An officer of the Ukrainian army was arrested by Russian authorities in Mariupol for raping a woman at gunpoint & murdering her husband, who tried to stop the rape. He has since confessed to the crime & explained it with the "suspected pro-Russian views" of the couple. https://t.me/readovkanews/32467

Donetsk war reporter Dmitry Astrakhan sharing his thoughts on why Azov is being so stubborn in Mariupol:

Many are wondering why the Ukrainian military at the encircled Azovstal are still sitting and sabotaging any negotiations. What motivates their frantic requests? There are theories about the secrets they are hiding in the dungeons. There are theories about the help they are waiting for.

But I think it is a little more complicated than that. We have to understand who we're dealing with. These are people who have existed for years in an atmosphere of absolute impunity, one has only to utter the magic words "for the nation" and everything is possible. They were freed from police custody and courts as teenagers, they were traded out of captivity, they went through the "corridors" of Ilovaysk and the Airport. They were never held accountable for anything, neither criminal nor military. They were not even publicly condemned, on the contrary, they became heroes of Ukraine.

In the heads of those sitting at Azovstal, there is basically no sense that this is the end. That Ada Rogovtseva, Angelina Jolie, the Pope and their “brothers” will not come and drag them all out of there with banners raised, and straight to the award ceremony. Of course, they realize that any particular individual may not see this moment. But a general defeat, much less a trial of the survivors, is absolutely beyond their minds. So, they calmly hold the hostages and wait. From their point of view, everything must end as it always does. They simply do not believe that the end can come, it contradicts all their upbringing and life experience of the last 10 years.

8 years ago, on May 2nd 2014, Ukrainian radicals murdered at least 42 people in Odessa for the crime of being Russian. They burned them alive. They had tacit approval from the government; no one was punished. From that day on, it was clear that war had become inevitable. The War in Donbass had barely started; after May 2nd, 1000s of volunteers from Odessa & Russia joined the Militias. Ukrainian social networks were full of “funny” videos of people jumping to their deaths to escape the fire. Restaurants added "Vatnik shashlik" to their menus. Young girls poured the Molotov cocktails that lit the Trade Union House on fire; Ukrainian politicians joked about “the traditional May BBQ” for years; people who were involved in the massacre are now popular bloggers, pundits, advisors, military leaders.

A poem by Odessan poet Vadim Negaturov, who perished in the flames on May 2nd:

I am God's slave. And I am happy with this share.
I am valued at an unimaginable price.
It is not a brazen dollar paid for me,
Not a proud pound, nor a king's gold.

Not for a bucket of jewels,
Not for a chest of skins and furs,
Not for food I was redeemed from captivity
Of sickness and death and fear and sin.

I have been redeemed by the Holy Blood of Christ,
I have received Love instead of shackles.
I am called a slave... But I am not of the class
Of humiliated and cursed slaves.

In me the Creator hath found a son of his own,
Though I was sinful and spiritually weak.
And I am free forevermore.
Yet I am a slave... I am a willing slave!

I am God's slave, so I am free
From the circumstances of time and place.
I gladly wear the Lord's brand.
A simple Orthodox cross on my neck.

That cross is neither amulet nor emblem,
But it marks the stage of life,
That for the rest of my time
I am God's humble and willing servant.

British fighter Andrew Hill, currently in the custody of DPR forces, comes out with a message to other foreign fighters in Ukraine. https://t.me/RtrDonetsk/5390

Go check out our interview with Clint Ehrlich over at IM—1776. It was an interesting format & Clint asked very smart questions.

Description of the video:

"I don't usually post this kind of thing, in case anyone has noticed. Videos like this.
But this is an outrageous story, even by the standards of the current military situation.

Sent to me by officers who went through the Second Chechen War and whom I know personally.

Ukrainian soldiers were killed when our troops attacked. Their brothers-in-arms abandoned the bodies of the dead and left. Our guys went out to the enemy several times. They asked for the bodies to be removed so the soldiers could be given a proper burial. They promised a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor. No response.

A perfect picture of the state of affairs in the AFU.

In the end, the Russian military decided to remove the bodies of the AFU soldiers and bury them. The moment the truck arrived in the wooded area for the second time, Ukrainian artillery hit the area.

And the Russian soldiers took the bodies of the dead AFU soldiers to our rear to bury them in a mass grave under AFU fire. Because our guys remain human beings. Always. Unlike others.

What can I add? In Ukraine now another mobilization begins. The Ukrainian military and their relatives should think carefully about what is going on."

Мое большое интервью про 2е мая и не только. Должно было выйти на нескольких ресурсах. Но...)))

Что характерно, только англоязычная RT нашла в себе достаточно решимости опубликовать всё так, как было сказано и как есть.

За что парням respect.
Вы - журналисты.👊

Так держать!

'An act of genocide': A witness recalls the 2014 Odessa massacre

RT spoke to a pro-Russia doctor from Odessa who was jailed by Ukraine for his political views
The tragedy that occurred in Odessa on May 2, 2014, no doubt gave impetus to the escalating political crisis in Ukraine. Many in fact consider it a point of no return that opened the door to a full-out civil war. But the Odessa tragedy did not only make many in southeastern Ukraine take up arms. It also made those among Ukraine’s own population supportive of Russia aware of the fact that Ukrainian nationalists were prepared to kill their adversaries. RT talked to Vladimir Grubnik, Ph.D. in Medicine, who participated in the Odessa protests on May 2, 2014, and spent over four years in a Ukrainian prison for his political views. He told RT what May 2, 2014 represents for the Russian population of Ukraine and for the Russian identity of those who live in the country’s southeast.

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Перевод ниже👇👇👇

"Civilians and soldiers in Kharkov, shouting 'this is Ukraine', began beating a Lugansk People's Republic prisoner lying on the ground with his hands tied. The crowd was not at all embarrassed by the presence of journalists, and the author of the video behind the scenes even said 'don't touch them while I'm filming'. It's not hard to guess what fate awaits the Donbass defender after the camera is turned off." https://t.me/readovkanews/33061

Azov base in Mariupol, before and after. https://t.me/rsotmdivision/49

A popular Ukrainian Telegram channel. Translation:

#rumors
Our source reports that our General Staff is being urged by our "partners" to create a big information victory before May 9.
Everyone understands that soon Azov will fall in Mariupol and the Russians will have a lot of prisoners, which will launch a big informational shitstorm against the government, so that this does not happen, we need to create a counterbalance.
That is why there were attempts to storm Snake Island. There is no result yet, the casualties aren't reported.
The Russian Navy ship wasn't sunk and safely departed to its home port.

Also the AFU is stepping up the offensive in the Kharkov direction, but the victories are too small, it looks more like the AFU is being lured into the depths of the Russian defense.
The situation at the Office of the President is difficult, they are being rushed.
There are options for creating a "tragedy", but the effectiveness must be several times higher than it was from the tragedy in Kramatorsk.
We're observing. https://t.me/legitimniy/12025

In 1,000 years anthropologists will think that cats were sacred totem animals for Russian soldiers https://t.me/grey_zone/13987

Victory Day PR video by "For Faith and Fatherland", the Orthodox choir of the Russian Engineer Troops, shot at the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces. They're singing "Farewell of Slavianka". https://t.me/milchronicles/463

New episode! Frontline Sitrep, mobilization(?), Ukrainian TikTok PsyOps, newest Russian weapons, lend-lease, Victory Day, the bloody spectacle, French dogs. Go check it out, the episode is free: Patreon, Gumroad, Anchor

A Polish journalist tried to provoke the Russian ambassador after he was assaulted with red paint in Warsaw yesterday.
"You are covered in the blood of the Ukrainian people, which this paint symbolizes, how do you feel?" the Polish journalist began.
"I am covered in syrup," replied Sergey Andreev.
- "But it symbolizes blood..."
"It symbolizes theater. The theater here and the theater in Bucha," the ambassador replied. https://t.me/Cbpub/30029

A friend's observation:

Often the logic of Ukrainian propaganda can be reconstructed by understanding that they want to get even for 2014-2015.

For example: in February, there were claims about two downed IL-76s of the Russian Armed Forces in Kiev oblast. Why? Remember the IL-76 of the 24th Air Assault Regiment over Lugansk?

At the end of March, they allegedly surrounded Russian forces in Bucha and Gostomel. Where did that come from? The Ilovaysk cauldron.

And then there was a rumor recently that Russia wants to hold a POW parade on May 9th. And where did that come from? There was a POW parade arranged 7 years ago in Donetsk. Well, obviously: if then the DPR showed 50 POWs in the streets, now they will show a thousand in Moscow.

And so on and so forth. They have a pattern. Sometimes they have an anti-pattern.

This seems to be very true. If you look at many aspects of Ukrainian war propaganda, you can clearly see that it's projection. The frankly ridiculous war crime accusations against Russian soldiers mirror what the degenerate Ukrainian "Volunteer Battalions" were actually doing in Donbass, the stories about Russian soldiers being astounded at how rich Ukrainians are are a way to "get even" for millions of Ukrainian guest workers seeking prosperity in Russia over the last decades, fantasies about VDV units getting wiped out are compensation for Ukrainian Air Assault units getting humiliated by coal miner militias in 2014., etc, etc. It's a really good framework to understand what's happening there.

Aidan Aslin, the British fighter captured by Russian forces in Mariupol & currently a prisoner of war in Donetsk, has recorded a message to the admin of "DPR Joker", a Telegram channel that posts leaks about the Ukrainian army and intelligence services. We're living in the weirdest timeline. https://t.me/JokerDPR/85

Ukrainians surrendering at Azovstal https://t.me/Ministerstvo_oborony/23933

New episode! News from the front, daily life in Russia & Donbass, “a digression on sushi culture in Donetsk”, Azov going ✋🤚 & some background on them, the elusive Wagner “musicians”, some general context on right-wing extremism in modern militaries & “glowing in the dark”. Check it out - the episode is free. Available on Patreon, Gumroad or Anchor.