Ukraine: Nexus of Cognitive Warfare - Perception Vignettes 2

Warning: Graphic Content

Warning: Graphic Content

Intel Slava Z

April 4th

Russian drone "Pacer" in the area of the stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

White hot drone camera footage. Inbound projectile visible on left strikes the far end of a long building. Quick flashburst. Smoking damage. Most of the building looks intact.

Ukrainian Army recruitment poster:

“This could be you. Join today.”

If, in war, you cannot hide, you cannot see the watchers and you cannot compete, at what point do you surrender?

How many of those who did surrender do so because they saw footage like this and came to fear death from the skies more than they did before?

April 5th

The work of rocket artillery of the People's Militia of the LPR on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Popasna.

Two barrages from MLRS spew 40 degrees above the horizon. Some weird snippets of music drawl. Maybe some background roar. Zoom. Wobble. Growing cloud of backblast smoke. Bright orange hell fire packets burst with grey streaks.

Jesus. That’s awful music. Noise. I like fireworks but these land somewhere. On stuff. If the LPR are firing Grads onto the army near Popasna, what does “near” mean? If the army is in cover, that’s probably in Popasna. I hope there’s no one in Popasna. Popasna might not be around for much longer. These rocket systems can carry TOS-1 thermobaric warheads.

April 5th

Marines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed in Mariupol by TOS-1 Heavy flamethrower

A room with blackened, charred, stiff bodies partially clothed. Most topless. Stiff limbs. Locked in position. Cut. Five more bodies, laid out in spasmodic positions. Front one’s head possibly split open.

Is it ever possible to imagine a fate such as this for oneself? If these images were on display in armed forces recruitment centres, what would happen to application numbers? Would infantry applicants increase? What about MLRS crew? What about combat pilots? Who were these people and who are their families? Would anyone look at this and say, “Slava Ukraini!”? Fighting to the last Ukrainian would look like more of this and worse. But that’s the public statement of those who feed weapons either way into this battlefield. How many of them hold Ukrainian passports?

“Heavy flamethrower”? I look it “TOS-1”. It’s a thermobaric rocket warhead. Not exactly a flamethrower. Mercy would be a very, very quick death.

If these people had hurt or terrorised civilians, if they were the far right extremist or nazi units, would they deserve mercy? What line would they have had to cross before you, me or anyone else wished such a fate upon them. If these people were in the launch vehicle with a target and then shown this footage, how many of them would launch the rockets? My guess is most. I would likely be little different, I would just need to find myself in the right conditions.

Russia is closing the eastern cauldron. There is much, much more of this.

Zelenskyy was given an avoidance option by Olaf Scholz. Ukraine would remain neutral and not join NATO. Zelenskyy refused. Then he said it would nuclearise its armed forces. Then Russia came. Then Zelenskyy wanted more weapons and foreign jets. Then he offered a neutrality and non-NATO deal to Russia. These people could have lived if he and his masters had signed when Scholz suggested it. Why should Zelenskyy be given a grammy or oscar or whatever? That must mean those “awards” mean nothing, unless you can be convinced somehow that they do.

April 5th

Gas station in Donbass

Photo of a tank filling up at a gas station.

That guy’s hit pay dirt. How do business expenses work in the Russian Army? Pay and claim or company card? That thing probably does pounds per mile. Reactive armour or missile defence blocks on the hull. In the background, another tanks waits, a skull flag above the turret. What people are before war and what they become in it can mean that liberators are invaders, soldiers are murderers, and humans can bask in destruction and pain. It is all a question of perspective. Only they and each other know what they did and why they agreed to do it. Only those who tell the stories or spin the narratives know which bits of what they said was true. Too many of these sorts of customers and this guy might need to resurface his forecourt.

April 5th

240-mm self-propelled mortars 2S4 "Tulpan" arrive in Mariupol in order to denazify the neo-Nazis of "Azov".

That is a big mortar.

So that you understand what this little boy is capable of

130-kg mortar

I laugh out loud at the term “little boy”. Someone has a dark sense of humour. Clearly, so do I.

How the fuck do you load that?

April 6th

Footage from Snigirevka, Mykolaiv region: The Russian Guard seized a huge amount of weapons and ammunition that the Armed Forces of Ukraine distributed to the civilian population during the retreat. Snigirevka, a city with a population of just over 12 thousand people (before the start of the special operation in Ukraine), is one of the first large settlements in the region that completely came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.

Video of a ton of ammo boxes in and munitions piled down the side of a building.

That’s a lot of “bang” to keep in your back passage. Who would leave that for civilians and why? If any of that came my way, would I keep any? Maybe. Time to go buy a spade.