Sasha Petrova
@SasshaPetrova
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Journalist, writer, editor, masters in international relations, Soviet-born, Ukraine-Hungary-Swaziland-NZ-raised.
Melbourne, Victoria
Joined July 2011
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Pinned Tweet
🧵 Why is nobody talking about how the US’s Gaza policy is helping Russia win the information war against the West? 1/12
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Russia, today, celebrates the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany, as if it was Russia’s victory alone. This is my grandmother - Paulina Matushkina - who was born in Ukraine and died in Ukraine. She fought in the Red Army and was in the battle for Berlin 1/8 🧵
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If anyone thinks the beheading video is Ukrainian propaganda, too monstrous to be real, here’s an excerpt from Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s book on the Chechen War, where Russian soldiers speak with relish about dismembering the flesh of people from the Caucasus 1/2
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Ukraine is being invaded by a genocidal dictator, the US border is being “breached” by a bunch of poor families looking for safety
Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?
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My brother – who is staying with me for a bit – is finding working at my house a little bit challenging
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Important to note she is here describing Russia’s policy of starving its forces, keeping them in awful conditions and feeding them videos of gore to give rise to and perpetuate mental insanity in wartime, driving them to inhuman actions to terrorise the population 2/2
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Just want to tweet this again: an excerpt from
@Kasparov63
book. He wrote this in 2014 after Putin took Crimea and started war in East Ukraine. Western leaders didn’t listen then and they’re repeating the same mistakes. He won’t stop with Ukraine. They need to intervene now
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Sign reads “war on Ukraine – Russia’s shame”. Knowing the opposition protesting against Putin has been quashed and its leader poisoned and jailed for decades, this is one brave woman
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Going to say something obvious for every Russian who thinks this is an attack on Russia. CRIMEA IS UKRAINE and that damn bridge has no right being there. Also, get the f*ck out of Ukraine. Thank you for listening. Pricks.
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And the world needs to help them. So the children and grandchildren of those heroes who helped rid the world of terror in 1945, can defeat the terror of today. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 8/8
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by the very people they were once countrymen with. The Soviet Union, not Russia, defeated Nazi Germany. More than 7m Ukrainians fought in the Red Army. These people said “never again”, they told it to their children. But their children are now dying at the hands of the people 6/8
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When my grandma was a girl in Ukraine, she lived through the Holodomor. She told me stories of how she would sit outside restaurants where party officials dined, waiting for potato peels to be thrown out which she would take home and fry. Her little sister died of starvation 3/8
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Elderly people in Severodonetsk and across Ukraine, who fought in the Red Army or went through the terror of Nazi occupation or Holodomor, have nowhere to go now as bombs again fall on them, as their cities are occupied. Except now, they are being called Nazis and killed 5/8
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celebrating the defeat of Nazis while lying every day about killing the “Nazi” children and grandchildren of the people who contributed to the victory. But today’s Ukrainians won’t let the Russians steal their victory like they’ve stolen everything else. 7/8
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She received a medal for “participating in the historic storming and taking of Berlin”. That’s what the certificate below says. It blows my mind every time I read those words and see this photo that she wrote “1945, Berlin” on the back of. She’s 3rd from the right 2/8
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My grandmother was a Soviet and in her passport, her ethnicity was written as “Russian”. But when the Soviet Union broke up in 91, she became a Ukrainian. She lived in an apartment in Severodonetsk, a city Russians have destroyed together with most apartment blocks 4/8
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@_noone_you_know
@juliavkril
For Eastern Europeans it means Stalin, purges, Holodomor, oppression, crowded apartments, empty food stores, gulags and fear. Basically, for us, it’s trauma. For those who didn’t live through it – it’s a hip ideology.
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@RadicalWokeist
@EndWokeness
Not to mention sexism, given they’re all women when I’m sure an “unhealthy” male example could easily be found.
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A new study proposes Leonardo da Vinci had an eye disorder that helped him better focus on close-up flat surfaces. There are many theories about the eye conditions painters may have had that influenced their works (ie El Greco's elongated figures)
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@dom_lucre
He's not sending them to war. There are thousands of women who volunteer to go and fight. It's not desperation because there are no men. It's equality.
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With the world’s inaction on Kakhovka dam tragedy, I’m reminded of what
@Kasparov63
wrote in his 2015 book. Putin takes a step, looks around, sniffs the air, and if there are no negative consequences, takes another step. Redundant condemnations only empower him further
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This 👇 The 1991 borders were agreed to by all members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, created when the Soviet Union broke up. Article 5 of the agreement included a respect for each other’s territorial integrity
The borders between Ukraine and Russia that are the most defensible and therefore most likely to produce a lasting peace are the 1991 borders, recognized by the entire world at the time, including Moscow.
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I hope all Americans remember on Independence Day how lucky they are. What they have - freedom and dignity - is what others are fighting and dying every day for. I can’t wait till Kyiv’s Independence Square is filled with people celebrating what they, and everyone, deserves
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For those who haven’t yet read the AP article on the thousands of Ukrainian prisoners Russia is holding in occupied territories in horrific conditions, it’s a must. This visual alone is enough to understand this is no simple war for territory 👇
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@rst_like
He’s laughing because Putin is pretending to care about an agreement that he’s already broken. Since February ‘22, Zelenskyy has shown himself to be a leader with the kind of integrity we all hope for in the west.
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1/3 Most people know Yevgeny Prigozhin as the leader of the Wagner Group but it is likely Dmitriy Utkin, a staunch neo-Nazi whose callsign was Wagner, actually founded the group. Note his Schutzstaffel (SS) tattoos and photo with Putin (likely 2016)
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I actually love Zelenskyy but believe this is wrong considering Azerbaijan has just driven an ethic community from their land. The similarities between the situation of ethnic Armenians and Ukrainians are endless and I’m not entirely sure why that’s not recognised
I had a call with
@presidentaz
Ilham Aliyev and thanked him for Azerbaijan’s significant humanitarian assistance, particularly in the energy sector as winter approaches.
We reaffirmed our commitment to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
We also
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@Cheech_Baruk
@MedvedevRussiaE
Ah yes, the great Russian Car. I too wish for Medvedev to turn into a Lada.
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I have no idea why Ukraine supporters are suddenly hating on Gary Kasparov but for those who don’t know, he was one of the few loud, consistent voices in 2014 who warned the world not to ignore Russia’s invasion of Crimea/Donbas. Here’s what he wrote back then
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@weskrantz
Oh I love him so much. I’m so glad you took him!!! He’s gorgeous 😍 will you keep him?
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@McFaul
Everyone on this thread who keeps arguing for negotiations with Russia – go read Dmitry Medvedev’s latest post on Telegram. If you don’t know Russian, push the translate button. Their intentions are very clear. Here’s a snippet
Those who say Ukraine should give Russia Donbas and war will end, should read Dmitry Medvedev’s - deputy head of Russia’s powerful Security Council - latest Telegram post. Russia must push its borders as far as possible he says, even if it’s as far as Poland
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@IAPonomarenko
What honestly is the point of this?! Honestly! There is just no actual reason to do this it just seems so unreal this kind of mind blowing explosion would happen in the middle of a beautiful, peaceful historical city where people are just taking a walk. 😡🤬
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Getting tired of this “neat” narrative that there were Ukrainians and then there were Soviets. My family escaped the Soviet Union and were against the government but my Ukrainian grandmother fought in the Soviet Red Army against Nazi Germany 1/6 🧵
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@BODY_AUGMENTS
I don’t think she said anything wrong. None of you were there or saw what she saw, nor did she say anything about brunch. Being white doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to be upset by violence.
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@IAPonomarenko
As much as I respect Obama he was in power when Russia took Crimea and started war in Donbas and he didn’t do enough to prevent today’s situation. Giving Putin the evil eye was great but not enough
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1. Hamas’s actions are horrific, illegal and wrong in every respect and need to be called out
2. The Palestinian people have a right to statehood, self-determination and peace
We can hold these two thoughts together and still continue to function
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🧵I've been following the gut-wrenching issue of Ukrainian children being forcefully transferred to Russia since last year. In the wake of ICC issuing warrant for Putin's involvement, I thought I'd share some Ukraine-related and historical facts about children's transfers 1/11
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@soypp123
I definitely don’t wish for these dehumanised people to put anyone else through the same horror. I want Russia to wake up and realise what they are doing and who they are supporting, face a reckoning and start a long journey of transformation. Big wish, I know.
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Tell me again anyone who will dare that Russia is only trying to save “ethnic Russians” in Donbas and does not want to destroy Ukraine
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@CanadianKobzar
But Ukraine was Soviet. Many of today’s Ukrainians were Soviets and millions have family members who were - my Ukrainian grandma was a member of the communist party and fought in WW2 against Nazi germany. I grew up a Soviet in Ukraine. I’m confused by your comment.
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My piece in Al Jazeera on how many Russian-speaking Ukrainians are transitioning to making Ukrainian their first language. As
@victoriaslog
said, it’s become a “symbol of our resistance”. Thank you to her and
@ferlain
for speaking to me
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So... I've just been accepted 🥂 into a creative writing ✍️PhD 🎓at Monash. I start in March. Am suitably excited 🤩 and terrified 😬
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I love a good memoir as well as when books I ordered weeks and weeks ago finally arrive. Now I will at last know the inside story of Russia and America
@McFaul
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A Ukrainian official whose son was taken hostage by Russia’s forces told me in Jul, he believed Russia is taking Ukraine's children to replenish its plummeting population: “They are white, Slavic, Russian Orthodox. They have the language, a close culture"
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I wrote this piece for Al Jazeera on why many Ukrainians are angry with Russian citizens and believe they are as responsible for the war as Putin. Thank you to
@NikaMelkozerova
@cryptodrftng
@A_SHEKH0VTS0V
for speaking with me
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In 1940s, Communists took about 30,000 kids from northern Greece and relocated them to orphanages in Communist countries. At Greece's insistence in '48, the UN added “forcibly transferring children ... to another group” to its the Genocide Convention 4/11
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Dog rescues kitten from burning building in Ukraine's Donbass - beauty in senseless war
http://t.co/Y2Lj6jJFm7
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Reminder: Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is alone responsible for the deaths in Ukraine. If Russia leaves Ukraine, the deaths will stop and there will be peace. I’m not sure why people make it more complicated than this when it is all in fact incredibly simple.
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@F_J_MacGregor
@steven_seegel
@brianklaas
I think it’s a chicken/egg scenario. Who knows what came first, the society or leader. But now they feed off each other. Putin’s terror and oppression certainly hamper any social progress but the society itself is what created Putin.
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@CanadianKobzar
Yes I know but my point is that there seems to be this narrative that the “real” Ukrainians fought the Soviets, which is very misleading nt.
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@Dog__Lover__69
@McFaul
Russia invaded Ukraine… even if you believe they did this because of nato, the invasion is an illegal breach of sovereignty. Remember this fact
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@douglaskarr
@JamesPhillips00
I think anyone who didn’t understand the fact he’s saying this will happen if Russia attacks a NATO country should…. Definitely listen to the full speech.
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@recalltonal
@McFaul
Russia started the war and is burying Ukrainians in mass graves in territories under its occupation. It’s tearing off children’s limbs with bombs and burying alive people in basements. If Russia actually wants to stop the war, it can stop the war by stopping the war!
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3/3 The US sanctioned Utkin in 2017 as “founder and leader of PMC Wagner”. So, next time anyone talks about Russia doing great work ridding Ukraine of Nazis, please show them the photo of the Russian neo-Nazi hero Dmitry Utkin standing next to Putin
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Do people realise than when they quote John Mearsheimer about NATO expansion, they’re doing the same thing as the people quoting the one scientist who disagrees with 99% of other scientist on climate change? One opinion is not fact in academia! Thank you.
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@reshetz
When the “greatest civilisation on earth”believes a “leader of gay people” to be the greatest insult, it shows itself as the most archaic civilisation on earth.
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For all those calling on Ukraine to negotiate, strike a deal, with Putin, this is how negotiations with him work out. It’s all good and well for a few months… then you die. You don’t negotiate with this gangster
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@GeeBurrell
@bctallis
If it was a Ukrainian missile, like you said it was one trying to intercept one of a hundred Russian missiles that rained down on Ukraine. So it still comes down to Russia. Ukraine wouldn’t need to use its air defences at all if it wasn’t for Russian attacks.
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Oh look, it's me, just hanging out with the first female PM. No biggie. Thanks
@thewomens
for the inspiring breakfast
#IWD2018
#InternationalWomensDay
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Support Palestinians and you’re called an anti-Semite, call out Hamas atrocities and you apparently hate Palestinians, support Ukrainians and you’re a Nazi, be shocked at celebrating death of Russian tourist and you’re a shill for Putin and genocide.
🤔 groupthink is killing us
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@PKreschishin
@McFaul
Wow, what a damning photo of an ambassador greeting a leader in the country he is an ambassador to. Thank you for showing us all the TRUTH 🙄
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@victoriaslog
Oh wow, that’s sad you never got to meet him. A real hero who I’m sure went through horror for a victory Russia claims as its own. And his granddaughter has to wake up to the sound of Russian missiles in the night. Criminal. I wonder if they knew each other.
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@arestovych
Вас заставили покинуть свой пост, потому что вы думаете о себе гораздо больше, чем о людях, за которых вам предстоит сражаться. Вы извинились а теперь пытаетесь доказать, что не сделали ничего плохого. Ваша страна воюет - перестаньте говорить о себе.
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@xghostnotesx
@juliavkril
Did you grow up in Eastern Europe during communism though? I don’t invalidate your opinion but I think it’s a different kind of “knowledge” you’re seeped with when you grew up there. And to me, it’s a hate symbol, because millions were murdered in its name. And I’m Russian.
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It's my brother's birthday today. When I drive past the Thirsty Camel (that he drew) I think about how no one knows this familiar boozehound was created by a Russian immigrant with no Australian citizenship. So if you see the camel today, give a salute to my talented bro
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@RonaldSeruyange
@anneapplebaum
Jesus. Stop. This is ridiculous. And even if it were true it doesn’t justify the murders of thousands of civilians across the rest of the country. Nothing about this argument is intelligent or sensible.
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@McFaul
There’s a disdain in Russia towards the culture of smiling (which you’re obviously aware of). But from my own experience, when we left the Soviet Union, we were very uncomfortable with how much the Americans we met smiled and saw it as insincere. This is no longer the case and I
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🧵These are my parents and their friends in 1988, Hola Prystan - a town in Kherson 🇺🇦 now flooded and occupied by Russia. Behind them, behind the trees, is the bank of the Konka river, a tributary of the Dnipro. This picture has always made me sad, and today, more than ever 1/10
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@IReallyDoCare__
I also can’t stop thinking about this and how much terror the Nazi occupiers caused in Ukraine, which Russia is doing again now. I could never understand how she could cope after this and it’s utterly heartbreaking that it’s happening again and people now will have these stories.
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And yet when the narrative is about the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, too many people seem to forget Ukraine’s part in the Red Army and Designate only the OUN as Ukrainians. Soviet history is complicated. Stop doing this. My grandmother was not an enemy of Ukraine 5/6
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There is a history of genocidal powers abducting children to “re-educate” them into their culture. In WW2, Nazis kidnapped hundreds of thousands of children, mostly from annexed parts of Poland, and sent them to camps to “Germanise” them 3/11
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Lyudmyla Denisova is the Ombudsman for human rights in Ukraine. She says over 120,000 children have been forcibly deported to Russia from Ukraine. Many have parents but Russia considers them orphans
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Russia’s actions in Ukraine are mind numbingly horrible. But such statements undermine the fight👇Besides the fact that Russia contains children etc, it’s vital to keep in mind that the best way to fight Russia is to uphold the core value it’s trying to destroy: Humanity
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Did the West do enough to stop Russia’s ‘22 invasion? During 2018 ⚽️ World Cup in Russia, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov was on hunger strike at a Siberian prison colony demanding release of 🇺🇦 political prisoners. He hoped the world would notice. Here’s how the world noticed
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Also, here is a haunting cover of a book about Nazi occupation of Ukraine that the Soviets were fighting again. These people on the ground were not killed by “Soviets”. They were killed by Germans 6/6
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@not_insayne
@TimothyDSnyder
The Russians didn’t just withdraw from Kherson for nothing. They withdrew because Ukraine’s forces forced them to withdraw. Same as with the Kyiv region. Not every military win comes from a fierce battle.
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My brilliant Mum wrote this brilliant article for The Age on how the Soviet government shunned the humanities because it didn’t want the population to learn to think critically – which is why they’re so important for a democracy
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@taxofonas
She was and these Russian heroes, who are a significant minority, are mostly either dead, in jail or exiled. And we thought all this ended with Stalin, then with the end of the Soviet Union…
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1991 when Ukraine gained independence were also Soviets. Millions of Ukrainians today have family members who were members of the Communist Party. When Russia proclaims it beat Germany in WW2, we rightly correct them to say Ukraine played a significant role in the victory 4/6
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In Feb ’23,
@YaleSPH
researchers said they identified about 40 camps where Ukrainian children as young as four months old were held with the apparent aim of integrating them into Russia’s “vision of national culture, history, and society”. 2/11
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2/3 Dmitry Valerievich Utkin served in the Russian GRU (General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), was arrested in 2013 but released in 2014 when he commanded the mercenary group as part of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
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Donbass Devushka, aka Sarah Bils, isn’t only a horrible person because she supports Russia and promotes their propaganda. She’s also just a horrible person.
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@MedvedevRussiaE
This is my Soviet grandmother who fought in the battle for Berlin and received a medal for taking it in ‘45. She was born in Ukraine and died in Severodonetsk- a city you destroyed, including her grave that we can never visit, while forcing her kids/grandkids to flee their homes
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During her time fighting, Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany. Her family was blown up by a German bomb and her friend crucified on a tree in her home village in Ukraine. 7 million Ukrainians fought in the Red Army with the Soviets. They aren’t enemies of Ukraine 2/6
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@BoneYar90648668
@brycewilsonAU
I think it’s really important when you are sitting safely at home, in front of your computer, to nitpick at minute details of a post made by someone risking their life in a war zone. It makes you feel like you’re contributing. And like you’re more of a man
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@McFaul
don’t support people who abuse you for your smile, of course, nor am I justifying it. But it’s so ingrained in Russian culture. We still find it hard to smile in photographs, and appear fake ourselves, when it comes so naturally to westerners. So our discomfort is likely coming
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There is no neat divide between Soviets and Ukrainians. Ethnic Ukrainians were oppressed in the Soviet Union & thousands fought against it for independence. But many were members of the Communist Party. The “ethnic Russians” who lived in Ukraine and who became Ukrainians in 3/6
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I support Ukraine but this is the last time I’m polite to anyone who targets me because of my name. Ukraine’s defence minister is REZNIKOV, cabinet minister is NEMCHINOV! My family in Ukraine with names like PETROV and KRASNOV/A are UKRAINIAN.
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@sumlenny
You can decry the abhorrent violence of Hamas and still support Palestine. These two things are not mutually exclusive and in fact, it's a mark of intelligence to be able to hold both those thoughts in your head at the same time.
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@victoriaslog
This video actually frightens me. It sounds and looks like the kind of thing actual Nazis would have released during or before WW2. I hope Latvia revokes her citizenship immediately.
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Photo 1: Me as a child in Kherson with my cousin, 1989
Photo 2: Child in Kherson with their mother, 2023
We escaped the Soviet-Russian-led government in 1991.
It's 32 years later. Why are they such assholes!!!!
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@ltercation
Oh man what a beautiful amazing creature. It’s a barn owl I’m pretty sure and they’re gloriously surreal. I’m glad he’s ok thanks to you x
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@AryanGWOT
@jacksonhinklle
Russia never did the same in Kyiv. Russia did much much much worse in Kyiv
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Kherson governor is announcing evacuations from settlements on the West Bank of the Dnipro river. Says water from the blown-up Nova Kakhovka dam will soon reach dangerous levels
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This is child abuse. They militarised kids for decades throughout the Soviet Union and after 32 years of being “free” still haven’t understood the crime of this. Instead of playing and learning to share toys children are made to practise war - humanity’s greatest evil
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My home town of Hola Prystan submerged 😫😤 it’s been occupied for nearly a year and now this - there are no officials to help. No ambulances to get the sick out. Our friends managed to escape in the last few months but so so many didn’t 😭
#RussiaIsATerroristState
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Australia will lose 10,000+ researchers because of
#COVID19
at a time we need them the most, says report from
@Science_Academy
, by leading experts chaired by
@ScienceChiefAu
. Lead authors
@Kylie_Walker1
& Frank Larkins
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