Jonathan Wiggin

Whoever said that Russia's economy is tanking take note: Funeral parlours saw a record 12.5% growth last year and undertakers can look forward to another bumper year if Russia invades #UkraineConflict #UkraineConflict #UkraineRussiaCrisis #RussiaEconomy

This is probably the best explanation for why every Russian is guilty of Russia’s crimes, even if they simply don’t care.

Today, I will donate to Ukraine 0.50 cents for each new follower. I have now 35140. Please share this message :) #FollowFriday

A Permanent Member of the @UN Security Council just bombed a children’s’ hospital in Kyiv. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. History will remember.

Twin horrors: 1) Russia bombing a major children's hospital as part of its daily terror and murder campaign against Ukraine. 2) The free world having the power to stop it and refusing to.

If you can, please donate to the charity affiliated with the hospital, so that it could be rebuilt as soon as possible and Ukrainian kids from all over the country could have access to treatment which saves their lives ohmatdytfund.org/en/donate

Former president of Estonia on the US's disastrous loss of goodwill over its behaviour towards Ukraine.

Truth in humor. (Author unknown)

Here's my question for tonight: If Russia is winning so unstoppably and brilliantly now (still fighting for ruined small towns in Ukraine's east in the third year of its 10-day blitzkrieg) and entire Ukraine is so hopelessly doomed, why are literally all Russian shills ripping their asses apart yelling 'IT'S OVER SUE FOR PEACE NOW'? If so, why does Russia need 'negotiations'? Why would it want to stop and strip itself of a full victory? By what sort of merit and mercy? And moreover, if so, why is Russia waging mass propaganda and intimidation campaigns dissuading the West from providing Ukraine with aid, if 'there's nothing can be done'? Maybe it's because it's all pure horseshit? And maybe because Russia clearly understands that it will lose this war if Ukraine carries on fighting and the West finally wakes up and mobilizes its gargantuan resources to let Ukraine mark a decisive end to Putin's killing spree in Europe?

@BogataTimar Lovely story, thank you!

Thank you for coming with me on this journey! All information and pictures are shared with the blessing of Tomasz, who is a pure inspiration for all language revitalists. Further reading can be found everywhere, especially here. revitalization.al.uw.edu.pl/Content/Upload…

According to Tomasz, in 2014, when PiS came to government, fundings dried up. But the genie was already out of the bottle: bilingual welcome signs were already up, the language kept popping up in public spaces, The Little Prince was translated to Wymysiöeryś (by Tymoteusz & co).

@RaduHossu Excellent post, thank you.

The Night Summary (25.04.2024 at 03:45 RO/UA Time): The front in Ukraine is often presented to us through two different perspectives, which misses from the picture exactly the things we should be considering: territorial gains on a longer time scale and casualties. When we talk about territorial gains, they are often exaggerated, especially by the Russians, and unfortunately these exaggerations are picked up by the international press. In reality, as I will present in a moment, they are much more modest. Analysts who present this kind of perspective on the front are often not asked on TV or in interviews about the number of casualties and so the public is left with the impression that modest movements from a territorial perspective mean a frozen conflict. Nothing could be further from the truth. The conflict is as hot as can be, the line of contact is dynamic and the most important aspect is that unfortunately many people are losing their lives. To analyse the territorial advance I will use as a basis my last "night summary" from 11.03, so exactly 2 weeks ago, to see if the trend has been maintained or not and I will also explain what this means. To present the situation for casualties (military only) I will use the following method: Official number of Russians killed and wounded in combat in the period 11.03-24.03 as presented by MoD UA. From this, based on comparison with independent figures (US DoD, UK MoD etc), I will reduce the Russian casualty estimate by 33%. To estimate the number of Ukrainian dead and wounded I will use a ratio of 3 Russians to 1 Ukrainian, also based on information and estimates circulated over the last year by independent sources. To estimate only the number of dead I will use a ratio of 4 WIA (wounded in action) + MIA (missing in action) to 1 KIA (killed in action), as opposed to the Russian ratio of 3:1 because I will take into account the better equipment and far superior fighting skills of the Ukrainians. These estimates should be taken exactly as they are: estimates and nothing more. I have made them to get some idea of what is happening on the front: - Number of Russians KIA+WIA+MIA reported by MoD UA: 11770 - Number (estimated by me) of Russians KIA+WIA+MIA: 7886 - Number (estimated) Ukrainians KIA+WIA+MIA: 2628 - Number (estimated) Ukrainians KIA: 525 This means that in the last 2 weeks alone, 525 families in Ukraine are mourning their deaths caused by the Russian invasion. That's almost 4 times as many Russians as died in the Moscow terrorist attack. And here I don't even add the number of civilians killed by the Russian Army during this period. Please think about 525 people who are no more. Fathers, brothers, children, grandchildren, uncles. I think this information gives you a more accurate perspective of what is happening on the front, even if our television has grown tired and found other "sensational" topics to discuss, even if I understand that our societies have "grown tired" (from what? I wonder, from watching TV?). Ukrainians even if they are tired, they are just can't give up. 1. Battlefront dynamics: Please consider a few things first and judge the AFU defense through the following prism: - The US is still not voting new aid to Ukraine, and that means an extreme shortage of ammunition for artillery and equipment; - Next the mobilization law in Ukraine is in the Supreme Rada, and the troops in the line of contact are tired, some of them on the verge of moral and physical exhaustion. The lack of US support only aggravates these situations; - Russia continues to attack with extreme numerical superiority in terms of troops, equipment, ammunition (the ratio has reached an average of 7 Russian shells fired for 1 Ukrainian shell) and capabilities (aviation, Electronic Warfare, ballistic missiles, cluster munitions etc). 1.1 Kupyansk sector: - As last time, no change in this sector, despite the fact that the Russians have an impressive number of troops here (estimates put the figure at 40-50,000); 1.2 Bakhmut-Chasiv Yar sector: - On the Bohdanivivka-Ivanivske line towards Chasiv Yar, the Russians have advanced 700 metres in these two weeks, so an average of 350 metres/week. The average advance in the last month until my last summary was 625 meters / week. Thus, on this sector the Russians have slowed down the advance by a lot, even though here are engaged the 11th VDV Brigade, 299th VDV Regiment, 217th VDV, 331st VDV - practically elite units of the invaders; 1.3 Avdiivka sector: - On the Berdychi-Orlivka line the Russians advanced 1.7 km in 2 weeks or an average of 850 meters per week. After the fall of Avdiivka (17 February) and up to the last summary I made, the Russians had advanced an average of 800 metres per week. So the rate is maintained, and at this rate the Russians would reach Pokrovsk in 12 months. Russian losses in this sector are absolutely staggering (831 Russian losses vs 116 Ukrainian); - Basically, the Ukrainians managed to slow down the Russian Army without it even reaching the Ukrainian defensive lines. Taking those into account, Pokrovsk seems a distant dream and by no means a viable objective. 1.4 Robotyne sector: - From Verbove the Russians advanced 700 metres. From Novoprokopivka to Robotyne they advanced 140 metres. Basically in this sector the Ukrainians have stopped the Russian advance, at least temporarily (I assume that from May onwards this sector will be used by the Russians as a secondary sector to fix many Ukrainian units). 1.5 Krynky sector: - The Russians have accomplished absolutely nothing in recent months here, other than losing disproportionately more armor than the Ukrainians (236 Russian losses to 51 Ukrainian). All maps shown are from @deepstate_UA, and the equipment loss figures are taken from @naalsio26 (I invite you to follow these resources). The dynamics of a war battlefront are never linear. What now looks like a halted advance could in reality mean an operational "pause" to rotation of troops and recovery of units, or it could mean a struggle to break through a defensive line, which once broken through offers the chance for a drastic acceleration of the advance. Therefore these estimates are meant to highlight the actual picture, in extreme contrast to what Russia and Putin want to project as the picture of the situation on the front. ---- Based on what I'm told by people in the line of contact, and also based on the weather report, we're at the beginning of the "rasputitsa" - the spring thawing, which will affect Russian offensive operations, which now helped them to have the initiative in all sectors. This climatic factor if helped by the delivery of ammunition needed by the Ukrainian artillery and the supplementation of armored vehicles necessary for the defense and development of Ukrainian defensive lines, such as the "Donbas Line", can increase the hope of achieving the Ukrainian goal for 2024: the preservation of territories, rotation of military, creation of new brigades and preparation for 2025. Hoping that I have brought you good information, I salute you and wish you a good week! Ukraine is resisting. With difficulty. With far fewer resources. With all our ignorance. With all our "tiredness". With all our politics. It's heroic resistance! Slava Ukraini!

@victoriaslog My favourite definition of Russia that I heard recently is that it is "an inferiority complex with a border" 😂

🇷🇺 Medvedev called European leaders assholes, weaklings, and worthless and said that Romanians are not even a nation. Why do we still pretend that Russia is a country when it’s just a piece of land controlled by oligarchs and psychopaths?

@NKuhrt @guardian Totally agree, he's inconsistent in his viewpoints and dangerously ill-informed on these difficult topics.

I fail to comprehend why @guardian a paper I once respected, employs ppl like Simon Jenkins to write on security matters, especially on #Russia’s re invasion of #Ukraine, when he a) clearly knows zero about it and b) amplifies Kremlin talking points

Some people say NATO is no longer necessary while the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia stands in front of a huge map of the planned imperial conquest of Eastern Europe 🤷🏼‍♂️

February 2024 - Sweden joins NATO -Avdiivka joins Russia See if you can guess which is which.

5/5 sadder issues within Russian politics and society, and his death is a tragedy heaped on top of many others, that makes hope for Russia's future harder than ever. May he rest in peace, and his supporters continue to fight for a free and just Russia for future generations.

4/5 One indication of conditions is that in order to work in the region, I had to take regular tuberculosis scans, as released inmates often infect the local population. Navalny's death, whatever you might think of his politics, is just a small demonstration of much larger and...

3/5 They were often more enthusiastic workers than our own, as being out of the prison gave them the opportunity for something that felt almost like freedom. Having spent time in Kharp and seen the prison from outside, I can only imagine how horrendous being an inmate might be.

2/5 In fact, our maintenance garage for machinery was right next to the prison where Navalny was held, and we even used to employ inmates from Polar Wolf, and its sister camp, Polar Owl (for lifers, mainly murderers) on 3-week stints in the garage.

Short 🧵1/5 A couple of days ago Aleksei Navalny died in a prison inside the Arctic Circle known as "Polar Wolf". It's in a small settlement called Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region, where I worked for nearly 4 years, running a gold mining and exploration company.

It takes a lot of small dick energy to kill Navalny and fire cruise missiles at civilians just because you messed up an interview