Wagner group are murderers for hire. And the top oligarch himself, Prigozhin needs to fall out a window real soon. He's using twenty something and teen convicts.
Ukraine war: Russia's Wagner Group commander requests Norway asylum
A message to all who see Christian vales under threat by naughty Democrats and others who support inclusivity of groups who have, for different reasons, been persecuted for a period longer than any of us have lived. Putin feels as you do. See excerpt from a post of December, 2022:
'Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow'
Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? [...] We have heard a lot of ranting from Putin about the threat to Russia from Nato encirclement and justifications for the invasion to denazify Ukraine .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine .. and stop their genocide of Russians. This is all propaganda and nonsense. What has been missed is the religious dimension in Putin’s thinking, although in delegitimising Ukraine, he did refer to it as an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space.
This spiritual space is an important clue often overlooked. In 988 Vladimir king of the Rus was the first Christian convert. In Kyiv he summoned the whole city to the banks of the Dnieper River for a mass baptism. Holy Mother Russia was born. In 2019 the Ukrainian church broke with the Russian church and declared its independence. But Putin and the Russian church will not accept this because it is the site of the imagined mother church for all the Rus.
I was encouraged to read that some 176 Russian Orthodox priests .. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-orthodox-clerics-stop-war-ukrane/31730667.html .. a few days ago had signed an open letter condemning the war. This is a small crack in Putin’s complete capture of the church within Russia. Such signs of dissent point to a recovery of the Gospel of peace and transcends the Rus religious tribe.
Despite the Bolshevik years, this sense of a holy destiny of Kyiv and Mother Russia has never left and Putin is its champion. Under Putin the Orthodox church has boasted that it is building and opening three churches a day, and the church celebrated the return of Crimea. Little wonder the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill a decade ago called Putin “a miracle of God .. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-putin-religion-idUKTRE81722Y20120208 ”.
And in Putin’s mind it goes further.
Just as he probed me about Christianity .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/christianity .. in the west, he reportedly said in a speech in 2013: “We see many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of western civilisation. They are denying the moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual.”
Kyiv must be taken, in his mind, to preserve the Christian battle. And there may be many Christians in the west who agree with some of his sentiments.
A miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? Well, it is Ukrainian Christians among others whom he is now slaughtering indiscriminately and he has little understanding of Jesus, who said “blessed are the peacemakers”.
No, this is a power vision threaded through with nationalistic Christian theology. And evil is the right word when a leader uses religion to justify in God’s name invasion, violence and annihilation.
* Tim Costello is a fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney
Belgorod: the Russian region being dragged into Putin’s war on Ukraine
March 1, 2023, 1st Belgorod mention this board -- "Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow [...]The strikes caused a nervous day in Russia, where airspace was closed over St Petersburg and hackers managed to broadcast a “missile strike threat” over several TV channels and radio stations in the Moscow and St Petersburg regions, as well as areas closer to the border with Ukraine, Voronezh and Belgorod"
Interesting action in belgorod (russian territory). Why there is penetration in that area is interesting. P - And the wagner paramilitary group asshole again has claimed he will withdraw from bakhmut again by this week. And yet today there's conflicting sources of who controls that city. Why leave if under your control? May 22 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171963794
On the border with Ukraine, Belgorod has been plagued by unclaimed attacks, explosions and Russian friendly fire since the outbreak of the conflict
Jonathan Yerushalmy Tue 23 May 2023 16.25 AEST Last modified on Wed 24 May 2023 08.18 AEST
The letter Z, a symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is displayed in Belgorod. Photograph: Victor Berezkin/Zuma Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock
On a cool night in April, a Russian warplane dropped a bomb on to a busy city, ripping up the road and sending debris flying across the highway. No one was killed, but the explosion was so powerful that it left a 20-metre crater in the ground and blew a parked car on to the roof of a nearby shop.
Belgorod, a city and a region more than 600km from Moscow, is just over half an hour’s drive from the border with Ukraine, making it a vital stop for Russian supply lines, but also uniquely vulnerable.
While in Moscow and St Petersburg, the effects of Russia’s invasion can be seen in the surging costs of daily life, in Belgorod the rattle of distant explosions can be felt underfoot and the sound of the conflict is audible in towns and cities.
Anti-Putin militia claims to have captured Russian border town – video
Ukraine has disavowed any connection to the Russian partisan fighters. Another anti-Kremlin militia has said it also took part in the raid, but it was only the latest example of violence hitting the Belgorod region.
Russian rockets launched at Ukraine from Russia’s Belgorod region. Photograph: Vadim Belikov/AP
Throughout the war, Ukraine has mostly denied responsibility for attacks on Russian territory; the supply of US and other western weapons to Ukraine is contingent that they not be used to strike targets inside Russia.
But with a grim irony, it’s perhaps the Russian army itself that has proven to be most disruptive to the citizens of Belgorod. Increasingly plagued by mismanagement and poor morale, Russian troops have been found responsible for a series of attacks, accidents and explosion that have fed the growing disorder in the region.
In October, 11 Russian troops were killed when two fellow volunteers opened fire at a military training ground in the Belgorod region. An explosion caused by the “careless” handling of a grenade at an ammunition store killed three and injured 16 in January.
In the aftermath, thousands of people were evacuated from the city while an explosive close to the 20-metre crater was disposed of, according to the Tass news agency.
The aftermath of an accidental Russian strike on Belgorod Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
‘Split between two countries’
For almost a decade, Belgorod has come face to face with the violence that Russia has unleashed upon Ukraine. After fighting between Ukraine and Russian separatists broke out in the east of the country in 2014, thousands of Ukrainians fled across the border as refugees. By October 2014, Belgorod city authorities said more than 60,000 displaced Ukrainians had come to the region.
Since the war broke out in February 2022, there have been reports of thousands more crossing over, particularly since the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in September last year.
Prior to 2014, Russians in Belgorod travelled regularly to Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second biggest city. With only 80km between the two cities, cross-border friendships, relationships and families were not uncommon.
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