Huw

Orthodox Christian deeply troubled by the demonic turn Russia has taken. Strident supporter of UA, where I have family. Freelance translator. Welsh rugby fan.

[Huw @wales_rm]

Deeply disturbing read

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

A Russian soldier kept Sofia, Ukrainian, for over a year as a sex prisoner — holding her in a flat with bars on the balcony, boarded-up windows, locked doors, and padlocks.

He took her phone, left food, and returned there only to rape her — The Times. 1/

[WW3finalboss @WW3finalboss]

Which one would you rather give?

🇺🇦

[Huw @wales_rm]

The same playbook centuries later playing out in occupied Ukraine

[Ana @anfucius]

In the early 19th century, after Russia abolished the ancient autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church in 1811, a new Russian exarch arrived in Georgia with a clear mission: to bring the Georgian Church under full Russian control.
His name was Theophylact (Fyodor Rusanov). Under his rule, the use of the Georgian language in liturgy was severely restricted. In Sioni Cathedral, for example, services in Georgian were allowed only on Sundays. The rest of the week, Georgians were expected to pray in Russian. Hundreds of monasteries were closed, treasures were looted, and priceless frescoes were whitewashed. Georgians, furious and powerless under imperial rule, responded the only way they could with a powerful folk legend. They whispered from ear to ear that Exarch Theophylact had decided to open and rob the tomb of Saint Nino, the enlightener of Georgia, in Bodbe Monastery. According to the story, the moment he struck the grave with a crowbar, he dropped dead on the spot, divine punishment for his sacrilege.
It was a beautiful, symbolic act of resistance. A story born from deep national grief and anger.
The historical truth is more prosaic, but no less telling: Theophylact did travel to Bodbe. He died there in 1821. But he died of typhus (or a similar infectious disease common at the time), and he is buried in Bodbe’s St. George Church, where his grave can still be seen today.
The dramatic death at Saint Nino’s tomb never happened. It was a protest legend, the voice of a wounded nation that could not speak openly against its “fellow believer” oppressor.
As the great Georgian historian Ivane Javakhishvili later wrote, no other enemy in Georgia’s history committed a greater sin against the Georgian people and Church than the Russian imperial administration during this period.
Today, when we see the same patterns repeating sacred sites desecrated, churches targeted, spiritual independence crushed, this old Georgian story feels painfully familiar.
Sometimes the most powerful resistance is a story that refuses to die.
God sees everything.

[Huw @wales_rm]

@anfucius @Orthodoxe @UOJ_America The playbook stays the same over the centuries. They are doing this exact thing now in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including the UOC.

[Huw @wales_rm]

@IacobRuthenicus Is there a nation that is at once so unimaginably cruel and yet so dripping in self pity as this?

Genuinely boggles the mind

[Huw @wales_rm]

@TheIasiLad @Orthodoxe @UOJ_America Absolutely nailed it!

[Huw @wales_rm]

@gianlucadiddio Re: origins of her party, I was aware of this & was a little concerned myself at the beginning. I felt sure she would jump into bed (politically) with the likes of Berlusconi. She's been a very pleasant suprise in many respects.
Where do the likes of Lega Nord stand these days?

[Huw @wales_rm]

Seems all the best politicians in Europe are women these days.

[D.Radka, #NAFO 🇨🇿🤝🇺🇦 @DakdaR22]

- Giorgia Meloni
Prime Minister of Italy:

"Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 was a clear violation of international law and a glimpse of Russia's aggressive intentions toward all of Ukraine. Back then, the West did not fully understand the scale of what was happening and perhaps hoped that Moscow's imperial ambitions would stop there.
We were wrong, and we must admit it. Today, we stand side by side with Ukraine without hesitation.

Russia must end its occupation policy and withdraw its troops. We will never tire of working for a just and lasting peace."

Great woman
😉

[Huw @wales_rm]

@gianlucadiddio Yes, this has become a worldwide phenomenon I believe. It really cheapens the word to a dangerous degree.

[Huw @wales_rm]

@gianlucadiddio Tough problem to solve in reality when you have many boats landing on your shores. The irony is that many of my Italian friends were freaking out when she was elected calling her a fascist

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 And, if we are brutally honestly, Gundyaev is pretty much cut from the same cloth - probably more KGB than thug, but the lines get blurred in russia over the years.

[Huw @wales_rm]

Genuinely crazy to watch the brainwashed OrthoBros jump to the defence of russia after the events of last night. By 2023, russia had already destroyed 500 Churches and places of worship in Ukraine, but no way could they be repsonsible for the Lavra... 🤡 https://t.co/JMFERqdLJB

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 Yes, I genuinely think russia is that retarded.

Look at the towns and cities they conquer. They completely destroy them and make them uninhabitable first. It all starts to make some sense when you realise Putin is nothing more than a hate-ridden gangster https://t.co/AtGR6Tku6C

[Huw @wales_rm]

@CarolynCalfo @visegrad24 Dmitri Alperovitch, a Russian American author, sums it up in this interview here. Minute 47: https://t.co/cwlahHvvIu"during a 2022 press conference... Putin cited rap lyrics glorifying rape in reference to Ukraine, saying, "whether you like it or not, you're going to take it.""

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 War is not that simple, but that was the basis of your argument. So I agree, your premise was wrong.

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 Then we must agree to disagree at this point

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 And sending more men to the front is going to help the economic situation?

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 Russia's population of fighting age amounts to around 35 to 40 million men. How many men of fighting age do you believe there are in Europe/UK/Canada/US/Anzaks?

Who is really overestimating whom here?

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 That's not what Elvira Nabiullina has been saying and has since been disappeared as a result.

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 I'm just doing the math. There will come a point where their economy cannot function once a certain number of working age men have been sacrificed. I suspect they collapse before they take the rest of the 80% of Ukraine, especially if Ukraine leans in harder to robotics

[Huw @wales_rm]

@GCossack23818 @YonathonDaza Yes there is a clear pattern. It's undeniable

[Huw @wales_rm]

@LMAOmaster2003 If they ever conquer all of Ukraine before they run out of men or Putin dies, they will just emulate what they have done in the occupied territories and take all the churches by force - forcibly making the jurisdictions convert to Moscow Patriachate (including UOC) or destroy.