Anyway you slice it, Ukraine is a corrupt Kleptocracy and has been for a long time.
Depending on who and when you ask, it's somewhat worse or better than Russia - but the rule of law is there is that there is none... it's alien to most of us.
And this is one good reason why Ukraine was, prior to the invasion, decades away from actually joining NATO -- this structural corruption and its concomitant relatively low ranking on the democracy index (Ukraine last year didn't qualify as a "flawed democracy," but a "hybrid regime") -- not to mention the fact that it was already at war with Russia.
It ironically reveals how specious is the argument that Putin invaded Ukraine to thwart NATO expansion.
But I think it is fair to say that Ukraine was has genuine aspirations for a highly functioning democracy. They acknowledged their problems and have citizens who were actively working to root out corruption and improve their capacity for democracy. Those citizens are putting their lives on the line to repel the Russians because they really do have that dream of self-determination.
Whereas, in Russia, Putin has done a good job killing that dream of democracy. He similarly wants to kill that dream in Ukraine because Ukraine's success could reanimate that dream in Russia. Corruption of the soul.
One thing that I will add to this post is that the main reason that Ukraine has had huge challenges in forming a non-corrupt democracy is because they have a neighbor that is called Russia with a leader named Putin. Russia has been attempting to take over and sabotage Ukraine ever since the Soviet empire fell and Putin got himself solidly installed as forever dictator. Look up Paul Manafort's efforts in Ukraine and who was paying him. They have funded and organized the Crimea coup by referendum. If you think Russia is active in subverting US elections, you can multiply that by thousands in what they do against their neighbor. Russia even had their desired leader ready to be installed after this 3 day war. (who was just captured). This is why Putin if furious with Ukraine. His many efforts have all failed. All efforts to get Ukraine to Submit keep getting rejected by Ukrainian people. They hate Russia and have no desire to have their previous beautiful country be a Russian state of misery and poverty. Would you want your country to be like Russia and come under Putins rule?
For Putin simps on this board to claim somehow that Ukraine deserves this because they did not have a pure democracy without corruption is either willful ignorance or a desire to spread Putin's and now the US right wing propaganda.
Israeli soldiers killed, Wednesday evening, a child and injured many Palestinians, in Husan village, west of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
Media sources said many army jeeps invaded the al-Matina area near the main road of Husan, leading to protests. The soldiers fired many live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, and gas bombs at the protesters and many surrounding homes, causing many injuries.
The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed that the soldiers shot a child, Qussai Fuad Hamamra, 14 years of age, with a live round in the head and left him bleeding without first aid, especially after the army prevented the Palestinian medics from reaching him. It added that the soldiers took the corpse of the slain child and refused [at first] to allow its transfer to the Palestinian side. The army transferred the corpse of the slain child to his family at dawn Thursday. The child was walking home after performing evening prayers at the local mosque; the soldiers also surrounded the mosque after killing the child and refused to allow the Palestinians to leave. The army made several allegations, including claiming that the child was throwing stones at the soldiers or that he was throwing a Molotov cocktail. However, eyewitnesses said Qussai was not participating in any protests but was walking back home from the local mosque. Protests were still ongoing at the time of this report, and the soldiers continued to fire dozens of live rounds and rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades.
Medical sources have confirmed at least six injuries, including some with live fire and rubber-coated steel bullets and many who suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. Dozens of Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, especially after the soldiers fired gas bombs at mosques to force the locals to leave. The child was killed not far from where the Israeli soldiers killed Ghada Ibrahim Ali Sabateen, 48, on April 10, 2022.
Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Lawyer In Nablus Israeli soldiers killed, Wednesday morning, a Palestinian lawyer after firing many live rounds at his car in the Industrial Area in Nablus city, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The slain Palestinian, Mohammad Hasan Assaf, 34, was from Kafr Laqif village in Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank. The soldiers shot him with a live round in the chest. Mohammad, a father of three children, the oldest of them is only four years of age, was killed by the soldiers while returning home after driving his sons and nephews to school; he was returning from the Industrial Area in Nablus when the soldiers fired at his car and killed him. Mohammad was killed when the Israeli soldiers were withdrawing from Nablus after a massive invasion into several areas, causing dozens of injuries; many were shot with live fire. Eyewitnesses said the army fired dozens of live rounds at cars, homes, and streets while withdrawing from the area.
The soldiers stormed and ransacked dozens of homes in Beita town, the eastern area of Nablus city, and many villages and towns overnight. Mohammad was a lawyer with the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission and was a well-known figure and social activist who represented dozens of families in Israeli courts, filed appeals against the illegal Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands, and defended the rights of the Palestinians, especially the farmers and villagers. Mohammad was also a known figure, not just to the Palestinians for defending their rights and lands from illegal Israeli annexation and colonies, but also by the Israeli occupation soldiers for his constant participation in the ongoing nonviolent processions against the illegal Israeli Annexation Wall, and the colonies. He was also known in Israeli courts for representing the families and filing appeals to void illegal annexation orders of the Palestinian lands. His corpse was moved from Rafidia hospital in Nablus to his home in Kafr Laqif town in Qalqilia. Thousands of Palestinians participated in Mohammad’s funeral ceremony and burial while chanting against the escalating Israeli crimes and violations and calling for resisting the occupation until liberation and independence.
Israeli Soldiers Kill One Palestinian, Injure Eleven, Near Ramallah Israeli soldiers killed Wednesday night, a young Palestinian man and injured at least eleven in addition to abducting three after many army vehicles invaded Silwad town, northeast of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, leading to protests. The invasion into Silwad started in the evening, leading to protests for several hours. The soldiers fired dozens of live rounds and rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that the soldiers killed Omar Mohammad Elyan, 20, and added that the army shot him with a live round in the chest. The Health Ministry said the soldiers also shot and seriously injured one Palestinian and moderately wounded another. The army also injured five other Palestinians who were rushed to a local clinic by the medics before the soldiers surrounded it. The WAFA Palestinian News Agency said a young man was injured when the soldiers rammed him with their armored military jeep.
Yes, many tragedies around the world. Nine of which justify the killings in Ukraine which happens to be the subject of this thread I feel the need to keep pointing this out to you.
They blew the ever-lovin' p!ss out that boat. That Moskva ship? Blew it sky high, stuff flying apart all over the goddam place.
Those Russians, they lie as a way of life. Even to each other and their own families. Disgusting people. Anyway, they are saying there was a fire in the baffroom or something, and that's how the Moskva ended up on the bottom of the ocean. Yeah, like this boat was sailing around for 40 years okay, and just happened to accidentally catch on fire two hours AFTER Ukraine started claiming it blew the thing up. You'd have to be pro-Pute up the ying to buy the stuff Russia says.
Was similar to twin towers, those flew apart nicely too, blessing New York with small pieces of rubble and human flesh of useless chair warmers.
Dude, you write your posts like a misery enjoying psychopath, please adjust to more non-psychopath ways.
An army that invades another country, and the civilian victims of a terrorist attack, are not alike. Putin fanboys are some of the creepiest people on the planet. I think I prefer it when their true thoughts are covered up by their incomprehensible English.
YouTube has issued new guidelines to video partners producers that content on the platform will not be monetized that “exploits, dismisses, or condones” the ...
OPED Bucha is only the beginning of good actor Zelensky’s lies By Slavisha Batko Milacic Published on April 11, 2022 SHARE TWEET COMMENT Bucha is only the beginning though. The directors working with the good actor, Mr. Zelensky, have surely prepared the second and third acts of this drama for us to watch. Shortly after the Russian troops left the outskirts of Kiev, the pro-Ukrainian media fired a broadside of stories about alleged Russian war crimes against peaceful civilians, traces of which were found in the abandoned towns. Before very long the first video appeared, with corpses scattered along the street, some of which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be quite alive. However, this did not prevent a number of publications from coming up with colorful first-person stories about the “atrocities” committed by the Russian military. The bottom-line idea was that Russian soldiers do not want to fight and are scared, while simultaneously all too happy to commit war crimes by shooting at civilians and throwing grenades into a basement full of townsfolk hiding there. Soon, the temperature of anti-Russian propaganda went so high that even true-blue pro-Ukrainian viewers and readers began to question the credibility of what was going on. Let’s try to figure this all out. The Ukrainian army did not liberate Bucha, but quietly returned there following the pullout of Russian troops, which Moscow had announced a couple of days earlier. At the same time, for some strange reason the departing Russian units not only left behind dead bodies lying on the street, but artistically laid them out and evenly distributed over the territory ofthe town. Well, Russian commanders are hardly capable of such an unnatural performance. Even if there were such a maniac in the Russian command, he would be quickly arrested by his own subordinates and brought before a military court. Where did all these corpses come from then? Obviously, not all of them are real, because even in the clearly staged video hastily aired by Ukrainian pro-government channels, some of them are seen moving and even standing up. Others could have been shot by Ukrainian advance units because of the white ribbons that the local civilians wore on their sleeves when going out into the street. In addition, given the low level of discipline and the lack of a unified command in the Ukrainian troops and law enforcement agencies, some of the nationalists could have lynched suspected “collaborationists.” In any case, there were enough bodies available to provide a “good picture” for the Ukrainian authorities. And Kiev needs a picture, and the sooner the better. There was no time to create “burials for the victims” of Russian repressions, to look for a city away from Kiev, or to build a concentration camp complete with furnaces and barracks. A number of European politicians, worried by rising public concerns about the break of energy ties with Russia, demanded that Ukraine come up with a new reason for last-chance anti-Russian sanctions as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Brussels is proposing to completely block Russian energy supplies and close ports for Russian ships. This is already a last-ditch measure, after which it will be simply impossible to introduce anything else. However, you’ve got to have something to justify the fast-growing tariffs and prices, so the images and “evidence” from Bucha arrived right in time. The investigation of the events in the Bosnian Srebrenica once allowed ratcheting up anti-Serb sentiments in Europe. Now, Zelensky’s “personal Srebrenica” allows the Ukrainian president to drum up more European support, and ideally, to bring about absolutely unprecedented sanctions against Moscow. The organizers of the “Bucha Scandal” are hardly bothered by the questions that any sane person would ask himself. Why didn’t the Russian troops, retreating in perfect order and without any pressure from the Kiev garrison (the Russians are not falling back, they are simply moving their forces to the Donbass region) remove the corpses from the streets? They have all the equipment they possibly need to pick up all the dead bodies and take them to the crematorium in Bryansk, thus hiding the traces of their “crimes” once and for all. Why did the Russians evenly distribute the corpses throughout the city and did not shoot Ukrainian activists all in one place? Finally, why didn’t the bloodthirsty Russians burn down and mine the city during their retreat? They had enough time to do that. However, despite all these unanswered questions, Russia will be condemned. London, Washington, Paris and Brussels have already decided everything. The emergency meeting by UN Security Council will end in nothing as both Russian and Western resolutions will be blocked and the parties will be left even more dissatisfied with each other. Bucha is only the beginning though. The directors working with the good actor, Mr. Zelensky, have surely prepared the second and third acts of this drama for us to watch. They are quite banal, but effective nonetheless. It might be a mass grave and some “torture chambers.” This time round they will prepare better, without hiccups. The victims’ hands will be tied with the same ropes, and secret protocols of interrogations and coerced confessions will be properly signed without errors. What they will hardly be able to explain to a thinking audience, however, is why the Russians would want to commit such atrocities in the first place.
Pro-Putin trolls makes unsupported claims. News at 11.
Thirteen brave soldiers told Russian sailors “go f*** yourself” before being bombed to kingdom come. Parker: This story had all the trappings of war-time propaganda. Surrounded and outnumbered good guys. Larger, more powerful, and lethal bad guys. Courage until the very end. No surrender. It’s the type of stuff that makes legends of soldiers and provides both a morale boost and reinvigorated sense of purpose back in the barracks. If they can do it, then so can I. The lies went so far as to find themselves in a speech given by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, who said that the thirteen Heroes of Snake Island would even be awarded the highest possible honor posthumously.
Thirteen brave soldiers told Russian sailors “go f*** yourself” before being bombed to kingdom come. Parker: This story had all the trappings of war-time propaganda. Surrounded and outnumbered good guys. Larger, more powerful, and lethal bad guys. Courage until the very end. No surrender. It’s the type of stuff that makes legends of soldiers and provides both a morale boost and reinvigorated sense of purpose back in the barracks. If they can do it, then so can I. The lies went so far as to find themselves in a speech given by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, who said that the thirteen Heroes of Snake Island would even be awarded the highest possible honor posthumously.
Photos of Ukraine President Zelensky in the trenches with the troops is actually from last year in Donetsk where Russian separatists have been bombe by Ukraine for 8 years.
A 2012 video of a Palestinian girl defying an Israeli soldier is recycled as if to portray a defiant Ukrianian girl standing up to the Russian invaders.
And these are just a few of the lies from the 1st 2 weeks of the war.
Thirteen brave soldiers told Russian sailors “go f*** yourself” before being bombed to kingdom come. Parker: This story had all the trappings of war-time propaganda. Surrounded and outnumbered good guys. Larger, more powerful, and lethal bad guys. Courage until the very end. No surrender. It’s the type of stuff that makes legends of soldiers and provides both a morale boost and reinvigorated sense of purpose back in the barracks. If they can do it, then so can I. The lies went so far as to find themselves in a speech given by President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, who said that the thirteen Heroes of Snake Island would even be awarded the highest possible honor posthumously.
So, your point is that Ukraine is winning the land war, the war at sea, AND the propaganda war? Man. Russia sucks at EVERYTHING. No wonder so many Russian soldiers are okay getting killed in Ukraine, they have nothing to look forward too if they go home.
Putin could have played this smart and march into Donbas and take it in days with little blood but no....he gets greedy and stupid and tries to take Kiyv and Karkiv and Odessa and make all Ukraine his piss pot but his generals are too idiot to even drive a car to the grocery without ending up in a ditch so now we have this bloody mess. Puck Futin.Let's Go Brandon.
Photos of Ukraine President Zelensky in the trenches with the troops is actually from last year in Donetsk where Russian separatists have been bombe by Ukraine for 8 years.
A 2012 video of a Palestinian girl defying an Israeli soldier is recycled as if to portray a defiant Ukrianian girl standing up to the Russian invaders.
And these are just a few of the lies from the 1st 2 weeks of the war.
They keep coming day after day
“The cruiser ship Moskva lost its stability when it was towed to the port because of the damage to the ship’s hull that it received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition. In stormy sea conditions, the ship sank.” -- Russian Ministry of Defense
"Looking at the weather report outside of Sevastopol today the winds were about four miles an hour with 40 degree [4C] temperatures and a little bit of rain.” -- Truth
"Moscow had initially said a fire onboard had caused the explosion." It's seems Moscow omitted the part where the fire was caused by a missile strike.
These are just a few from the last 2 days of the war.
Photos of Ukraine President Zelensky in the trenches with the troops is actually from last year in Donetsk where Russian separatists have been bombe by Ukraine for 8 years.
A 2012 video of a Palestinian girl defying an Israeli soldier is recycled as if to portray a defiant Ukrianian girl standing up to the Russian invaders.
And these are just a few of the lies from the 1st 2 weeks of the war.
They keep coming day after day
Women and children being killed daily by Russian soldiers in Ukraine...true
Photos of Ukraine President Zelensky in the trenches with the troops is actually from last year in Donetsk where Russian separatists have been bombe by Ukraine for 8 years.
A 2012 video of a Palestinian girl defying an Israeli soldier is recycled as if to portray a defiant Ukrianian girl standing up to the Russian invaders.
And these are just a few of the lies from the 1st 2 weeks of the war.
They keep coming day after day
Women and children being killed daily by Russian soldiers in Ukraine...true
But you certainly don't care...true
Women and children are being killed daily by Ukrainian soldiers in East-Ukraine since 2014. You are a bit late to the party.