Posted on 10/25/2022 8:39:54 PM PDT by UMCRevMom@aol.com
In Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, rolling power blackouts are now the new normal. With Russia’s terror-bombing campaign of civilian targets and critical infrastructure currently in its third week, the Ukrainian government has been forced to limit electricity and impose regular cutoffs in order to preserve energy amid damage to around 40% of the country’s power grid.
Vladimir Putin hopes that by destroying Ukrainian infrastructure and depriving the civilian population of essential services such as heating, water, and electricity, he can break Ukraine’s will to resist and force the Kyiv authorities to accept a peace deal on Moscow’s terms. So far, there is little sign of that happening. Instead, Ukrainians are responding to Russia’s terror tactics with the kind of resolve that has characterized the country’s war effort ever since the invasion began eight months ago.
A new nationwide poll released this week underlined the current mood of defiance across the country. Conducted on October 21-23 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the survey found that 86% of respondents supported the continuation of Ukraine’s military counteroffensive and rejected negotiations despite Russia’s escalating airstrikes against civilian targets.
This latest data point provides an indication of attitudes in Ukraine as Moscow’s terror-bombing campaign reached the two-week mark. It mirrors a number of earlier surveys which have consistently identified little Ukrainian appetite for any territorial concessions to the Kremlin.
This determination to stand up to Russian aggression was perhaps best articulated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an iconic September 11 social media post addressed to the Russian leadership in which he underlined just how far Ukraine was prepared to go in order to achieve an historic break with Russia. “Do you still think we are “one people”?” asked Zelenskyy. “Do you really think you can scare us, break us, force us to make concessions? Don’t you understand who we are and what we stand for? Read my lips: Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.”
This rousing Churchillian rhetoric has been accompanied by generous helpings of the good humor that Ukrainians have become renowned for over the past eight months. Ukraine has emerged as something of a social media superpower since the start of the Russian invasion, with the country’s ability to embrace dark humor in even the most desperate of situations striking a chord among international audiences. As the lights have gone out in recent weeks, many have quipped that the move will backfire on the Kremlin and lead to a baby boom, resulting in many more Ukrainians at a time when Putin is so desperately trying to destroy the nation.
There is nothing funny about Russia’s intentions, of course. Kremlin officials and regime proxies make no effort to disguise the fact that their bombing campaign is an attempt to render Ukraine uninhabitable and force millions of citizens to flee the country. For the past month, government officials and other prominent pundits have regularly appeared on Russia’s carefully choreographed state TV political talk shows to express their support for targeted attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and to demand an expansion of airstrikes.
The current offensive represents a dramatic escalation in Russia’s invasion at a time when Moscow already stands accused of committing genocide in Ukraine. Russian troops have reportedly engaged in systematic human rights abuses and mass executions throughout areas under Russian occupation, while tens of thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed when Putin’s forces reduced Ukrainian port city Mariupol to rubble during the early months of the war.
Meanwhile, Russian occupation authorities have allegedly subjected more than a million Ukrainians including thousands of children to forced deportation while eradicating all symbols of Ukrainian statehood and identity in areas under their control. The forced deportation of children is classified as genocide under international law.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba argued on October 22 that the current wave of airstrikes against civilian targets was further evidence of Russian genocide in Ukraine. “Deliberate strikes on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure are part of Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians,” he posted, noting that the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention specifically refers to “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
C. Borden Gray, Michael Chertoff, Wesley Clark, Chris Dodd, Mark Esper, Michael Hayden, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Henry Kissinger, Judith Miller, Georgette Mosbacher, David Petreus, Melanie Verveer, James Baker, Michael Mullen, Leon Panetta, William Perry, Thomas Pickering, Condaleeza Rice, & James Woolsey.
🤡 🤡 🤡
They certainly had plenty of opportunites for their misery, now and what will come, to have not happened. It’s going to get worse for them as well. All this so Europe and US can attempt to get at Russia’s vast resources and control of.
(took me a sec) ... YIKES!!!
[scraping the bottom]
Aw, c’mon!!!
Thomas Pickering was all for the wonderful JCPOA!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I01Jx7k0lTw
I thought half of those guys were dead.
Guess they are just brain dead.
Sounds like payback for blowing up pipelines
One man’s “terror bombing” is another man’s “strategic bombing”.
We used to have a “Strategic” Air Command for doing such things.
The propaganda is wearing thin—Its has been lively and some good people have worked really hard to pretend that Ukraine is wining. Now if they were facing the USA—they would win. But they are not—they face a whole different animal in Russia. Putin doesn’t really care about world opinion or the worlds media. He knows that Morality belongs in church not politics. He is now changing into a true war footing. It will be bad for Ukraine for the next two months. Unless the west comes in to help with soldiers—they will lose big. USA and UK made a blunder by blocking peace. In fairness, Russia blundered when Putin moved to topple Kiev hoping for a simple win. But, the war is changing and each new “Victory” by Ukraine is just winning Putin more support at home. Wait for the November Push that Russia will undertake in a few weeks. It will be ugly and bloody for both sides.
Bump! The corrupt leaders made millions off US Tax payers.
You support this criminal Biden cabal and therefore YOU are responsible for the deaths of EVERY SINGLE civilian in The Ukraine.
YOU ARE A DISGRACE.
from CRZ
BUMP for truth.It is the same with every single one of these people. And that means both sides.
No reason at all for the USA to be involved in that historical mess.
All anyone, with any sense at all has to do is get out their world map and take a look at the Black Sea. Strategically, it is the WORST area to hold. All any country has to do is set up at the Bosphorus straits and plug the whole dam works off FOR EVER.
Same for the Baltic. Yet, these geniuses have not paid one GD bit of attention to where?....WHERE?
The Pacific Rim. How far is Russia from the USA off that area? How much of our oil could be cut off by just one little strike there? Two bombs..that is all it would take and one of the most vital energy supplies to this country would be cut off.
And...not many more within the continental USA and this country goes down without so much as a whimper.
The Mississippi River system, the St Lawrence system, the Panama Canal. A couple at the energy pipelines within the central USA? And its all over. They do not even have to use tactical nuclear weapons to do that.
These war whores are absolutely insane!
The side the controls that air, wins the war. Ukraine has NO air defense and Russia can wherever it wants.
Wait until Zalensky finds out that Biden is going to trade Ukraine for Grinder.
I would not even mind US getting involved to protect borders of a sovereign country. Except our own borders are the least protected in the world and we are essentially a bankrupt country with national debt 50% bigger than GDP. That manitude of debt makes it impossible to pay off any principle. Which means the service costs to pay interest (currently $365 billion/year) will keep expanding.
We need to get our fiscal house in order before borrowing MORE money to send to foreign wars.
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