Here is Olga Wilson’s description of her piece:
A photo of a dog named Crimea. It’s sitting on ruins where his house just recently was located.
On September 29 occupiers attacked private sector of Dnipro. As a result, the whole family died: grandmother, mother and two children – boy and girl.
I’ve seen it reported that the father is a Ukrainian soldier deployed forward, which is why he is not among the dead… Just let that sink in for a minute. The reason the father was not killed in the bombardment of his family’s home in Dnipro is because he’s safer deployed forward fighting the Russian invaders of Ukraine.
A bit more on the dog named Krym/Crimea:
The dog Krym became blind and deaf after the explosion. He is currently being examined by a veterinarian.
— Ukrainian Sunflower 🌻 Слава Україні🇺🇦 (@UASunflower) September 29, 2022
This dog, Krym, still waits for granny Alla, mom Natasha, kids Vasylisa & Ivan. For a day now, he has been sitting, crying, on the edge of a 20-m crater, in the place where his house used to be. The dog is crying while russians launch missiles at Dnipro again. pic.twitter.com/7zBjcHCrZg
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 30, 2022
It’s been quite the day, so let’s run through the basics and get to what is going on in Lyman and Putin’s decision to once again declare war on everyone he considers to be the West, especially the US.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
War for Ukraine Day 218: Quite the Day, Huh?Post + Comments (98)
Ukrainians!
And all our friends and allies!
De facto allies. Today, here in Kyiv, in the heart of our country, we are taking a decisive step for the security of the entire community of free nations.
We see who threatens us. Who is ready to kill and maim. Who in order to expand his zone of control does not stop at any savagery.
On February 24, the first full-scale attack on Ukraine was carried out. The first!
Russia would not have stopped at our borders if we had not stopped it. Other states would have been under attack. The Baltic countries, Poland, Moldova and Georgia, Kazakhstan…
Russia claimed to subjugate various nations of Europe and Asia. Claimed six months ago. This criminal ambition is breaking down in Ukraine. It was broken down in the suburbs of Kyiv and Chernihiv. In “Azovstal”. In the Sumy region and Kharkiv region. On Zmiinyi Island. It will be broken down in Donbas and in the south of Ukraine when we liberate them. Definitely – in Crimea, in the free Ukrainian Crimea.
The entire territory of our country will be liberated from this enemy – the enemy not only of Ukraine, but also of life itself, humanity, law and truth.
Russia already knows this. It feels our power. It sees that it is here, in Ukraine, that we prove the strength of our values. And that is why it is in a hurry. Organizes this farce with the attempted annexation. Tries to steal something that does not belong to it. Wants to rewrite history and redraw borders with murders, torture, blackmail and lies.
Ukraine will not allow that.
Today I held a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The meeting of the National Security and Defense Council has just ended. We have a decision.
First – it is only the path of strengthening Ukraine and ousting the occupiers from our entire territory that restores peace. We will complete this path.
Second – Ukraine was and remains a leader in negotiation efforts. It was our state that always offered Russia to reach an agreement on coexistence on equal, honest, decent and fair terms. It is obvious that this is impossible with this Russian president. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but already with another president of Russia.
And third – we must de jure record everything we have already achieved de facto. It is in Ukraine that the fate of democracy in the confrontation with tyranny is being decided. It is here, with the firmness of our state borders, that we can secure the firmness of the borders of all European states. We can guarantee that no one else will dare to bring war back to our continent.
It is here, in Ukraine, that the values of our Euro-Atlantic community have obtained real vital energy. The strength of the nation that fights for freedom, and the strength of the nations that help in this fight.
We are de facto allies. This has already been achieved. De facto, we have already completed our path to NATO. De facto, we have already proven interoperability with the Alliance’s standards, they are real for Ukraine – real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction.
We trust each other, we help each other and we protect each other. This is what the Alliance is. De facto.
Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure. Under a procedure consistent with our significance for the protection of our entire community. Under an accelerated procedure.
We know it’s possible. We have seen Finland and Sweden start accession to the Alliance this year without a Membership Action Plan.
This is fair. This is also fair for Ukraine. This is the consolidation at the level of the treaty of what has already been achieved in life and what are our values.
We understand that this requires the consensus of all members of the Alliance. We understand that it is necessary to reach such a consensus. And therefore, while this is happening, we offer to implement our proposals regarding security guarantees for Ukraine and all of Europe in accordance with the Kyiv Security Compact, which was developed and presented to our partners.
Security has no alternatives. But determination is needed to guarantee it.
We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO.
Today, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine adopted a decision to impose sanctions on significant individuals and legal entities of Russia who did not have the courage to speak out in defense of humanity and international law, or who in one way or another are involved in aggressive steps against Ukraine and the community of democratic nations.
And at the same time, I am addressing the people’s deputies of Ukraine: at the next session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a draft law on the nationalization of all Russian assets will be considered, which should significantly simplify this procedure. Please endorse this bill without delay.
We are completing the dismantling of Russian influence on Ukraine, Europe and the world.
Glory to Ukraine!
I understand why the Ukrainian leadership decided to do this now, but I also know that it is going to be symbolic on their part. I also know, in fact I feared it was going to happen and then it did, that the US and the NATO member state messaging on this is going to play right into Putin’s hands. CNBC has the details on Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA) Jake Sullivan’s response (emphasis mine):
The White House signaled clearly that it will not support Ukraine’s request to fast track its application for membership in NATO, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky had signed earlier in the day.
Just hours after Zelenskyy announced what he called Ukraine’s “decisive step” towards joining the alliance, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Ukraine’s application to NATO “should be taken up at a different time.”
“Our view is that the best way for us to support Ukraine is through practical on the ground support in Ukraine” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.
The remarks are not a new position for the Biden administration.
Sullivan’s statement comes as Sweden and Finland at on the verge of being admitted to NATO. Hungary and Turkey have yet to sign-off.
I understand the Biden administration’s strategic calculus. The second highlighted section is pitch perfect, but given that I’m sure the Ukrainians gave the Biden administration a heads up this was coming, there had to be better phrasing that could have been used to make the first point. Because the Kremlin is going to be all over “should be taken up at a different time.”
I think, and I’ve written this here before, that I think the Biden administration has done a very good job overall in regards to aiding Ukraine. Even when I’ve been frustrated that it hasn’t always moved at a faster pace. But something I’ve observed over the years as a national security professional is a very strange phenomenon. Up to the Trump administration national security folks, Republican national security professionals, I’m referring to the the political appointees, have tended to be far more small “l” liberal in their willingness to aggressively use national power. Democratic national security professionals, still referring to the political appointees, have tended to be far more small “c” conservative in their willingness to employ national power. Just a semi-informed observation.
For you acquisitions and logistics junkies – and not only do you know who you are, but based on your comments we do too – the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions and Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy held a media roundtable today regarding Ukraine Defense Contract Group. I’m going to copy and past a chunk of the transcript, but not all of it. So if you need a full fix you’ll have to click across.
Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Sustainment) LaPlante and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy) Baker Hold a Media Roundtable on the Recent Meeting of the National Armaments Directors Under the Auspices of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group
Sept. 30, 2022STAFF: All right, good afternoon, everybody. Today, I’m joined by Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Sasha Baker (who will) discuss the recent meeting of national armaments directors under the auspices of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. However, if you have other questions about USAI Tranche Six that came out the other day, they can address those questions. I would ask that you keep your questions within these bounds for today, as we are limited on time and have about 25 or 30 minutes. And also, unless you are asking a question, please keep your phones on mute.
With that, I will turn it over to Dr. LaPlante.
UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WILLIAM LAPLANTE: Well, hi, everybody. Good afternoon, and happy Friday. Thanks for joining us. It’s great to join you today to talk about the last few days, including the National Armaments Directors meeting in Brussels, which was very successful on Wednesday. I’m happy to answer questions about the session, but also want to highlight a few key takeaways.
For the first time under the auspices of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, we had all of these acquisitions and Defense Industrial Base specialists in the room together. So that was basically the equivalent of myself — “national armaments director” is the term they use — for 45 nations, including the Union — the European Union, as well as NATO. Throughout the day, we heard from nearly 20 of our partners who discussed efforts that they are doing to strengthen and expand their own industrial bases and deal with supply chain issues, all the issues we all are dealing with right now.
The meeting resulted in commitments to stand up smaller working groups among ourselves to continue the conversation, drive actionable progress. These working groups will define multinational strategies to mitigate supply chain constraints, increase production and pursue not just interoperability, but interchangeability. This frank and open dialogue was exactly what we hoped to see as we went into the meeting, and I’m proud of the collective efforts to support Ukraine in the long term. The ability for us to work together across our nation — these are all the nations of the contact group — to solve challenges is inspiring.
With that, I’ll turn it over to Ms. Baker for any opening comments that she has.
DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE SASHA BAKER: Thanks, Bill, and thank you to the members of the press for joining us on the heels of our travel to Brussels. I apologize. I’m joining you remotely today, so if you have any trouble hearing me, please shout and I will try to see what I can do about that.
As Dr. LaPlante outlined, this was the first time that we gathered the armaments directors under the auspices of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, and what I think is important about that is it’s really joining up the policy and the acquisition and the Defense Industrial Base specialists from all of the nations that Bill described to put our collective heads together and tackle some of the challenges that we know we’re facing.
The level of dialogue and unified action among the participants I think really underscores our unwavering global commitment to stand with Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression, and we were fortunate to have Ukraine’s Deputy Minister Havrylov with us to really kind of give us a first-hand perspective of what they’re facing on the ground.
Russia’s brutal and premeditated invasion of Ukraine is really a fundamental attack on our international rules-based order. Their efforts have not succeeded, and we are committed to ensuring that they will not succeed. As we’ve made clear at basically every level of the Administration, we are committed to strengthening Ukraine’s hand in their fight for sovereignty and in their fight to retain their territorial integrity. So I’m really delighted that our meetings this week were able to advance the ball in strengthening the position of this collective group of Allies and partners who’ve all made the same commitment.
So that’s really, I think, all I’ll say at the top; happy to take questions, but for now, let me hand it back over you, Jessica.
STAFF: Thank you, and just one clarification note. Everything today is said on the record, attributable by name.
So with that, we’ll go ahead and get started. Lita Baldor, A.P.
Q: Hi. Thank you. Question for either or both of you: What — how much discussion was there about efforts to energize the industrial base? And what concerns are there among countries that they are — as they provide all of these weapons and equipment, that the U.S. and others are reaching the point where you’re — a PDA is not as likely because you’re reaching some risky limits on some equipment and some weapon systems, and you’ll have to turn to a greater effort to energize the industrial base? How much did you hear of that during the conversation, and how big of a concern is that for the U.S.?
DR. LAPLANTE: Yeah, I’ll start, and then maybe Sasha can pick it up, too.
I don’t know that there was a lot of concern about, you know, the supply — the supplies and individual stockpiles or anything like that, not like what sometimes you hear in the press. It was much more about how do we — as we all get our production lines going, and not just going for Ukraine, but also to replenish ourselves in anticipation of the future, what are the — what are the tools and the common signal or ideas that we have between us that we can share with each other, and maybe even cooperate together?
I’ll give you a very specific example: Everybody hears this term from industry called “We need to see the demand signal. We need to see demand signal.” All the countries hear the same thing. We discussed exactly, well, what that — what does that really mean, right? Because we see lots of demand, right? You just have to read the newspaper or just go online and see it. What’s really meant by that is that the industry both in our country and around the world want to know, is there a sustainable longer-range plan for these production so that they can invest themselves and put production lines together that will be enduring, and not that this will be something which has traditionally been feast or famine; that we go into panic mode, we increase production, and then when the crisis passed, we just go back to minimal production again. So I think that’s what really, the focus is on that.
And then when you follow that discussion you get to things like multiyear contracting ideas, pooling our requirements together so we can maybe have a combined procurement so there’s larger quantity that’s more stable for industrial base, coproduction even, and then also getting our political processes and our dialogue in our own countries and many of democracies on getting the understanding that the way we’ve traditionally done procurement of munitions in peace time where we’ve basically produced the minimal amount, and then we turn it off even below that, we may have to change that, looking at the world ahead, not just the immediate crisis in Ukraine, but a long — longer term. So that’s really where the conversation was.
But I’ll let Ms. Baker also comment.
MS. BAKER: Yeah, I think I completely agree. The only thing I would really add to that is I think what you’re seeing is a recognition amongst the partners and allies that we’ve made a commitment now for the long haul. And so what we need is a mix of different mechanisms for providing assistance to Ukraine. So we have PDA, which is very effective in the short term in terms of addressing urgent requirements that the Ukrainians are conveying to us. But if we want to, you know, work with Ukraine to get them to a NATO standard and get them to a place where they can sustain their military and their defensive abilities over the long term, we have to start that now because we know that some of the contracting timelines and the production timelines, specifically, for some of the equipment that the Ukrainians will need is going to take six, 12, 18 months.
STAFF: OK, thank you. Let’s go to Joe Gould, Defense News.
Q: Hi, thanks so much. Dr. LaPlante, I just – just wanted to ask a follow up on your point. I – how much are you hearing from industry that they don’t have the – you know, the – they don’t have the production capacity right now? And – how much are they dependent on actual contracts to go ahead and put out the kind of equipment that – that Ukraine’s going to need in the long term?
DR. LAPLANTE: Yeah, you – well, you hear different things. It depends. Even within a single industry company, you’ll hear different things, depending on which level of the company you’re talking to.
The real issue is what happens is when you go to industry, a particular company, and say hey, you’re producing this at 1,000 a month – I’m making this up – can you get it to 2,000? And they’ll have to come back, and it’s not an easy question to answer because the answer is always going to be yes, then you – then you say how long is it going to take? Is it going to take a year, year and a half? What’s your critical chokepoint? And then you look and you see – work with them to see if it’s realistic.
The money part of it, the contracting part of it gets all the attention in the press. Contracting, actually, we can be very – we’re very fast with contracting. We push money very quickly out to contractors. That’s kind of a red herring. It’s not the contracting, it’s actually the physically getting the production line either restarted or getting it to be doubled.
And a lot of times, the key items that make these things take a year or two are long lead items, some – something you have to order well ahead. Think of your own life, how long you have to order things.
Second will be obsolescence of parts, key sub-components, like microelectronics, even ball bearings, actuators. And a lot of times, many production lines, they don’t really know off the top of their head which is the key chokepoints. They have to do the analysis.
So it’s really about the companies and their capability, regardless of getting the money – if they got the money today, how quickly they can get to those numbers. And just to remind everybody, this is always the case with production. Production doesn’t just start and stop overnight, it takes time.
And so to – back to Ms. Baker’s point, that’s why we’re having this conversation now, because, you know, this isn’t going to help in the next week, right? The next week, it’s all about the drawdown and the things like that that we’re doing. But this is to show the commitments in the long run.
STAFF: All right, thanks. Let’s go to Jon Harper, DefenseScoop.
Q: Thank you. I was wondering if loitering munitions were a big topic of discussion at this meeting? And, you know, do you have concerns there about production rates or the supply chains?
And then with regard to this latest tranche of USAI aid, there was a mention of counter-UAS systems. Can you provide any more details about that? Are these primarily the VAMPIRE systems that were included in a previous tranche or are these new capabilities?
DR. LAPLANTE: Yeah, I’ll answer the last thing first, which is that we’re – we’re not giving details, at least right now, on which counter-UAS systems were in the tranche yesterday that was announced.
I would just say, on the broader category of loitering munitions, well, you know, there is – broad categories of capabilities – I’ll call them capabilities – that always come up. They typically are long range fires, air defenses – integrated air defenses, including counter-UAS, some types of – of air-to-ground and ground-to-ground. These always come up in these conversations, and then, of course, ways to do C2 and targeting.
So there’s not any one – only one topic that comes up. And again, back to loitering munitions, there’s lots of different options that the U.S. has and other countries have that all have different capability of endurance, different warhead sizes, et cetera.
So I just – there’s lots of options out there. It’s not really a supply chain or industrial base issue.
Here is the British MOD’s assessment for today:
And here is their updated map for today:
Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessment of the situation in Lyman:
LYMAN/FLASH TRAFFIC/ 1940 UTC 30 SEP/ RU forces in the Lyman area are reported to be isolated. UKR reconnaissance elements are said to be in possession of the O-0528 and O-130501 HWYs south of Zarichne. Artillery now covers these roads. pic.twitter.com/77jsnzCvnk
— Chuck Pfarrer | Indications & Warnings | (@ChuckPfarrer) September 30, 2022
And here is The Kyiv Independent‘s Illia Ponomarenko’s take on the situation in Lyman:
The noose has been tightened pic.twitter.com/W11ZH4DqCe
— Illia Ponomarenko🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) September 30, 2022
As I type this the Ukrainian military has encircled the Russians/Russian positions in Lyman. They’ve sealed them up. Unless the Russians are able to break out, and from all reports they are not able, the Ukrainians will now apply pressure from all directions to reduce the Russian military presence in Lyman. Reduce here means kill some, capture others.
So as Putin decided to crack open all seven Russian seals of the apocalypse in his speech earlier today, his military is about to not just lose Lyman, but also have every Russian soldier in Lyman either killed or captured.
BettyC covered Putin’s speech earlier today, so I’m not going to go into a lot of details. However, I think there are several noteworthy things. The first is the aforementioned apocalypticism of Putin’s address. There was very little subtext. He was exceedingly explicit in making the speech overtly religious and framing his re-invasion of Ukraine, as well as his unilateral declaration stealing four illegally Russian occupied Ukrainian oblasts, as an existential war with the US and the rest of “the west”. The west here means NATO and the EU, with perhaps the exception of Hungary; as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He also amped up the nuclear threats, which is intended to frighten decision-makers in DC and the capitols of our EU and NATO allies into reconsidering their support for Ukraine. And, as we also discussed ahead of the speech today, justified his war against Ukraine by inverting the reality of the ongoing re-invasion. These four oblasts have always been Russia, are now returned to Russia, and therefore Ukraine has invaded Russia and all we’re doing is defending ourself and our people. Finally, it is important to note that the Russian constitution makes it explicit that Russian lands can never be relinquished or negotiated away. Meaning, that as far as the Russians are concerned it won’t matter if Ukraine is able to clear the Russian occupiers out of every last inch of Ukraine, Russia, provided its current constitution is still in force, will never accept that the war is over because it would be illegal to do so. What Putin did today was declare an actual forever war unless Ukraine agrees to give up these four oblasts, plus Crimea to Russia. Which is never going to happen. This too is a ploy to keep Ukraine out of NATO as Putin knows all too well that a prospective NATO member cannot be admitted to the alliance if it is involved in an ongoing territorial dispute.
Here is a great analysis of Putin’s speech by Konstantin Kisin, who used to work as an Enlish-Russian translator:
This is a reproduction of my live Twitter summary/translation of Vladimir Putin’s speech:
I wish every single person in the West would listen to Putin’s speech. Obviously, that won’t happen so let me summarise as a professional translator for 10+ years. He states, as he has done from the outset, what his intentions and complaints are in the plainest terms possible
Setting aside his brief comments on the recent “referendums”, he spends most of his speech discussing the West. His primary complaint isn’t NATO expansion, which gets only a cursory mention. The West is greedy and seeks to enslave and colonise other nations, like Russia.
The West uses the power of finance and technology to enforce its will on other nations. To collect what he calls the “hegemon’s tax”. To this end the West destabilises countries, creates terrorist enclaves and most of all seeks to deprive other countries of sovereignty.
It is this “avarice” and desire to preserve its power that is the reason for the “hybrid war” the collective West is “waging on Russia”. They want us to be a “colony”. They do not want us to be free, they want Russians to be a mob of soulless slaves – direct quote.
The rules-based order the West goes on about is “nonsense”. Who made these rules? Who agreed to them? Russia is an ancient country and civilization and we will not play by these “rigged” rules. The West has no moral authority to challenge the referendums because it has violated the borders of other countries. Western elites are “totalitarian, despotic and apartheidistic” – direct quote. They are racist against Russia and other countries and nations. “Russophobia is racism”. They discriminate by calling themselves the “civilised world”.
They colonised, started the global slave trade, genocided native Americans, pillaged India and Africa, forced China to buy opium through war. We, on the other hand, are proud that we “led” the anti-colonial movement that helped countries develop to reduce poverty and inequality.
They are Russophobic (they hate us) because we didn’t allow our country to be pillaged by creating a strong CENTRALISED (emphasis his) state based on Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. They have been trying to destabilise our country since the 17th century in the Times of Trouble. Eventually, they managed to “get their hands on our riches” at the end of the 20th century. They called us friends and partners while pumping out trillions of dollars (his irony game is strong today).
We remember this. We didn’t forget. The West claims to bring freedom and democracy to other countries but it’s the exact opposite of the truth. The unipolar world is anti-democratic by its very nature. It is a lie. They used nuclear weapons, creating a precedent. They flattened German cities without “any military need to do so”. There was no need for this except to scare us and the rest of the world. Korea, Vietnam. To this day they “occupy” Japan, South Korea and Germany and other countries while cynically calling them “allies”.
The West has surveillance over the leaders of these nations who “swallow these insults like the slaves they are”.
He then talks about bioweapon research (haven’t heard about them for a while) and human experiments “including in Ukraine”.
The US rules the world by the power of the fist. Any country which seeks to challenge Western hegemony becomes an enemy. Their neocolonialism is cloaked in lies like “containment” of Russia, China and Iran. The concept of truth has been destroyed with fakes and extreme propaganda (irony game still strong).
You cannot feed your people with printed dollars and social media. You need food and energy. But Western elites have no desire to find a solution to the food and energy crises *they* (emphasis his) created.
They solved the problems at the start of 20c with WW1 and the US established dominance of the world via the dollar as a result of WW2. In the 80s they had another crisis they solved by “plundering our country”. Now they want to solve their problems by “breaking Russia”.
Russia “understands its responsibility to the international community” and will “do everything to cool the heads of these neocolonials who are destined to fail”.
They’re crazy. I want to speak to all Russian citizens, do we want to replace mum and dad with parent 1 and 2?
They invented genders and claim you can “transition”. Do we want this for our children?
We have a different vision.
They have abandoned religion and embraced Satanism – direct quote.
The world is going through a revolutionary transformation. A multipolar world offers nations freedom to develop as they wish and they make up the majority of the world.
We have many like-minded friends in Western countries. We see and appreciate their support. They are forming liberation, anti-colonial movements as we speak – direct quote. These will only grow.
We are fighting for a fair world for our country. The idea of exceptionalism is criminal and we must turn this shameful page. The breaking of the West’s hegemony is INEVITABLE (emphasis his).
There is no going back. We are fighting for our “great (as in big), historic Russia”. Our values are (irony game crescendo): love of our fellow man, compassion and mercy.
Truth is with us, Russia is with us.
That’s the end of the speech. As I said from day 1, the purpose of what Putin is doing in Ukraine is to throw the West off its pedestal. This isn’t about NATO or Ukraine, this is the big play to replace the current world order.
If only we knew someone who has been saying this on the front page and the comments of a blog since 2015…
Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia, says that we are already fighting in the Third World War, whether we acknowledge it or not. “We’ve been in this for a long time, and we’ve failed to recognize it,” she said.https://t.co/mwmAgy80HD
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 30, 2022
As well as in several professional publications too.
Eez a puzzlement!
The speech did play well with the other Russian warmongers:
A person comes out of the hall with a quick recap of Putin's speech.
Putin empowered and inspired everyone. pic.twitter.com/x2KjGrm3c3
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 30, 2022
The Ukrainian response was the correct one:
By attempting to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Putin tries to grab territories he doesn’t even physically control on the ground. Nothing changes for Ukraine: we continue liberating our land and our people, restoring our territorial integrity.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) September 30, 2022
As was Britain’s:
The UK will never recognise Russia’s illegal annexations in Ukraine. Russia doesn’t even control some of these oblasts. The truth is Russia is losing in Ukraine and their incompetent Generals are sending thousands to their deaths to please President Putin’s imperialist fantasy.
— Rt. Hon Ben Wallace MP (@BWallaceMP) September 30, 2022
Recent moves by the Kremlin are a sign of desperation as they fail to achieve their objectives in Ukraine.
Russia is seeking to deceive the world to further its territorial ambition.
The UK and our partners are united in condemning these reprehensible acts.#StandWithUkraine
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) September 30, 2022
In Washington, President Joe Biden had harsh words for Putin. The U.S. and NATO allies, Biden said, “are not going to be intimidated by Putin and his reckless words and threats. He’s not going to scare us and he doesn’t intimidate us.”
“America is fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory,” Biden said at the White House. “Every single inch. So, Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accusation that the U.S. purposely sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines was an “absurd allegation.”
“That’s an absurd allegation that we and our allies are responsible,” Blinken told reporters at the State Department alongside his Canadian counterpart. “We will get to the bottom of what happened,” he added.
And just about every other of Ukraine’s ally’s.
As Putin was mongering forever war, his military was actively targeting Ukrainian civilians (again):
Civilian casualties in past 24 hours:
Zaporizhzhia – 25 dead, 74 injured.
Dnipro – 1 dead, 5 injured.
Mykolaiv – 3 dead, 20 injured.
Kharkiv – 7 wounded.
Kherson – 1 dead, 1 injured.
The "second army of the world" is only brave enough to fight unarmed civilians. pic.twitter.com/D6DTazB1V5— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 30, 2022
russia carried out a massive missile attack on civilian vehicles at the check point in the Zaporizhia region. 23 civilians were killed, and over 28 were injured, Head of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration reported. pic.twitter.com/cG7G0tpIzB
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 30, 2022
That’s enough for today.
Your daily Patron!
Terrorist attacks occur every day in Ukraine. Imagine everyday terrorist attacks… https://t.co/62BoG1ztJo
— Patron (@PatronDsns) September 30, 2022
If today is the day of strange orders, then here is mine 🤭 pic.twitter.com/G1R6lNjrMX
— Patron (@PatronDsns) September 30, 2022
And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok featuring more of Olga Wilson’s beautifully tragic art:
@patron__dsns Наші Янголи…💔😔 Авторка малюнків (Інстаграм): 0lga.art #славаукраїні #пескрим
The caption translates as:
Our Angels…💔😔 Author of drawings (Instagram): 0lga.art #SlavaUkraini #KrymtheDog
Open thread!