Incredible scenes. Riot police uniting with protestors against the regime. #IranRevolution
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David Patrikarakos
@dpatrikarakos
Writer. Books: ‘War in 140 Characters' & 'Nuclear Iran.' Gearing up for my third.
's Foreign Correspondent. 
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Wow. This is how #Russia 🇷🇺 is trying to attract people to go and live there. And no. It’s not satire.
From
Fatima Tlis
#Russia 🇷🇺 has just fired Lt. General Berdnikov, its commander of the western military district. He’s been in post for 15 days.
Astonishing scenes from #Iran. Protesters have burned down the house of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder.
The house has been a museum for the past 30 years. This is an attack in the essence of the republic itself.
Taliban collapses with laughter as journalist asks if they would be willing to accept democratic governance that voted in female politicians - and then tells camera to stop filming. “It made me laugh” he says.
If you don't get how vital the battle for #Ukraine is, let Sergei Lavrov explain:
"This is not about Ukraine at all, but the world order. The current crisis is a fateful, epoch-making moment in modern history. It reflects the battle over what the world order will look like".
Of all the conflicts I have engaged with or covered in my life, Ukraine is where I most clearly see the unambiguous resurgence of violent, expansionist fascism. Ukrainians are fighting for us all, remember that.
Ukrainian soldiers singing the national anthem on liberated territory.
From
Kira Rudik
Today #Ukraine held an emergency session of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament). Despite Putin’s brutal attacks over 350 out of 425 MPs were present. They sang the national anthem. They refused to be cowed.
From
Inna Sovsun
Biggest winner in Afghanistan? Pakistan's ISI. It helped build a nuclear arsenal in defiance of the international non-proliferation regime, supported & armed the Taliban, undermined the War on Terror, and did it all while pocketing billions of dollars of US taxpayer money.
THREAD: I’ve arrived in Dnipro to begin covering the battle for eastern #Ukraine. Dima has been fighting since early March.
“It’s like WWII but with modern technology. 2014 was a playground compared to this.”
* I have permission to tweet his photo & all comments.
We could have stopped him in Georgia.
We could have stopped him in Syria
We could have stopped him in Crimea
We could have stopped him in Eastern Ukraine.
But we did nothing. And here we are.
Ukrainian soldiers 🇺🇦have been writing tributes to the Queen onto shells and rockets before firing them at Russian 🇷🇺forces.
Has one man ever been so wrong about everything, all the time, for decades?
Odesa security expert tells me: “Security is really tight atm as there's a real fear of infiltration by saboteurs. Last week the security services caught someone skulking around post-curfew. When then grabbed him, he screamed: "It's ok, it's ok, I'm just a drug dealer!"
Look at those delighted crowds in the Luhansk 🇺🇦 oblast out celebrating their annexation to Russia 🇷🇺.
THREAD: I've returned from the frontlines of #Ukraine. There, I followed a soldier delivering supplies to his comrades, which meant running through the front as shells fell all around us.
Please watch & read to understand life for 🇺🇦soldiers. I did it once. They do it every day.
In Tehran tonight.
“Down with the dictator"
"We don't want the Islamic Republic.”
#MahsaAmini #Mahsa_Amini
#IranProtests #IranProtests2022
#مهسا_امینی
From
Siavosh Raji
Afghan girls beg American soldiers at the airport to save them from what they know is coming. twitter.com/tagabhishek/st
Amazing photo. Remember these people - & don't dare turn your eyes from them. Many of them may die fighting the kind of tyranny that threatens us all.
More women in #Iran🇮🇷 set fire to their headscarves tonight during the fifth night of protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by morality police over the mandatory hijab law.
In today's I go inside occupied Kherson. This is what #Russia 🇷🇺 does in all the places it occupies.
Never forget. Never turn your back on #Ukraine 🇺🇦.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
This footage will still be played in 100 years. It now joins images of the retreat from Saigon and the naked Vietnamese girl as one of the west’s most shameful moments in modern history.
From
morteza kazemian
"Chechen soldiers? Ha We call them TikTok soldiers. They're always filming. We found one who was wounded and trying not to fight but take a selfie."
"Their job is not to fight but to shoot Russian boy conscripts who don't want to fight. It's Soviet tactics.
“Our greatest ally in this war is #Russia corruption & the nature of its army. The soldier in the field briefs his officer: ‘it’s not good but we’re holding’; next guy reports up: ‘we’re holding’; the next guy: ‘it’s going well! This is why Putin doesn’t know how bad things are.”
Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad, calls Putin’s war on #Ukraine, “One of the most extraordinary military disasters of the modern era.”
Huge crowds in #Iran 🇮🇷 chanting: "Khamenei is a murderer. His rule is illegitimate"
#IranProtests #ایران
Their tactics are insane. Chernobaivka has a small military airport. 17 times they've tried to take it. 17 times we've smashed them. Still they come.
Our soldiers ask: "Are they dumb?" No, just incapable of independent thought. They just follow orders – no matter how crazy."
I'm reporting from #Ukraine (& so detailing Russia behaviour). I assume Russia trolls trying to take down my account as I've received a DM saying it's been reported multiple times for spam & threatening to remove my verified status. & can you pls assist?
Mayor of #Mykolayiv: “In the beginning I’d get messages from Russians telling me to surrender or face the fate of #Mariupol. I told them: either go home and live or come here and die. Welcome to hell, motherfuckers.”
As reports come in that #Russia has moved troops to the 🇫🇮Finnish border, the Finns post a video of them moving tractors there in response. Top trolling!
“I didn’t believe the war would happen bc an invasion needs at least 2-1 numerical superiority. I looked on the borders at the army there & it was clear they didn’t have it. This is crazy.
Sometimes you play poker with a bad hand. #Russia is playing without any cards at all.”
"The NLAWs are the best: easy to use, lock, load and move; without them we wouldn’t be taking out so many Russian tanks.
On the subject of tanks: We’ve captured more than 100 enemy tanks. We have a joke in the #ukraine army: our biggest weapons supplier is Russia."
“What has shocked me is the callousness of #Russia soldiers to their own men.”
He shows me a photo taken from a drone of soldiers eating lunch in a ruined house near several bodies lying in the dirt.
“They’re eating 20 meters from the decomposing bodies of their comrades.”
Can you imagine if Jeremy Corbyn was Prime Minister now…?
Now #Russia 🇷🇺has struck a shopping mall in Kremenchuk.
Reports of many people stuck inside - screams heard coming from the smoke. Mayor says there are multiple casualties.
Yet another civilian target - yet another war crime.
twitter.com/CanadianUkrain
"They just drop the bodies of their friends into trenches. Sometimes they don’t even bother to cover them
We found a grave of 15 bodies a while back. They’d thrown bit of dirt on them but that it was it. They don't even respect to the lives of their own comrades. Incredible."
“They use Soviet military tactics, which were out of date 30 years ago. But we study Afghanistan, & Israel. Things have changed!
#Russia tries to press with Mass. Our strategy is simple: to destroy as many targets as possible. But we lack resources so must do it creatively.”
“Look, you can always tell the difference between a partisan strike against a #Russia target & a Russian false flag. The former targets important infrastructure. They just bomb a civilian building or something. Would they ever target something valuable? Not in a million years.”
"I know you British have a complicated relationship with your prime minister but here has become something of a national hero.
We knew from the beginning that Britain was a very ancient and important nation – and it is a country that stands by its word."
A Ukrainian grandmother searching for her abducted grandchildren died after being interrogated by the FSB for 14 hours.
Wow.
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BREAKING: #Anonymous hacks Russian state TV channels to broadcast the reality of what is happening in #Ukraine.
#OpRussia #StandWithUkriane
0:44
This is the exact moment a Russian rocket hits a Children’s playground in Kharkiv. Russia claims Ukrainian soldiers were hiding there. You can clearly see that is a lie.
From
Maria Avdeeva
Delighted to write the Saturday Essay in today's . My message is simple: as news cycles move on, don't forget about Ukraine 🇺🇦. It's what Russia 🇷🇺 is counting on. Ukrainians are dying every day - to protect Europe from a rogue state. They still need our support.
One of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen in public diplomacy. #Ukraine🇺🇦 Ministry of Defence produces a video (that could also be a music video) thanking its “friend right till the end.” No state in the world rn does comms as well as Kyiv.
I delve deep inside occupied Kherson to find out how the #Ukrainian 🇺🇦 resistance is hunting Russians🇷🇺 across the region. The enemy continues to torture & steal & kill. But the defiance only grows. My latest, for .
Russian soldiers drive up to #Ukraine🇺🇦positions with a white flag tied to their tank and get out and surrender.
From
Igor Kyivskyi
This is Hadith Najafi, she came out to protest her right to be free. The regime shot and killed her. She was 23-years-old. #MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی
From
Masih Alinejad 
A new mural on the side of a bombed-out home in the Syrian city of Binnish
“Before the war I wasn’t a big fan of Zelensky. I thought he was a great guy but not right for politics. Now I support him 1000%.
The most important thing he did was stay in #Ukraine. It was vital the people saw that the first man in government did not flee. It raised morale.
Taliban is actively hunting down Afghans who worked with coalition forces. They’re also setting up networks of informers and spies on the ground. This is a nightmare. US/UK etc need to speed up evacuations. Those on the ground need more resources immediately!
Sirajuddin Haqqani is new Interior minister of the interim government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. He's a literal terrorist that the FBI has a $5 million bounty out on.
Delighted to make my debut for , profiling Olesia Vorotnyk - the Ukrainian 🇺🇦 ballerina who swapped her ballet shoes for an AK-47 to defend her homeland.
Another photo of my mum in pre-revolution Tehran. Look at all that female hair. Tut tut.
Iran was free once, it will be again. #IranRevolution
For 6 months I've been investigating the Russian PMC, #Wagner 🇷🇺. Through a combination of the group's internal documents & sources on-the-ground, I have managed to piece together how this this gang of murderers operates & the web of dark money behind it.
“The Russians don’t understand that we live in a democracy. One man can’t decide for everyone. Even if I wanted to surrender, which I would not do. The people would never accept.”
WTF is wrong with DW?
"DW looks at the Geneva Conventions, to which both Russia and Ukraine are signatories. Targeting nuclear plants is not actually banned."
Well, that's ok then!
Many things strike me about this war, but chief among them is how regressive it is. How basic societal norms so easily unravel. As I wrote recently:
"Once more, Ukrainians are suffering for the colonialist delusions of a Russian despot....Everything about this war is atavistic." twitter.com/den_kazansky/s
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What a miserable, joyless approach to the game.
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Nothing to do with showboating. Should have been booked for unsportsmanlike conduct and restarted with free kick to Forest twitter.com/PartedBeard/st…
This is coming, make no mistake. And Russia will use it to divide the West politically as well as inflict horrific damage on Ukraine.
The Syria playbook is being rolled out - step by step by step.
Ukraine 🇺🇦 channels reporting that in Kozachya Lopan in the Kharkiv region, Russian 🇷🇺 forces fled without a fight, leaving locals free to put up the UA flag by themselves.
Interviewing the mayor of #Mykolaiv. “I move constantly. don’t sleep in the same place two nights in a row. All I need is my gun and a place to wash.”
You get a sense of the atmosphere in Donbas where fighting is intense from the flag someone has hung on the Donetsk Oblast sign: “Russian occupiers make the best fertiliser.”
“Look, we are fighting for our families and our land: we are overmotivated. The Russians are fighting only to die on the orders of Putin, the 21st century Hitler. They are undermotivated.”
Now Petrochemical workers in Bushehr walk out en masse. Chanting: “Dont be afraid, we are all together.” It was when refinery workers started striking that things spiralled for the Shah.
There’s a long way to go: but this is really bad for the Mullahs.
Iranians chanting "death to the Dictator" about Ayatollah Khamenei as they once did about the Shah. #IranProtests2022 🇮🇷
Zelenskyy takes time out from the war to visit the British Embassy 🇬🇧 in Ukraine 🇺🇦, to write his condolences for the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
It’s time to stop being Russia’s butler. This means no more London laundromat, no more friendly banks, no more cosying up from Eton; no more nice lawyers and art galleries and big houses.
Time to take back control — from Russia. My latest for .
We enter the so-called “Forest of Surprises” and see the utter destruction #Russia 🇷🇺 has wrought. They’ve burned so much of the forest. “Look what they’ve done to my country.” Says Dime. “If they cannot take 🇺🇦, they will destroy everything in it.”
"The way Russia is using WWII to militarise society is disgusting: who the fuck dresses an 11-year old kid up in a military uniform"
Have you ever read Umberto Eco’s 12 signs of Fascism? All 12 of them are present in modern Russia."
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You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war.
Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.
“Everything I have apart from my gun & ammo - has been crowdfunded: my clothes, my boots, everything. One of #Ukraine’s strengths is our capacity for collective action away from centralised authority.”
Colonel General Alexander Dvornikov, the "butcher of Syria" has been appointed commander of Russia's war in #Ukraine. I spent years watching this guy's work with Assad. It's clear the Kremlin's military strategy is maximum terror now.
Ukrainian telegraph channels buzzing with photos of 🇺🇦 forces in Izyum. Here they stand by the city’s entrance.
The #Ukraine 🇺🇦soldiers here have been fighting for a long time and they are tired, but morale remains high. They remain convinced they will win.
