Appeal to Ruby Community from Kharkiv Rubyist
zverok.space
zverok.space
I stand with Ukraine. We are with you.
Wrote this song a week before the war started: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdU21AoP
Now it's time for me to live by these words. Last week, I went to Poland to help my 68 year old mother in law evacuate from Kyiv and cross over the Atlantic to safety. She saw the airport burn from her window. You can read her story here [1].
Today, I'm renewing my Ukrainian passport.
Hackernews, I know not everyone here will be comfortable sending money for weapons.
But you can donate to direct humanitarian relief efforts here: https://kse.ua/support/donation/
The person that helped organize this left his university position in the US to go back to Kyiv days before the war started. He's there now. The war is not abstract to him.
To help the army with military supplies (first aid kits, bulletproof vests, etc) — but not weapons — donate here: https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/
And to support Ukrainian Armed Forces directly, go here: https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-sp...
The National Bank has a separate donation drive for humanitarian aid; you can choose here: https://bank.gov.ua/en/
Then there's the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (which, sadly, will be needed more and more in the coming days).
And even if you don't have money to spare, I hope you can find a place for yellow and blue for others to see.
To us, it's hope.
Thank you, and let's stop this war. Together.
<3 Odessa — Hayward
[1] https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1010488982510824...
Edit: I also worry that funding the continuation of this war will increase the probabilities of a nuclear war, so I'm unsure from that perspective too.
It's the same reason that food pantries and organizations like Meals on Wheels are important despite the existence of SNAP and Social Security. Those organizations work directly with communities at a low-level to meet the needs that aren't met by high-level programs and funding.
Militaries the world over are their own hell of bureaucracy
The US could supply its own troops and did. It wasn't lacking capability or funding to do so. It's borderline silly to try to compare the Ukraine situation with the US situation. They're not similar.
They know that the US has all the money and capability to supply the troops.
And yet, there were many cases of troops on the ground lacking essential supplies and equipment.
It's one of those "it takes 6 months to move a box from one shelf to another in IBM" kind of things.
Hence the usefulness of direct and local relief efforts. Hence me linking to those first.
Now, that isn't to say their situation with Ukraine is the same, but it does demonstrate that even small donations can help in times of need.
You're reading too much into my comment in a very disingenious manner.
Up armored vehicles are great, but if your mission is patrolling goat paths you need good boots. If you need a set of good boots ASAP, having a bunch of up armored trucks won’t help you.
Just because you have the budget doesn’t mean that it was spent in the right places every time.
Unfortunately I don't know enough about this specific instance to provide a helpful answer.
The gov.ua links are probably the most effective since the Ukranian Government is highly motivated to make effective use of all the money it receives.
Maybe this is one of those cases where perfect is the enemy of the good?
if you can, find some local communities that are actively gathering clothes and medical supplies. there are plenty of them, they need cars to take rounds or a garage to store equipment or vans to move things around. this will be more helpful than money and as these are directly connected to families there, your work and time will have a lot more direct impact.
it is more like several hundreds millions in specific equipment.
Correct, and person asks to donate to the army.
> I don't believe that Ukraine will lose this war because of a lack of a few million dollars.
In asymmetrical urban warfare few millions in right equipment perfectly can make huge difference.
To support the military: https://supportukraine.cz/en.html
I would not be comfortable donating to military, but if you are in Europe you could contact your government about military support.
Lots of Russians actually believe that the strikes are precision and only aimed at the military targets. There's a video recorded by a woman in Mykolaiv walking among the rubble and cursing at her Russian relatives for not believing her while her city is literally under shelling.
But due to the way Youtube works, the Russian users are not very likely to come across those videos. Ukrainian Youtube users are trying to interact with them by replying with links to the videos.
If somebody from Youtube is reading this, I understand that you need to curb spammers who post a lot. But if you could somehow help with this effort, it might actually help change the public opinion in Russia. Maybe figure out a way to let the Ukrainians interact with the Russian commenters without getting shadowbanned?
(Speaking as a Russian who was in similar situation back in 198x in USSR) Russians have lost all mental critical thinking capacity when it comes to government propaganda, and the propaganda makers know and use it. For example about precision strikes - the official Russian TV made a glorifying report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrekdY2FgD0 on such a strike carried out by a plane loaded only with unguided bombs (FAB-250, 500lbs) calling them "missiles of point-precision" and showing a video of supposed launch of a ground attack missile from that plane. That despite majority of the men in Russia being pretty familiar with weaponry/etc. and able to see the lie if they wanted to, yet they don't. Government can tell these days anything and Russian population just goes with it.
Two decades of TV saying one thing today, and the opposite thing the other day, while the internet offers a thousand mutually incompatible (and often, self-contradicting) accounts for any event worth talking about have annihilated people's ability to believe that truth exists.
To them, everyone lies, everything is a lie. Putin, in comparison, is therefore honest - because he doesn't pretend he's not lying!
Only fools believe. The smart people know that everyone lies. The game is to stick with the better lie.
And what lie can be better than the one that makes you feel good and makes "the other side" furious? A grain of truth, a barrel of bullshit, and a complete detachment from reality - and you have the lie du jour.
Putin isn't convincing people to believe in what he says. He just offers them better lies.
Thank you for saying it out loud.
To be fair, I think you can safely replace "Russians" with many other people. Certainly, US media loves the term "precision strikes". They are nonsense. I also once believed in them.
As a thought experiment, imagine a bus stop is bombed with precision guided bombs (or a missile if you like). Imagine that bus stop is in the same neighborhood as your office or home. Imagine that you walk or drive past it daily. Imagine that a "precision strike" took out someone very bad. How would you feel, walking past a huge hole in the ground where the bus stop once stood? You would never again feel safe in that place. Everyday that you pass the hole in the ground, you would think to yourself: "What if I was standing at the same bus stop on that day?" This is my point about "precision strikes". The term ignores the impact on real humans who live near those places.
Russians are doing the latter.
In your thought experiment, imagine there's a baddie at the bus stop.
The shells hit your office, the hospital, the library, two apartment buildings, five buses, eleven cars - all miles away from the station.
The station is intact though.
That's what Russia is doing now.
Well of course, because otherwise, the guilt and shame is too overwhelming.
Sadly, shame is the first casualty of the War on Truth.
And without shame, there is no truth, because one can just say whatever makes one feel good at the moment. Do it long enough, you might even believe what you say.
Censorship and speech restrictions aside, many Russians really think this is a peacekeeping mission that has no bloodshed. Adding to frustration of Ukrainian residents calling their own family members in Russia about whats going on, and still get denial in response.
One thing I've been thinking about doing is... agreeing with them? Call it a "special military operation", and then tell them it's not working. The world is reacting to the special military operation. The timing of the special military operation is not in Russia's favor and its causing more harm than benefit, in both Russia and in Ukraine.
The semantics are designed to derail the conversation at the beginning. "Ah we're being bombed indiscriminately in this war of russian aggression", the Russian's immediate reaction is "wait, no that's CGI, that's the Ukrainians bombing themselves, its exactly why you need help", instead just play along! "Everything's A-OK but you still need ...... to dismantle your leadership for failing to get more allies in this operation or putting it off until more support was achieved."
Propaganda's arguments are not holding because they are credible, in my experience they are easy and take under 3-5 exchanges until the person wiggles and tries to change the topic. Propaganda is holding because quantity beats quality, and in this case by a lot. Real people eventually give up while full-time paid astroturfers stay.
But even now, when talking to my parents, one snarky question is often enough to break the confidence. I can't emphasize the word question enough, people never start thinking unless they are asked a question. No need for any lectures, proof links, it does not even have to be a particularly smart question, if you just get them thinking they do all the bullshit-clearing job themselves. That is, until they turn on TV again :(
I'm not gonna pretend that I understand how things work, but I have a strong feeling the key is exposure and asking questions, rather than better rhetorics.
For example, to flat earthers I would say “gravity works because of the 6 magnetic poles, which we could verify if the UN gunships let us past the ice walls” and theyd be like “exactly, the UN! 6 poles?” and I would keep adlibbing from there until I start questioning my own sources and describing a spherical rotating reality
Hearing how a dad trusts the state TV vs what his own son is telling him is actually going on is pretty telling.
Its the same with my friends in America with family in Russia. It must be a cultural thing to immediately go to "okay we're never talking again" because I'm seeing that a lot too. Its interesting that the guy in this video was saying he thought of going that way but now thinks to get smart about how to get the message across.
I saw it recently twice with two different people. I managed to make them to stop arguing and to think. I saw them thinking. But the next day they were even more partisan pro-war jerks than before.
And second. "If not Putin then who?" Putin got rid of anyone who might be his successor. And then propaganda used the slogan to consolidate everyone around Putin.
So "dismantle your leadership" wouldn't work. The last possible successor (as propaganda painted him) was Navalny. He is in a prison and propaganda did everything it could to drown him in a shit. People believe that if not Putin then Navalny, and they do not like Navalny.
The first necessary step to deal with an addiction is to stop abusing drugs or whatever causes it. Reportedly a few weeks without propaganda undo the worst of the brainwashing, and it becomes possible to talk with him/her rationally. Eight years ago I spent a month reading Ukrainian media 20 min per day (while continuing to consume Russian propaganda) to undo the worst, and half a year more to become mostly sane. But I sought truth and consciously pushed myself to an emotional pain, because truth is sacred. Most people do not feel that they are morally obliged to seek truth.
While Putin brainwashes Russians they will remain brainwashed. They use propaganda as an antidote to truth, because truth is painful.
People are afraid, they would believe anything to be less afraid.
I asked my mother what might be so bad if NATO conquered us. It would be no more Putin, wouldn't it be nice? She said that they would kill all Russians. ...
a few salient examples: the 8+ year war in eastern Ukraine (14k dead, 30k wounded, 500k displaced) the damming of Crimea's fresh water supply from the Dnieper (recently destroyed) the violent seizure of state power by neo-nazis following maidan the reincorporation of WW2 mass murderers into the national identity (postage stamps, statues, school books, parades)
I can only lament that in an increasingly interconnected modern world, wealthy globalists and oil barons can wield tech to collectively brainwash entire populations in their own living rooms: That sending weapons and mercenaries to foreign countries is noble and righteous. Strange how interfering in a nation's sovereignty and self-determination has become a hallmark of 'democratic' nations.
Apparently, we have forgotten the last 50+ years of conflicts.
I expect to be flagged.
It is not like the gas flows directly from Russia to people's homes.
China has expressed interest in buying stock of large "system-forming" Russian companies which has fallen tremendously in recent days.
Humans have biases due to tribalist nature. That is why last year no one gave a shit about the Armenia-Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijan conflict. That is why no ones gives a shit about Ugyghurs.
So, West cares about ukraine, christians care about armenia, muslims care about palestian, jews care about israel, pakistan cares about kashmir, india cares about tibet, sunni cares about other sunni's while shia's care about shia's. etc.
So, western users (people) think that all the world is caring about ukraine the way they are doing, but it may be not like that. Countries like india, china will have their mouth watering as they are going to get resources (like gas/oil for china, minerals/weapons for india) at cheaper prices due to sanctions.
Sure the whole world *is* caring. This is the first time in many decades (since, what, the Caribbean Crisis?) that a major nuclear arms nation, that also is a veto-holding member on the UN Sec Council, has threatened to be ready to use its nuclear arsenal against anyone daring to interfere against its brutal and premeditated invasion of a sovereign nation.
None of the existing checks and balances, like the UN, or bi/multi-lateral treaties, nor the "world police" is currently able to do any direct military action to counter the brazen actions of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
Everyone witnesses the nuclear weapons being already "used" unilaterally by Russia, without being physically launched.
That is the nuclear deterrent as we've known it has been eroded. This cannot not catch attention of any state, nuclear or not. The whole world got less secure overnight Feb-24, 2022.
Global reserve currency = USD.
Pakistan? Ha, comeon.
Now let's add in the other US allies (EU GDP is ~$16t-$17t, roughly equal to China; Canada and Australia both have economies larger than Russia). And we're just getting warmed up.
Most of the global economic might is with the US and its allies. Russia can be successfully smashed economically, and it'll be far easier than it was with the USSR.
There's five to six million barrels per day the US pulled off the market (that it can put back, and choke off Russia instead).
Russia can be smashed economically, and that includes gradually choking off the potency of their energy sector (even if it can't be entirely crushed).
Give the US a small bit of time to ramp production and it'll happily replace three million barrels per day of Russia's oil production at $90-$120 / barrel.
I think it is different case, US says they will prosecute/sanction anyone who do business with those countries.
US didn't apply such measures on Russia. In my understanding, EU is still buying Russian oil and gas and doesn't have plans of banning it.
It also takes a long time (in the context of a war) to train up effective new soldiers to replace dead soldiers and to replace large amounts of destroyed hardware, particularly given Russia's meager manufacturing capabilities. Putin likely gets one shot at taking Ukraine (and that's right now), regardless of the inbound oil money.
It'll take a decade of bountiful oil money for Russia's military to recover from this disaster.
The only future for the world lies in cooperation, peace, and prosperity. Not this campaign of self-destruction that Putin has forced on us.
The donation page on kse.ua, gave me an error 'Donations to this recipient aren't supported in this country'. Yes, I'm a native Chinese raised and living in China mainland.
I want to do something for Ukrainian. Sigh...
I know, I know some of you are aware of what's happening on Chinese Internet (what a weird and sad word) and there're people there who are advocating for Putin and cheering the invasion while ridiculing Ukrainian.
Please don't think they're all of us Chinese. I believe you (HNers) are reasonable enough to know what's happening on Twitter/FB couldn't represent all of you, same for what's happening on Chinese apps/web.
Days ago there's a HN submission [0] The new silent majority: People who don't tweet. I guess similar thing is here in China, those who are decent, gentle and nice enough, do not speak out... Heck, actually no not that hopeless, at least in my social circle and the media I keep track of, still plenty of people are sane enough to know, an invasion by no means has any ground and should be condemned undoubtedly.
[0] https://www.axios.com/political-polarization-twitter-cable-n...