Baltic Way 2 million peace chain of independence from Russia

Fascinating article on TIME How Telegram Became the Digital Battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine War shows the need of humans to connect to others.

“It’s the last social media bridge from the Western world into the Russian world…where you can kind of see what’s going and how the battle is playing out,” says Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who focuses on foreign disinformation. “Whoever can sustain their information campaigns on Telegram has the best chance of shaping world views around what’s going on inside Ukraine.”

There is no algorithm that decides what to show users or what to restrict, and its architecture allows limitless groups. Comments are easily turned off, turning channels into a megaphone blasting information to a captive audience of millions of followers. With just one click, a built-in button can translate messages from Russian to English or other languages, turning it into a tool of mass communication.

This has turned Telegram into the heart of the propaganda battle, allowing tales of Ukrainian resistance or heroism to go viral side-by-side with Russian disinformation. Now, amid increasingly brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians and a desperate crackdown on “false information” in Russia, both sides are racing to dominate the Telegram war.

But even without the apps on phones, they managed to connect millions of people from different countries, hand in hand. 

The Baltic Way

The Human Chain Of The Baltic Way (NPR)

Thirty years ago, 2 million people in the Baltic states made a human chain to demand independence from the Soviet Union. Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians remembered the chain Friday.

Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong formed human chains yesterday, saying they were inspired by a similar protest against the Soviet Union exactly 30 years earlier. That human chain was called the Baltic Way. It involved some 2 million people who joined hands across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to demand independence from the Kremlin. Here's NPR's Lucian Kim from Moscow.

LUCIAN KIM, BYLINE: August 23 is a double anniversary for the three Baltic nations, a day of mourning and a day of pride - mourning because, on that day 80 years ago, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a treaty that put much of Eastern Europe under the Kremlin's control. But it's also a day of pride because on August 23, 1989, ordinary Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians formed a human chain and demonstrated their yearning for freedom.

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Ukrainian women are volunteering to fight

Ukrainian women are volunteering to fight — and history shows they always have

NPR
Lauren Frayer
Iryna Matviyishyn
March 19, 2022

Kobzar's late grandmother was an army medic in World War II. It's become part of the family lore — how brave she was, treating soldiers on the front lines. So when Ukraine went to war again last month, Kobzar — a 49-year-old mother of two — decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps. She left her office job in health care supply chains and enlisted in the army.

Tanya Kobzar's late grandmother was an army medic in World War II. It's become part of the family lore how brave she was, treating soldiers on the front lines. Tanya Kobzar

LVIV, Ukraine — In the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tanya Kobzar was having nightmares.

"I was waking up in the middle of the night, terrified. I would look at a black-and-white photo of my grandmother, which I have framed on a table," she recalls. "She reminds me of how brave a person can be."

Kobzar's late grandmother was an army medic in World War II. It's become part of the family lore — how brave she was, treating soldiers on the front lines. So when Ukraine went to war again last month, Kobzar — a 49-year-old mother of two — decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps. She left her office job in health care supply chains and enlisted in the army.

"I did this for my children and for my country," says Kobzar, who's using her military nickname in this NPR interview, rather than her full surname, because she doesn't have permission from her commander to speak to the media.
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War has come to Ukraine

"Usually on such days we used to say, Spring has come, but now we are saying, War has come." Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

That is from Ukraine President Zelenskyy. That is what love does. He is staying with his people and showing them the way to fight back for their own country, for each other and for the sake of their future. They have been determined to decide that their future is living in freedom. Putin decided that he would destroy everything to stop them.That is what evil does.

Putin alone decided to do this but he could not have done any of it had he not been supported by his generals and members of the military arming their weapons and directing the bombs that have blown up hospitals, schools, homes, caused the slaughter of babies, children, women and men who never threatened them, who never attacked them. Putin has lied to his own people and those he sent to destroy Ukraine.

I beleive in the power of prayer, but I beleive in God's ability to deliver the prayers above what people choose to do.

I beleive God sees into the hearts and minds and no one can hide what they are really are from Him.

As much as I am praying for God's protection of the people of Ukraine and all those who are offering them safety in other countries, I am also praying for Putin.

I am not praying for him, but that God grants him no moments of peace. That the screams and cries of all the people he killed never go silent in his mind. That the blood of the people he murdered never get washed off his hands. That the food he fills his belly with turns bitter in this mouth and burns his stomach. That in his dreams he sees himself replacing the faces on the bodies he has burned and blown up. That when he looks at his children, he sees their faces. That when he looks at all the women he holds close, he sees the pregnant women he killed.

Putin will not care about any of them unless it becomes imbedded in his soul and becomes personal to him because it is all making his life miserable. He had no conscience but cares only about himself. I pray God makes his life more miserable than he can endure.

I pray the same for his generals carrying out his murderous orders of slaughtering the people of Ukraine. They have no courage or if they did, they would refuse to obey Putin's orders. They sit far away and tell others who and what to target and then go off and stuff their bellies and count their blood money while the men  they command are slaughtering and are slaughtered while Putin refuse to even acknowledge their deaths.

Sky News has a report on how some of the Ukrainian refugees are returning to Ukraine even as Putin's bombs destroy everything they can reach.

Millions of Ukrainian refugees have been fleeing and heading to Poland but for some, the draw to be back home is outweighing the considerable risk they know they will face if they return. This is what courage does. 

To all those in Ukraine, trying to save people and put out the fires, that is what love does and you are giving the world hope that God's strength is limitless and love cannot be defeated.

4 US Marines killed in Osprey crash during NATO exercise

4 US Marines killed in Osprey crash during NATO exercise in northern Norway

STARS AND STRIPES
BY PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN
MARCH 19, 2022

U.S. Marines prepare to take off in a MV-22B Osprey at Norwegian Air Force Base Bodø during Exercise Cold Response 22, Norway, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. Four Marines were killed when their Osprey aircraft crashed Fricay in a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, authorities said Saturday. (Elias Pimentel III/U.S. Marine Corps)

BJERKVIK, Norway — Four U.S. Marines were killed when their MV-22B Osprey crashed in northern Norway on Friday during a NATO training exercise, Norway's prime minister and Norwegian police said Saturday.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere posted on Twitter at about 4 a.m. Saturday that the Marines died in the crash, following initial reports of them being missing. The Marines were participating in the multinational Cold Response exercise when the Osprey crashed in Beiarn, a remote coastal area about 725 miles north of Oslo.

The four Marines were assigned to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, and continue to be listed officially as missing, according to a IIMEF statement Saturday.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger message to Russian soldiers

To readers in Russia, Arnold Schwarzenegger has an important message for you.

This is his video, without being cut or edited by news media stations. Listen to the whole message and then think about what is going on inside of you. That sickening feeling you have over what you are doing is not hatred of the Ukrainina people. It is hatred of what you are becomming. I pray you find the strength and courage to do the right thing. God will show you the way to end the slaughter of the Ukrainian people. What you choose to do this day, will in fact last the rest of your life. Do you want to find mercy from God? Do you want to find redemption for what you have done? Do you want to be able to look at your own children and say that you did all you could to save the lives of Ukrainian childen? Or, do you want to spend the rest of your life hating what you have become aqnd explain to your children how you participated in the slaughter of other children just like them?

Arnold Schwarzenegger message to Russian Soldiers
I love the Russian people, that's why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share.