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WS68's avatar

Let's hope social media sees the reality and shines a light on what is happening.

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Elena's avatar

Well it`s next to nothing in the media concerning the resignation of Drapaty. Let us hope he survives.

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Lukas's avatar

Wait, was this supposed to make me feel better? Or is that your sarcasm at work?

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

Oh, that's as simple as Israeli nuclear weapons.

They're maintaining 'nuclear ambiguity', and I'm maintaining 'sarcasm ambiguity'.... ;-)

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James Coffey's avatar

I do not perceive any ambiguity in your sarcasm. Rather, your sarcasm sticks out like a SORE THUMB! **LOL** Please keep it up! The news you report is so frequently so dreary that only your saracasm, that I enjoy as a type of black humor, gets me through all the disheartening news. Yes, disheartening for some reason even when the Ukrainians win in particular circumstances.

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Hans Torvatn's avatar

I agree. I did detect sarcasm though. But then I don’t always understand Tom’s writing so I guess I must have missed out on the ambiguity. Like the Israeli nukes really. No ambiguity. (Us Norwegians know, after all we sold them the means of making nukes.)

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Oskar Krempl's avatar

Those idiots inside the government act like the idiots they are and so everything is very plausible. We have a saying in Austria, which freely translated sounds like that: "The fish starts stinking at the head".

Seems as if there is a big lack of leadership, as in many places on this planet too (one leads from the front, one commands from the back).

But what I still don't understand is why Syrsky isn't already in 'pension'.

Anyway, a very big "thank you" for the article.

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Alas Atar's avatar

Syrsky shall be in prison, not in 'pension'.

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Oskar Krempl's avatar

I understand your feelings, but sorry that is the most unlikely event ever to happen. Stupidity, no matter how big the consequences are, is itself no crime. The situation is different if it happens on purpose, because then it would be treason, but one has to proof it.

That idiot has risen so high, that the easiest solution would be to send him into pension for some physical 'reason' (=pretext) and by this saving the 'face' of the government.

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Moriarty's avatar

Ukraine is not a country where law and order reign. Usually the government never puts any of its loyal and convenient people in prison. I don't remember a single specific case in the last 11 years when someone was imprisoned and that person served the full term. Usually, first they make a show of a high-profile arrest, then they dismiss him from his position, then a court case, the delay of this court case, then all charges are dropped due to the statute of limitations and lack of evidence. After some time, this corrupt official or criminal is reinstated in his position or takes another position in some other region of Ukraine. In our neo-feudalism, anything is possible if you have a roof in the higher echelons of power and money. It makes me laugh when someone on TV says that we are a young democracy. In reality, it is just an oligarchic fiefdom of looters and criminals. The system is no different from the looters of the Bandit-Chekists from the Kremlin or other post-Soviet republics. By the way, this is exactly why Maidan emerged as a phenomenon of an outraged people driven to despair by the looters in power, and not because we wanted to join the EU or NATO. Immediately after this popular uprising across the country, where the police, together with criminals from sports clubs, killed civilians on the streets of cities, the occupation of Crimea and the war in Donbas took place.

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Moriarty's avatar

Would you like me to give you a specific example of how this happens in Ukrainian realities?

Video from "Channel 5" which belongs to the former looter president Poroshenko (Waltzman). General Marchenko was released from the courtroom where he was accused of corruption schemes involving the embezzlement of 100 million hryvnias. This pig Marchenko, together with a pseudo-volunteer from Poroshenko, a certain Yuri Biryukov, created a corruption scheme based on the difference in the purchase price of bulletproof vests and stole 100 million.

https://youtu.be/PToWVErW9yg?si=ffdO49UxPo9cwUn7

In the video at 4:09, you can see how the pseudo-volunteer-swindler Yuriy Biryukov hands over the phone to General Marchenko. Do you know what Marchenko's first words were when he left the pre-trial detention center? He said that his "father" was calling him, that is, Poroshenko personally. Poroshenko, as president, was the guarantor of corruption in Ukraine.

Radio Liberty: The Case of Marchenko's "Bulletproof Vests"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.radiosvoboda.org/amp/bronezhylety-marchenka/30272326.html

Censor.net: The Ministry of Defense will not yet recall the bulletproof vests that were used to arrest Major General Marchenko and other officials

https://censor.net/ru/news/3174694/minoborony_poka_ne_budet_otzyvat_bronejilety_izza_kotoryh_arestovyvali_generalmayiora_marchenko_i_drugih

By the way, someone spread a rumor at the beginning of the war that it was thanks to General Marchenko that the city of Mykolaiv was saved in early 2022, which, in my opinion, is complete nonsense.

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Old_B's avatar

There's nothing bad in being very skeptical towards Ukrainian government.

But pushing a Russian conspiracy that former Ukrainian president is SECRETLY A JEW is beyond the line of reasonable.

As well as denying Maidan protesters wanted Ukraine to return to its EU path which they stated as their goal. This is proper alternative history.

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Moriarty's avatar

«But pushing a Russian conspiracy that former Ukrainian president is SECRETLY A JEW is beyond the line of reasonable» –Yes, I know. Various information resources associated with Poroshenko and his friends constantly write about this. It would be strange if they didn't whitewash the ass of their looting boss. Poroshenko is a thief and the son of a thief. Simply put, he is a hereditary thief. Poroshenko's father had the surname Waltzman, he was a Romanian Jew who changed his own surname to a Ukrainian one.

One of the fragments of the biography of Poroshenko's father. I

Quote: «Oleksiy Ivanovich Poroshenko, former co-owner and general director of Ukrprominvest CJSC, is now a Hero of Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko awarded the title of Hero to his relative, as they say, for his services to the Maidan 2004), and was previously convicted (in 1986 he went to prison). The Supreme Court of the Moldavian SSR found him guilty of committing a crime under Articles 155-1, 123 Part 2, 220 Part 2, 227 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Moldovan SSR (theft of property by a group of persons; acquisition of property obtained by criminal means; carrying, storing, acquiring weapons). Oleksiy Ivanovich received 5 years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony with confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to hold managerial positions for a period of 5 years».

He just stole a little, falsified reports a little, gave a little bribe, kept a little weapons… By the way, regarding weapons, the Poroshenko family's first significant capital was obtained by smuggling from Transnistria, including weapons smuggling.

«As well as denying Maidan protesters wanted Ukraine to return to its EU path which they stated as their goal. This is proper alternative history» – It's not me confusing or making something up, it's you announcing things that were loudly proclaimed from the podium of the Maidan and widely disseminated by the oligarchic media. You are confused in the chronology of the events of those times. The vast majority of Ukrainians wanted a complete change in the system of government. They were not satisfied with all these negotiations and bargaining between the self-proclaimed "Maidan leaders" and Yanukovych, who wanted to talk and diffuse the protests so that people would go home. When the stage and flags of political parties appeared on the Maidan, it immediately became clear that the oligarchs had joined the protest so that their oligarchic people would arbitrarily lead the protests. Their main task was to negotiate with Yanukovych for a long time, bargain for something for themselves, and then lower the level of protests and force people to disperse. The right wing of the nationalists, which was the most active, they wanted to push this to real riots and a change of power. Most ordinary Ukrainians also wanted this. The flags of the European Union brought with them political parties and their bought electorate, because politicians do not have real large human capital and support.

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Old_B's avatar

No way I'm reading this wall of text after you called Poroshenko Jewish.

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Moriarty's avatar

Article from 2013

Israeli Forbes included Akhmetov, Pinchuk and Poroshenko in the list of 165 richest Jews in the world

https://zn.ua/ukr/ECONOMICS/izrayilskiy-forbes-vklyuchiv-ahmetova-pinchuka-i-poroshenka-do-spisku-165-naybagatshih-yevreyiv-svitu-120733_.html

I quote: «By Dr. Patrick Slattery — CNN has anointed oligarch Petro Poroshenko, whose empire includes a confectionary business, Ukraine’s new president after Poroshenko claimed 56% of the vote in Sunday’s election. The Jewish Daily Forward newspaper has indicated that Poroshenko is at least half Jewish, and it now seems that Ukraine will get a Jewish president to go along with the its Jewish prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk».

https://davidduke.com/ukraine-presidential-frontrunner-petro-poroshenko-secret-jewish-roots/

My complaints against Poroshenko (Waltzman) are not that he is a Jew, but that he is a cynical scoundrel and a looter who has caused terrible harm to Ukraine. Jewish roots only help to find some interesting connections that undoubtedly exist and which some are trying to hide.

p.s I don't care at all whether you understand my arguments or not. I'm used to soberly assessing real reality and focusing only on facts, not on someone's manipulations and lies.

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Moriarty's avatar

Here is a video from ten years ago of the events on the Maidan. This is a real confession of a real participant of those events from the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro), he is interviewing another Ukrainian blogger from the city of Cherkasy. He tells the true course of events, which differ from what has been widely publicized by the oligarchic media.

https://www.youtube.com/live/jn15cHpMnpY?si=4Q9aVobb4BHAWK2l

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James Touza's avatar

Tom lines it out with and without sarcasm, and it helps me balance the UHRAH enthusiasm I hear from other sources. How Kyiv sees these problems after three years of war yet won’t correct them is beyond me.

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Paul Stone's avatar

In English, it’s “The fish rots from the head”.

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Md. Al-Imran Abir's avatar

This sounds awfully similar to the Bangladeshi govt playbook - promoting the incompetent, corrupt ones over the competent, professional ones and making life so hard for the latter that they are either forced to leave or give up and the politicians can loot the country w/o much obstacles with the help of the former.

N.B. This has changed little bit in the last 10 months due to appointments of some technocrats at different top positions, however the system remains more or less the same as before.

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Cliff Pennalligen's avatar

This kind of change takes time, even revolutions don't change things instantly. After the French revolution there was 100 years of strife. I am sure Bangladesh can get there.

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Alas Atar's avatar

The greatest article. Very eye-opening truth about political and military so called "leaders" in Ukraine (who work for russian enemy) for western suckers feeded by propaganda. Thanks Tom for you to stay with Ukraine and its people.

By the wway, Syrsky was responsible for Debaltseve encirclement of Ukrainian forces in 2015 when he deliberately allowed enemy to occupy a key village Logvinove.

https://peremoga.com.ua/vijna/1514/

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Engerl's avatar

Thank you so much, Tom. Best and warmest wishes.

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Inspired defender of Ukraine's avatar

The story about Drapaty is quite interesting. My first impression was that it's a disaster. Drapaty's deputies 'have eaten' their chief. The deputies of the Commander of the Ground Forces sabotaged his commands and set up the chief. But then I've realised that Drapaty isn't ordinary; he is quite smart. He provides their own play.

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

Recommendation: check his re-organisation of the 155th Mech Brigade (the one disintegrated by Syrsky while still in the process of organisation and training abroad).

...meanwhile, it's one of the best in the ZSU, and troops proud of themselves and their flag.

It's quite similar with his work with the 151st and 152nd Brigades. Sufficient to say: since Drapaty was around (and also took care for the 151st to get some rest)... well, there are few commanders less that are around - but both brigades are now doing very well.

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Марченко Сергей's avatar

The situation with Drapatiy is reminiscent of the situation with Zaluzhny. Here, there is also a fairly authoritative military leader of the highest rank with his own, different from the leadership, view on current problems. If Drapatiy's resignation is accepted, it means that the leadership is seriously afraid of opposition in the army; Syrsky and his protégés will not cause such problems. There is already a tough confrontation between Vitali Klitschko and Zelensky with his officials.

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Alas Atar's avatar

There is no confrontation between those corruptionists and looters, this is just their play of confrontation on camera for all kind of suckers before the TV to make their PR point before the election :)

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Inspired defender of Ukraine's avatar

Unfortunately, my service has all my time, but I marked this topic in my notebook. It should be interesting if you recommend it.

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Марченко Сергей's avatar

https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/drapatiy-podav-vidstavku-pislya-rosiyskogo-1748784060.html

https://korrespondent.net/ukraine/4787111-snova-udar-po-polyhonu-drapatyi-podal-v-otstavku

Hi Tom. The resignation letter was written by General Drapat after the Iskander missile attack on test site #239 in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on June 1. According to media reports, the personnel there had been taken to shelter. However, there were many casualties again, and the general took responsibility. Formally, that's how things stand. But what the other side is, one can only guess...

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

So, there was yet another strike of this kind...?

...sigh... then I'm not the least surprised...

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ZenithA's avatar

Yes, he took political responsibility. Because as a commander of land forces he was responsible for training too. And probably this was him leading by example as to what people should do.

Anyway, all resolved by now, not in a worst way. He is reported to be now responsible for all frontline operations.

Unmanned Forces also have new commander Brovdi. Hope his new focus would be something in between lasers in the sky and 15 km kill zone. Hope finally someone will take care about 100 km deep recon and systematic anti AD work in that depth, and mid skies domination.

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Elena's avatar

According to media personnel was in shelter but nevertheless some were killed and wounded. If the shelter was inadequate for the strike of Iskander it is not the fault of Drapaty. General sympathy is on Drapaty`s side.

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Igor's avatar

Wouldn't it be a great plot twist if Syrskyi was finally fired and Drapatyi replaced him. One can dream

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Elena's avatar

There are no simple solutions of the complex problems.

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Hans Torvatn's avatar

Definitely not. But some actions open for solutions, some don’t and some make more of a mess. I think Drapatny staying opens for solutions while getting rid of him does not. But the problems will not go away so easily.

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Cliff Pennalligen's avatar

Yes, irreducible complexity. But Drapatyi is better placed to tackle them than Syrskyi

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Alas Atar's avatar

In order for Syrsky to be fired and jailed preferably then replaced by Drapaty, Zelensky with Yermak must be fired beforehand. They all three were tied together by kremlin for destruction of ZSU, capitulation and occupation of Ukraine.

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Elena's avatar

SBU attacked the pillars of the Crimean bridge.

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Dannylo's avatar

In the age of incompetence we can only pray that somehow the Russians be more incompetent

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Mike's avatar

Social media is for Drapatogo

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

Hope so...

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

Thx.

(Can't really say, 'thanks Zelensky', because - from what I've got to hear often enough - it's not on him to decide. And I wouldn't go as far as to say, 'thanks Yermak'... it must've been something else...)

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Nick Fotis's avatar

it's becoming better and better...

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Sarcastosaurus's avatar

Yup. Syrsky's never going to let Drapaty become responsible for training.

sigh...

Well, at least we now do have one clarity: 'even' Zelensky (read: Yermak) has figured out that Syrsky is incompetent as troop commander, and Drapaty is clearly outmatching him.

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Hans Torvatn's avatar

Thank you for this. It has been surprisingly quite about this. I guess we shall see what happens, I hope he stays.

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Mike Jackson's avatar

First of all, you are not an 'amateur'. You have an INTJ core. Amatuer not possible. In areas of interest or expertise, 'you will be aware, almost immediately, if something makes logical sense, or not. INTJs are our EXPERTS in this regard. So, if possible, stop wasting your energy on cautionary intros. Second, unfortunantly, your awareness of what is likely happening, makes it hard for me to get particularly excited, when the Ukes take out a nice chunk of Puke's irreplaceable bombers if, in fact, they are not replaceable.

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