Sean Pollock

On Thursday morning, my Ukrainian family had to hide in a basement as bombs landed near their homes. This is the most emotional piece I will ever have to write. Russia’s invasion is inflicting awful pain on everyday people - my family are suffering. 🇺🇦 independent.ie/irish-news/the…

For the third day Russia keeps hitting Kharkiv nonstop. This is European Street, heart of the city.

Ich habe mir den Bericht unserer Kollegen von Welt angesehen und war darüber einigermaßen überrascht. Aus meiner Sicht enthält er eine Reihe von Ungenauigkeiten und Aussagen, die so nicht zutreffen. 1. In der Ukraine gibt es keine „Zwangsrekrutierung“. Es gilt eine Generalmobilmachung, die Millionen Männer betrifft. Diese erfolgt im Regelfall auf schriftlichem Weg und nicht – wie im Beitrag dargestellt – durch Maßnahmen auf der Straße. 2. Die in solchen Videos gezeigten Szenen betreffen in der Regel die Umsetzung bereits erlassener Einberufungsbescheide, denen die betroffenen Personen nicht nachgekommen sind. Dafür benötigen die TCK-Beamten konkrete Informationen zu den jeweiligen Personen, die sie der Armee zuführen sollen. 3. Ich selbst habe in den vergangenen Tagen zweimal Einsätze des TCK beobachtet, bei denen auch meine Personalien und Dokumente überprüft wurden. In beiden Fällen habe ich kein übergriffiges Verhalten wahrgenommen, sondern reguläre Kontrollen von Papieren, die eine Rückstellung vom Militärdienst begründen können. Es kam dabei zu keinerlei Gewalt, und die Beamten sind ohne festgenommene Personen wieder weitergefahren. 4. In dem Beitrag wird zudem behauptet, Männer würden direkt an die Front und in einen „Fleischwolf“ geschickt. Das ist aus meiner Sicht irreführend. Niemand wird ohne vorherige Grundausbildung an die Front geschickt. Zudem ist der Begriff „Fleischwolf“ unzutreffend, da die ukrainische Armee bemüht ist, eigene Verluste so gering wie möglich zu halten. Über die Gründe für die Darstellung in dem Bericht möchte ich nicht spekulieren. Nach meinem Kenntnisstand entspricht sie jedoch nicht den tatsächlichen Gegebenheiten. youtu.be/ZoMWWhaU6s8?is…

Day 1500 🇺🇦👊 #Ukraine

Hell on earth. Kharkiv right now.

Metrolink’s €550k boss Seán Sweeney quits in fresh blow to transport project independent.ie/irish-news/met…

New: We obtained phone calls between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó showing them conspiring to lift EU sanctions on Russia -- from oligarchs to banks to the shadow fleet. Full story with consortium partners at @InsiderEng: theins.press/en/inv/290911

"Hello Sergey!" A consortium of investigative outlets obtained transcripts and audio of calls between Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó, Sergey Lavrov, and other Russian officials, showing how Hungary—and Slovakia—secretly act on the Kremlin’s behalf. vsquare.org/kremlin-hotlin…

FT Exclusive: A broker for the US defence secretary attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. ft.trib.al/HIiu9Tx

Happy Victory Day in the Battle of Kyiv! On this very day, four years ago, Russian military officials and government representatives quietly, amid the deafening informational noise of the war, announced a “radical reduction of military activity on the Kyiv and Chernihiv axes.” In reality, what happened was exactly what had to happen: after five weeks of intense fighting on the northwestern and northeastern outskirts of Kyiv, against the backdrop of new Ukrainian strikes near Makariv, along the Zhytomyr highway, in Irpin (which had been fully liberated the day before), and earlier, the Russian defeat in Moshchun -- exhausted, depleted, and heavily battered, Russian forces began withdrawing back into Belarus to avoid further deterioration of an already dangerous situation for them. By March 31–April 1, the entire Kyiv region had been liberated, and the Ukrainian flag was once again raised over the Chornobyl zone. In the following days, Russian forces also cleared out of Sumy and Chernihiv regions, leaving behind vast scorched wastelands of burned equipment and bodies along Ukrainian roads and in the forests. And numerous executed civilians in mass graves and basements. This is how the first phase of the Russian invasion ended, in the complete failure of the blitzkrieg plan to seize Kyiv quickly and shockingly. Ahead lay a new nightmare: regrouping and a shift of the war’s focus to Donbas, the second phase of the war. And I remember that moment well: the news that would later be confirmed as the beginning of Russia’s withdrawal from the Kyiv area, I casually read it on my smartphone in a bar in central Kyiv. Right next to one of the military checkpoints on the street, the bar was operating at full capacity despite the total alcohol ban in the besieged city (and not shy about jacking prices up to the sky). And yes -- boy oh boy did I see quite a few top global media stars drinking there after a full day in wartime Kyiv, formally breaking the law right along with us.

Zelenskyy: People keep saying Ukraine can't win because Russia is nuclear power. Then what security guarantees should Ukraine get to counterbalance nuclear state? NATO? Nuclear weapons? If so, just say it directly: "We will give you NATO membership and a nuclear deterrent." But no one has offered that. What frustrates me most is that no one speaks to Russia with the same urgency: "Russia, you must back down, compromise, and end this war now, because people are dying." As you see, no one talks to them like that.

@RyanSmillie5 @bet365 @bet365help That’s incredible 😂

@SeanPollock44 @bet365 @bet365help Classing it as a TKO because the referee didn’t start counting and just waved it off straightaway 😂😂surely that’s more of a KO than anything 🤦🏻‍♂️

@bet365 @bet365help absolute farce this isn’t classed as a knockout! Opponent face down and flat out. What an utter scam!

That Russian mechanized column on the southern front also noted, for the record, the complete absence of genuine innovation in those Ukrainian drones made by LEGO-playing housewives. It was not available for further comment for some reason.

Trump: WE DONT NEED UKRAINE Middle East: We need Ukraine.

The US administration in a nutshell. Call someone a liar and then confirm the person was telling the truth. Incredible.

While the world’s media obsesses over every spit and fart from the White House over Iran, and Trump’s endless commentary on talks and deals and negotiations, the 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 war he said he would solve in 24 hours continues unabated … and in addition to benefiting from the oil price rise and lifting of sanctions Putin has also unleashed the largest 24 hour aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began. Almost 1000 drones. A UNESCO world heritage site hit. A maternity hospital hit. Residential buildings hit. Several killed. Dozens injured. Barely registers on the news. This war must not be forgotten

“Russian” seems to be the hardest word

Incredibly, America attempting to coerce Ukraine into ceding the Donbas is getting very little attention. reuters.com/business/aeros…

While attention is on Iran 👀Putin has unleashed nearly 1,000 drones on Ukrainian cities in the past 24 hours. This is the LARGEST barrage of the war. It is a ruthless assault on civilians. Europe must not look away. Ukraine’s fight is our fight. 🇺🇦