this is exactly what we did with Hitler in the 30's .... looked away at best, encouraged him at worst, to purge his nation of people he deemed to be traitors whether they were priests, political opponents, bankers, journalists or businessmen. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia. His authoritarian decrees have triggered the disappearance, torture and even murder of an array of human rights activists, communist and leftist organizers, journalists and government officials accused of “pro-Russian” sympathies.
As he wiped out his opposition, Zelensky ordered an unprecedented domestic propaganda initiative to nationalize all television news broadcasting and combine all channels into a single 24 hour channel called “United News” to “tell the truth about war.”
“There is one less traitor in Ukraine"
“One less traitor”: Zelensky oversees campaign of assassination, kidnapping and torture of political opposition
Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia. His authoritarian decrees have triggered the disappearance, torture and even murder of an array of human rights activists, communist and leftist organizers, journalists and government officials accused of “pro-Russian” sympathies.
As he wiped out his opposition, Zelensky ordered an unprecedented domestic propaganda initiative to nationalize all television news broadcasting and combine all channels into a single 24 hour channel called “United News” to “tell the truth about war.”
“There is one less traitor in Ukraine"
‘Putin’s Chef’ Admits His Mercenaries Hit Dead End in Ukrainian Stronghold
Andre Luis Alves/Anadolu Agency via GettyRussia’s shadow army boss has tried to explain away his mercenary group’s failure to take the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut by claiming Ukraine has “500 lines of defense” there.Yevgeny Prigozhin made the claim in an interview with RIA Novosti published...
‘Putin’s Chef’ Admits His Mercenaries Hit Dead End in Ukrainian Stronghold 
Allison Quinn
Tue, January 3, 2023 at 4:23 AM PST
Russia’s shadow army boss has tried to explain away his mercenary group’s failure to take the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut by claiming Ukraine has “500 lines of defense” there.
Yevgeny Prigozhin made the claim in an interview with RIA Novosti published Tuesday, telling the news agency that the Wagner Group can’t seem to break through Ukrainian defenses around the city.
Ukraine’s military has fended off a Russian takeover there during months of brutal battles against the notorious mercenaries. In the face of relentless Russian attacks, the city has gained huge symbolic significance.
While pro-Kremlin pundits and Prigozhin himself have for weeks taunted Ukrainians with threats that Bakhmut will soon fall to Russia, the Wagner boss now appears to be acknowledging what Western experts and British intelligence have already predicted: Russia is unlikely to achieve any major wins in the area any time soon.
“It’s a fortress in every home,” Prigozhin said in video published by RIA Novosti. “The guys lock horns for every home, sometimes not just for one day. Sometimes for weeks over one home. They take one home, they take a second, a third,” Prigozhin said.
But they still can’t break through defenses.
“To say [there are] 500 [lines of defense] would probably not be a mistake. Every 10 meters there is a line of defense,” Prigozhin said while meeting with his mercenaries.
One of the men under his command can be heard complaining in the footage that they don’t have enough equipment or weapons to push further into Bakhmut.
How 46 Toddlers Were Disappeared by Putin in One Fell Swoop
The Wagner boss’ admission comes after Western intelligence noted that the manpower behind Russian attacks in the area had been thinning out. The British Ministry of Defense noted in its latest assessment on Tuesday that while Russia has “increased the frequency” of attacks around Bakhmut, “many of these operations were poorly supported.”
A Ukrainian soldier near Bakhmut also says it seems the Russian side is “running out” of prison inmates to send to the frontline.
In an interview with Radio New Times, Yevgeny Oropai said Russian troops seem to be “out of breath” after unsuccessfully attempting to storm Ukrainian positions around the New Year holiday, leaving Wagner with “heavy losses.”
But they’re also learning from their own mistakes and not “mindlessly” carrying out so many offensives anymore, he said.
Both sides have suffered staggering losses in and around the city, leading even some pro-Kremlin figures to question whether Russia’s offensive there was worth the “senseless meat grinder” it had created for them.
But the city appeared to take on heightened significance for Moscow after a series of crushing losses elsewhere saw Russians retreat from territories Putin had proudly declared to be part of Russia. Bakhmut, seen in some ways as Russia’s “last stand” after Ukraine took back Kharkiv and Kherson, was also part of the Donbas region Putin had dubbed a priority after the Kremlin’s failure to take Kyiv.
Prigozhin, who for months has boasted that his guys are more ruthless and able to do what ordinary Russians troops cannot, released a series of attention-seeking propaganda videos said to be from Bakhmut in late December, in which he ordered his mercenaries to fire off weapons and taunted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with invitations to meet on the front line.
“Maybe by the evening we’ll be able to meet,” he said. “I’m sitting, waiting for you near Bakhmut.”
Days later, however, Russian airborne troops were sent to the area to prop up Wagner’s operations—a move widely seen as evidence that all was not going according to plan for Russia’s tough-talking shadow army boss.
Man, them Russkies don't catch ON too quickly, do they?
Alan Yuhas, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Yousur Al-Hlou
Thu, January 5, 2023 at 5:04 AM PST
Local residents examine the damage caused by a Russian strike on their home in the Osokorky neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. (Laura Boushnak/The New York Times)
Early in their invasion of Ukraine, some Russian fighters closing in on the capital, Kyiv, made calls with cellphones and uploaded videos to TikTok, betraying their location to Ukrainian eavesdroppers.
The Ukrainians used the cellphone signals to launch missiles at their location — to devastating effect, according to Ukraine’s head of military intelligence.
Now, almost a year later and despite a ban on personal cellphones, Russian soldiers in the war zone are still using them to call wives, girlfriends, parents and each other, and still exposing themselves to Ukrainian attacks. After a strike that killed dozens — possibly hundreds — of Russian soldiers this week, one of the deadliest since the invasion began, the Russian military itself acknowledged the problem, using it to explain the heavy losses.
“It is already clear that the main reason of what took place included the massive use, contrary to the ban, of personal mobile phones in the range of enemy weapons,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The cellphone data allowed Ukraine, it said, to “determine the coordinates of the location of military service members to inflict a rocket strike.”
Both a Ukrainian official and a group of Russian pro-war bloggers say other factors contributed to the strike and that the ministry was trying to deflect blame from military leaders by casting it on soldiers. Russian commanders had housed a large number of troops together rather than dispersing them, stationed them near munitions that detonated in the attack and failed to sufficiently disguise their movements, they said.
But the use of personal cellphones has plagued both Ukraine and especially Russia throughout the war, leaving troops vulnerable to a piece of technology that, however mundane and ubiquitous in daily life, can pose an existential threat in modern war.
Ukrainian officials say that Russian-backed forces have used cellphone data to target Ukrainian soldiers since at least 2014, when pro-Kremlin separatists began to fight Ukrainian troops in Ukraine’s east.
Russia could soon launch a new military offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a videotaped address earlier this week. He vowed to repel any such effort, which intelligence analysts have been expecting for some time.
“We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can muster to try to turn the tide of the war and at least postpone their defeat,” Zelensky said Tuesday.
President Biden, speaking before a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, seemed to agree with Zelensky’s assessment that the coming weeks could prove crucial, especially as the one-year anniversary of the invasion approaches, putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military chiefs to demonstrate to the Russian public that the costly war has not been for naught.
“Right now, the war in Ukraine is at a critical point,” Biden said, adding that, in his view, Russia is “not letting up at all.”
Any major Russian operation would likely have to take place during the frigid winter months, before spring rains turn unpaved roads to mud, especially in the eastern regions where most of the fighting has been concentrated — a notorious obstacle to moving troops and heavy equipment.
Ukraine’s devastating strike on a Russian base in the village of Makiivka, which killed at least 89 soldiers Sunday night, could intensify the Kremlin’s desire for a punishing reprisal.
Ukrainian soldiers from a special forces unit prepare to fire mortar shells on Russian forces amid artillery fights in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Dec. 20. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)
Dressed in his customary green sweatshirt, the Ukrainian leader said he had just spoken to counterparts in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Norway, all of whom had pledged their continuing support.
“We mobilize the civilized world,” Zelensky said, reprising comments he had made during last month’s visit to Washington. “For the sake of life.”
This week has seen the United States, France and Germany all commit to sending armored vehicles to Ukraine, in apparent recognition that the war, now in its 11th month, is approaching a potentially decisive stage. Yet another rout of Russian troops could deepen tensions in Moscow, where few expected the war to last as long as it has.
“The terrorists must lose,” Zelensky said in his Tuesday speech. “Any attempt at their new offensive must fail. This will be the final defeat of the terrorist state. I thank all partners who understand this.”
On Thursday, Putin ordered a ceasefire so that frontline troops could mark Christmas, which, under the Julian calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church, comes in January.
Ukraine rejected the offer to stop fighting, with Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak describing Putin’s ceasefire as a “cynical trap.”
For Russian Troops, Cellphone Use Is a Persistent, Lethal Danger
Alan Yuhas, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Yousur Al-Hlou
Thu, January 5, 2023 at 5:04 AM PST
Local residents examine the damage caused by a Russian strike on their home in the Osokorky neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022. (Laura Boushnak/The New York Times)
Early in their invasion of Ukraine, some Russian fighters closing in on the capital, Kyiv, made calls with cellphones and uploaded videos to TikTok, betraying their location to Ukrainian eavesdroppers.
The Ukrainians used the cellphone signals to launch missiles at their location — to devastating effect, according to Ukraine’s head of military intelligence.
Now, almost a year later and despite a ban on personal cellphones, Russian soldiers in the war zone are still using them to call wives, girlfriends, parents and each other, and still exposing themselves to Ukrainian attacks. After a strike that killed dozens — possibly hundreds — of Russian soldiers this week, one of the deadliest since the invasion began, the Russian military itself acknowledged the problem, using it to explain the heavy losses.
“It is already clear that the main reason of what took place included the massive use, contrary to the ban, of personal mobile phones in the range of enemy weapons,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The cellphone data allowed Ukraine, it said, to “determine the coordinates of the location of military service members to inflict a rocket strike.”
Both a Ukrainian official and a group of Russian pro-war bloggers say other factors contributed to the strike and that the ministry was trying to deflect blame from military leaders by casting it on soldiers. Russian commanders had housed a large number of troops together rather than dispersing them, stationed them near munitions that detonated in the attack and failed to sufficiently disguise their movements, they said.
But the use of personal cellphones has plagued both Ukraine and especially Russia throughout the war, leaving troops vulnerable to a piece of technology that, however mundane and ubiquitous in daily life, can pose an existential threat in modern war.
Ukrainian officials say that Russian-backed forces have used cellphone data to target Ukrainian soldiers since at least 2014, when pro-Kremlin separatists began to fight Ukrainian troops in Ukraine’s east.
Russia could soon launch a new military offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a videotaped address earlier this week. He vowed to repel any such effort, which intelligence analysts have been expecting for some time.
“We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and everyone they can muster to try to turn the tide of the war and at least postpone their defeat,” Zelensky said Tuesday.
President Biden, speaking before a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, seemed to agree with Zelensky’s assessment that the coming weeks could prove crucial, especially as the one-year anniversary of the invasion approaches, putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military chiefs to demonstrate to the Russian public that the costly war has not been for naught.
“Right now, the war in Ukraine is at a critical point,” Biden said, adding that, in his view, Russia is “not letting up at all.”
Any major Russian operation would likely have to take place during the frigid winter months, before spring rains turn unpaved roads to mud, especially in the eastern regions where most of the fighting has been concentrated — a notorious obstacle to moving troops and heavy equipment.
Ukraine’s devastating strike on a Russian base in the village of Makiivka, which killed at least 89 soldiers Sunday night, could intensify the Kremlin’s desire for a punishing reprisal.
Ukrainian soldiers from a special forces unit prepare to fire mortar shells on Russian forces amid artillery fights in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Dec. 20. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)
Dressed in his customary green sweatshirt, the Ukrainian leader said he had just spoken to counterparts in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Norway, all of whom had pledged their continuing support.
“We mobilize the civilized world,” Zelensky said, reprising comments he had made during last month’s visit to Washington. “For the sake of life.”
This week has seen the United States, France and Germany all commit to sending armored vehicles to Ukraine, in apparent recognition that the war, now in its 11th month, is approaching a potentially decisive stage. Yet another rout of Russian troops could deepen tensions in Moscow, where few expected the war to last as long as it has.
“The terrorists must lose,” Zelensky said in his Tuesday speech. “Any attempt at their new offensive must fail. This will be the final defeat of the terrorist state. I thank all partners who understand this.”
On Thursday, Putin ordered a ceasefire so that frontline troops could mark Christmas, which, under the Julian calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church, comes in January.
Ukraine rejected the offer to stop fighting, with Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak describing Putin’s ceasefire as a “cynical trap.”
