Saturday 20th of April 2024
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star whores as spoken in their own inflated worthless voices.......

WHAT FOLLOWS IS THE GLORIOUS GARBAGE THAT THE WESTERN MEDIA INDULGE IN.... IT WOULD BE EASY TO ACCEPT IT AS REALITY — IF WE DID NOT KNOW IT WAS COMPLETELY DELUDED — AS PART OF AN IMPERIALISTIC HEGEMONIC GRAND SCHEME...

 

"Attention. Air raid alert," the voice says with a Jedi knight's gravitas. "Proceed to the nearest shelter."

It's a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.

 

The intrusion of Hollywood science-fiction fantasy into the grim daily realities of war in Ukraine is a consequence of Hamill's decision to lend his famous voice to "Air Alert" — a downloadable app linked to Ukraine's air defence system.

When air raid sirens start howling, the app also warns Ukrainians that Russian missiles, bombs and deadly exploding drones may be incoming.

"Don't be careless," Hamill's voice advises. "Your overconfidence is your weakness."

The actor says he has admired — from afar, in California — how Ukraine has "shown such resilience … under such terrible circumstances".

Its fight against the Russian invasion, now in its second year, reminds him of the Star Wars saga, he says — of plucky rebels battling and ultimately defeating a vast, murderous empire.

Voicing over the English-language version of the air-raid app and giving it his Star Wars touch was his way of helping out.

"A fairy tale about good versus evil is resonant with what's going on in Ukraine," Hamill says.

"The Ukrainian people rallying to the cause and responding so heroically … It's impossible not to be inspired by how they've weathered this storm."

When the dangers from the skies pass, Hamill's voice announces via the app that "the air alert is over". He then signs off with an uplifting: "May the Force be with you.”

Hamill is also raising funds to buy reconnaissance drones for Ukrainian forces on the front lines, having autographed Star Wars-themed posters that are being raffled off.

"Here I sit in the comfort of my own home when in Ukraine there are power outages and food shortages and people are really suffering," he says.

"It motivates me to do as much as I can."

 

Alarms a constant reminder of invasion

Although the app also has a Ukrainian-language setting, voiced by a woman, some Ukrainians prefer to have Hamill breaking the bad news that yet another Russian bombardment might be imminent.

On the worst days, sirens and the app sound every few hours, day and night.

Some turn out to be false alarms. But many others are real — and often deadly.

Bohdan Zvonyk, 24, who lives in the repeatedly struck western city of Lviv, says he chose Hamill's voiceover rather than the Ukrainian setting because he was trying to improve his English.

He's a Star Wars fan, too.

"Besides," he says, "we could use a little bit of the power that Hamill wishes us".

During one alert, Mr Zvonyk says, he was riding a trolley bus when Hamill's voice rang out from his phone.

The man in front of him "turned to me and said, smiling: 'Oh, those damn Sith,'" to describe Russian forces, he says, describing the malevolent enemies of the do-gooder Jedi.

Olena Yeremina, a 38-year-old business manager in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, said Hamill's "May the Force be with you" sign-off at first made her laugh.

Now its enduring humour gives her strength. 

"It's a very cool phrase for this situation," she says.

"I wouldn't say that I feel like a Ukrainian Jedi, but sometimes this phrase reminds me to straighten my shoulders and keep working."

Sometimes it can be wise to shut Hamill off.

Ms Yeremina forgot to do that on a trip outside Ukraine — to Berlin — and paid for the error when the alarm started shrieking at 6 am and, again, when she rode the subway in the German capital.

She wasn't alone. Another person in the subway car also had the app and it erupted, too. The two of them first cursed, but then "it made both me and that person smile," Ms Yeremina recalls.

 

'Find humour even in the bad situation’

Ajax Systems, a Ukrainian security systems manufacturer that co-developed the app, hopes Hamill's star power will encourage people outside Ukraine to download it — so they get a taste of the angst heaped on Ukrainians by nerve-shredding alarms and airborne death and destruction.

"With Mark's approach, it won't be so terrifying," says Valentine Hrytsenko, the chief marketing officer at Ajax, who is among those who use the English-language setting to hear Hamill's voice. "But they will understand somehow the context."

In the invasion's first year, air-raid alarms sounded more than 19,000 times across the country, so "of course, people are getting tired", he says.

The app has been downloaded more than 14 million times.

"For Star Wars fans, it sounds really fantastic," Mr Hrytsenko says. "It's kind of a Ukrainian mentality to find some humour even in the bad situation or to try to be positive."

Hamill, meanwhile, is pleased that the sci-fi saga is again transporting people, even if just temporarily, to its galaxy far, far away.

"It does inspire people," he says. "Everyone flashes back to being six years old again. And if the movie can help people get through hard times, so much the better.”

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/mark-hamill-voices-ukraine-air-raid-alerts-mobile-app-missiles/102156322

 

NOTE: THE RUSSIAN MILITARY DOES EVERYTHING IT CAN TO AVOID INFLICTING CASUALTIES TO CIVILIANS. MOST OF THE DEAD CIVILIANS ARE DUE TO THE NAZIS KIEV GOVERNMENT'S "DEFENCES" — INCLUDING ATTACKS ON DONBASS HOSPITALS...

 

 

MAKE A DEAL PLEASE:

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON AGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

deluded "very soon"...

Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will launch a long-awaited counter assault "very soon" now that Russia's huge* winter offensive is losing steam without Moscow taking Bakhmut, Ukraine's top ground forces commander says.

Key points:


  • The intensity of the Russian bombardment around Bakhmut has noticeably lessened

  • Wagner's chief has issued pessimistic statements warning of a Ukrainian counterattack in Bakhmut

  • Slovakia has handed over the first four MiG-29 jets it has pledged to donate to Ukraine

 

The remarks were the strongest indication yet from Kyiv that it is close to shifting tactics, having absorbed Russia's onslaught through a brutal winter.

Russia's Wagner mercenaries "are losing considerable strength and are running out of steam", Kyiv's ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a social media post.

"Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupiansk," he said, listing Ukrainian counteroffensives last year that recaptured swathes of land.

There was no immediate response from Moscow to the latest suggestions its forces in Bakhmut were losing momentum, but Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has issued pessimistic statements in recent days warning of a Ukrainian counter assault.

On Monday, he published a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying Ukraine aimed to cut off Wagner's forces from Russia's regular troops.

Journalists near the front line north of Bakhmut saw signs consistent with the claim that the Russian offensive in the area could be flagging.

At a Ukrainian-held village west of Soledar, on Bakhmut's northern outskirts, the intensity of the Russian bombardment had noticeably eased  from just two days earlier.

"It was really hot here a week ago, but in the last three days it has been more quiet," said a Ukrainian soldier who used the call sign "Kamin", or "Stone".

"We can see this in the enemy's air strikes. If before there were five to six air raids in a day, today we had only one helicopter attack and it was too far and so ineffective," said the soldier, a member of an anti-aircraft unit in the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade.

Ukraine had looked likely to pull out of Bakhmut weeks ago but decided to fight on, a move some Western military experts described as a major risk given the need to preserve forces for a counterattack later this year.

But Ukrainian commanders said the battle was weakening Russia's forces more than their own.

Slovakia hands over the first of its MiG jets

A slowdown in Russia's assault on Bakhmut could be in part due to Moscow diverting its troops and resources to other areas.

Britain said on Thursday that Russian troops had been making gains further north this month, partially regaining control over the approaches to the town of Kreminna, a Ukrainian target.

Intense battles were also underway further south.

Moscow has meanwhile sent hundreds of thousands of freshly called-up reservists and convicts recruited by Wagner from prisons into battle.

But any shift in momentum in Bakhmut, if confirmed, would be remarkable given the city's symbolic importance as the focus of Russia's offensive, and the scale of the losses on both sides there in Europe's bloodiest infantry battle since World War II.

Read more on Russia's invasion of Ukraine:

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Europe to quickly provide more weapons to his forces and impose additional sanctions on Russia, warning the war could otherwise drag on for years.

"If Europe waits, the evil may have time to regroup and prepare for years of war. It is in your power to prevent this," a clearly frustrated Mr Zelenskyy said in a video address to European Union leaders, delivered from a train.

In particular, he reiterated demands for long-range missiles, more ammunition and more modern aircraft, and said the EU needed to speed up the process to grant Ukraine membership.

On Thursday, Slovakia handed over the first four MiG-29 jets it had pledged to donate to Ukraine, with the rest of the planes to be delivered in the coming weeks, the Slovak Defence Ministry said.

Slovakia, a NATO member on the military alliance's eastern flank, last week joined Poland in announcing the delivery of jets to Ukraine.

In total, Slovakia said it would donate 13 of the Soviet-made fighter jets, which Kyiv believes are crucial to repel Russia's year-long invasion.

Hungary says it would not arrest Putin using ICC warrant

Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges, accusing him of illegally deporting Ukrainian children.

Moscow has rejected the allegations and said it has taken in children to protect them.

Gergely Gulyas, the chief of staff for Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, said Mr Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.

"We can refer to the Hungarian law, and based on that, we cannot arrest the Russian president … as the ICC's statute has not been promulgated in Hungary," Mr Gulyas said.

"These decisions are not the most fortunate as they take things towards further escalation and not towards peace," Mr Gulyas said of the arrest warrant, adding: "This is my personal subjective opinion."

Hungary has maintained economic and diplomatic ties with Russia throughout the Ukraine war.

European Union leaders endorsed a plan on Thursday for sending Ukraine 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition within the next 12 months to help the country counter Russia's invasion forces.

EU foreign and defence ministers approved the plan for a fast-track purchasing procedure earlier this week, and the leaders of the bloc's 27 member nations gave it their political blessing at a summit in Brussels.

Hungary said it would not take part in getting ammunition to Ukraine, citing its commitment to peace, but said it would not prevent other members from doing so by blocking the deal.

Last month, Mr Orbán said the EU was partly to blame for prolonging Russia's war in Ukraine by sanctioning Russia and supplying Ukraine with money and weapons, rather than seeking to negotiate peace with Moscow.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-24/ukraine-says-bakhmut-counterstrike-coming-soon/102139332

 

NOTE: THE "LOSING" WAGNER TROOPS HAVE TAKEN ANOTHER PORTION OF "BAKHMUT".... SEE: 

the "symbolic" meat-grinder of artyomovsk.....

 

MAKE A DEAL PLEASE:

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON AGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

 

*  "Russia's huge* winter offensive" — THERE WAS NO HUGE RUSSIAN WINTER OFFENSIVE! THE ONLY DEAD UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS CAME INTO THE BAKHMUT SHOOTING GALLERY TO BE KILLED AT THE PRESENT RATE OF 200 PER DAY.... SEE AGAIN:

the "symbolic" meat-grinder of artyomovsk.....