World

Friday, July 15, 2022, saw a major escalation in the Russia-Ukraine hostilities; the city of Dnipro was hit with six cruise missiles.  There are many dead and many more injured.  Dnipro is the third largest city in Ukraine.

The violence today became horrific. When the cruise missiles began striking, some people in vehicles were burned to death as blast shrapnel penetrated fuel tanks and set the vehicles ablaze. 

And in this one:

. . . and another:

Pedestrians, including young children, were ripped apart and killed. ( WARNING - Graphic Image Below):

Graphic Image Appears Below - WARNING

LAST WARNING - Graphic Image Appears Below . . . 

What makes this so different from elsewhere in Ukraine is that Dnipro was the location from which many attacks against Donetsk were - and are - launched.   From 2014 through 2022, Dnipro was the city upon which much of Ukraine's military relied as they bombed and fired mortars into Donetsk. These "poor people" you see in the images above . . . did nothing for the ultimately 14,000 or so killed in Donetsk and Luhansk from 2014-2022. 

There were no tears by the people of Dnipro for the people of Luhansk and Donetsk! In case you never saw some of that carnage, take a look at what Ukraine did to civilians in Luhansk and Donetsk (WARNING - Graphic)

Above is Inna, killed in Luhansk when Ukrainian fascists fired a missile into the local administration building in 2014.

Above is Chrisitina and her baby girl, killed in Donetsk by Ukrainian shelling of her apartment building in 2014.

There were no demands that the slaughter of those people should stop.   Now, Dnipro is getting what the people of Luhansk and Donetsk got.   Karma?

The map below shows the region.  Zooming-in will let you see it is only about 100 miles from Dnipro to Donetsk:

So on the one hand, it is horrifying to see this type of carnage, it must be remembered that these people seemed to say and do NOTHING while artillery and mortar fire were being enabled by this city, to kill civilians in Donetsk.  

No, one does not justify the other, but these facts appear to be in play as to the brutality of the strikes today.

Here is video of some of the missiles, in flight, and detonating:

And social media video too:

Dnipro, Ukraine 15.07.2022#RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/cN4ypKqBS0

— Eve (@ice_cream_BR) July 16, 2022

Ukraine could have prevented this.  The Ukrainian government was repeatedly told that its efforts to join NATO, and worse, to allow US missiles on Ukraine territory with a five minute flight time to Moscow, were a "Red Line" for the Russians.   Ukraine proceeded anyway.

Ukraine was warned to stop attacking the Russian-speaking populations of Luhansk and Donetsk; they attacked anyway.

In November and December 2021, Ukraine was told to stop massing troops on the border of Luhansk and Donetsk in preparation for an all-out invasion of those two states, which had voted to secede from Ukraine.   The troops were massed anyway;  80,000 of them!

So now Ukraine is finding out what happens when a small country like them, upsets the security for a superpower like Russia.  They get smashed.

People say "Ukraine had the right to associate with NATO."  Countries don't have "rights."  In International affairs, might makes right.  Ukraine is finding that out now.

Oh, and those who think that Russia is **not** a "superpower" should take a good hard look.  Because right now, the entire western world is shipping weapons, ammunition, and training into Ukraine, and the Russians are chewing it all up and spitting it out.  Russia absolutely, positively **is** a superpower, and they're showing it right now.

The West should consider exactly what it will mean if Russia's awesome power is shifted from Ukraine to us.   It could be **OUR** cities ending up like Dnipro . . . or worse.

It is time for the West to bow out of Ukraine, and let Ukraine make nice with Russia to put an end to this carnage.   The West's "help" to Ukraine, is only making things worse.  The dead bodies above, are proof.