Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
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Truth Or Lies (2015), Chapter 5 from The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder
"He who is deceived is turned into a thing."—Mikhail Bakhtin, 1943
“Information war is now the main type of war.” Dmitry Kiselev was in a position to know. He was the coordinator of the Russian state agency for international news, and the host of a popular Sunday evening program, Vesti Nedeli, that led the information offensive against Ukraine.
The first men the Kremlin sent to Ukraine, the spearpoint of the Russian invasion, were the political technologists. A war where Surkov commands is fought in unreality. He was in Crimea and Kyiv in February 2014, and served as Putin’s advisor on Ukraine thereafter. The Russian political technologist Alexander Borodai was the press officer for Crimea during its annexation. In summer 2014, the “prime ministers” of two newly invented “people’s republics” in Ukraine’s southeast were Russian media managers.
A modest affair in military terms, the Russian invasion of southern and then southeastern Ukraine involved the most sophisticated propaganda campaign in the history of warfare. The propaganda worked at two levels: first, as a direct assault on factuality, denying the obvious, even the war itself; second, as an unconditional proclamation of innocence, denying that Russia could be responsible for any wrong. No war was taking place, and it was thoroughly justified.
When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2014, President Putin lied with purpose. On February 28 he claimed, “We have no intention of rattling the sabre and sending troops to Crimea.” He had already sent troops to Crimea. At the moment he uttered these words, Russian troops had been marching through Ukrainian sovereign territory for four days. For that matter, the Night Wolves were in Crimea, following Russian soldiers around in a loud display of revving engines, a media stunt to make the Russian presence unmistakable. Even so, Putin chose to mock reporters who noted the basic facts. On March 4, he asserted that Russian soldiers were local Ukrainian citizens who had purchased their uniforms at local stores. “Why don’t you have a look at the post-Soviet states,” Putin proposed. “There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform.”
Putin was not trying to convince anyone in that post-Soviet world that Russia had not invaded Ukraine. Indeed, he took for granted that Ukrainian leaders would not believe his lie. The provisional Ukrainian government understood that Ukraine was under Russian attack, which is why it plead for an international response rather than reacting with military force. Had leaders in Kyiv believed Putin, they certainly would have ordered resistance. Putin’s aim was not to fool Ukrainians but to create a bond of willing ignorance with Russians, who were meant to understand that Putin was lying but to believe him anyway. As the reporter Charles Clover put it in his study of Lev Gumilev: “Putin has correctly surmised that lies unite rather than divide Russia’s political class. The greater and the more obvious the lie, the more his subjects demonstrate their loyalty by accepting it, and the more they participate in the great sacral mystery of Kremlin power.”
Putin’s direct assault on factuality might be called implausible deniability. By denying what everyone knew, Putin was creating unifying fictions at home and dilemmas in European and American newsrooms. Western journalists are taught to report the facts, and by March 4 the factual evidence that Russia had invaded Ukraine was overwhelming. Russian and Ukrainian journalists had filmed Russian soldiers marching through Crimea. Ukrainians were already calling Russian special forces “little green men,” a joking suggestion that the soldiers in their unmarked uniforms must have come from outer space. The soldiers could not speak Ukrainian; local Ukrainians were also quick to notice Russian slang particular to Russian cities and not used in Ukraine. As the reporter Ekaterina Sergatskova poin
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Truth Or Lies (2015), Chapter 5 from The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder
"He who is deceived is turned into a thing."—Mikhail Bakhtin, 1943
I read this and Jack immediately came to mind.
T
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Chapter Five from The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder
Truth Or Lies (2015)
Vladimir Antyufeyev was Russia’s leading specialist in the form of geopolitical theater known as “frozen conflict.” In a frozen conflict, Russia occupies small parts of a nearby country (Moldova since 1991, Georgia since 2008, Ukraine since 2014), and then presents its own occupation as an internal problem that prevents its neighbors from having closer relations with the European Union or NATO.
For Antyufeyev, the desires of the people of the Donbas were subordinate to the prerogatives of a far grander struggle against the European Union and the United States, which he portrayed as the Satanic West. He promised an offensive that would turn the tide in this global war. The Soviet Union had not collapsed, he said, because of its own problems, but because the West had deployed mysterious “destructive technologies”—this phrase, as in the Izborsk Club manifesto, meant “facts.” The Russian invasion of Ukraine, Antyufeyev said, must be understood as the self-defense of innocent Russians from an alliance between “the Freemasons of Europe and the United States” and “the fascists of Ukraine.” Antyufeyev had mastered schizofascism. Russia was at war against “fascists,” but these fascists were somehow in league with international “Freemasons.” The idea of a global conspiracy of Masons is fascist. Antyufeyev was using this fascist portrayal of the world to present himself as an anti-fascist.
Since Ukraine was the focus of the efforts of the global anti-Russian conspiracy, victory there, Antyufeyev thought, might change the world. The Russian intervention in Ukraine, Antyufeyev explained, was a defense of Russia’s natural gas and fresh water from a rapacious United States. It was all one struggle, but it could be won. In Antyufeyev’s view, “Ukraine is a disintegrating state. Exactly like the United States.” The destruction of the United States was both desirable and inevitable. “If the world were saved from demonic constructions such as the United States, it would be easier for everyone to live. And one of these days it will happen.”
Download all Timothy Snyder’s books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.boo/search.php?req=Timothy+Snyder
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Truth Or Lies (2015), Chapter 5 from The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder
"He who is deceived is turned into a thing."—Mikhail Bakhtin, 1943
I read this and Jack immediately came to mind.
T
Let's talk about how it's Mika Brazenski's job to control what you think, worm.
Meanwhile... It looks like Second ignored you again. The only guy left here that agrees with anything you think and he won't even acknowledge that you exist.
That's got to sting, huh?
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:I read what he wrote and it stood up well and didn't need me saying "Ditto!" like the Dittoheads who once listened to the Rush Limbaugh show. Before that fat lying sack of shit Rush Limbaugh died from smoking (get the message, 6ix) the fat lying sack of shit Trump gave Rush the Medal of Freedom for being the biggest asshole on talk radio.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Let's talk about how it's Mika Brazenski's job to control what you think, worm.
Meanwhile... It looks like Second ignored you again. The only guy left here that agrees with anything you think and he won't even acknowledge that you exist.
That's got to sting, huh?
6ix, you would fit in well with Dittoheads and the Russkies. They love being told that Putin is a fine man who will be reelected. They get angry when told Putin is a criminal just as 6ix gets angry when told Trump is a criminal.
Putin awards medals to soldiers accused of Bucha massacre
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-putin-meda
ls-bucha-b2060568.html
Limbaugh was visibly emotional as the president spoke about his longtime friend, who announced Monday that he's been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. He was one of the Trumps' special guests at the State of the Union address, which touched on economic development, school choice, health care, immigration and the military.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/05/why-did-trump-
give-medal-freedom-rush-limbaugh-during-sotu/4665020002/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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SECOND, you post endless bullshit about anything but the TOPIC OF THIS THREAD, which (in case you don't remember) is Ukraine.
RUSSIA!
PUTIN!
TRUMPTARDS!
LIMBAUGH!
I guess things must be going well for "your side" in Ukie-land, huh?
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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Quote:If you would shut up, Signym, nobody would know how meaningless your life is and how empty inside you actually are. The same is true of Medvelev:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Signym's brain farts stinking up the internet.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev leveraged comments about sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to continue information operations that portray the West as escalatory. Medvedev likely responded to Viktor Orban’s March 31 statements regarding alleged European discussions about sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine and stated that Russian forces would target the hypothetical peacekeepers.[16] Medvedev argued that a Western-led peacekeeping mission to Ukraine would end in tragedies reminiscent of Yugoslavia and other conflicts.[17] There are no indications outside of Orban’s comments that Western officials are seriously discussing such a proposal, and Medvedev likely used Orban’s comments to construct a straw man proposal to paint the West as trying to escalate the war in Ukraine.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept on March 31 that likely aims to support the Kremlin’s attempts to promote a potential anti-Western coalition.
• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko continues to use high-profile public statements to portray Belarus as a sovereign state despite its current de-facto occupation by Russian forces.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov promptly rejected Lukashenko’s suggestion of a ceasefire and indicated that the Kremlin is not interested in serious negotiations.
• Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev leveraged comments about sending peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to continue information operations that portray the West as escalatory.
• Russian forces continued ground attacks along the Svatove-Kreminna line.
• Russian forces made gains within Bakhmut and Ukrainian forces regained positions in the Bakhmut area.
• Russian forces continued offensive operations along the Avdiivka-Donetsk frontline.
• Ukrainian strikes against Russian concentration areas in southern Ukraine are likely causing the Russian grouping in the area to change tactics to avoid the risk of strikes.
• Russian officials continue to state that Russian forces have no plans for a formal second wave of mobilization.
• Russian officials continue to send Ukrainian children to camps in Russia.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-31-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I posted this back in May, 2014. It was true then, and even truer now. But both liberaloid losers and neocon jerkoffs refused to see the truth, bc it doesn't fit in with their "narrative".
Doods, ditch the narrative and wake up, before your fearless leaders eat you alive..
Quote:The pro-Nazi groups have since been folded into the regular army. There are a few in each unit, and they act like the Soviet Commissars were said to have acted in WWII: With pistols to the backs of the regular troops, enforcing loyalty to the cause.
It seems clear to me that the USA, the EU, and NATO are doing everything they can to provoke a war with Russia. This includes providing political cover and cookies and photo-ops with John McCain for Ukraine’s neo-Nazis, personally insulting Putin, breaking negotiated agreements with Russia, endlessly threatening sanctions, and lying in the press (with fake photos, fake flyers, and false reports).
The latest entry into the “provoke a war” campaign is the IMF. The IMF seems intent on pitting Ukraine into a death-match with Russia by threatening their loan status: Fight, or else your loan conditions will be ‘renegotiated’. Since Ukraine’s economy is hanging on ONLY by this thread, the IMF’s statement is an existential threat to the Kiev government.
At this juncture, there’s no point in trying to figure who is behind all this. With the entry of the IMF (and for all I know, the remainder of the troika: the European Commission and the European Central Bank ECB) into the fray, this is clearly a well-coordinated plan, with the USA and the EU and the IMF alternately taking turns to push the project forward, creating no discernable division of interest between them.
Until recently, the Kiev government has been reluctant to mobilize its army because the army itself is probably divided; there have been reports of “security forces” defecting to the east. Instead, the Kiev government has been trying to create citizen militias pro-Nazi groups and other irregular forces to take the place of the army.
Quote:Also, dragooning teens and old men off the streets to throw themselves into Russian artillery. Broken economy.
Since the IMF has threatened to renegotiate the loan status, Turchinov, the unelected President of Kiev… oops, I mean Ukraine… has reinstated the draft. I can't imagine what liberal pro-western Ukrainians are thinking now... "Doubled gas prices? Halved pensions? And now the draft???"
None of this would have happened if Germany and France held Kiev's feet to the fire and forced them to uphold the MinskII agreement. But all of those signatories later said that they lied (huh. A feature of the west.) when they signed the agreement and ony negotiated it to buy time to arm and train Ukrainians to continue their death-match with Russia.
Poor Ukrainian people. Inveigled into suicide. It didn't have to be this way.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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Quote:The Russian counterattack against the Ukrainian army was launched in July 2014 from the territory of the Russian Federation. It began with massive artillery barrages launched from the Russian side of the border. Evgeny Zhukov, one of the Ukrainian soldiers clearing a stretch of the border in the Luhansk region, recorded the consequences of the first Russian artillery barrage of July 11. Writing on his Facebook page that evening, he wished to correct reports that he and his men had been in a battle. That was not the case. They had been targeted, as he correctly stated, in “a carefully prepared, precisely rehearsed, and successful artillery strike on our military base at the Luhansk border from the Russian side.” He described as many of the seventy-nine people who were killed as he could. At the end of his post, he offered them all “a low bow.”
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I posted this back in May, 2014.
Zhukov was describing the first strike in a massive Russian artillery campaign directed against the Ukrainian army. It lasted for four weeks. Until August 8, Russian artillery fired regularly from at least sixty-six positions on the Russian side of the border. Units such as Zhukov’s were helpless. Ukraine was at a permanent disadvantage in the information war—some European and American observers were still uncertain that a war was going on, or that Russia was the aggressor. In this fog of stupefaction, a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory would have been a political disaster. And so the information war determined the conditions of the war on the ground. Russia could shell Ukraine from its own territory without consequences, but Ukraine could not consider responding in kind. Some Ukrainian soldiers under artillery fire even fled across the border to Russia, because they knew that Russian territory would be safe. Meanwhile, Russian journalists at the Russian-Ukrainian border had no difficulty in seeing that “Russia is shelling Ukraine from Russian territory.” Russian citizens in the border zone took videos of Russian soldiers in action. The Russian soldier Vadim Gregoriev, stationed in Mateiovo Kurgan, in Russia, posted proudly that “all night we pounded Ukraine.”
Armies usually evacuate civilians from an artillery range so that they will not be killed by the enemy’s return fire. Russian authorities gave no such orders, presumably because they were confident no counterstrike was coming. Children on the Russian side of the border, unlike children on the Ukrainian side of the border, learned to sleep through shelling: it was not directed at them. Some local Russians felt ill at ease about this one-way war, in which their farmsteads were used to rain down death on people not so different from themselves. But a sense of safety combined with television propaganda helped to resolve guilt: “It’s awful, but we’ve understood already that the shooting is not at us, but from us.” And if the shooting is “from us,” it must be right and good: “Our people are cleansing the border of fascists.” After all, said a local Russian, if “Nazis are committing genocide” on the Ukrainian side, then such unusual measures must be justified.
The Russian journalists who reported on the shelling were placing themselves at risk. One of them, Elena Racheva, found herself speaking to FSB officers in Kuibyshevo as the daily cannonade began. “Is that a Grad?” she asked, after they had all paused to listen to the roar characteristic of that artillery piece. All the FSB men smiled. “It was thunder,” said one. “I didn’t hear a thing,” said a second. “It was my wife calling,” was the joke of a third. “It’s a military salute,” was the final witticism. “You understand,” said Racheva, “that I can write about this.” And the threatening reply: “And then my colleagues will come and explain more persuasively that this was a salute.”
The Ukrainian army could not shell Russia, but it could shell Russian soldiers and their allies inside Ukraine. The Russian artillery campaign began only six days after Girkin withdrew his men to the ci
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One day after Russia began shelling Ukraine, Russian television provided a compelling escalation in the competition for innocence. On July 12, 2014 Pervyi Kanal told a stirring — and entirely fictional — story of a three-year-old Russian boy who was crucified by Ukrainian soldiers in Sloviansk. No evidence was provided, and independent Russian journalists noted the story’s problems: none of the people in the story existed, nor did the “Lenin Square” where the atrocity supposedly transpired. When confronted with this, Russia’s deputy minister for communications, Alexei Volin, said that ratings were all that mattered. People watched the cruci-fiction, so all was well.
It seems that Alexander Dugin personally invented the cruci-fiction, a version of which had already appeared on his personal social media. The image of a murdered innocent made Russia the Christ of nations and its war of aggression a response to diabolical cruelty. The purpose of the Russian intervention was nominally to protect speakers of Russian, or as Putin said, “the Russian world.” Since everyone on all sides of the conflict spoke Russian, the Russian intervention was killing Russian speakers rather than protecting them. The inconvenience of the factual was overcome by what Dugin liked to call “an archetype,” the killing of Jesus. A bloody and confusing war started by flawed Russian leaders that killed thousands of Russian speakers became the martyrdom of an innocent Russian body.
Russian television was the instrument of implausible deniability. It denied the presence of Russian special forces, secret services, commanders, volunteers, and weapons. Prominent Russian citizens such as Girkin, Borodai, and Antyufeyev appeared on Russian television screens, described as activists of “Novorossiia” or administrators of the “Donetsk People’s Republic.” The same Russian television channels that claimed Russian soldiers were Ukrainian volunteers released video of men at war in Ukraine with what were unmistakably advanced Russian weapons systems. The most modern Russian tanks, not available for foreign sale and never before seen outside Russia, appeared on Ukrainian territory. Russians were not meant to decide the factual question of whether or not their army was in Ukraine, which was obviously the case. They were meant to follow the cues of a television drama: if the voiceover instructed that Russians and their weapons were local, then that was the story to be followed.
Chapter Five, Truth Or Lies (2015), from The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder
Download all Timothy Snyder’s books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.boo/search.php?req=Timothy+Snyder
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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