Russians are lying at every turn - I just don't know if he debunks the suspected videos all that well. Except for the Kadyrov picture - that shit is pure shit.

And here's a screen shot of the leaked memo:

A Break Down

... on the possible demise of Putin's imperial ambitions.

(paraphrasing) The west gets so hung up on not underestimating Russia, we fall into the mental trap of ascribing way more power and agency to them than they deserve - which leads to our making a whole different set of mistakes, which basically work out about the same, and here we are:

meet the new clusterfuck

same as the old clusterfuck

From Good Times Bad Times:

I have to be doubtful that the Russian Federation itself will break up. It think there must be a strong enough memory of national unity - a national identity - that will hold "the old Russia" together.

Remember though - I've been wrong before. Real wrong.

Even More Ukraine

When you've got more guys than guns.

(this'd never happen here in God's own USAmerica, Inc!)

For right anyway, this is a good problem to have.

Europa Today:

Too many volunteers, but few weapons: Ukraine stops enlisting

The number of military personnel doubled in just one month. Kiev denounces the lack of resources to train and arm new recruits

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have wanted to join the Ukrainian army in recent weeks and fight alongside the military. Many have chosen to defend their country, and the requests for enlistment have been so high that the armed forces of Kiev are no longer able to train and arm the new recruits. The reason? Weapons would be missing.

The Ukrainian army avoids giving specific figures on the total number of active soldiers, but the estimates of the experts consulted by El Pais indicate that there are currently about 500,000 people who have joined the army (double the number before the start of the conflict). Authorities are now choosing to deploy volunteers to areas other than strictly military areas.

One month after the outbreak of the conflict, according to El Pais, Kiev begins to blame the lack of ammunition and weapons for the national defense forces. Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky last week asked NATO leaders gathered in Brussels for tanks, 1 percent of the Atlantic Alliance aircraft, missile firing systems, anti-ship weapons and air defenses to withstand the Russian offensive.

At the start of the conflict, the Ukrainian armed forces officially had 250,000 active professionals, of which 190,000 were military. On paper, Ukraine also had nearly 200,000 reservists and volunteers in the Territorial Defense Forces, a militarized division responsible for local protection and control. To this must be added the 130,000 policemen and battalions of paramilitary origin who were under the umbrella of the National Guard and now, with martial law, under the orders of the Ministry of Defense.

Mikhail Samus, director of the Ukrainian defense think tank New Geopolitics, points out that the contingent mobilized today by Ukraine is much larger than a month ago: 300 thousand veterans of the war caused by Russia in 2014 in the Donbass region (eastern of the country) were immediately incorporated into units at the front. To this must be added another 100,000 volunteers, according to the Ukrainian press, who were accepted into the Territorial Defense Forces in the first two weeks of the invasion. These units are essential in checkpoints and access to cities, in the search for Russian saboteurs, but also in armed confrontation, as Samus explains: "The Territorial Defense Forces were fundamental in the first attack against Kiev,

According to Andrei Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard, in a press conference since the outbreak of the conflict about 400 thousand people have returned to the country, most of whom are men who, after arriving in their province of origin, they are voluntarily enrolled. But sources close to the Defense Ministry have called Demchenko's "an exaggeration for propaganda purposes". Arguing that in reality only a minority of those returning to Ukraine volunteer to join the ranks, and that many return mainly to be with their families.

Samus explains to the Spanish newspaper that in any case the majority of men are willing to fight. His assessment is based on pre-invasion polls, which estimated that 65 percent of adults would have taken up arms in the event of a Russian attack. "Now there are certainly more," he says, illustrating that even if only 10 percent of men between 18 and 60 had volunteered, that would still be a million potential fighters. Adults in this age group cannot leave the country due to the possibility of being mobilized by the army or required for other essential duties.

Andrei Shevchenko is a retired military officer and diplomat of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, confirms that recruitment has slowed down, and even stopped in Kiev, because there were already enough recruits in the early stages of the conflict. "What we need now is a training period for future front unit relays," he explains. "What we will not do is, as the Russians do, send people untrained as cannon fodder to war," he assures.

Today's Tweet

"I have never obstructed justice...I am not a crook."
-- Richard M. Nixon, Nov. 17, 1973

"I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term."
-- Donald J. Trump, March 29, 2022

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 29, 2022

More Ukraine

From CNN, Christiane Amanpour with former Russian legislator Ilya Ponomarev.

Money quote: "We will kill the bastard."

No matter who it is, I won't celebrate the destruction of a fellow human being. But I have to admit that somewhere in the back of my mind, when I hear the news that Putin is gone, part of me will be dancing.

We're looking straight at the key to beating Putin and freeing Russia - the 2 things that comprise one huge step in pushing back against the global spread of authoritarianism - and that key is Ukraine.

Ukraine

Via Reddit (r/ukraine)

A border guard named Roman was among the defenders on Snake Island in the first days of Russia's invasion - famous for their "Russian warship - fuck off" defiance in the face of disaster.

Feared dead, Roman was held POW until recently, when he and others were returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap.

Partial translation:

It opens up with a head of Cherkass state administration (the man who gives out the medal) welcoming Roman, the border guard and saying “ It’s a pleasure to meet you. Like yourself, this award is honorable and I hope it will warm your soul to know it’s a Cherkass state award and we will always be happy to see you and work with you again and again. You are very valuable to us, just like everyone who defends our country. We will defeat as many enemies as needed, until our victory”. The video switches to the man talking in the background, saying “ Ukraine must know it’s heroes, so does the Cherkass oblast, we have yet again reaffirmed that our people are true Cossacks. Everything Roman said is truly relevant to Ukraine and the resilience we have in heart. Our people, despite torture and high pressure stay strong and well - they are a role model for all Ukrainians, proving that our spirit is unbreakable. It then switches to Roman - “I’d like to thank the people of Ukraine for such strong support, all of us truly feel it and it inspires us. The strength and truth is on our side, we will surely win. Glory to Ukraine ! “

Слава Україні

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