IKEA in black and yellow? I wonder how recent that change was?
It’s blue in that video.
Short thread:
Any fucking excuse, eh? Straight out of the playbook.
The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” have independently verified that Russia has destroyed or damaged at least 56 Ukrainian schools in a manner that indicates a possible war crime, the Associated Press reports.
The Ukrainian government says Russia has shelled more than 1,000 schools, destroying 95. The accounting likely represents just a fraction of potential war crimes committed during the conflict and the list is updated daily.
A geography teacher, Elena Kudrik, lay dead on the floor of School 50 in the eastern Ukrainian town of Gorlovka. Amid the wreckage surrounding her were books and papers, smeared in blood.
In the corner, another lifeless body of Elena Ivanova, the assistant headmaster slumped over in an office chair, a gaping wound torn into her side.
“It’s a tragedy for us … It’s a tragedy for the children,” said school director Sergey But, standing outside the brick building shortly after the attack.
A few kilometers away, at the Sonechko pre-school in the city of Okhtyrka, a cluster bomb destroyed a kindergarten, killing a child. Outside the entrance, two more bodies lay in pools of blood.
A view of school destroyed after the Russian attacks in the village of Vilhivka, Kharkiv region, Ukraine on 25 May 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Despite the widespread damage and destruction to educational infrastructure, war crimes experts say proving an attacking military’s intent to target individual schools is difficult.
Russian officials deny targeting civilian structures, and local media reports in Russian-held Gorlovka alleged Ukrainian forces trying to recapture the area were to blame for the blast that killed the two teachers there. But the effects of the destruction are indisputable.
Unicef communications director Toby Fricker, who is currently in Ukraine, agreed.
“School is often the heart of the community in many places, and that is so central to everyday life.”
As the war grinds on, millions of kids are continuing to go to school online. The international aid group Save the Children said it is working with the government to establish remote learning programs for students at 50 schools. Unicef is also trying to help with online instruction.
“Educating every child is essential to preventing grave violations of their rights,” the group said in a statement to the AP.
A notebook lies on the ground next to a school destroyed in Russian bombing in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP
And
Turkey threatens to stall Nato process if Nordic nations fail to act.
Turkey on Wednesday said the Nato accession process for Sweden and Finland would not move forward unless they addressed Ankara’s security concerns, in talks with delegations from both Nordic states, Agence France-Presse writes.
We conveyed our message in very clear terms that the process will not move forward unless Turkey’s security concerns are addressed through concrete steps and within a certain timetable,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters after meeting Swedish and Finnish representatives in the capital Ankara.
Nato member Turkey has opposed the applications of Sweden and neighbouring Finland over what it considers leniency toward Kurdish militant groups.
Stockholm and Helsinki submitted their bids to join the US-led defense alliance last week, reversing decades of military non-alignment, after political and public support for membership soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Turkey is throwing a spanner in the works as any membership must be unanimously approved by all Nato members.
Ankara accuses Stockholm in particular of providing safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey and its western allies.
They told us they understand Turkey’s security concerns, but we’ll see what steps they will take,” Kalin said, adding that dialogue would continue.
Sweden has imposed embargoes on arms sales to Turkey since 2019 over Ankara’s military offensive in Syria.
Kalin said on Wednesday he was seeing a “positive” attitude on the removal of sanctions in the defense industry.
We don’t think it is appropriate for allies to impose sanctions on each other, that would weaken the alliance and make enemies happy,” he added.
ETA (because 3 posts in a row are not allowed)
The Russian parliament scrapped the upper age limit for contractual service in the military on Wednesday, highlighting the need to replace lost troops, Reuters reports.
In a video address, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, commenting on the new Russian enlistment rules, said: “(They) no longer have enough young men, but they still have the will to fight. It will still take time to crush this will.”
Isn’t Kissinger allegedly cynical-realist evil rather than just plain stupid?
If just giving Putin a taste of what he wants, rather than the whole thing, would actually secure peace in our time we’d already have peace in our time.
Guess what? 2014 was not so long ago and already that is no longer good enough, surprise, surprise.
So the Grauniad have finally noticed. Ukrainian anarchists have only been talking about it since before Russia invaded.
Something tells me that Mose Schrute has read nothing about polish history
The classic pre-battle speech always had a part talking up the enemy. These guys are ferocious, strong, and dedicated. Fighting them is going to be rough. But you’re even better and can do this. Because if you just do macho posturing and claim everything will just be a walk in the park, people are going to break once they realize actually, no, the enemy is trying to kill them.
I guess one more thing forgotten by Putin’s crowd, whose only military competence seems to be killing civilians who can’t shoot back.
Bwhahaha. Poland wishes a mother fucker would. Poles, at least those who grew up post WWII, HATE the Russians. And they have one of the better organized armies in Europe.
Oh, come on - be fair!
They are also quite good at turning houses and other civic infrastructure into rubble.
In the end, Poland is a NATO country. Hard to imagine that Putin thinks this is a serious, or even half-baked, option.
Yeah, it’s what you’d expect from the pundits on Vladimir Solovyov’s show. At the beginning of the war they were talking about reconquering Alaska.
An attack on Alaska would trigger a NATO response. They should go for Hawai’i instead.
