May 7- The Weekend Edition
News from Ukraine, Frontline reportage, Patriarch Kirill, Putin's yacht, Magnitsky
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Here are some other stories we’re following…
RFE/RL- UN Security Council, Including Russia, Adopts Text On Ukraine: “"The Security Council expresses deep concern regarding the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine." There is no mention of the word ‘war' but calls for a “peaceful solution”.
President of Ukraine in Crimea Tamila Tasheva: Almost 500 people are being tortured in the basements of the temporary occupied Kherson region. The Russian MIlitary works through to the list of activists who participated in a civilian siege of Crimea in 2015 and the veterans of the Anti-Terrorist Operation.
CNN- The leaders of the G7 are to take part in a video conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.
Ukraine has signed an important defense deal with Poland. Ukraine’s PM Shmyhal: “I can’t reveal its contents, but it’s an important step towards providing Ukraine with special technology and special support in the field of security and defense.”
Reuters- Russia’s most senior lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Duma, accused Washington accused Washington of coordinating military operations in Ukraine, which he said amounted to the US “directly participating in military actions” against Russia on his telegram channel.
Putin to include a flight by the Il-80 Eimak command and control plane at annual May 9 Victory Day Parade, used to transport the Kremlin’s top brass in the case of a nuclear war. The parade will also feature supersonic fighters and Tu-160 strategic bombers.
The National Bank of Ukraine has prohibited citizens or residents of the Russian Federation from participating in managing insurance, financial, and other non-banking institutions in Ukraine.
D. Patrikarakos, Inside the battle on the Eastern Front
Barbed wire knots together sky and earth. Burned-out vehicles, modern-day carcasses of industrial warfare, dot the landscape. The ground is strafed and cratered: Eastern Ukraine has been disembowelled by shelling. The war here is fought with 21st-century drone technology, but it flies over soldiers who carry 50-year-old Kalashnikovs.
EU-Observer - EU to clean house of Russia lobbyists
Brussels is to wave goodbye to Russian lobbyists under new sanctions, ending a 20-year era of influence peddling in Europe. The Russia PR ban is included in the small print of more drastic EU measures, including an oil embargo, due to enter into force later this month.
CSCE. GOV- How the Swiss law enforcement capitulated to the Russians in the Magnitsky case
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe presented this powerpoint presentation at the US Helsinki Commission, which details how the Swiss were compicit with the Russian authorities to return all fozen assets to Swiss-based Russian actors in the Magnistsky case.
J. Iacoboni- Foreign accounts of Patriach Kirill- the EU can now trace & block them. Even in Italy
The religious on the EU sanctions list: a patrimony that Novaya Gazeta has estimated to be between four and 8 billion- houses, bank deposits in Switzerland, Austria and Italy, and luxury watches. The portrait of the many lives of Vladimir Mihailovic Gundyaev, from his suspicious past in the KGB to the leadership of his Putinist Orthodox Church.
Men used as slave labour to dig out the rubble and dead in Mariupol. The number of Olena Halushka: “An eyewitness told town administration there were 80-100 bodies under each building they've pulled apart. Many have nervous breakdown as this is absolutely unbearable.”
Pro-Russian forces say that 50 more civilians evacuated from Mariupol steelworks and Ukraine reports that the Russians continue to strike at the Azovstal steelworks plant.
WTF news…
Our friend Mauro Voerzio has started making explainer videos to debunk Russian narratives that are often disseminated through Italian media channels. Like this one about ‘Ukrainian nazis’. I’ll ask him to put in subtitles as they are probably useful for other audiences as well.
One way to silence the voices bringing testimony or information to readers is by using the tactic of ‘brigading’. Investigators, researchers and reporters on the frontlines in Ukraine are often hit by brigading. Malign bots and/or actors falsely report a tweet/post or an account in large numbers. Social media platforms will ‘shadow ban’ the tweet or account pending investigation. In the meantime, the information has been silenced.
Besides this, Russia has also used other measures to suppress information, including ‘lawfare’- the use of the courts to falsely sue reporters and researchers. While they are defending themselves in court, they cannot promote or publish their work. Recent victims include Catherine Belton and Nicholas Tenzer.
We’re signing off…thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott