Ah, whoops. wolfwood already posted this while I was writing the othуr part of the reply.

With the Battle of Kyiv over, and Russian forces rapidly retreating, Ukrainians are finding civilian corpses all over the streets and roads of the towns of bucha, Irpin, Hostomel all across Kyiv Oblast. Many of the corpses have had their hands tied behind their backs and shot in the backs of their heads. Only in Bucha the mayor confirms 280 dead. Not yet at Srebrenica, but already out of Vukovar.

Fucking hell. Curse you, bald dwarf.

@pariston_hill:

Yeah I know, what I'm talking is that me thinks that Könisberg and by extension East Prussia (or at least it's northen portion) were never under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. So the previous de facto and de jure owner would be Germany.

@pariston_hill:

My understanding is that a fief is like a protectorate, but I'm by no means an expert in feudal system structure.

It's a bit complicated. Teutonic or Monastic Prussia fell in decline after the battle of Gruenwald and other wars with Poland and Lithuania in XVth century. It lead to creation of Royal Prussia and Ducal Prussia. Royal Prussia was a proper province of the Polish Kingdom and then Commonwealth. Ducal Prussia was a fief of the Duke of Prussia (previously Teutonic Grand Master), which became the basis of the first Protestant State in Europe, part of the personal union with Brandenburg, and then became Kingdom of Prussia, and then German Empire.

Speaking of the region,

becomes first EU country to ban Russian gas.

First US citizen, photographer Brent Renaud killed in this war.

"Just give up lol" said Israeli Prime Minister Benett to Ukrainian President Zelensky.

was disinformation on Jerusalem's Post part.

"Just give up lol" said Israeli Prime Minister Benett to Ukrainian President Zelensky.

So much for that. Or those NATO planes. Or that oil embargo.

What can I even say when Russia bombs a maternity hospital in Ukraine..?

Probably a different one. It's pretty telling how widespread this kind of attitude is.

@Monkey:

All of this is moot because Russia's prime fuckery with Ukraine goes back to 2014, where this entire saga was triggered over moves to enter the EU rather than NATO.

Which should tell you everything about what Putin does or does not want Ukraine to be.

Russia denying Ukraine statehood goes back to Ruyina and Konotop Articles 1672.

Oh, right, XXI century. Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk is only the start of the active phase of the war. Propaganda machine started working earlier than that, and there was a lot of work to be done before people would accept it as easily as they did. The Orange Revolution of 2004 might be the starting point because Putin didn't see it coming and it scared him that people could change the country leadership like that. Since then the rhetoric towards Ukraine started changing for the worse, and it took its current form under Surkov administration.

@Luca:

We all know the background of russian people with siberia etc etc. Do you guys think that the new generation that grew up with social media know the truth and might actually rise against him?

@wolfwood:

I'd imagine that Russia is a bit like the US, big pockets where people find the idea of an invasive war to be insane, but equally big (if not larger) pockets where there are huge amounts of fox news style believers who are just lapping up all the team good guy rescues europe from the nazis again reporting. If anything i'd imagine this is heading into a patriotic rally for the nation fervor before it goes in any other direction

Again, you have to imagine the scale of the Russian propaganda machine. Look at the damage Russia Today did in the West, and the think what the goverment media could accomplish unopposed at home. Of course, there still is opposition, and protests are happening even now, but the numbers are heavily skewed, and the passive majority doesn't really know or care about anything.

Here's a poll conducted by Current Time TV, with English subtitles, just from a few days ago, after the start of the war. It's a depressing watch.

@wolfwood:

The Israeli PM went to mediate in Moscow, and Erdogan claims he's going to push for an end to the war in his next meeting. Not the first two people you'd think of when you think successful peace process but i'll take it

Naftali Bennett is violating Shabatt to stop Putin from violating Ukrainians.

Nobody sentenced to forced conscription would even reach Ukraine. It is a simple excuse to legalize opposition murder. Well, would be because it is LDPR law project, and not United Russia one. Then again, the war got started because of the law drafted by CPRF, so who knows at this point. It is a scare tactic, and it is working, people are booking out flights from Moscow by the minute. Meanwhile, other people are buying out everything down to wetwipes in IKEA since it is closing tomorrow.

Urge to reread Hannah Arendt essays.

@Shandian:

THERE IS NO VICTORY for Putin in Ukraine. No western country will every recognize Putin's puppet in Ukraine, ukrainan people now know true colors of Putin and will never let them self be ruled by Putin's puppet government.

Despite his hyperfixation on the Ukraine, Putin is completely blindsided by this simple fact. As more proof, Viktor Yanukovich has recently appeared in Minsk, and there is a plan to reinstate him as the new president, a source in Ukrainian Intelligence claims. Yanukovich, the ex-president whose corruption and complete subservience to Putin was one of the main reasons for Maidan 2014. People would sooner accept his golden toilet as president than see him return.