There’s a scandal developing here in Denmark, where the Ukrainians have withdrawn the press credentials of Danish journalist Mathilde Kimer.
She’s an expert on Russian affairs and one of our most prominent journalists, currently nominated for the Danish version of a Pulitzer for her coverage of the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians are citing coverage that they perceive as too Russian-friendly.
That’s ironic, because the Russians also banned her from entering Russia earlier in the year. She lived in Moscow with her family, so that was a pretty severe sanction.
To make matters worse, the SBU has informed her that she can have her credentials back if she agrees to write more positive stories about Ukraine, based on materials supplied to her by the Ukrainian authorities.
Needless to say, that’s a hard pass. Danish national television and the Danish association of journalists are up in arms, and the Danish foreign ministry has been forced to react.
I hope they issue an apology within days, but it’s another unforced error that triggers national headlines in an allied country.
TIL that tanks are fitted with horns:
Fun thing with those recruitment ads. I didn’t see any translated versions which is might be good for your mental health, but you can just look at those visuals. Those patriotic ads portray life in Russia as if they’re depressive art house movies from the nineties. Life if miserable, your only hope is going into a recruitment center.
Russian journalists talked to some actors because people thought it’s an Ukrainian fake. Here are some translated quotes from the report:
(В соцсетях разгоняют ролики, где россиян зазывают на войну. Мы спросили актеров, зачем они в них снимаются)
“[Filmed] for a living. The fee was 8,000,” actor Alexei Zheleznyak told [us]. He played a friend of the main character who decided to go to war, because in his town “two options for life: either to drink and waste your life, or go to jail.”
When asked if he supported the message of such videos, Alexei Zheleznyak, after a pause, answered uncertainly that he did, and hunged up.
(…)
Alexander Knyazev played the head of a factory, to which an employee comes to quit his job, saying: “I’ve been driving a tractor for 15 years, I raised my son, but the tractor is still the same. I signed a contract at the military enlistment office, I’m going to get a new APC.” (…)
Nevertheless, Alexander does not believe that these videos can do much harm to anyone, unlike the aggressive military propaganda on television: “My participation in this little interlude is so minuscule, so drip, it cannot be compared with all the propaganda that goes on in our country on all channels. It is a drop in the ocean. I don’t even know who will see this video. Of course, I regret a little [about the shooting]. But I hope it all passes the viewer by. And the viewer, in general, has to think for himself. The same Bezrukov (famous Russian actor) advertises some banks, but people have to think before they go to that bank, even if Bezrukov recommends it. And so in this situation: think with your head whether or not to go into this APC. People die through their own fault, not mine. We have a lot of fools. There are a lot of fools who go voluntarily, who go by summons, without asking unnecessary questions.”
Grifman
21612
Damn, I can’t believe he did this:
First, he goes to probably the most dangerous place in the war, making Putin look like a scared child hiding in the Kremlin. Secondly, the Ukrainians must feel pretty confident that they can hold the city - it would be embarrassing to go there and then lose the city a couple of weeks later.
I wonder if there is some pattern to Russian artillery - I’d be scared to death of a random shell killing him.
What a hero. That first shot looks like a movie still.
Say what you want about Zelensky–and he’s no saint, for sure, though he is funny–the guy walks the walk. I imagine the soldiers will forgive a lot for a commander in chief who checks off all those boxes.
abrandt
21615
I’m imagining Zelensky laughing his ass off the whole way home knowing how much what he had just done was going to piss off Putin.
Zelensky is on the way to DC. First time he’s left Ukraine since the war started.
That’s horrible. I mean, no sympathy for the Russian invaders per se, but man, ugh. I can only imagine a lot of those people ended up in jail in the first place for reasons other than sheer moral turpitude; I can’t really blame them for “volunteering” for Wagner either given the alternatives. Sure, if it’s a choice, better them than the Ukrainians, but still…
New real quote from Putin: fighters in the Special Military Operation fight in the same way as in the war of 1812, the First World War and the Great Patriotic War.
Just in case, the war of 1812 is Napoleon’s invasion of Russia with the biggest army ever, not that weird little skirmish English people call the war of 1812 for some reason.
Lurb
21620
Translated: “when we run out of even WWII Mosin rifles, mobiks will get napoleonic smooth bore muskets”
abrandt
21621
If you consider all of Ukraine part of Russia, like Putin does, then I could see how you could perceive a similarly large invasion of Russian lands. Now if only his people saw it that way.
Yeah, that’ll get them lining up outside the recruiting stations /s
The upper limit of the age of draftees is upped to 30 in Russia. It was previously 27. It’s not connected to mobilization, it’s about the regular draft. Everything still seems to go according to plan.
abrandt
21624
And they lengthened the service time for draftees too, right?
No. There were some statements about it but they were retracted. Just testing the waters probably.
Legally draftees can’t be sent to any real combat. However after 6 months of training they can “volunteer”. Well, you know. People are probably less afraid to go into this “safe” service so it might work better than mobilization.
JDAMS are the GPS guidance kit that can be fitted to standard sized bombs, and that they’re on the list must mean that people are confident that they can be fitted to Ukrainian bombs and integrated with their cockpit electronics. That’s a big upgrade for the Ukrainian air force, and will also make their ground attacks safer (because JDAMS bombs can be released quite a long way from the target).
schurem
21627
Against geolocated targers (ie fixed, you know its there) JDAM is a motherfucker of a game changer. Suddenly you no longer need line of sight from the launching platform, let alone needing to overfly it.
You just race at it, in the weeds, at the speed if heat. At the outer edge of the envelope you pull up, loft those babies into the orcs general direction and gtfo like you got caught cuckolding Mike Tyson. The guidance of the bombs will do the rest for a (published) circular error probabilities of like a meter. Awesome.
