All things Russia Vs. Ukraine for March 19, 2022

1. It might be time for new representative leadership

2. Trudeau’s donations to Ukraine have left military depleted: Defence Minister

Canada’s already underfunded forces have been devastated by Trudeau’s lavish support sent to the Ukrainian President

In a live broadcast, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand announced to Canadians that the Trudeau government has depleted its stocks of weapons in its rush to assist Ukraine.

“We have exhausted inventory from the Canadian Armed Forces,” Anand said nervously. “There are capacity issues,” she added.

The shocking confession illustrates how much lethal aid Canada has sent to Ukraine and also how dangerously underfunded it was in the first place.

(Either that or how much Trudeau is afraid of a military coup)

A commenter on this item offered this addition. No source though:

3. Mariupol + Chechens

4. Yesterday, Yucki made the following comment, which to my eyes, was the most reasonable one in terms of explaining the Nazi component of the Ukraine army from a non-hyperbolic PoV.

Comment:
Nazi paraphernalia in that part of the world carries a message that’s misunderstood here. NOT jew-centric, NOT left-right, certainly NOT the nonsensical  racist, misogynist, homophobe, bleep-bleep…

AZOB was founded to fight Russian-Ukes after Putin seized Crimea and the Donbass post-Maidan. Flashback WW-2.

Millions of Russians – men, women, and children – were slaughtered by the invading German army, together with Ukrainian collaborators eager to exact vengence for Soviet depredations. The Ukrainians were more enthusiastic killers than the Nazis.

*This* carnage took place on *this* ground, under *this* flag, European Nazis vs. mongrel Communists and Untermenschen (both Poles and Jews).

Resurrecting nazi claptrap was a middle-finger salute to the Russians who survived the Great Patriotic war.

5. Russia Uses Hypersonic Ballistic Missiles In Ukraine For First Time

Russia said on Saturday that it has used hypersonic missiles to destroy Ukrainian military assets in what marks the first time Moscow has acknowledged using this type of weapon in combat.

The Russian defense ministry said in a March 19 operational update that on Friday it destroyed a large underground storage facility for missiles and aviation ammunition in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankovsk region, using missiles that can travel at over five times the speed of sound.

Igor Konashenkov, the ministry spokesperson, said that the Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic ballistic missiles was used in the strike.

Please check back frequently as this post will be updated, as will the comments, throughout the day

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

39 Replies to “All things Russia Vs. Ukraine for March 19, 2022”

  1. I wonder how heavy their commission from the Arms-industry is going to be?
    They’re already wetting their panties in anticipation of the Tax-dollars floating their way.
    Can’t we start a Worldwide Tyrannycide Pandemic to get rid of these Vermin for good?
    It’s definitely overdue.

      • Yes.

        Some of the civilians in Kharkiv – second largest city and on the Russian border – tried to flee to Russia. They were shot by fellow Ukes, who blamed the Russians.

        People figure Putin’s going to do a Grozny on Kharkiv. He could’ve leveled EVERY city in the first 48 hours.

        He’s not going to curl up like a salted slug when the *US of A* has already judged him to be a war criminal.

        Does the West think they’re winning the hearts and minds of the Russian people?

        When even Dostoevsky is trashed? When emigrants in the West from the Soviet Union are suddenly personae non gratae?

        What is this CRAZINESS ??

        • The one that got to me is the dethroning of the Russian space guy.

          This outright cancellation of anything Russian has a purpose, IMO.

          The younger generation is made aware of how far the powers that be can go to obliterate your existence should you not conform to good behavior. It’s a subtle form of indoctrination, Commie-style. Be a good citizen or else.

  2. Nationale Post – Backpacks, beans and 60s-era rocket launchers: The military gear Canada pledged for Ukraine

    No missiles, but an awful lot of grenades and anti-tank rockets

    Since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, Canada has joined more than a dozen countries in scrambling to send weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. While we haven’t been able to pack cargo planes with prestige weaponry like Stinger missiles or Switchblade drones, there are nevertheless a fair amount of Canadian guns, rockets and pre-packaged meals soon finding their way into Ukrainian hands. Below, a list of military gear that Canada has sent or pledged to the defence of Ukraine.

    Probably the most famous weapon of the Russo-Ukrainian War thus far has been the Javelin, an American shoulder-mounted “fire and forget” missile designed to automatically lock onto enemy tanks and destroy them from above. The 1960s-era M72 is at the other end of the technological spectrum; it’s a one-time-use, shoulder-mounted tube that fires an unguided rocket out the front. Even if it doesn’t have any electronic gizmos, the M72 can still be very deadly in ambushing convoys.

    7,500 hand grenades

    The Department of Defence didn’t specify what kind of grenades they’re sending to Ukraine, but Canadian soldiers typically use the C-13, the Canadian designation of the American M67. Grenade technology hasn’t changed all that much since the First World War, but this grenade is very intentionally shaped like a baseball on the premise that U.S. soldiers would probably have an easier time throwing it.

    Satellite imagery to keep tabs on the Russians

    It was while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Europe that he promised to provide Ukraine with real-time imagery from Canada’s Radarsat-2 satellite to track the movements of Russian forces. Left unsaid is that Canada actually gave this capability to Ukraine in 2015, after Russia’s seizure of Crimea, but withdrew it a few months later due to red tape.

    1,600 fragmentation vests (approximately)

    The Canadian Armed Forces just replaced a lot of their fragmentation vests, so it’s not entirely clear whether Ukraine is getting our new ones or our old ones. If it’s the latter, they were reportedly disliked among Canadian soldiers for being outdated.

    390,000 Individual Meal Packs

    These are combat rations; portable, high-calorie meals designed to be eaten by a soldier who has minimal equipment to cook with. And Canada does combat rations particularly well. The entrees include gourmet options such as “veal cutlet with mustard sauce” and “gemelli pasta and vegetables.” Now tack on bread, a date square, a brand-name chocolate bar, several kinds of beverages, generous condiments and breath mints. It even comes with a compressed napkin stamped with a maple leaf.

    100 Carl Gustav M2 recoilless rifles (and 2,000 rounds of ammunition)

    Who is Carl Gustav, you ask? He was a 17th century Swedish king who lent his name to a town that just happened to become a major arms manufacturer. Like the M72, the M2 is little changed from the shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapons that were in use during the Second World War. But basically every Western military keeps at least a few of these on hand, for the simple fact that it’s a very cheap way to destroy an enemy armoured vehicle.

    A $7 million planeload of random guns

    While Canada has sent nearly $1 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine since 2015, Ottawa was always careful to never send the one thing Kyiv wanted most: weapons. That all changed on Valentine’s Day. Just 10 days before the start of the Russian invasion, Canada suddenly told Kyiv to expect a $7 million planeload of “lethal weapons.” This apparently consisted of basically anything that could kill someone: machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, carbines (sort of like a shortened assault rifle) and 1.5 million rounds of ammunition.

    Backpacks

    Something else that got thrown into the back of a Globemaster in those last pre-invasion shipments to Ukraine? The military calls it “personal carriage” and “load carriage” equipment, although most civilians would probably recognize it as “backpacks.” To be fair, military-grade “load carriage” gear is much more complicated than a backpack; it describes the latticework of straps and supports that allow a soldier to comfortably layer their body in equipment.

    About $50 million of miscellaneous army gear

    Canada operated an active training mission in Ukraine for eight years starting in 2014, and during that time the Canadian Armed Forces sent over about $30 million worth of gear, including radios, bomb disposal equipment and a mobile field hospital. Right after the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Canada announced it would be sending over another $25 million worth of stuff, mostly “protective” equipment such as gas masks, helmets and night vision goggles.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/national/backpacks-beans-and-60s-era-rocket-launchers-the-military-gear-canada-has-pledged-for-ukraine

  3. MSNBC – Kremlin Memo Names Tucker Carlson As ‘Essential’ To Its Propaganda Strategy

    The Kremlin sees Tucker Carlson’s commentary as “essential” in its Ukraine war messaging strategy according to a 12-page memo leaked from a Russian government agency to the Russian media, as reported in Mother Jones.

    DC bureau chief of Mother Jones David Corn joins Joy Reid on his reporting on this story.

    + comments on the YT page

  4. zero hedge – Russia Confirms It Is Using Hypersonic Missiles In Ukraine

    Russia said it fired a hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-ground missile for the first time in the three-week invasion of Ukraine, destroying a weapons bunker in the southwestern region of the country, according to Bloomberg.

    Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a daily briefing that the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (also known as “dagger”) hypersonic missile struck an underground warehouse containing rockets and ammunition in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region on Friday.

    more :

    https://www.zerohedge.com/military/russia-says-hypersonic-kinzhal-missile-destroyed-ukrainian-weapons-bunker

  5. CNN – ‘This is not going well for him on the battlefield’: Lloyd Austin on Putin

    • europravda – Bulgaria refuses military aid for Ukraine as Sofia holds defence talks with Washington

      Lloyd Austin met Bulgarian PM Kiril Petkov over the Ukraine war but Sofia ruled out military aid.

    • MARCH 19 2022 – SOFIA – BULGARIA Hundreds of Bulgarians gather at anti-war protest in Sofia organized by Vazrazhdane

      Hundreds of Bulgarians expressed their position for Bulgarian neutrality over the war in Ukraine, shouting “NATO, out!” and “No to war!” in front of the Ministry of Defense.

      The protest, organized by the Vazrazhdane Party, was attended not only by supporters of the party, but also by many Bulgarians who oppose involvement in the military conflict.

      The protest, which started in front of the Ministry of Defense later moved to the building of the Council of Ministers where the meeting of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took place.

      The leader of “Vazrazhdane” Kostadin Kostadinov said that his party would not allow “foreign countries to rule on the fate of Bulgarians”.

      According to Kostadinov, the only role this country could play in the current conflict was that of a mediator between Ukraine and Russia in the sphere of diplomacy.

      https://bnr.bg/en/post/101618500/hundreds-of-bulgarians-gather-at-anti-war-protest-in-sofia-organized-by-vazrazhdane

      =========================================

      U.S. To Deploy Armored Unit To Bulgaria To Boost NATO’s Eastern Flank

      SOFIA — The United States will deploy a Stryker armored-vehicle infantry company for a NATO battle group being established in Bulgaria as the Western alliance moves to shore up its eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression in the region.

      The announcement came during a March 19 joint news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.

      “The USA agreed to provide a Stryker company. This is a strong sign to all of our allies in NATO,” Petkov said.

      Details on the U.S. deployment or when it might take place were not disclosed during the news conference. The Stryker is an eight-wheeled, highly mobile armored combat vehicle that has been used in conflicts around the globe, including in Iraq.

      NATO has in the past several years been boosting its assets in the alliance’s Central and Eastern European member states — known as its “eastern flank” — amid aggressive military action by Russia.

      Bulgaria is establishing a battle group of some 1,000 troops under the operational command of the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and featuring troops from various alliance members.

      Austin said that “I wanted to underscore the importance of the announcement that Bulgaria has established and is leading a NATO multinational battle group. It is an important step and we fully support it.”

      Austin is on a two-day trip to Bulgaria following a visit to Brussels and the Slovak capital, Bratislava.

      The Financial Times reported that the purpose of his visit was to request Soviet- and Russian-made anti-aircraft systems from countries that have similar types of weapons, such as Bulgaria and Slovakia, to be sent to Ukraine for use by Kiev’s military.

      Slovak defense chief Yaroslav Nad said in Bratislava that Slovakia was ready to provide its C-300 systems if NATO allies provided a replacement system.

      Petkov has made it clear that Bulgaria does not plan to send military aid to Ukraine, but he said the country would continue to send humanitarian assistance. He also said Bulgaria would help take in Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.

      Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has warned against supplying weapons to Ukraine, citing the dangers of involving the Black Sea country more directly in the war.

      Petkov’s announcement came after Sofia on March 18 said it was expelling 10 Russian diplomats, accusing them of carrying out activities deemed incompatible with their diplomatic status, a move followed up quickly by the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
      https://www.rferl.org/a/us-stryker-deployment-bulgaria/31761140.html

      ==========================

  6. MSNBC – It’s A Matter Of Survival For Russians To Buy Into State TV Propaganda

    …. but what the rest of the world knows is the mass slaughter of civilians

    “It’s a totalitarian society at this point,” journalist Masha Gessen explains to Joy Reid. “It is a matter of survival for Russians to buy into the picture of the universe that state television is broadcasting to them.”

  7. CNN – National security analyst predicts Putin’s next move

    …. setting the stage for … chemical …. biological… nuclear

  8. La Presse – Influenceurs complotistes La propagande russe relayée au Québec

    Une poignée d’influenceurs complotistes québécois, qui ont été très actifs contre les mesures sanitaires depuis deux ans, se font les porte-voix des campagnes de propagande émanant du gouvernement russe. La façon dont ils reçoivent et adaptent le discours du Kremlin reste cependant nébuleuse aux yeux de bon nombre d’experts consultés par La Presse.

    Le 6 mars dernier, une multitude de comptes officiels du gouvernement russe, dont ceux du ministère de la Défense et du ministère des Affaires étrangères, ont publié simultanément un tweet en anglais : dans le cadre de son « opération militaire spéciale », le Kremlin affirmait avoir récolté des preuves que Kyiv avait « éradiqué des traces d’un programme d’armes biologiques militaires en Ukraine » financé par le département de la Défense des États-Unis.

    Les ambassadeurs des États-Unis et de l’Ukraine ont tous deux vigoureusement démenti devant l’ONU avoir créé un quelconque programme d’armement biologique. Le Bureau des affaires de désarmement de l’ONU et l’Organisation mondiale de la santé en ont fait autant.

    Deux jours plus tard, l’influenceur complotiste québécois Alexis Cossette-Trudel consacrait sur les réseaux sociaux alternatifs une émission complète d’une heure aux « biolabs » ukrainiens, des « laboratoires de guerre biologique » qu’il comparait à l’Institut de virologie de Wuhan, en Chine, d’où le virus responsable de la COVID-19 aurait selon lui émané afin de créer la pandémie de toutes pièces. « C’est exactement le même narratif, le même discours. L’Occident qui finance des laboratoires de recherche biologique, de guerre, à l’étranger », avançait M. Cossette-Trudel, selon qui les « gouvernements mondialistes » cherchent à provoquer une Troisième Guerre mondiale contre la Russie parce que la pandémie de COVID-19 a été « un échec » pour contrôler la population.

    Le lendemain, le nombre de recherches concernant le terme « biolabs » effectuées à partir du Québec prenait rapidement de l’ampleur, suggèrent des données de Google Trends, un outil de Google permettant de déceler les tendances de popularité sur l’internet.

    Amplifier la désinformation

    Timothy Graham, un chercheur de l’Université Queensland qui a scruté les activités de 75 comptes Twitter officiels rattachés au gouvernement russe, soutient que ceux-ci jouent un rôle majeur pour la propagation et l’amplification de la désinformation. Parce qu’il s’agit de comptes gouvernementaux officiels, ils échappent complètement aux messages de Twitter avertissant que des informations erronées ou trompeuses concernant la guerre en Ukraine pourraient être propagées.

    C’est par la suite que le mécanisme semble se complexifier. La désinformation russe est souvent relayée en Occident en langue anglaise par les médias d’information étatiques officiels, comme Russia Today (RT) ou Spoutnik, par des comptes Twitter plus obscurs vraisemblablement liés au gouvernement russe, par des comptes automatisés (bots) et par des citoyens militants prorusses. « Cette désinformation circule beaucoup sur des applications comme Telegram, sur le réseau social russe VKontakte (VK) » et sur une multitude de plateformes sociales alternatives, où elle est peu à peu interprétée et transformée par différents influenceurs, explique le chercheur Aaron Erlich.

    Une « relation symbiotique »

    La mince ligne qui sépare la désinformation des théories du complot à proprement parler disparaît ensuite au sein des communautés qui suivent les influenceurs complotistes sur les réseaux sociaux. « C’est presque une relation symbiotique, souligne la chercheuse de l’Université de Washington Kate Starbird, cofondatrice du Center for an Informed Public. Parfois, il semble que la désinformation russe alimente les influenceurs complotistes, puis grandisse et fleurisse au sein de leurs communautés. À d’autres occasions, on dirait que les théories du complot émergent de façon organique [de leurs réseaux] avant d’être amplifiées par les agents de désinformation russes. Il y a une sorte de collaboration entre les deux », dit-elle.

    Alexis Cossette-Trudel n’est pas le seul à les relayer. L’influenceuse Mel Goyer, très active dans le mouvement antimasque, a elle aussi relayé des informations au sujet des « labos biologiques secrets » en Ukraine. Plusieurs autres influenceurs évoquent très régulièrement le conflit en Ukraine en attribuant plusieurs exactions au régiment Azov, une unité militaire ukrainienne dont des membres affichent leur allégeance néonazie.

    Des vérifications très sommaires effectuées par La Presse avec Google Trends suggèrent qu’au Québec, il faut compter de un à deux jours après la diffusion des tweets de désinformation en anglais émanant des autorités russes avant que les thèmes soient francisés et commencent à gagner en popularité.

    « Bien qu’il ne soit pas nécessairement facile de discerner l’origine de la désinformation, l’objectif reste le même : déstabiliser et diviser l’opposition, avoir le soutien de l’opinion publique, affaiblir la posture d’un pays ou d’un gouvernement à l’égard du conflit et semer le doute et la discorde », affirme le chercheur Guilhem Aliaga, affilié à la Chaire UNESCO-PREV de l’Université de Sherbrooke.

    https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2022-03-19/influenceurs-complotistes/la-propagande-russe-relayee-au-quebec.php

  9. Yes indeed……trust Justin to support a fellow WEC co-conspirator to stay in power…..While he seeks to disarm Canadians…..he has no problem sending military hardware to a foreign power on the other side of the globe…..

  10. Zelensky ‘Lego’ figurine raises thousands for Ukraine

    Chicago-based custom Lego creators Citizen Brick launched a Lego figurine based off of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to help raise money for Ukrainian refugees.

    The toy also has an optional add-on of a Molotov Cocktail.

  11. CBC – ‘There is no safe place in Ukraine now,’ member of territorial defence says

    Victor Semanov, a former IT consultant, joined Ukraine’s territorial defence force in Kyiv and shares his on-the-ground experience.

  12. DEUTSCHE PRAVDA – “War in Ukraine means hunger in Africa”

    The UN says one in five Africans is under-nourished — some 300 million people that are facing starvation. Now it seems the conflict in Europe is about to make matters worse:
    The International Monetary Fund said this week that the “War in Ukraine means hunger in Africa.”

    The World Food Programme is also warning of a catastrophe, saying half of the grain it uses to feed the needy originates in Ukraine.

    It has also been forced to slash aid to some African countries because of the crisis.

    • It also means another Arab Spring.
      Who’s gonna feed 100 million Egyptians?

      The MB gets another chance if Qatar can throw scraps to the starving in their name.
      – – Surprise, surprise!

  13. The US’s largest academic test organization now has a banner with
    We stand in unity with the people of Ukraine. ETS has suspended all testing in Russia and Belarus.
    https://www.ets.org/

  14. HYPERSONIC…RRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
    Yeah…welp, I saw footage of Islander-M’s, Tochka’s, Sunburns and Onik’s.
    The last two are supersonic, and ramjet-powered, so look very impressive, and make a nice boom going over, but they’re all just missiles, not dooms day weapons.
    I see no super-inwincible wussian weapons.
    PS. The super-dooper hypersonic missile ‘Kinzal’, a game-changing wonder missile…is just an Iskander-M strapped to a MiG-31, and barely qualifies as hypersonic. The Iskander-M is just a repackaged Oka from the ’80’s.
    And, vlad is running out.