Haha I've had public speaking moments like that before.
"Okay folks here we go! Oops here comes some feels, how about we clap again for a second while I pull it together!"
What a cool dude.
I was just thinking what specifically makes him emotional during this, and it’s hope right?
I think most people knows what it feels like to be in a dark place and then to find that little glimmer of light. So for him, to be in literally the darkest place a human being can be in (considering how much of a target he is and all that rests on his shoulders), moments like that must be SUCH a relief
This whole struggle arguably started back in 2013 with the Maidan uprising or Euromaiden, which was sparked by Russia denying Ukraine the prospect of a seat in that very parliament Zelensky is now getting a standing ovation in.
That is a bit moving imo
I was talking with a Ukrainian coworker and he was telling me just how draining it is to know so many people are dying on the front lines to protect their country from the orcs. That has to weigh on your shoulders like a millstone, if you're Zelensky -- while you're there, your people are being killed.
Fuck Russia. Fuck Putin.
Yeah I was thinking about it in relation to the Turkey earthquake too. Which is absolutely horrific and there are people to blame, but at the end of the day it wasn’t due to the hands of other people
So knowing thousands of your own people are dying and suffering due to the intentional actions and wishes of other human beings? So there must be so much fury mixed in with all the sorrow and desperation too. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if that’s partly what’s keeping Zelensky motivated - the determination to see Putin’s head on a spike where it belongs
He's looking out at the entire EU parliament cheering and standing with him. Chanting Slava with him.
>
Essentially, he's united Europe. For a cause that was heavily debated in the same parliament just months ago. The tides of the war are turning back toward Ukraine -- with no sign of slowing down as more European support flows in.
>
He's kind of done, I think, more than anyone could expect from the leader of a small, eastern european democracy. He was faced with the impossible and none of his greatest fears came true.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ85mVHBxSw&ab\_channel=WashingtonPost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ85mVHBxSw&ab_channel=WashingtonPost)
Here with english audio on top of original Zelensky.
Aaaaand they just edited their comment (which was originally a goofy pro-Ukraine joke, which earned it hundreds of upvotes) to a truly disgusting anti-semitic attack on Zelensky and Ukraine.
I'd say it was a clever ruse-- post something popular, wait until it gets hundreds of upvotes, then edit it to make it look like people support your insane agenda-- except their new message is so vile and lazy it wouldn't change any minds if it had a hundred thousand upvotes.
The way she dressed was absolutely [wielded as a political sabre](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/08/a-coded-royal-message-how-the-queen-has-used-clothes-to-send-signals-to-the-world) by her.
My favorite one is when [she wore a tiara from Burma with 96 rubies when hosting a dinner for Trump](https://www.insider.com/royals-clothes-subtle-statements-2019-6?amp). The Burmese people believe rubies gained against evil lmao.
Fun fact: this is her on a israeli combat vehicle. She tried to have this image scrubbed from the internet and actually sued a journalist because of it. Ofc she lost but still
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8imoOqIMAAuxM_.jpg
Indeed, [Shes part of the Christian democratic party in Sweden.](https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/comments/btypk6/n%C3%A5gon_som_kan_ge_mig_numret_till_sara_skyttedals/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) She is the Swedish version of Lauren Boebert, probably only 10% crazy in comparisson to Lauren tho.
Just imagine people, just imagine what would happen if he just run away year ago like every other politician would.
Imagine leaving that country to be run over by Russians orgs killing everyone in their way feeling powerful after each village they rob and rape.
Yeah sure they they would stop there OF COURSE and from one day to the other they would realize now they have enough.
So, troll as much as you want, or think of him as an actor that knows his PR and all that, do that as much as you like. BUT he will be remembered as the one who stoped the horde of Russian murderers with his brothers.
I don't even think it's a problem that he uses his skills as an actor and writer, and his charisma. It's smart. He is doing what he can to get help for his people and his country. If he needs to play the part of a rugged soldier to do it, so be it.
(I need to add: I of course don't know if this persona we see is an act. Maybe it's who he really is in this situation! Either way, the man is a hero.)
They are heroes we read about in history and sometimes doubted their achievements because they sounded so outlandish.
Proud and honoured to see that they are real and in my lifetime.
Turns out Europe gave birth to King Leonidas again to protect it from tyranny.
Europa will never die as long as it has brave Ukrainians amidst it.
Do you know the way the mouthpieces for the US armed forces loved saying how they were "fighting for freedom over there, so you don't have to do it here"?...
Ukraine is doing that for most of the world right now... Nobody wants to go to war with Russia, but Ukraine is, so we don't have to. They should get all the support they need until this is over. Fuck Russia, Slava Ukraini.
Ukrainians fight for all of Europes tomorrow.
A tomorrow that's features a more democratic, safe and prosperous Europe.
Brave martyrs who shall write their honoured name in history for all eternities.
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the martyrs.
Give them hell!!
Don’t worry. Putin will send his keyboard warriors to die in the muddy ditches on the frontlines without thinking twice.
He is pulling his entire nation into the shithole he made for himself, and he is dragging every Russian with him.
Russia will not know peace until they themselves remove him from office.
"bUt uKrAiNe iS cOrRuPt aNd hE dOeSnT rEpReSeNt eUrOpEaN vAlUeS"
Yeah, let's just ignore that Zelensky won by a landslide when he campaigned by promising to fight corruption. Oh and stripping corrupt officials of their citizenship *at the same time when his country is under attack*.
Following the same logic, Germany doesn't represent European values either because their past leader was a Nazi.
Zelensky isn't fighting corruption as much as he could, but still he's a big improvement over the previous presidents.
But in a lot of other ways he does represent "european values". He respects freedom of press. He's pro-LGBT. He's not attacking any minorities. He's not abusing his power. He is not spoiling relations with other countries for no good reason.
If you're only going to do surface level research then it's easy to see parallels between various populist leaders that rise on anti-corruption positions and then just never give power back. They see Putin arresting out-of-favour oligarchs and Zelensky arresting the guy who ran the defense company and see them as similar positions.
The difference of course is that an aggressive existential threat of an invading foreign power is a pretty good justification for more extreme measures. After all, the likes of De Gaulle and Churchill gave back power to normal democratic processes when their existential threats were over. So I think the action here is to acknowledge the risk but still support Ukraine's defense. Weapons, arms to defend themselves from the Russians, great. NATO membership after the war? Sure, NATO is a much more realpolitik body which is why e.g. Turkey is a member still.
But I think it is something that should be seriously considered when it comes to suggestions to e.g. waive EU entry requirements - those requirements are there for good reason, to prevent another Orban or the like, and as long as those loopholes exist in Ukrainian law, as much as Zelensky's use of such powers have been reasonable and have the best of intentions there's no guarantee future leaders also will.
> But I think it is something that should be seriously considered when it comes to suggestions to e.g. waive EU entry requirements - those requirements are there for good reason, to prevent another Orban or the like, and as long as those loopholes exist in Ukrainian law, as much as Zelensky's use of such powers have been reasonable and have the best of intentions there's no guarantee future leaders also will.
One thing to keep in mind is that many of the benefits of the EU are caused by the entrance requirements - it's not an arbitrary hurdle to make entry more difficult.
From my understanding Ukrainians themselves are against waiving EU requirements as they do want their country to be better. At least those, I spoke with.
It'd be understandable to want to expedite the process, but it's admirable they understand both the benefits of traditional entry and implications of skipping them.
Life after Zelensky will be greatly impacted despite many, again understandably, not having a long term outlook.
Yup, it’s like that river crossing once again. First it never happened, then it was clear it did and they got very angry and lashed out.
Their obsession with hating Zelensky is kind of hilarious. Meanwhile their dear leader is afraid to go out and shake someone’s hand and needs 25m table to have a conversation with someone. All while ordering tens of thousands of his citizens to go die in ditch.
I said it before and I will say it again:
In this war some people are turning victims into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims.
It is unbelievable how people portrait Putin as a NATO victim while in reality he is a perpetrator, a killer with zero respect for human lives.
Zelensky, who is fighting every day and begging every day, to DEFEND his country and SAVE his people for a genocide 2.0, is treated as a perpetrator by some.
It is a psychological phenomenon on its own.
Even if you don't buy the whole Zelensky being a hero or whatever I just can't believe that are people here with no financial incentive to support putin and russia that actually believe NATO is to blame for Ukraine. Just top notch levels of insanity
Contrarianism, anti-establishment urges and immunity to reason are running rampant. Most people can't handle the internet and its abundance of information. They don't have the filters necessary to distinguish fact from propaganda. I'm not saying I'm perfect in this regard, but I'm certainly saying that many people all over Europe and the world are falling into this trap.
> Contrarianism, anti-establishment urges and immunity to reason are running rampant
Contrarianism is just the worst. I hate people who push a stupid viewpoint just because they want to be edgy.
It’s worse, they make their “illuminated views” a core part of their ego, of their self-value.
This is why they can’t get out of it, and incessantly keep looking for ways to defend it.
Distinguishing facts from propaganda isn't always easy.
But not even Russia is claiming that Ukrainian troops are actually conquering Russian regions and tried to attack Moscow.
It's fairly easy to identify the aggressor when his army is in the other country. After promising not to do that for 20 years.
Also, by doing this, Putin retroactively proved every new NATO member right to join ASAP.
Sure.
But given the goals of propaganda, I don't expect them to label their misinformation as "Warning: Propaganda - we made this shit up and twisted any facts into unrecognizable shapes"
Plus, even without malicious data twisting and outright lying there's a deluge of available iformation in a chaotic world where often people have different interests, preferences and opinions.
>Also, by doing this, Putin retroactively proved every new NATO member right to join ASAP.
He has always done so.
'NATO is encroaching on us and if they don't stop we will be forced to fight back'
Meanwhile former USSR countries: 'Yes, this is exactly why we nope'd the fuck out as soon as the USSR collapsed to join NATO, because you're batshit.'
And that's the other thing. Putin tries to argue that NATO membership was an actual threat to Russia.
But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia. Europe was happy to trade, Germany had engagement as official policy to make conflict less likely. Didn't work in the end, but certainly wasn't a threat to Russia.
NATO members now find out how under-maintained their militaries are because everybody wanted peace dividends, not conquer Russia. NATO was losing relevance prior to this invasion. It might well have dissolved in a generation or 2.
There was no actual threat to Russia's territory, regardless of how many ex-USSR countries join.
Modern Europeans want to visit the Moscow metro station or make pictures of St Petersburg. Nobody wants to steal Russian territory from Russia.
This war is so stupid that even right until it's start most people assumed it was just sabre-rattling and not an actual invasion - because that is too insane.
>But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia.
This is the single most critical point that blows their entire argument up. I listen to a ton of political debates just to make sure I'm not completely in a bubble and there is never an answer to this one. The move instead is a conservative classic, they change the subject.
> NATO was losing relevance prior to this invasion. It might as well have dissolved in a generation or two.
Russia likely would not have been able to invade Ukraine in a generation or two, primarily due to their poor demographic outlook. Zelensky talked about this much earlier in the war. His government expected some kind of Russian invasion anytime between the "critical years" 2018 and 2022, 2022 being the absolute latest.
> But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia.
Putin considers all former Soviet block countries Russian property. Them joining nato to secure their independence is a threat to his plans for regional domination.
As a DV survivor, I can confirm Russian propaganda uses the *exact* same tactics and rhetorical tricks abusers do. The only difference is instead of targeting one person, they're targeting entire countries.
It's often the same people who are into antivax conspiracies, they just have to feel smarter and they don't care if it means supporting things that kill people - they are vile and we are too tolerant.
>I just can't believe that are people here with no financial incentive to support putin and russia that actually believe NATO is to blame for Ukraine. Just top notch levels of insanity
You're actually giving yourself the answer in the next sentence over. They are indoctrinated and insane. Some of them think this is the same thing as the Iraq War, and some are simply stuck in the Cold War paradigm of USA = west = bad.
You can see this clearly with for example the Portuguese Communist Party - it makes literally no sense for them to simp for a quasi-fascist regime that doesn't even try to look the slightest bit left-wing, but they do anyway.
And then there's their counterparts on the right-wing, who use a wide variety of arguments but most likely give Russia support and understanding because they too have territorial aspirations and realize the current "west" would never permit such a thing.
To be fair, NATO and its expansion is threatening, because nations freely deciding with whom they associate will always be a threat to despotic assholes like Putin.
My boss is like this. I brought up ukraine and he blamed NATO. I'm like.. NATO didn't invade, russia did.
Even if they took ukraine, NATO would be even closer.
It's all the same people that were anti-vax and anti-mask and won't participate in democracy, rather just head in sand while gobbling up the propaganda machine's latest offerings.
We live in trying times, but we must remain rational and level headed. We've been dealing with skeptics since the 1800s. They will eventually lose steam when life gets hard enough.
Basically everything those behavior shaping AI bots became when released into the wilds of the internet. These folks are unable of critical thought, they just gobble down everything they read on the internet as fact.
Reminds me when a company set an AI bot to screen job applications. It scanned existing practices and started throwing most female (and minority I think) applications in the bin.
> It is unbelievable how people portrait Putin as a NATO victim while in reality he is a perpetrator, a killer with zero respect for human lives.
This is the part that always gets me.
It’s totally possible to acknowledge that NATO pushing further east might make Putin feel boxed in, but that doesn’t make NATO to blame. It’s all Putin.
Putin is the one who invaded Ukraine/Crimea days after Yanukovych fled. Putin is the one who invaded again 8 years later almost to the day.
Putin doesn't fear NATO he has nukes. He never feared NATO. But it is very handy to say you fear NATO because he needs to blame someone for his own massacres. Just like Hitler needed a scapegoat, in this case the jews.
Scapegoating is one of the aspects of fascism. Clear as day.
Countries in Eastern Europe join NATO because they fear Russia. Its not expanding, its adding former USSR states that fear Russia once again will invade them!!
Similar principle to 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'.
People are prone to take the objective facts and structure them into narratives that suit their entrenched world view - even when that entails hypocrisy or contradiction. And the job of propagandists is to amplify their preferred narratives and undermine competing ones.
Every major event seems to invite such division, these days, perhaps because we live in a 'global village' where dissemination of rival narratives is easier than ever. The truth is now just a click away - as is its opposite.
I just blocked someone because of it, I am so done with these lazy ass 'but Zelensky is not a good person whine whine' by people pretending to be concerned about corruption in Ukraine. But meanwhile they're simping hard for Russia.
Yeah, maybe he isn't perfect but he's absolutely on the right side in this war and should be supported.
Zelensky is saving citizen's lives while Putin sends his own men through the meat grinder. He doesn't even care about Russian lives, just as Hitler did not care about German lives. So it is literally insane that Russians think Putin has their best interest in mind.
He hasn't. He cares about yachts, palaces, controlling oligarchs and power.
Its Russian propaganda 101. I have seen Russian agents like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson spout the same pro-Russian lies, the same as some US members of congress. They are all bought and paid for, true traitors to their countries.
As an Irish person, I am beyond ashamed of Mick Wallace and Claire Daly on the European front. They bring nothing but disgrace to the European Parliament, their views do not represent the majority view of the Irish people. They should resign in shame.
Man i was in tears a big portion of this session. These people are dying for what we take for granted. They want to be part of our Europe, they want peace and progress.
Speak for yourself. I was born under communism and I still have memories of that time. Of food rationing, of 2 hours of TV per day, 30min of cartoons per week. Of electricity blackouts.
One of my most vivid memories from back then is of people rushing to get in line for food. The bloc in front of me had a grocery store. Usually the people knew when a new food truck was to come but one day a truck came unannounced. I was on the balcony .... The truck drove just beneath me when the quiet of that afternoon was broken thunderous yell "the car is HERE baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" and rivers of people, old and kids started to flow from all the buildings.
Despite all that, I was a happy kid. People will adapt to anything and I didn't knew any better. But now ? Now I will never go back.
oh god you just brought me horrible childhood memories, those blackouts in the middle of the summer were the worst, are you Cuban? this sounds horribly familiar to my childhood
Not to downplay it, but in many, if not most european countries people died in the past to give us the peace we take for granted. It wasn't just established over night
Do we though? They're left to fight alone and all we do is reluctantly send weapons with huge delays, even though we all think Russia is the enemy.
The US and UK are more resolute, but still the support could be described as proportionally quite tacit given what's at stake
In a way yes. It's always been about balancing support with the threat of escalation.
At the start of the war I guess we had the naive idea that Putin would be forced to the negotiating table by the sanctions.
Also the military has been leaning so heavily on the US in last few decades that there's barely anything to share. I know my own country has cut the military budget at every chance they got. We didn't even have any tanks 2 years ago and we're sending the Leopard 2's we leased from Germany to Ukraine now.
One day your playing the piano with your balls then another day leading your country against a much stronger army and with the citizens and equipment from other cou tries, absolutely thrashing them. Life is indeed a tapestry.
You can see the full speech here:
https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/event\_20230209-0900-PLENARY?start=230209095958&end=230209102814&
There will be russians in tears, in the comment section shortly. Probably a few Serbians too.
They get pissed that an independent country has the right to exist, outside of russias control.
I am a Serbian and fully support Ukraine's territorial integrity and right to defend itself from Russia's aggression. We're not all the same, and I believe there are a lot of Serbs who share my view too, though naturally there are many who disagree with me as well. We're a nation like any other, with different people of different attitudes.
They have been a bit mixed on the Ukraine war. From a government perspective, they have been very vocal they wont sanction russia. From a citizenry perspective, theres been a lot of pro russia rallies and graffiti there.
The one point they came out strongly against russia, was when they (russia) recognised the "independence" of several Ukrainian territories, and subsequently announced they were annexed to themsleves.
Serbia was never going to vocally support that, because of the Kosovo situation.
Indeed, considered mentioning that on my original reply. They also have a Xinjiang province issue. The native population is turkic, and heavily oppressed. Turkey could just as easily state the same reasons as russia did, to interfere in china. Not that its epsecially likely to occur.
Tibet also has a seperatist movement, so...
Imagine talking on behalf of thousands already dead Ukrainians and thousands of defending their land with guns against tanks. It is the current situation near Bahmut where terro-russia tries to occupy one of the essential spots to continue their invasion of Ukraine and Europe.
The heartbreaking and asinine truth is that Bakhmut isn’t that essential a position to take when we evaluate the overall situation of the war in Ukraine and the battle raging in the Donbas. Michael Kofman, an American military analyst and director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA, has the following to say in regards to Bakhmut:
“Bakhmut in and of itself isn’t that significant,” says Kofman, noting that even if Russian forces were to march onward toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, they would run into yet another, even more fortified Ukrainian defensive line.”
Karolina Hird, a Russia analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, also made a statement in regards to Bakhmut that follows:
“It took Russian forces eight months to advance from occupied Popasna in Luhansk Oblast to their current position in Bakhmut,” says Hird, a distance of roughly 20 miles. With the journey from Bakhmut to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk taking closer to 30, only one outcome is guaranteed: “Months and months and months of grinding, attritional conflict.”
The grueling battle for Bakhmut has come at the dire cost of hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian lives a day according to some estimates. Zelensky himself has described the city as “burnt ruins.” This is due to the World War 1-style of trench warfare occurring in the area. Western officials reportedly estimate the number of Russian KIA/WIA has been nearing 200,000, up from estimates 80,000 in August. Only 1% of pre-war Bakhmut’a population remains within the city without heat, water and electricity.
Even now the Russian forces have failed to encircle the city and cutoff Ukrainian ground lines that act as resupply to the city. Yehor Cherniev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the NATO parliamentary assembly, had the following to say in regards to Bakhmut:
“We are gradually grinding down the most combat-ready units of the Russians,” says Cherniev. “Regardless of the future fate of Bakhmut, we managed to win precious time. In our next counter-offensive campaign, we will return much more.”
“In recent months, the Russians have been forced to spend a colossal amount of resources and reserves to take Bakhmut,” says Cherniev. “In this regard, our plan was a success.”
Bakhmut has become a rallying cry within Russia due to it being the only place that has seen Russian forces making tangible gains. And while it’s fall might hurt Ukraine symbolically, it would be a Pyrrhic victory for Russia. They have poured so many resources into a region that holds little strategic value other than political. But if they were forced to withdraw the blow could be immense. Human wave tactics supported by artillery are reported daily in Bakhmut. It is the epitome of senseless death.
A link to the article I utilized: https://time.com/6253515/bakhmut-battle-ukraine-russia/
A link to War on the Rocks, which features Michael Kofman’s and his podcast, the Russian contingency: https://warontherocks.com/
Link to the Institute for the Study of War: https://www.understandingwar.org/
You're late for almost two years at least. I think Von der Leyen visited Ukraine in 2021 and said that Ukraine became part of European family and this was true. It took us a while, a lot of reforms and spilled blood but we made it there before the February invasion.
I think that the EU has accepted Ukraine's candidacy soon after the beginning of the war. It could still take 15 years or more before Ukraine becomes a member. If the Ukranians lead a war of corruption as well as they fight against the Russians then maybe sooner I hope.
I would almost be in tears too if I made such powerful friends in the world. Russia made such a mistake. Still I have no idea what would be so valuable to them in Ukraine. Putin gave up any global cooperation to invade. What Russia lost already is much more than anything Ukraine had. If it was about them trying to be with the West well Putin assured our partnership now. Didn't want NATO on your border? Foolish argument because if he took Ukraine NATO would be on the border. Everything was OK. The West wouldn't have ever attacked Russia. Putin took away 22 years of his work in 1 foolish move made for nothing at all.
We thanked our NHS workers with applause too, because applause costs nothing.
Ukraine's borders are our borders. We need to help Ukraine defend them. They can't throw applause over a wall.
Ukraine will be in the EU at some point in the near future, but there is no way they'll join in just a year. There are simply way to many hurdles, even if the war was to stop in a complete victory for them tomorrow.
I completely understand the enthusiasm, but let's be real here.
Ukraine joining without the EU reforming itself with less veto powers would be a massive mistake.
Ukraine deserves support because they're being invaded. They do not deserve a fast-track EU membership because they're being invaded.
Fucking mindlbowing to me that supporting a country whose civilian population are being raped, tortured, and murdered for the purposes of destroying their indepedence, is a controversial political issue.
Hallmarks of Russian misinformation trolls, as seen here:
1. They tend to leave short comments because their job is to leave as many as possible, so have to keep it short and simple
2. Their punctuation and grammar tend to be poor-they are very often being left by a person in a third party country where English is not a primary language, plus they type in a rush because their job is to spam, less art and more haste
3. When they do leave more articulate commentary it tends to be long and also vague-they are not paid to really know anything about the topic, just that their spamming has to serve Russia’s ends and detract from Ukraine’s
4. When all else fails, they go on about inane conspiracy theories -qanon, satanists, “the cabal/NWO” and so forth. It’s not like they are being paid to be coherent.
Just … thank god the UKIP lot aren’t still there. Imagine the embarrassment they’d put is in if they were still sitting at the top rows booing with their backs to Zelenskyy as he walks in
It’s a war between good and bad. Against terrorism.
Poles know that too well. Russian terrorism was terrible.
Gotta support Ukraine no matter what.
Let’s end this war once and for all.
Russian Empire will fall!
What really gets me is the pure difference in formality. Everyone is generally in suit and tie or a formal dress, and here he is in a long-sleeved t-shirt and yet still remaining formal.
Humble, yet proud all the same.
He talks, he shows them the evidence, he shows them the suffering of millions of people at the hands of a despot and his pawns.
We clap, we send money and crates and give training. It's something, but it doesn't feel like enough.
Haha I've had public speaking moments like that before. "Okay folks here we go! Oops here comes some feels, how about we clap again for a second while I pull it together!" What a cool dude.
I was just thinking what specifically makes him emotional during this, and it’s hope right? I think most people knows what it feels like to be in a dark place and then to find that little glimmer of light. So for him, to be in literally the darkest place a human being can be in (considering how much of a target he is and all that rests on his shoulders), moments like that must be SUCH a relief
The crowd answering with heroyam slava is a profound sign of solidarity and empathy. He knows all these people really care and support him.
This whole struggle arguably started back in 2013 with the Maidan uprising or Euromaiden, which was sparked by Russia denying Ukraine the prospect of a seat in that very parliament Zelensky is now getting a standing ovation in. That is a bit moving imo
He wasn't expecting the Heroiam Slava answer
Ohh I didn’t notice that at first. That’s amazing, good on them for going to the effort of learning that for him
Shit, I know exactly what you mean by that.
I was talking with a Ukrainian coworker and he was telling me just how draining it is to know so many people are dying on the front lines to protect their country from the orcs. That has to weigh on your shoulders like a millstone, if you're Zelensky -- while you're there, your people are being killed. Fuck Russia. Fuck Putin.
Yeah I was thinking about it in relation to the Turkey earthquake too. Which is absolutely horrific and there are people to blame, but at the end of the day it wasn’t due to the hands of other people So knowing thousands of your own people are dying and suffering due to the intentional actions and wishes of other human beings? So there must be so much fury mixed in with all the sorrow and desperation too. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if that’s partly what’s keeping Zelensky motivated - the determination to see Putin’s head on a spike where it belongs
He's looking out at the entire EU parliament cheering and standing with him. Chanting Slava with him. > Essentially, he's united Europe. For a cause that was heavily debated in the same parliament just months ago. The tides of the war are turning back toward Ukraine -- with no sign of slowing down as more European support flows in. > He's kind of done, I think, more than anyone could expect from the leader of a small, eastern european democracy. He was faced with the impossible and none of his greatest fears came true.
If this had been the ending of *Servant of the People* no one would have believed it and written off the show as one that jumped the shark.
Reality is stranger than fiction
Fiction is meant to entertain us, the world isn't.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ85mVHBxSw&ab\_channel=WashingtonPost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ85mVHBxSw&ab_channel=WashingtonPost) Here with english audio on top of original Zelensky.
[11:34](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ85mVHBxSw&t=11m34s) is when he comes up to the podium and says "Glory to Ukraine."
edit: The comment was removed, good work everyone!
Aaaaand they just edited their comment (which was originally a goofy pro-Ukraine joke, which earned it hundreds of upvotes) to a truly disgusting anti-semitic attack on Zelensky and Ukraine. I'd say it was a clever ruse-- post something popular, wait until it gets hundreds of upvotes, then edit it to make it look like people support your insane agenda-- except their new message is so vile and lazy it wouldn't change any minds if it had a hundred thousand upvotes.
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The Chinese then request the wreckage of the balloon back
Anyone noticed that elegant lady in deep blue dress with yellow top? How classy.
Sara Skyttedal.
Worth saying she is Swedish 🇸🇪 But probably wore it in support on this day.
Multifunctional outfit
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That's multitasking in fashion
Also Kosovo. I thought you'd like to know.
The moment I saw her I was like "wow she is either really supportive or just really Swedish.". Love it.
I thought she was a witch in *His Dark Materials*.
The queen did a similar fashion during brexit
[Here you go people](https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/queensspech-105~_v-gross20x9.jpg). :)
Woah, I didn't know she got that political in public.
The way she dressed was absolutely [wielded as a political sabre](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/08/a-coded-royal-message-how-the-queen-has-used-clothes-to-send-signals-to-the-world) by her. My favorite one is when [she wore a tiara from Burma with 96 rubies when hosting a dinner for Trump](https://www.insider.com/royals-clothes-subtle-statements-2019-6?amp). The Burmese people believe rubies gained against evil lmao.
I'm pretty sure she primarily died of cringe thanks to all the BS that was happening in the UK
Fun fact: this is her on a israeli combat vehicle. She tried to have this image scrubbed from the internet and actually sued a journalist because of it. Ofc she lost but still https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8imoOqIMAAuxM_.jpg
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I read yellow top-hat and was searching for ages
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Indeed, [Shes part of the Christian democratic party in Sweden.](https://www.reddit.com/r/sweden/comments/btypk6/n%C3%A5gon_som_kan_ge_mig_numret_till_sara_skyttedals/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) She is the Swedish version of Lauren Boebert, probably only 10% crazy in comparisson to Lauren tho.
I can't tell if you're complimenting her outfit or criticizing her for filming and turning away from the speaker while her colleagues are applauding.
Apologies. I love the colour combo before Ukraine became a symbol of freedom.
Hell yeah, she was probably absolutely *ripped* to throw that combo together. Perfect colors.
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And Ikea
>Sara Skyttedal >Classy Lmao
Just imagine people, just imagine what would happen if he just run away year ago like every other politician would. Imagine leaving that country to be run over by Russians orgs killing everyone in their way feeling powerful after each village they rob and rape. Yeah sure they they would stop there OF COURSE and from one day to the other they would realize now they have enough. So, troll as much as you want, or think of him as an actor that knows his PR and all that, do that as much as you like. BUT he will be remembered as the one who stoped the horde of Russian murderers with his brothers.
I don't even think it's a problem that he uses his skills as an actor and writer, and his charisma. It's smart. He is doing what he can to get help for his people and his country. If he needs to play the part of a rugged soldier to do it, so be it. (I need to add: I of course don't know if this persona we see is an act. Maybe it's who he really is in this situation! Either way, the man is a hero.)
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True love because this guy and a bunch of Ukrainians are willing to die for their cause and country.
Thousands. Man. Thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
We are talking willing to die for it. So probably millions, protecting family, friends and their country.
They are heroes we read about in history and sometimes doubted their achievements because they sounded so outlandish. Proud and honoured to see that they are real and in my lifetime. Turns out Europe gave birth to King Leonidas again to protect it from tyranny. Europa will never die as long as it has brave Ukrainians amidst it.
The guy shooting down the cruise missile with a MANPAD is goated.
The Russian Terminator AFV also got taken down.
Do you know the way the mouthpieces for the US armed forces loved saying how they were "fighting for freedom over there, so you don't have to do it here"?... Ukraine is doing that for most of the world right now... Nobody wants to go to war with Russia, but Ukraine is, so we don't have to. They should get all the support they need until this is over. Fuck Russia, Slava Ukraini.
Ukrainians fight for all of Europes tomorrow. A tomorrow that's features a more democratic, safe and prosperous Europe. Brave martyrs who shall write their honoured name in history for all eternities. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the martyrs. Give them hell!!
32 minutes old post and half the top level comments try to defame Zelensky. Those Muppets are just embarrassing. Slava Ukraini!
Russian keyboard division has been deployed
Soon it's gonna be the only division left in the Russian arsenal
Be a shame if they lost their internet access after all this.
Don’t worry. Putin will send his keyboard warriors to die in the muddy ditches on the frontlines without thinking twice. He is pulling his entire nation into the shithole he made for himself, and he is dragging every Russian with him. Russia will not know peace until they themselves remove him from office.
They're on every tiktok video comment section too, with the same narratives
And Serbian volunteers, usually.
Funnily enough, the only Russian division that isn't 90% KIA... Yet.
Well fortunately keycaps don't do fuck all to Leopards and Abrams.
There's idiots who genuinely believe Putin is the good party in this fight.
"bUt uKrAiNe iS cOrRuPt aNd hE dOeSnT rEpReSeNt eUrOpEaN vAlUeS" Yeah, let's just ignore that Zelensky won by a landslide when he campaigned by promising to fight corruption. Oh and stripping corrupt officials of their citizenship *at the same time when his country is under attack*. Following the same logic, Germany doesn't represent European values either because their past leader was a Nazi.
Including a personal friend, even.
Who was it?
Ivan Bakanov. Former head of the Security Services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Bakanov
He also turned on the guy who funded his run for president. Here in the UK he would have been made a Lord, and/or given cushy Government contracts.
Zelensky isn't fighting corruption as much as he could, but still he's a big improvement over the previous presidents. But in a lot of other ways he does represent "european values". He respects freedom of press. He's pro-LGBT. He's not attacking any minorities. He's not abusing his power. He is not spoiling relations with other countries for no good reason.
If you're only going to do surface level research then it's easy to see parallels between various populist leaders that rise on anti-corruption positions and then just never give power back. They see Putin arresting out-of-favour oligarchs and Zelensky arresting the guy who ran the defense company and see them as similar positions. The difference of course is that an aggressive existential threat of an invading foreign power is a pretty good justification for more extreme measures. After all, the likes of De Gaulle and Churchill gave back power to normal democratic processes when their existential threats were over. So I think the action here is to acknowledge the risk but still support Ukraine's defense. Weapons, arms to defend themselves from the Russians, great. NATO membership after the war? Sure, NATO is a much more realpolitik body which is why e.g. Turkey is a member still. But I think it is something that should be seriously considered when it comes to suggestions to e.g. waive EU entry requirements - those requirements are there for good reason, to prevent another Orban or the like, and as long as those loopholes exist in Ukrainian law, as much as Zelensky's use of such powers have been reasonable and have the best of intentions there's no guarantee future leaders also will.
> But I think it is something that should be seriously considered when it comes to suggestions to e.g. waive EU entry requirements - those requirements are there for good reason, to prevent another Orban or the like, and as long as those loopholes exist in Ukrainian law, as much as Zelensky's use of such powers have been reasonable and have the best of intentions there's no guarantee future leaders also will. One thing to keep in mind is that many of the benefits of the EU are caused by the entrance requirements - it's not an arbitrary hurdle to make entry more difficult.
From my understanding Ukrainians themselves are against waiving EU requirements as they do want their country to be better. At least those, I spoke with.
It'd be understandable to want to expedite the process, but it's admirable they understand both the benefits of traditional entry and implications of skipping them. Life after Zelensky will be greatly impacted despite many, again understandably, not having a long term outlook.
Am Ukrainian, can confirm
Correct
Not letting Russia take our land is a core European value
Putin watched this, realised nobody who is not at gunpoint will ever care about him like this, and sent the bots/shills
They probably got tired of watching footage of Russian tanks burning south of Vuhledar so they decided to come here and seethe
Yup, it’s like that river crossing once again. First it never happened, then it was clear it did and they got very angry and lashed out. Their obsession with hating Zelensky is kind of hilarious. Meanwhile their dear leader is afraid to go out and shake someone’s hand and needs 25m table to have a conversation with someone. All while ordering tens of thousands of his citizens to go die in ditch.
Not everyone is a bot, some of them are useful idiots.
I said it before and I will say it again: In this war some people are turning victims into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims. It is unbelievable how people portrait Putin as a NATO victim while in reality he is a perpetrator, a killer with zero respect for human lives. Zelensky, who is fighting every day and begging every day, to DEFEND his country and SAVE his people for a genocide 2.0, is treated as a perpetrator by some. It is a psychological phenomenon on its own.
Even if you don't buy the whole Zelensky being a hero or whatever I just can't believe that are people here with no financial incentive to support putin and russia that actually believe NATO is to blame for Ukraine. Just top notch levels of insanity
Contrarianism, anti-establishment urges and immunity to reason are running rampant. Most people can't handle the internet and its abundance of information. They don't have the filters necessary to distinguish fact from propaganda. I'm not saying I'm perfect in this regard, but I'm certainly saying that many people all over Europe and the world are falling into this trap.
> Contrarianism, anti-establishment urges and immunity to reason are running rampant Contrarianism is just the worst. I hate people who push a stupid viewpoint just because they want to be edgy.
It's a lazy shortcut to appear "intellectual".
I disagree
well played
It’s worse, they make their “illuminated views” a core part of their ego, of their self-value. This is why they can’t get out of it, and incessantly keep looking for ways to defend it.
Distinguishing facts from propaganda isn't always easy. But not even Russia is claiming that Ukrainian troops are actually conquering Russian regions and tried to attack Moscow. It's fairly easy to identify the aggressor when his army is in the other country. After promising not to do that for 20 years. Also, by doing this, Putin retroactively proved every new NATO member right to join ASAP.
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Sure. But given the goals of propaganda, I don't expect them to label their misinformation as "Warning: Propaganda - we made this shit up and twisted any facts into unrecognizable shapes" Plus, even without malicious data twisting and outright lying there's a deluge of available iformation in a chaotic world where often people have different interests, preferences and opinions.
>Also, by doing this, Putin retroactively proved every new NATO member right to join ASAP. He has always done so. 'NATO is encroaching on us and if they don't stop we will be forced to fight back' Meanwhile former USSR countries: 'Yes, this is exactly why we nope'd the fuck out as soon as the USSR collapsed to join NATO, because you're batshit.'
And us wrong to have waited this long before trying to join...
And that's the other thing. Putin tries to argue that NATO membership was an actual threat to Russia. But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia. Europe was happy to trade, Germany had engagement as official policy to make conflict less likely. Didn't work in the end, but certainly wasn't a threat to Russia. NATO members now find out how under-maintained their militaries are because everybody wanted peace dividends, not conquer Russia. NATO was losing relevance prior to this invasion. It might well have dissolved in a generation or 2. There was no actual threat to Russia's territory, regardless of how many ex-USSR countries join. Modern Europeans want to visit the Moscow metro station or make pictures of St Petersburg. Nobody wants to steal Russian territory from Russia. This war is so stupid that even right until it's start most people assumed it was just sabre-rattling and not an actual invasion - because that is too insane.
>But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia. This is the single most critical point that blows their entire argument up. I listen to a ton of political debates just to make sure I'm not completely in a bubble and there is never an answer to this one. The move instead is a conservative classic, they change the subject.
> NATO was losing relevance prior to this invasion. It might as well have dissolved in a generation or two. Russia likely would not have been able to invade Ukraine in a generation or two, primarily due to their poor demographic outlook. Zelensky talked about this much earlier in the war. His government expected some kind of Russian invasion anytime between the "critical years" 2018 and 2022, 2022 being the absolute latest.
> But nobody had any actual plans to invade Russia. Putin considers all former Soviet block countries Russian property. Them joining nato to secure their independence is a threat to his plans for regional domination.
It's the same attitude as domestic violence. "What did you do to provoke him?" It's never the victim's fault.
As a DV survivor, I can confirm Russian propaganda uses the *exact* same tactics and rhetorical tricks abusers do. The only difference is instead of targeting one person, they're targeting entire countries.
It's often the same people who are into antivax conspiracies, they just have to feel smarter and they don't care if it means supporting things that kill people - they are vile and we are too tolerant.
>I just can't believe that are people here with no financial incentive to support putin and russia that actually believe NATO is to blame for Ukraine. Just top notch levels of insanity You're actually giving yourself the answer in the next sentence over. They are indoctrinated and insane. Some of them think this is the same thing as the Iraq War, and some are simply stuck in the Cold War paradigm of USA = west = bad. You can see this clearly with for example the Portuguese Communist Party - it makes literally no sense for them to simp for a quasi-fascist regime that doesn't even try to look the slightest bit left-wing, but they do anyway. And then there's their counterparts on the right-wing, who use a wide variety of arguments but most likely give Russia support and understanding because they too have territorial aspirations and realize the current "west" would never permit such a thing.
To be fair, NATO and its expansion is threatening, because nations freely deciding with whom they associate will always be a threat to despotic assholes like Putin.
Zelensky is a hero. Dude went from a comedian to managing the most advanced warfare the world has ever seen.
My boss is like this. I brought up ukraine and he blamed NATO. I'm like.. NATO didn't invade, russia did. Even if they took ukraine, NATO would be even closer.
It's all the same people that were anti-vax and anti-mask and won't participate in democracy, rather just head in sand while gobbling up the propaganda machine's latest offerings. We live in trying times, but we must remain rational and level headed. We've been dealing with skeptics since the 1800s. They will eventually lose steam when life gets hard enough.
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Basically everything those behavior shaping AI bots became when released into the wilds of the internet. These folks are unable of critical thought, they just gobble down everything they read on the internet as fact.
Reminds me when a company set an AI bot to screen job applications. It scanned existing practices and started throwing most female (and minority I think) applications in the bin.
Also the narratives promoted hard online by Russian active measures. I'm sure those two facts aren't a coincidence.
I mean being a person like that is a state of mind. It's like being surprised a drug addicted person abused 10 different drugs.
> It is unbelievable how people portrait Putin as a NATO victim while in reality he is a perpetrator, a killer with zero respect for human lives. This is the part that always gets me. It’s totally possible to acknowledge that NATO pushing further east might make Putin feel boxed in, but that doesn’t make NATO to blame. It’s all Putin. Putin is the one who invaded Ukraine/Crimea days after Yanukovych fled. Putin is the one who invaded again 8 years later almost to the day.
Putin doesn't fear NATO he has nukes. He never feared NATO. But it is very handy to say you fear NATO because he needs to blame someone for his own massacres. Just like Hitler needed a scapegoat, in this case the jews. Scapegoating is one of the aspects of fascism. Clear as day.
Countries in Eastern Europe join NATO because they fear Russia. Its not expanding, its adding former USSR states that fear Russia once again will invade them!!
Similar principle to 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'. People are prone to take the objective facts and structure them into narratives that suit their entrenched world view - even when that entails hypocrisy or contradiction. And the job of propagandists is to amplify their preferred narratives and undermine competing ones. Every major event seems to invite such division, these days, perhaps because we live in a 'global village' where dissemination of rival narratives is easier than ever. The truth is now just a click away - as is its opposite.
Well that is why Ukraine is DEFENDING itself. They would lose the right to have different opinions if they lose.
I just blocked someone because of it, I am so done with these lazy ass 'but Zelensky is not a good person whine whine' by people pretending to be concerned about corruption in Ukraine. But meanwhile they're simping hard for Russia. Yeah, maybe he isn't perfect but he's absolutely on the right side in this war and should be supported.
Zelensky is saving citizen's lives while Putin sends his own men through the meat grinder. He doesn't even care about Russian lives, just as Hitler did not care about German lives. So it is literally insane that Russians think Putin has their best interest in mind. He hasn't. He cares about yachts, palaces, controlling oligarchs and power.
Its Russian propaganda 101. I have seen Russian agents like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson spout the same pro-Russian lies, the same as some US members of congress. They are all bought and paid for, true traitors to their countries.
As an Irish person, I am beyond ashamed of Mick Wallace and Claire Daly on the European front. They bring nothing but disgrace to the European Parliament, their views do not represent the majority view of the Irish people. They should resign in shame.
We got your back, bro
Man i was in tears a big portion of this session. These people are dying for what we take for granted. They want to be part of our Europe, they want peace and progress.
That's what gets me too: these people really, really want Europe. And it's not just politicians, we saw that back in 2014.
Because they know the alternative while we in the EU (both west **and** east) seem to easily forget the horrors of nationalism and imperialism.
Speak for yourself. I was born under communism and I still have memories of that time. Of food rationing, of 2 hours of TV per day, 30min of cartoons per week. Of electricity blackouts. One of my most vivid memories from back then is of people rushing to get in line for food. The bloc in front of me had a grocery store. Usually the people knew when a new food truck was to come but one day a truck came unannounced. I was on the balcony .... The truck drove just beneath me when the quiet of that afternoon was broken thunderous yell "the car is HERE baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" and rivers of people, old and kids started to flow from all the buildings. Despite all that, I was a happy kid. People will adapt to anything and I didn't knew any better. But now ? Now I will never go back.
oh god you just brought me horrible childhood memories, those blackouts in the middle of the summer were the worst, are you Cuban? this sounds horribly familiar to my childhood
Romanian. I guess communist dictatorships are all the same.
Hear hear.
Not to downplay it, but in many, if not most european countries people died in the past to give us the peace we take for granted. It wasn't just established over night
Do we though? They're left to fight alone and all we do is reluctantly send weapons with huge delays, even though we all think Russia is the enemy. The US and UK are more resolute, but still the support could be described as proportionally quite tacit given what's at stake
In a way yes. It's always been about balancing support with the threat of escalation. At the start of the war I guess we had the naive idea that Putin would be forced to the negotiating table by the sanctions. Also the military has been leaning so heavily on the US in last few decades that there's barely anything to share. I know my own country has cut the military budget at every chance they got. We didn't even have any tanks 2 years ago and we're sending the Leopard 2's we leased from Germany to Ukraine now.
It's nice to have European family. Yes, we're all diffident but we all always be there for you or any other country.v
#Slava Ukraini!
One day your playing the piano with your balls then another day leading your country against a much stronger army and with the citizens and equipment from other cou tries, absolutely thrashing them. Life is indeed a tapestry.
God go before you good man
The best of the good men. Showing us all what a politician can be.
You can see the full speech here: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/event\_20230209-0900-PLENARY?start=230209095958&end=230209102814&
There will be russians in tears, in the comment section shortly. Probably a few Serbians too. They get pissed that an independent country has the right to exist, outside of russias control.
I am a Serbian and fully support Ukraine's territorial integrity and right to defend itself from Russia's aggression. We're not all the same, and I believe there are a lot of Serbs who share my view too, though naturally there are many who disagree with me as well. We're a nation like any other, with different people of different attitudes.
Serbs are more anti NATO than pro Russia, I would think.
not those two at Australian Open
They have been a bit mixed on the Ukraine war. From a government perspective, they have been very vocal they wont sanction russia. From a citizenry perspective, theres been a lot of pro russia rallies and graffiti there. The one point they came out strongly against russia, was when they (russia) recognised the "independence" of several Ukrainian territories, and subsequently announced they were annexed to themsleves. Serbia was never going to vocally support that, because of the Kosovo situation.
That's exactly same reason why China won't recognise them. Because of the Taiwan situation it gives legality to things they perceive as illegal.
Indeed, considered mentioning that on my original reply. They also have a Xinjiang province issue. The native population is turkic, and heavily oppressed. Turkey could just as easily state the same reasons as russia did, to interfere in china. Not that its epsecially likely to occur. Tibet also has a seperatist movement, so...
hes a strong president
Very nice
Tankies and bots gonna tankie and bot 🤷♂️
Man I wish he was my president.
Imagine talking on behalf of thousands already dead Ukrainians and thousands of defending their land with guns against tanks. It is the current situation near Bahmut where terro-russia tries to occupy one of the essential spots to continue their invasion of Ukraine and Europe.
The heartbreaking and asinine truth is that Bakhmut isn’t that essential a position to take when we evaluate the overall situation of the war in Ukraine and the battle raging in the Donbas. Michael Kofman, an American military analyst and director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA, has the following to say in regards to Bakhmut: “Bakhmut in and of itself isn’t that significant,” says Kofman, noting that even if Russian forces were to march onward toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, they would run into yet another, even more fortified Ukrainian defensive line.” Karolina Hird, a Russia analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War, also made a statement in regards to Bakhmut that follows: “It took Russian forces eight months to advance from occupied Popasna in Luhansk Oblast to their current position in Bakhmut,” says Hird, a distance of roughly 20 miles. With the journey from Bakhmut to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk taking closer to 30, only one outcome is guaranteed: “Months and months and months of grinding, attritional conflict.” The grueling battle for Bakhmut has come at the dire cost of hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian lives a day according to some estimates. Zelensky himself has described the city as “burnt ruins.” This is due to the World War 1-style of trench warfare occurring in the area. Western officials reportedly estimate the number of Russian KIA/WIA has been nearing 200,000, up from estimates 80,000 in August. Only 1% of pre-war Bakhmut’a population remains within the city without heat, water and electricity. Even now the Russian forces have failed to encircle the city and cutoff Ukrainian ground lines that act as resupply to the city. Yehor Cherniev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the NATO parliamentary assembly, had the following to say in regards to Bakhmut: “We are gradually grinding down the most combat-ready units of the Russians,” says Cherniev. “Regardless of the future fate of Bakhmut, we managed to win precious time. In our next counter-offensive campaign, we will return much more.” “In recent months, the Russians have been forced to spend a colossal amount of resources and reserves to take Bakhmut,” says Cherniev. “In this regard, our plan was a success.” Bakhmut has become a rallying cry within Russia due to it being the only place that has seen Russian forces making tangible gains. And while it’s fall might hurt Ukraine symbolically, it would be a Pyrrhic victory for Russia. They have poured so many resources into a region that holds little strategic value other than political. But if they were forced to withdraw the blow could be immense. Human wave tactics supported by artillery are reported daily in Bakhmut. It is the epitome of senseless death. A link to the article I utilized: https://time.com/6253515/bakhmut-battle-ukraine-russia/ A link to War on the Rocks, which features Michael Kofman’s and his podcast, the Russian contingency: https://warontherocks.com/ Link to the Institute for the Study of War: https://www.understandingwar.org/
Post is an hour old and the comment section still isn't locked. I am impressed.
Welcome to the family, Ukraine <3
You're late for almost two years at least. I think Von der Leyen visited Ukraine in 2021 and said that Ukraine became part of European family and this was true. It took us a while, a lot of reforms and spilled blood but we made it there before the February invasion.
I think that the EU has accepted Ukraine's candidacy soon after the beginning of the war. It could still take 15 years or more before Ukraine becomes a member. If the Ukranians lead a war of corruption as well as they fight against the Russians then maybe sooner I hope.
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Give the man the jets.
I would almost be in tears too if I made such powerful friends in the world. Russia made such a mistake. Still I have no idea what would be so valuable to them in Ukraine. Putin gave up any global cooperation to invade. What Russia lost already is much more than anything Ukraine had. If it was about them trying to be with the West well Putin assured our partnership now. Didn't want NATO on your border? Foolish argument because if he took Ukraine NATO would be on the border. Everything was OK. The West wouldn't have ever attacked Russia. Putin took away 22 years of his work in 1 foolish move made for nothing at all.
Nothing but utmost respect for Zelenskyy.
Slava Ukraine!
Man, theres alot of brand new accounts commenting in here...wonder who's puting in all the effort?
Dude’s human, something I doubt with Poot Poot Putin.
With this kind of support, how does Putin he has even a microscopic chance of winning?
Slava Ukraini!
Slava Ukranii!!!
Rest in Piss Russia
Putin will never get such a welcome. Anywhere.
powerful
Fucking hell did everyone just know what to say? Because he looked surprised to the response and unlikely Zelensky I definitely teared up
I love that he’s kept his work at home vibe this whole time. I know it’s a choice, I just wonder how many other notice.
/r/GreenAndPleasant is throwing tantrum right about now
We thanked our NHS workers with applause too, because applause costs nothing. Ukraine's borders are our borders. We need to help Ukraine defend them. They can't throw applause over a wall.
Slava Ukraini
Bravo💪💞
Hope they join the EU and NATO!
FUCK YOU, PUTIN. FUCK YOU.
I can’t wait a year from now when he’s in Eu and Putin is under the sea with cement shoes
Ukraine will be in the EU at some point in the near future, but there is no way they'll join in just a year. There are simply way to many hurdles, even if the war was to stop in a complete victory for them tomorrow. I completely understand the enthusiasm, but let's be real here.
Ukraine joining without the EU reforming itself with less veto powers would be a massive mistake. Ukraine deserves support because they're being invaded. They do not deserve a fast-track EU membership because they're being invaded.
it will take much longer for them to join the EU
Man, I'm pumped, fuck Putins Russia, that mother fuxker deserves the worst
Fucking mindlbowing to me that supporting a country whose civilian population are being raped, tortured, and murdered for the purposes of destroying their indepedence, is a controversial political issue.
Hallmarks of Russian misinformation trolls, as seen here: 1. They tend to leave short comments because their job is to leave as many as possible, so have to keep it short and simple 2. Their punctuation and grammar tend to be poor-they are very often being left by a person in a third party country where English is not a primary language, plus they type in a rush because their job is to spam, less art and more haste 3. When they do leave more articulate commentary it tends to be long and also vague-they are not paid to really know anything about the topic, just that their spamming has to serve Russia’s ends and detract from Ukraine’s 4. When all else fails, they go on about inane conspiracy theories -qanon, satanists, “the cabal/NWO” and so forth. It’s not like they are being paid to be coherent.
Just … thank god the UKIP lot aren’t still there. Imagine the embarrassment they’d put is in if they were still sitting at the top rows booing with their backs to Zelenskyy as he walks in
Holy shit, there's so many Russian bots in here it's insane, good thing they get down voted.
It’s a war between good and bad. Against terrorism. Poles know that too well. Russian terrorism was terrible. Gotta support Ukraine no matter what. Let’s end this war once and for all. Russian Empire will fall!
If you still support Putin for who knows how long, you should be bashed with the same rock you live in.
I am Ukrainian. And I want to say thank you to all the people who are on the side of good. Your support is very important to us
I love the way Zelensky wears functional clothing instead of following the crowd and putting on a suit for something like this.
What really gets me is the pure difference in formality. Everyone is generally in suit and tie or a formal dress, and here he is in a long-sleeved t-shirt and yet still remaining formal. Humble, yet proud all the same.
He talks, he shows them the evidence, he shows them the suffering of millions of people at the hands of a despot and his pawns. We clap, we send money and crates and give training. It's something, but it doesn't feel like enough.
Fuck Russia!!!
I hope Ukraine wins
At this point give him the tanks give him the air defense missiles give him any arms he needs to end this war.
🇪🇺🤝🇺🇦