Give Ukraine everything they need. Now. Everything, not only to defend themselves, but to win and regain all of its sovereign territory.
We could, and should, have done it nine years ago. We didn’t.
It is high time we do.
Here he is, the man of the hour. May I present the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf.
Regardless what may be said in the matter, His Majesty’s consideration not to attend the Nobel awards made it untenable for the Nobel Foundation to invite the 🇷🇺 ambassador.
#NoNobelForRussia
RUSSIAN-OWNED CABINS IN 🇳🇴 MILITARY HEARTLAND
In the northern Norwegian mountain idyll of Målselv Fjellandsby, there are a number of large luxury cottages owned by people in the 🇷🇺 power elite close to Putin.
Here follows a LONG 🧵 on an excellent dig done by Norwegian TV 2.
INVESTIGATION OF THE UNHCR IN UKRAINE 🇺🇦
In 2022/23, the 🇸🇪 investigative TV show Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts) investigated the (🇸🇪) UNHCR’s aid to Ukraine. What they found was, diplomatically put, concerning. Here follows a 🧵summarizing their findings. It is well worth the read.
Slovakia 🇸🇰: We will ”not send one bullet to Ukraine.”
EU 🇪🇺: We will ”not send one euro to Slovakia. And you’re still bound to the embargo againt Russia.”
Can’t have it both ways, mates.
KING OF SWEDEN MIGHT NOT ATTEND THE NOBEL AWARDS
Due to the invitation of the Russian Ambassador, the King is ”astouned by the news”.
He is the one handing out the awards, so this is huuuuuge.
Go, King 👑!!!!
DEMANDS FOR THE RESIGNATION OF THE NOBEL FOUNDATION'S CEO
The Nobel Foundation reversed the decision to invite the 🇷🇺 ambassador to this year's award ceremony. But after the turbulence of the last few days, several critics demand that the CEO, Vidar Helgesen, resigns. 1/
🧵 There are numerous accounts from Ukrainians and others on the ground in Ukraine that the big humanitarian aid organizations are ”invisible” or ”just not there”. They might be just right.
🧵 In their commercials the UNHCR claim the help reaches its destination, directly or with the help of NGO’s and the 🇺🇦 authorities.
But when Kalla Fakta request an account of how the donations have been used, they get defensive and, quote …
SWEDEN SENDS RECORD-BIG SUPPORT PACKAGE TO 🇺🇦
Sweden 🇸🇪 is sending the largest military support package to Ukraine to date. The package is said to include military equipment worth ~ $680 million.
The contents of the support package will be revieled tomorrow, Tuesday.
”feels that especially one of the reporters is not suitable to investigate the UNHCR.” We will return to this remark later on.
The organization doesn’t want to share how they work ”behind the scenes”, so the KF team decides to analyze their commercials at their own accord.
🧵 The Swedish people have donated billions of 🪙 for Ukraine, and the Swedish UNHCR is the winner with SEK 1,5 billion (~ $150 mn) (early 2023). In addition, they were granted SEK 235 million (~ $23 mn) in tax funds from the 🇸🇪 Foreign Ministry and Sida (Swedish Aid Authority).
The Crimean Bridge is closed, and there is not_one_vessel crossing the strait.
Crossing my fingers for this meaning something really, really good. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
The KF team’s conclusion is, that the UNHCR went there to film and collect material in order to appeal to people's empathy and rake in donations, not to help rebuild the bombed village. The village still looks like this 👇🏼.
🧵 In the first three months of the full-scale war, 71% of the global donations went to the UN. At the same time, reports show that only a fraction of the actual aid came from UN organisations.
The vast majority comes from smaller, local help organizations.
YESSSSSSS!!! 💪🏼👑👏🏼
THE NOBEL FOUNDATION BACKS DOWN
The Nobel Foundation is backing away from the decision to invite ambassadors from Russia, Iran and Belarus, the foundation writes in a press release.
Source: TT
🧵 It was a picure taken for the management team, as I recall it.” It turns out, the picture was taken already back in 2018. At the question whether she was asked for her permission to use the picture on social media, her reply is ”No. No. No.”
🧵 CLAUDIA
🇸🇪 UNHCR have used a photo of Claudia where she poses with a blanket with the UNHCR logo. With the help of an interpreter they call Claudia. When asked if Claudia remembers this photo she replies ”Oh, that must have been taken in 2019 or 2020. […]
🧵 The UNHCR visited the family three times. The third time, Filippo Grandi, the big boss of UNHCR, came to visit. He promised them help rebuild their house. It never happened.
🧵🇸🇪 UNHCR have produced hundreds of ads and infomercials about the war in Ukraine where the majority are recorded outside of Ukraine. KF chooses to focus on what is presented as documentary, people who the UNHCR are helping on site in 🇺🇦.
🧵 The couple have never heard of that their pictures occur in commercials on social media. They thought they were taken for an article in order to show the world what is happening in Ukraine. ”To understand that the material is used to collect & earn money… we had no idea!”
🧵 The team contacts the couple who say yes, of course, we want to see those contracts, too, to make sure those are our signatures.
The KF team are never provided with the alledged contracts.
🧵 The UNHCR helped with a temporary refugee housing, a small tent with paper thin walls. ”It was useful during the summer”, they say, ”but it’s impossible to live in during wintertime, it’s like a freezer.”
🧵 At the time of the KF reportage, Lindholm Billing had a monthly income of SEK 350.000 or $35.000, far more than the Swedish Prime Minister.
Åsa Widell is the General Secretary of the Swedish UNHCR since 2018 to this day.
END
🧵 The UNHCR claims that Yury and Oksana had signed a contract which states what the material they collected can be used for their work. When KF asks the UNHCR to share the signed contracts, they claim Yury and Oksana don’t wish to share it.
🧵 The Swedish Representative UNHCR in Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing, claims their help has reached 4,3 million Ukrainians. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly requested to take part of where the funds go, but to no avail.
🧵 ”This is not a refugee center, it’s a taxfree shop on the Moldovan side. There has never been a refugee center there. I don’t understand why they have published this.”
The UNCHR didn’t go there to help people, they went there to get material for their ads.
🧵 YURY AND OKSANA
The couple had just finished building their new house which took them 13 years when the Russian full-scale war began. The house was completely destroyed in a missile strike in March 2022. The KF team visits the site in November 2022.
🧵 GREGORYI
Gregoryi is an elderly man who lives the Bucha area with his wife. His medical condition is bad so his wife speaks for him. ”They came & asked all these questions and asked if they could take pictures. What the pictures were for, I have no idea”, says Gregoryis wife.
🧵 KF sets out to follow the money trail. How much has been spent on salaries, rents, administration? For months, the team requests detailed information. When the team informs that they will publish the fact that, as the UNHCR have repeatedly failed to share data on budgets, …
🧵 They are asked if the UNHCR have presented them with some sort of contract, asked permission to use the photos, or offered them help. The reply is no, no and no.
🧵 ”MEDYKA REFUGEE CAMP, POLAND”
In a video purportedly shot at the Polish-Ukrainian border shows footage of refugees standing in line at a refugee center. Only, it’s not Medyka in Poland, it’s Palanca in Moldova. Anna Vynnyk, a 🇺🇦 volonteer in Odesa helping refugees, confirms.
🧵 they cannot publish the accounts of the donations and what they are actually spent on, something happens.
Åsa Widell, responsible for the 🇺🇦 account at the 🇸🇪 UNHCR office & former manager at TV4 who owns Kalla Fakta, wants to get in contact with the publisher of Kalla Fakta.
🧵 This obviously raises some concern with the TV4 team. They hand over the recorded conversation and emails to an expert in freedom of speech, one of the constitutions of Sweden.
His interpretation is that is could be a covert attempt to influence an upcoming publication.
🧵 She refuses to reply to KF’s emails so contact takes place over the phone. ”I find that especially one of the reporters are not suitable to investigate the UNHCR.” That’s Carolina Jemsby whos husband worked for the org 7 years ago & who didn’t get his contract extended.
Due to the EU’s decision to ban russian registered cars to enter the Union, Medvedev calls the sanction as racist and threatens to cut the diplomatic ties with the EU.
Who cares?
We. Don’t. Want. Anything. To. Do. With. You. Anyway.
🧵 The Police Security Service (PST) has for a number of years, most recently in February 2024, warned against increased intelligence from Russia in Norway, mostly in the north. Specifically, PST warns that Russia will acquire properties near military facilities.
🧵 Russians with ties to Putin's regime have owned cabins in the heart of Norway's defenses in the north since 2010.
At some of the cabins, paraboles with Cyrillic characters are installed.
🧵 Around Målslev there are several important Norwegian military facilities and the cottages in question have a view of Bardufoss air base. The Defense HQ and the Defense National Land Operations Center are also located here.
The fear is that such properties could be used for espionage or be taken over by the Russian authorities in a crisis or war.
TV 2 has therefore mapped properties in northern Norway that are owned by Russian citizens, including the cluster with the brown cabins at Bardufoss,
🧵 and investigated the owners' positions in Russian society.
When the mountain village in Målselv was under development in 2009, it was lured with new ski slopes in spectacular scenery.
🧵 TV 2 and Dossier Center now reveals that the owners of three of the cabins, in the middle of the military area, can today be connected to the Russian authorities.
The cabin 👇🏼 is owned by Igor Morar, the mayor of Murmansk for Vladimir Putin's party, "United Russia".
🧵At this time, Norway's relationship with Russia was characterized by hope for the future and a desire for cooperation.
In an attempt to attract Russian tourists, there was talk of setting up charter flights between Russia and Bardufoss.
This has also been the case for a long time in our neighboring countries.
In recent years, the Finnish authorities have tightened drastically. There, several property purchases have been stopped because the people have connections to the Russian authorities, or because the…
🧵 There it was mentioned in a supplementary sentence that one of the buyers sat in the Duma, without this being elaborated any further.
In Norway, it is almost free for foreign property buyers. A systematic check of the background of all private buyers is not a fixed routine.
🧵 A feature about the mountain village on Russian TV led to a flurry of calls, and when Russian people bought plots of land in the cabin field, it was reported in the local newspaper.
🧵 The cabin owners are listed with their full names at the 🇳🇴 Mapping Authority, which has an overview of all registered properties in Norway. Beyond this, it is difficult to find information about them on the internet.
🧵 properties are too close to military installations.
When TV 2 visits the mountain village, snow shovels are up against the wall of two of the brown cabins. The cabins are divided vertically, have the same building style and balconies on both sides.
🧵 TV 2 has therefore collaborated with Russian journalists in the internationally recognized Dossier Center. They have access to databases in Russia and work in exile.
🧵 The city is Russia's Arctic capital. The region is essential for the Russian military and houses the base for Russia's nuclear submarines.
TV 2 calls Igor Morar and says that they want to ask some questions about the purchase of the cabin and the use of the cabin.
🧵 - You know, I probably can't comment on this situation publicly, but I have no difficulties with the Norwegian authorities at the moment, says the mayor on the phone.
- Thank you, sorry, have it, he says, and hangs up.
🧵 The photo below, from last September, shows Igor Morar present during a large military ceremony.
On the same stage stands the commander of the Russian Northern Fleet, Admiral Aleksandr Moiseyev. The Northern Fleet is considered the biggest military threat to Norway.
🧵 Afterwards, TV 2 sent him questions by email, including about how often he or his family had used the cabin themselves. He has not responded to this inquiry.
🧵 Since 2013, he has been a prominent politician in the city of Murmansk. Since the cabin in the mountain village was built, the threat landscape in Europe has changed radically.
Russia annexed Krym in 2014 and went for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
🧵 Igor Morar became the owner of the cabin in Målselv Fjellandsby in 2010 together with his long-time business partner in Russia, Yury Vinogradchiy. They each own half.
Morar was then an established businessman in Russia.
🧵 In the same period, Igor Morar has risen through the ranks in Russia.
In 2018, he received a letter of thanks from Putin according to media reports. In April 2022, Igor Morar was elected mayor of the city of Murmansk. After this, he formally became a member of Putin's party.
🧵 Moiseyev was recently promoted to commander of the entire Russian Navy. The photo was published on Morar's Telegram account on September 1, 2023. TV 2 has marked Morar with a red ring. Aleksandr Moiseyev is standing in uniform to his right.
🧵 Only weeks later, he also published a post praising the war in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of four new counties.
"I congratulate us on the day of reunification of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Russia.”
🧵 Igor Morar was himself born in Luhansk.
Several sources tell TV 2 that Igor Morar has been to the mountain village several times.
His cabin has been available for rent via Målselv Fjellandsby for several years, both for Norwegian and foreign tourists.
🧵 From the brown-painted ridge on Governor Morar's cabin, a wire stretches across to the neighboring cabin.
The cabin on the right in the picture below is owned by a Russian woman. It was her father, Viktor Saygin, who bought the plot.
🧵 On the websites, tourists are lured to Northern Norway's largest winter sports venue, cabins with saunas, many beds and great views.
🇷🇺 authorities know that Igor Morar owns this cabin. He has stated this himself to the authorities in a self-declaration of properties abroad.
🧵 Viktor Saygin has close ties to the military in Russia and is a prominent regional politician in Putin's party. Saygin sits in the Duma in Murmansk, which is the region's legislative assembly. He is in his seventh term.
🧵 He is elected from the 14th constituency, which is the closed military city of Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet.
Only selected residents and visitors with special permits are allowed in there.
🧵 According to a former employee, it was Saygin who bought the daughter's cottage plot back in 2009.
Viktor Saygin is one of the richest politicians in Murmansk.
The land purchase, for NOK 550,000, was made with a credit card, through the ski cafe's bank terminal.
Today, MoD Pål Jonsson confirmed that the Swedish Government is positive to President Pavel’s request for Sweden to fund (parts of?) the ~800k artillery shells for 🇺🇦.
”It’s quite possible we can fund it, we are looking into it now”, he said.
🇺🇦🙏🏼🇸🇪
500K 155-MILLIMETER AMMUNITION FOR 🇺🇦 FOUND?
Czech President Pavel says he may have found sources from arms companies in South Korea, Turkey and South Africa for hundreds of thousands of artillery ammunition that could be delivered to Ukraine in a matter of weeks.
🧵 Saygin is also first deputy chairman of the county council's committee for security and military industry, i.e. the defense committee, according to information from the Duma.
TV 2 has spoken to neighbors and former and current employees in Målselv mountain village.
LET NATO SHOOT DOWN MISSILES FOR 🇺🇦
Now we’re talking! 🤩
A group of members of the German Bundestag is proposing that NATO shoot down Russian robots over 🇺🇦 airspace to relieve Ukrainian air defenses.
SWEDEN JOINS 🇨🇿 ARTILLEY SHELL INITIATIVE
The 🇸🇪 Government decided today that Sweden will contribute with ~$34 million SEK for the purchase of artillery shells to Ukraine 🇺🇦.
The contribution is part of the Czech initiative to provide Ukraine with 800,000 artillery shells.
CRASHED ✈️ IN BELGOROD
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, over 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war were allegedly on board.
This is completely contradictory to the info from Ukrainian official sources.
🇷🇺 making stuff up again? 🙄
@threadreaderapp
Addition:
In a follow-on interview, Åsa Widell says she regrets contacting the chief editor of Kalla Fakta. She also emphazises that the 🇸🇪 UNHCR is a stand-alone foundation which ”are not part of the global UNHCR organization” and ”receives no governmental financial aid.” 🤔
It’s evident that AT LEAST the Nobel Foundation’s CEO Vidar Helgesen must resign. The foundation single-handedly damaged the reputation of the
@NobelPrize
and the legacy of Alfred Nobel.
To show this kind of tonedeafness in a geopolitical situation as today is astounding.
Journalist K-G Bergström writes on X that "such a serious lack of judgment must have consequences" and believes that Helgesen and possibly others responsible must resign. Author Göran Rosenberg agrees and writes on X that the Nobel brand has been damaged. 2/
YES!! 🙌🏼
🇸🇪-🇫🇮 TO TRIPLE AMMUNITION MANUFACTURING IN SWEDEN
The Swedish state and 🇫🇮ammunition manufacturer Nammo receive support from EU 🇪🇺 to increase ammunition production. This means that Nammo's factory in 🇸🇪 will be vastly expanded. 👇🏼
TENFOLD INCREASED WEAPONS PRODUCTION IN FINLAND 🇫🇮
All the while, Europe's major countries are hesitating.
Anders Gardberg at 🇸🇪 Saab Group believes that Finland and Sweden belong to the countries that are now showing Europe the way. 👇🏼
The decision was met with a storm of criticism, with several high-ranking (Swedish) politicians threatening to boycott the event as long as the Russian ambassador was invited.
Ukraine described any Russian presence as "a huge victory for the Kremlin".
🧵 This organization has close ties to Russian intelligence and has for a number of years been at the forefront of spreading pro-Russian propaganda in the West, according to Meduza, which is an independent Russian online newspaper.
🧵 Saygin has several links to power in his home country.
He also has a central role in the 🇷🇺 Peace Foundation, an organization that carries out important foreign policy tasks for Putin.
He sits on the central board and is the top leader of the organization in Murmansk.
Russia systematically engages in espionage and sabotage on European and NATO soil.
WHY DO WE ALLOW THEM IN OUR COUNTRIES? They are already at war with us, get it already!
Here follows a selection of events in (mainly) Scandinavia recently (in reversed chronological order). 👇🏼
🧵 The supreme commander of the organization, Leonid Slutsky, was central to the annexation of the Ukrainian Krym peninsula in 2014 and has met Putin personally a number of times.
🧵 In March this year, over 20,000 soldiers were in northern Norway, also in this area, as part of the large-scale exercise Nordic Response.
During the exercise, allied forces trained to defend the Nordic region against a possible attack from Russia.
The foundation's CEO told several media yesterday that the strong reactions that came overshadowed the basis for the decision to invite the ambassadors of Russia, Iran and Belarus, and that they therefore chose to back off. 3/