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The entire message
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Whatever the case, Dovgiy failed to notify both Hostomel authorities and the cityâs residents of his plans. In addition, by the time he made his attempt to steal the graffiti, the cityâs administration had already declared the mural a part of Hostomelâs cultural heritage and decided to embed it in the wall of the building that will replace the demolished one.
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It wouldnât be at all surprising if mobile phone activity as the proximate cause; itâs known that Ukrainian intelligence types have been having a field day with Russians either trying to compensate for lack of tactical radios or just exercising poor radio silence; but Iâm having a hard time imagining that âthe conscripts we packed in like cattle next to an ammo dump within Ukrainian artillery range are to blame for trying to call homeâ is an official line that is going to win the hearts and minds of the public.
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I agree, the Russians have not had a gentle hand when apportioning blame. Or the forethought to realise how it would read to the grievers and the Russian bloggers.
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Makiivka has been controlled by the Donetsk Peopleâs Republic since 2014, so Russian soldiersâ phones there are not connecting to Ukrainian networks. Ukrainian intelligence could have learned that Russian troops were at the school from satellite photos or human sources on the ground.
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Itâs definitely true that theyâd have less to work with in that case, and it would be considerably less convenient than more or less automatic delivery to telco HQ; but unless electronic warfare units werenât able to get within range theyâd still be vulnerable to stingray-type gear and inferential attacks based on a whole lot of new IMEIs with distinct activity patterns showing up.
As you say, though, there are certainly other plausible explanations as well. Itâd only take one person who doesnât love the new administration to provide a tip, or aerial imagery; or some combination of factors that led to the decision to commit relatively high end rocket artillery.
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Stingrays need to be closer to the targeted phones than real cell towers, surely, so theyâre not an option. Makiivka is 15 km from the front. To spot activity patterns the Ukrainians would need to hack into Russian or DPR mobile networks.
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Life is âoverratedâ. Putinism is just another fascist death cult. No wonder American right-wingers admire his regime.
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The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.
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Orwellâs review of Mein Kampf is always worth referencing in these discussions (although in my view he over-exaggerates the extent of self-destructive masochism present in any given society).
Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all âprogressiveâ thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow wonât do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings donât only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalinâs militarised version of Socialism. All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people âI offer you a good time,â Hitler has said to them âI offer you struggle, danger and death,â and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.
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Living is overrated, but everything is going great.
The Kremlin released a handbook for authorities and pro-Kremlin media, what they should say in year-end reports about 2022. The handbookâs ârecommendationsâ range from insisting that that Putin âprevented an impending NATO attack on Russian territoryâ to claims that the âdenazification of Ukraineâ is going well and that the Russian economy is about to start booming. As for certain inconsistencies â like the fact that Russia is allegedly withstanding âNATO, the most powerful war machine in human historyâ and, also, that the West is funding Ukraine less and less â the handbookâs authors have no advice. Meduza summarizes the handbookâs main points.
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If theyâre admitting 89 casualties at Makiivka, the real number is definitely at least a couple of hundreds.
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Igor Girkin said that there were âmany hundredsâ of dead and wounded.
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This info is several hours old but worthwhile to note:
Putin orders navy frigate armed with hypersonic missiles to Mediterranean Sea
via CNN:
The Russian navyâs guided missile frigate âAdmiral Gorshkovâ arrives in the port city of Qingdao, in east Chinaâs Shandong province, on April 21, 2019. (Zhu Zheng/Xinhua/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a frigate, the âAdmiral Gorshkov,â to be sent into combat service on Wednesday.
The ship will undertake a long-range sea voyage across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea, reported Russian state media outlet TASS, citing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The frigate is equipped with âthe latest Zircon hypersonic missile system, which has no analogs - a sea-based hypersonic system - as well as other weapons of the latest generations,â Putin said, speaking via video link with Shoigu and the shipâs commander, Igor Krokhmal.
âI am sure that such powerful weapons will make it possible to reliably protect Russia from potential external threats and will help ensure the national interests of our country,â Putin added.
According to Shoigu, the frigate will âconduct exercisesâ with Zircon hypersonic missiles.
âI am very happy, congratulations! This is great joint work, which ended with a good, expected result,â Putin said before ordering the frigate to âstart completing the tasks.â
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