Author: Blazingcatfur

For Canadians looking to help in Ukraine, sending donations of money and essential supplies is likely more attainable than volunteering to fight on the front lines.

The Ukrainian government estimates at least 20,000 foreigners have joined The International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine (ILDU), a foreign legion established in late February shortly after Russia’s invasion began.

Russia has one of the largest and most powerful armed forces in the world, but that has not been apparent in its initial invasion of Ukraine. Many military analysts in the West have been surprised by its performance on the battlefield so far, with one describing it as “dismal”.

Its military advances appear to have largely stalled and some now question whether it can recover from the losses it has suffered. This week, a senior Nato military official told the BBC, “the Russians clearly have not achieved their goals and probably will not at the end of the day”. So what has gone wrong? I have spoken to senior Western military officers and intelligence officials, about the mistakes Russia has made.

While most of Ukraine’s armed forces have been quietly engaged in the grind of a gruelling tug-of-war with Russia, one battalion has been busy putting out slick videos and images trumpeting its own achievements.

In a photograph released this week, a burly man in dark-blue uniform lies unconscious on the snow-covered ground, his right side caked in blood.

“Azov has eliminated a major general! And by thy sword shalt thou live!” reads the caption.

The unnamed officer was reportedly the fourth Russian general to have been killed in Ukraine. His killers? The extreme right-wing Azov Battalion.

Canada trained the Azov battalion.

Kirzner-Roberts was referring to a recent report from an institute at George Washington University in the United States revealing that Centuria, a far-right group made up of Ukrainian soldiers linked to the Azov movement, boasted they received training from Canada and other NATO countries. Researchers with the university tracked social media accounts of Centuria, documenting its Ukrainian military members giving Nazi salutes, promoting white nationalism and praising members of Nazi SS units.

I wonder if Freedolph knew?

Ten European Union (EU) member-states have been exposed for selling hundreds of millions of euros worth of military kit to Russia between 2015 and 2020, despite sanctions.

EU member-states including France, Germany, and Italy potentially broke a European embargo on selling arms to Russia, issuing more than 1,000 arms licenses after the ban was imposed on August 1st 2014.

h/t INGENUI