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Ukraine soldier saves tiny black kitten named after Snake Island
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Yiming Woo
Publishing date:Jul 22, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A member of the Ukrainian Special Forces holds 'Snake', a small kitten rescued from Snake Island after it was recaptured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, July 22, 2022.
A member of the Ukrainian Special Forces holds 'Snake', a small kitten rescued from Snake Island after it was recaptured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, July 22, 2022. PHOTO BY ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS /REUTERS

KYIV — Meet Snake, a kitten with a heck of a war story. And the Ukrainian special forces soldier who saved him.


When Ukraine’s military released images in early July of its troops raising the country’s blue and yellow flag over Snake Island, a desolate but strategic Black Sea outcrop abandoned by the Russians, it included pictures of soldiers picking up a tiny black kitten. They named him after the island.

On Friday, two weeks after he was saved, Snake was taken out for a frolic along the Dnipro River in the capital Kyiv and introduced to a small group of reporters. The man who saved him told the story of the kitten’s rescue.

“In the first stage of the operation, we took a picture of the island’s territory with a drone,” said the special forces soldier, wearing a mask to conceal his identity, while the kitten, just a few months old, curled up in his hands.


“The commander saw the little comrade, and included the task of bringing him back as one of the mission objectives.”

Was it hard to find a little kitten on a big, windy island?

“We thought it would be difficult, but he found us,” the soldier said. “The report we made to the commander after we left the island was: ‘Mission complete, no casualties. One additional team member – a kitten called Snake.'”

Snake Island has assumed legendary status in Ukraine since the very first hours of the war, when the Ukrainian garrison there, ordered by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet flagship to surrender, radioed back an obscenity. The incident was immortalized on a Ukrainian postage stamp, and on the day it was released Ukraine sank the ship.

Today, Snake has found a new home in Kyiv. The soldier would not discuss the kitten’s living arrangements in detail, but Snake seemed evidently happy in the soldier’s hands.

“He is with a loving family now. All is well.”
1658581656190.png
torontosun.com

'MISSION COMPLETE': Ukraine soldier saves tiny black kitten named after Snake Island

Meet Snake, a kitten with a heck of a war story. And the Ukrainian special forces soldier who saved him.
torontosun.com torontosun.com
 
spaminator

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spaminator said:
Ukraine soldier saves tiny black kitten named after Snake Island
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Yiming Woo
Publishing date:Jul 22, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
A member of the Ukrainian Special Forces holds 'Snake', a small kitten rescued from Snake Island after it was recaptured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, July 22, 2022.
A member of the Ukrainian Special Forces holds 'Snake', a small kitten rescued from Snake Island after it was recaptured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, July 22, 2022. PHOTO BY ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS /REUTERS

KYIV — Meet Snake, a kitten with a heck of a war story. And the Ukrainian special forces soldier who saved him.


When Ukraine’s military released images in early July of its troops raising the country’s blue and yellow flag over Snake Island, a desolate but strategic Black Sea outcrop abandoned by the Russians, it included pictures of soldiers picking up a tiny black kitten. They named him after the island.

On Friday, two weeks after he was saved, Snake was taken out for a frolic along the Dnipro River in the capital Kyiv and introduced to a small group of reporters. The man who saved him told the story of the kitten’s rescue.

“In the first stage of the operation, we took a picture of the island’s territory with a drone,” said the special forces soldier, wearing a mask to conceal his identity, while the kitten, just a few months old, curled up in his hands.


“The commander saw the little comrade, and included the task of bringing him back as one of the mission objectives.”

Was it hard to find a little kitten on a big, windy island?

“We thought it would be difficult, but he found us,” the soldier said. “The report we made to the commander after we left the island was: ‘Mission complete, no casualties. One additional team member – a kitten called Snake.'”

Snake Island has assumed legendary status in Ukraine since the very first hours of the war, when the Ukrainian garrison there, ordered by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet flagship to surrender, radioed back an obscenity. The incident was immortalized on a Ukrainian postage stamp, and on the day it was released Ukraine sank the ship.

Today, Snake has found a new home in Kyiv. The soldier would not discuss the kitten’s living arrangements in detail, but Snake seemed evidently happy in the soldier’s hands.

“He is with a loving family now. All is well.”
View attachment 14928
torontosun.com

'MISSION COMPLETE': Ukraine soldier saves tiny black kitten named after Snake Island

Meet Snake, a kitten with a heck of a war story. And the Ukrainian special forces soldier who saved him.
torontosun.com torontosun.com
Click to expand...
calling the cat snake is just going to confuse the cat. 🐈 🐍 ;)
 
Twin_Moose

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1551192612895424513

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1551114727283105793

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1551537126789025792

 
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spaminator

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'Horrific' video apparently showing castration of Ukrainian fighter condemned
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Dalton Bennett and Ellen Francis, The Washington Post
Publishing date:Jul 30, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation

ODESSA, Ukraine – Amnesty International and the European Union have backed Kyiv in calling for an investigation into footage circulating online that appears to show pro-Russian forces castrating and executing a captive Ukrainian fighter.


Ukrainian officials pledged to identify the perpetrators after a series of gruesome videos recently surfaced on pro-Russian Telegram channels showing a group of men, one of them seen wearing pro-Russian symbols, castrating and executing a prisoner dressed in military fatigues with Ukrainian military insignia.

“This horrific assault is yet another apparent example of complete disregard for human life and dignity in Ukraine committed by Russian forces,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Friday.

In a roughly 11/2-minute-long video, a man dressed in military fatigues, wearing a “Z” patch and an orange-and-black ribbon associated with Russian forces, castrates the bound prisoner using a green utility knife.


A separate video shared on pro-Russian Telegram channels shows a single shot being fired into the prisoner’s head.

The Washington Post was unable to confirm the date or location of where the videos were filmed.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the men in the footage as Russian “propagandists” delighting in torture. “But the fog of war will not help to avoid punishment for the executioners,” he tweeted. “We will identify and get to each of you.”

Social media users, investigative journalists and members of conflict intelligence groups have been poring over other footage of Russian forces available online, in an attempt to identify the men shown in the videos. The Post was unable to identify the captive in the footage.


Aric Toler, director of research and training at the investigative collective Bellingcat, said the presence of the “Z” symbol, which has become an emblem of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on a car in the background in one video “goes against some claims . . . that the video may be old and just now emerging after a year or two.”

The E.U.’s top diplomat described the footage as an example of the “inhumane, barbaric acts” that amount to war crimes.

“Evidence in form of appalling video footage has been widely shared on pro-Kremlin social networks today, in which Russian soldiers commit a heinous atrocity against a Ukrainian prisoner of war,” Josep Borrell said Friday in reference to the gruesome videos. “The European Union condemns in the strongest possible terms the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and their proxies.”


There has been no official comment from Moscow on the allegations.

Amnesty’s statement said the London-based rights group has documented crimes under international law during Russia’s war on Ukraine, including summary killings of captives of Russian-backed separatists and extrajudicial executions of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces.

After the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kyiv’s suburbs earlier in the conflict, images of bodies lying in the streets and evidence of torture in Bucha, near the capital, prompted global outrage – and more Western sanctions against Russia. Moscow has dismissed the accusations.

As Russian bombs pummel Ukrainian cities, Kyiv says it is collecting evidence around the country to investigate and prosecute hundreds of alleged war crimes by Russian forces during the war, now in its sixth month.

In April, a Ukrainian official said an investigation would be launched after a graphic video shared online showed the apparent killing by Ukrainian forces of a Russian fighter lying on the ground.
torontosun.com

'Horrific' video apparently showing castration of Ukrainian fighter condemned

ODESSA, Ukraine – Amnesty International and the European Union have backed Kyiv in calling for an investigation into footage circulating online that appears to show…
torontosun.com torontosun.com
 
Tecumsehsbones

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The Russians are brutal. They do not, and never did, adhere to any "civilized" standard of warfare.

Don't bother me with tu quoque fallacies. As individuals and sometimes as an army or a country, we've done plenty of bad stuff. But for us, that's a failing, personal or national. For the Russians, it's just Tuesday and an approved tactic.
 
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Jinentonix

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Tecumsehsbones said:
The Russians are brutal. They do not, and never did, adhere to any "civilized" standard of warfare.
Click to expand...
Historically, very few armies have. I don't think the idea that warfare could/should be "civilized" really existed until after WW1. And it's generally the so-called "armies of democracy" that have attempted to practice anything even remotely approaching civilized warfare. It hasn't really caught on elsewhere.
 
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Tecumsehsbones

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Jinentonix said:
Historically, very few armies have. I don't think the idea that warfare could/should be "civilized" really existed until after WW1. And it's generally the so-called "armies of democracy" that have attempted to practice anything even remotely approaching civilized warfare. It hasn't really caught on elsewhere.
Click to expand...
The armies of many parts of the world have practiced "keep civilians out of it" for centuries or longer. The code of chivalry. The Bushido of the samurai. The customs of American Natives. Many anthropologists believe the fall of the Maya civilization occurred when one local prince, in desperation, turned to attacking and killing farmers of enemy states, against long-standing custom. It was actually easier in the old days when weapons were muscle-powered and armies had to find each other and meet to fight.
 
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Jinentonix

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Tecumsehsbones said:
The armies of many parts of the world have practiced "keep civilians out of it" for centuries or longer. The code of chivalry. The Bushido of the samurai. The customs of American Natives. Many anthropologists believe the fall of the Maya civilization occurred when one local prince, in desperation, turned to attacking and killing farmers of enemy states, against long-standing custom. It was actually easier in the old days when weapons were muscle-powered and armies had to find each other and meet to fight.
Click to expand...
Civilized warfare isn't just about not killing civvies on purpose but also how you treat your enemy in defeat. Are you putting them to the sword? Taking them as slaves? Tossing them in dungeons or making "examples" out of them?

And uh, you're Bushido example doesn't work. In fact the Samurai were kind'a snowflakes. They had the right to kill anyone from the lower classes whom they felt insulted them. (It's all about the feels, ya know?) Also, let's say you were a samurai feuding with another clan and one of their samurai killed your leader, you did your best to find and kill ALL of his relatives including his wife, and his children regardless of age.
During the Civil War period (Sengoku jidai) the Samurais would round up peasants and force them to build castles and dig moats. Those who refused were put to the sword.
The simple fact is, the peasantry fucking HATED the samurai. The code was bullshit to them.

And the Chivalric code was a total joke. While the life of a man of arms was itself regarded as a noble pursuit it is important, perhaps, to note that although chivalry came to the fore in peacetime pursuits, it was largely absent during actual warfare and the slaughter of enemies, murder of prisoners, rape and pillaging all went on as tragically as it had done for millennia before the concept of chivalry was formed.
 
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Tecumsehsbones

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Jinentonix said:
Civilized warfare isn't just about not killing civvies on purpose but also how you treat your enemy in defeat. Are you putting them to the sword? Taking them as slaves? Tossing them in dungeons or making "examples" out of them?

And uh, you're Bushido example doesn't work. In fact the Samurai were kind'a snowflakes. They had the right to kill anyone from the lower classes whom they felt insulted them. (It's all about the feels, ya know?) Also, let's say you were a samurai feuding with another clan and one of their samurai killed your leader, you did your best to find and kill ALL of his relatives including his wife, and his children regardless of age.
During the Civil War period (Sengoku jidai) the Samurais would round up peasants and force them to build castles and dig moats. Those who refused were put to the sword.
The simple fact is, the peasantry fucking HATED the samurai. The code was bullshit to them.

And the Chivalric code was a total joke. While the life of a man of arms was itself regarded as a noble pursuit it is important, perhaps, to note that although chivalry came to the fore in peacetime pursuits, it was largely absent during actual warfare and the slaughter of enemies, murder of prisoners, rape and pillaging all went on as tragically as it had done for millennia before the concept of chivalry was formed.
Click to expand...
So. . . the conquerors treated them basically the same way their own governments did, or even better?

Big shock there.

A number of historians have pointed out that if your city surrendered to the Mongols, life for the vast majority of its people improved with administration by Chinese administrators and the footpads, killers, thieves and such handled by the Mongol warriors.
 
Jinentonix

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Tecumsehsbones said:
So. . . the conquerors treated them basically the same way their own governments did, or even better?

Big shock there.

A number of historians have pointed out that if your city surrendered to the Mongols, life for the vast majority of its people improved with administration by Chinese administrators and the footpads, killers, thieves and such handled by the Mongol warriors.
Click to expand...
Picking the odd individual example doesn't disprove my statement that historically, very few armies adhered to any principle of "civilized" warfare.
 
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Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Jinentonix said:
Picking the odd individual example doesn't disprove my statement that historically, very few armies adhered to any principle of "civilized" warfare.
Click to expand...
True, but pretending the lives of hoi polloi were wonderful before the big bad whatevers came isn't very useful either.

I don't really get your point. Are the Hague and Geneva Conventions somehow worth less because they weren't agreed in the early Middle Ages?
 
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