Monday, April 11
☣️ News of the day: Language from the Azov Regiment suggests chemical weapons were used. Since then, several ‘blue checkmark’ journalists on the ground are reporting the same thing. The alleged chemical weapons affect the respiratory system and nervous system. There is nothing confirmed by more official sources. I heard several journalists reporting this (Aaron Parnas, CP Scott, Malcontent News, several mid-sized websites) but I don’t yet know if it’s journalists just quoting each other that a rumor exists.
☣️ Allegedly, a UAV sprayed an ‘unknown poison on people and they started suffocating.’ This allegedly happened in Mariupol. “Revealed effects include respiratory and vestibular failures.”
☣️ Early speculation this was Sarin. I hate reporting on this without confirmation, but these reports are everywhere now, several hours after I wrote the first bullet. Still no mainstream media reporting it at the time of this post (about 7pm, EST)
☣️ This morning (eastern standard time), Eduard Basurin, press secretary of the DPR military command, said that Ukrainian troops defending Mariupol must be encircled in the Azovstal plant and attacked with chemical weapons. He made a post to Telegram, and went on Russian State TV to make his pitch. At least this much news is verified.
☣️ If you recall, 17 days ago, Ukraine soldiers started finding Sarin antidotes on Russian POWs and dead soldiers. (Pictured)
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This was my update before the chemical weapons thing dropped:
🇺🇦 (pictured) New satellite images show an 8-mile-long convoy of military vehicles moving south through the town of Velkyi Burluk in eastern Ukraine. The town of Velkyi Burluk sits about 15 miles west of the Russian border in the Kharkiv region not far from Ukraine's second-largest city which has seen significant fighting since the start of the invasion. (UPI, with images from Maxar Technologies) This data is 3 days old
🇺🇦 Last night (US time) significant artillery and missile strikes were happening in Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and other eastern Ukraine.
🇺🇦 An “airplane repo” media personality, Captain Bob, is now operating in Russia and has repo’d two large aircraft. He’s been posting videos of his repos. There are about 500 more to go (for those just joining this is a result of Putin declaring that every foreign aircraft in Russia is now rushing property) (Pictured)
🇺🇦 Q: why doesn’t Ukraine attack Russia during this operational pause? A: Ukraine’s armed forces are designed to be a territorial defense force, not an offensive force. They don’t have the expeditionary capabilities that the United States, UK, France, etc, have
🇺🇦 Russia is flying an estimated 200 sorties over Ukraine per day
🇺🇦 The S&P just rated Russia‘s economy as in selected default which means it will likely default on his foreign debt for the first time since 1917
🇺🇦 Russian troops kidnapped 121,000 children and brought them back to Russia. Russia is now fast tracking legislation to allow adoption of these kidnapped children. Opinion: Russia is trying to solve its aging demographics crisis. Also, they need to replace the population that’s been k1lled by war.
🇺🇦 Russia is making all forcibly-deported Ukrainians to get passports. 12,000 passports have already been distributed (Aaron Parnas). I had no idea their was a huge pain point… Apparently this move is designed to destabilize Ukraine and make it easier to invade and conquer and to stake claim to the occupied territories. Basically, a passport gives people in the area access to Russian amenities
🇺🇦 For the past 60 years, there’s been an open secret that Russia and America arm each other’s adversaries. We knew Russia was arming North Korea and the Vietcong, and Russia knew America was arming the Afghanistan mujahideen and Syrian rebels. This has never been considered an attack on the other country. However, this seems to have come to a tipping point because Russia is getting wrecked so bad. Russia’s ambassador to the United States has told the US that they’re becoming increasingly concerned about NATO’s weapon shipments to Ukraine and that these arms shipments are reaching a breaking point that might lead to conflict with NATO
🇺🇦 Ukraine struck a Russia ammo depot, destroying it. This seems to hint that Ukraine is stepping up its counteroffensive tactics
🇺🇦 Russia captured Ukrainian aid workers. Like…why
🇺🇦 Re: Germany. I mentioned yesterday that I noticed a trend of Germany getting cold feet. There have been several one-off stories in the past month about how Germany is slow-walking assistance. A lot of this was out of their control. Now I'm seeing cancelation of their tank shipment. So while these are all small one offs that can be explain, all together I notice what *might* be a trend
⚠️ If you ever hear anyone say “What about America…” in an effort to redirect attention away from Ukraine and onto America, that is called “Competitive victimhood” and the associated meme is *always* created by Russian-backed media. Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the third.
⚠️ Note: I’m getting lazy with my citations and I apologize. It’s all the same sources as it’s always been…NATO planners, official statements, major news, other open source researchers, people who send me leads, reputable pundits like Aaron Parnas, Kyiv Independent, etc. Thank you especially to CP Scott, former Army and former NATO planner.
⚠️ Note: War happens fast and even high fidelity news needs a ton of corrections after the dust settles. Also, I’ve been spoiled by social media’s format where I can update the final product every time I find a typo. While that’s still the case, that poses a problem when…
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