Armas Vatipuu

I am the true Watipuu (Arbor telæ rarissima), the 1 & only surviving in the cold climate.

[UNITED24 @U24_gov_ua]

This is what an ordinary walk with a baby looks like in frontline Sumy. Along with the stroller — a Chuika detector for russian FPV drones.

Chuikas were originally used  by Ukrainian soldiers. But because russia systematically and deliberately hunts civilians with FPV drones in frontline regions, Sumy, Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Chernihiv, this device has become part of everyday life for ordinary people.

Help protect Ukrainian civilians. Join Sky Defense: https://t.co/NJNUAIL9f2

[AnnaT 🇬🇧 🫶 🇺🇦 @1AnnaT]

❤️‍🩹🇺🇦✊
World 'leaders' shame on you . . . .
I am Roman I am 11 when I was 8
russia killed my mother & my childhood
I thought it would break me
But after many operations
I am standing up to 🇷🇺 them
Are you?
Support Roman . . support Ukraine 🙏🫂

[UAVoyager🇺🇦 @CrimeanVoyager]

Kherson. A russian human safari — POV.

A russian drone operator hunts a civilian like prey — deliberately tracking him from above.

They film their war crimes and boast about them.

The world has no right to look away.

Share it.

This is russia. These are russians.

[EUvsDisinfo @EUvsDisinfo]

In 2018, a chlorine attack killed 43 people in Douma, Syria. Moscow’s response was denial, pressuring witnesses, and helping build an alternative story.

This is how the Kremlin manufactures doubt when the facts are inconvenient.

[Armas Vatipuu @Watipuu]

@freultwah It is ideed good to note that while translating X also converts names. If Ülle becomes Ille in Latvian, then when a part of an English translation this Ille somehow transforms to Ilves which apparently is not an English word at all. Ilves means lynx in Estonian. What a fun world!

[Armas Vatipuu @Watipuu]

@freultwah OK but not Ilves -- we had a president with that name and it was definitely not her :)

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

KALLAS: We need to restrict visas for Russians. It is not okay that Russia is bombing Ukraine, killing civilians while Russians are entering EU, and enjoying our hospitality. These tourist visas are also a tool used for acts of sabotage. This is a matter of our security as well.

[Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 @GLandsbergis]

If "hybrid" is now such a magic word – we should close the hybrid skies, put hybrid boots on the ground and ask Belgium to unfreeze some hybrid assets.

[Yasmina @yasminalombaert]

“I told him directly to his face that the Russian government must end this war.” - German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil.

Lars Klingbeil delivered a blistering rebuke at the G20, tearing into Russia's brutal war of aggression and sharply criticising the Trump administration for rolling out the red carpet for Moscow's finance minister at the G20. From refusing to pose for a "normalisation" photo to confronting the Russian delegation directly to their faces, Klingbeil made it clear that diplomatic niceties are over.

Key remarks:

On confronting the Russian finance minister directly:
"I told him directly to his face that the Russian government must end this war, what the consequences of this war are, and that we stand clearly on the side of Ukraine.”

On refusing to participate in the official photo:
“I made it clear among Europeans in the preliminary meeting that I will not stand with the Russian finance minister for a joint photo." 

On the U.S. hosting and the attempt at normalisation:
“…the signal of welcoming the Russian finance minister here is one that I do perceive as irritating, because I actually would have wished for clarity from the American side... that he is not received here like a normal guest." 

On rejecting business-as-usual with Russia:
“One cannot return to normality... there is no normal situation right now with Russia, least of all with those who are responsible for this brutal, war of aggression in violation of international law." 

On the tone of the meetings:"Sometimes these meetings are too diplomatic, and therefore my words may have startled one or the other in the room, but it was important to me to make it that clear." 


Watch the full statement in the comments: : DWS News - FULL REMARKS: German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil Speaks at G20 Meeting.

[Margus Tsahkna @Tsahkna]

Estonian intelligence chief Kaupo Rosin is right. Enough with the euphemisms.

Putin’s campaign of sabotage and subversion across Europe is not “hybrid warfare”. It is state-sponsored terrorism. Call it what it is.
https://t.co/CQFC8exWsb

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

This was Gaza on October 7. I am so sick and tired of people saying that most Gazans want peace with Israel. They don’t. They were kissing the ground with joy as Hamas paraded dead Jews through the streets. Remember this the next time you see someone call them the victims.

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Take a close look at these two photos.

Thirty years ago, in 1996, on this day, August 31, russia and Chechnya signed a peace agreement. Russia had failed to destroy Chechen independence by force, so it signed a “peace agreement.”

Three years later, in 1999, russia invaded again.

Russia used the three year peace to prepare for revenge. Chechnya was devastated by war, economically isolated, politically destabilized, and largely abandoned by the outside world. Moscow portrayed Chechnya as a failed state and exploited their weaknesses.

When russia returned, it finished what it had failed to accomplish in the first war.

This is why neither Ukraine nor any other country of the world can trust russia to uphold a ceasefire or peace agreement. A ceasefire that allows russia to rebuild its army while Ukraine is pressured to demobilize, Western military support declines, and the world gradually moves on is simply an intermission before the next, even more devastating war.

Ukraine needs peace. But it needs a peace that leaves Ukraine strong and russia unable to attack again. History has repeatedly shown that Moscow interprets weakness as an invitation. The only language russia understands is the language of force. Without strength and credible deterrence, today’s peace agreement can become tomorrow’s preparation for another war.

[Armas Vatipuu @Watipuu]

All other G countries should walk out. But of course they won't...

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Trump has invited russia to G20 meeting.

Just when you thought Trump couldn’t sink any lower, he surprised us again.

I am utterly ashamed of the US president – a man who not only refused to help Ukraine survive, but openly sided with war criminal Putin. Since Trump took office, russia has exponentially increased its missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and civilians. Trump gave them silent permission.

Also, I am utterly ashamed of those who voted for Trump, and especially those who still, after all the lies and betrayals, continue to cheer him on. I find such behavior despicable and morally bankrupt.

[Sulkhan Metreveli @Sulkhan]

People ask why I write about this war every single day, eighteen years after Russian tanks rolled through my own country.

Because 2008 taught me what silence buys: nothing. We were quiet, polite, "constructive." The world moved on in a week. The occupation didn't.

Ukraine gets from me what Georgia didn't get from enough people: a witness who won't get bored. Attention is a weapon. I intend to keep firing it.

[Ambassador Jonatan Vseviov @vseviov]

Russia wants us to be afraid.

Afraid of escalation. Afraid of provocations. Afraid of what might come next.

Fear is a weapon. And Moscow knows how to use it.

The best defence against fear is preparedness.

Stay calm. Stay united. Stay focused.

And keep supporting Ukraine.

[Joe Friday @JoeFridayOTF]

@TheFl0orIsLaVa If 50 years ago you told Reagan that a future president would choose Russia over Ukraine in a war for Europe he would have called you crazy… or cried! For 75 years US dedicated lives and wealth to defeating Soviet. Putin is trying to roll that victory back. Trump is helping.

[Armas Vatipuu @Watipuu]

@Sicur5Sicur Definitely!

[Pete @splendid_pete]

Ratko Mladić lived far longer than thousands of his victims ever had the chance to, and far longer than he deserved.

And now Serbia’s government is preparing to accord him full military and state honours at his burial.

Let that sink in. A man who died while serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes is apparently considered worthy of state honour. This is not patriotism. It is moral rot.

Mladić commanded the Bosnian Serb Army during some of the darkest crimes committed in Europe since the Second World War. In Srebrenica, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically murdered after his forces overran the UN-declared safe area, while around 25,000 women, children and elderly people were forcibly expelled. Mladić was convicted of genocide for his role.

In Sarajevo, his forces subjected civilians to years of shelling and sniper terror. People were shot while crossing streets, fetching water, standing in queues, trying to feed their families or simply trying to stay alive. He was convicted of murder, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians, as well as persecution, extermination, deportation, forced transfer and hostage-taking.

These are judicially established crimes. And now Serbia’s Justice Minister says Mladić should receive military and state honours at his burial. There is something profoundly fucking nauseating about a state taking a convicted genocidaire and wrapping his coffin in national honour, as if the mass graves were merely an inconvenient footnote to his biography.

And if you want to understand exactly what kind of legacy is being honoured, watch the video below.

The man in it is Ramo Osmanović. On 13 July 1995, two days after Srebrenica fell, thousands of Bosniak men and boys were trying to escape through the forests toward Bosnian government-held territory. Ramo had already been captured. His 18-year-old son, Nermin, was still hiding in the woods.

Bosnian Serb forces forced Ramo to call out to him and persuade him to surrender. Imagine being a prisoner surrounded by armed men, knowing your child is somewhere in the forest, and being forced to use the one thing your son trusts more than anything else, your own voice, to bring him out.

“Nermine, dođi!”

“Nermin, come!”

Nermin heard his father and came down.

Ramo and Nermin Osmanović were subsequently murdered by Mladić’s forces and buried in mass graves alongside thousands of other men and boys. Their remains were later recovered and identified. The footage itself was eventually shown during the proceedings against Ratko Mladić.

That is why the image of Ramo, hands around his mouth, desperately calling “Nermine, dođi!”, became one of the defining images of Srebrenica. A captured father forced to call his son out of hiding with assurances of safety. A son trusting his father’s voice. Both of them murdered.

More than three decades later, the commander of the forces responsible is being prepared for burial with military and state honours.

You cannot seriously talk about reconciliation, European values or confronting the past while glorifying a man convicted of genocide. You cannot turn a genocidaire into a national symbol and then pretend that the victims matter too.

The victims deserved honour. Ratko Mladić deserved his conviction, his life sentence and the historical disgrace attached to his name.

Anything beyond that is glorification of a genocidaire, and it is absolutely fucking nauseating.

[Armas Vatipuu @Watipuu]

@_JakubJanda Right. Why on Earth would we need another member acting against us...