Nazi Penguins, Woman Wagner
More May events
Greener pastures..
7 men broke through the recently-constructed border fence at the infamous Tysa river on May 31, where at last count 30 people have turned up drowned. They were apprehended and arrested. They had paid $5,000-15,000 USD to the organizers.
Harsher punishments are demanded for truckers who abandon their cars once over the border to escape mobilization. The vice president of Ukraine’s trucker’s association proposed to deliver their details to Interpol on May 28.
Two Ukrainians who shot at Ukrainian border patrol were arrested in Romania on May 28. They will be extradited. They had escaped Ukraine by making the dangerous mountain trek, and engaged in a firefight with Ukrainian border patrol in the Zakarpattya region, successfully stealing their weapons. This comes after the non-fatal shooting of a draft-dodger by border patrol in the Vynnytsia region on May 19, and the fatal shooting of a draft dodger in Zakarpattia on May 17.
An Odessan who tried to escape on a child’s inflatable raft has been arrested. On its official telegram, the border patrol wrote: “Spiderman” from Odessa didn’t manage to cross the border
But things aren’t so good on the other side of the Tysa river either.
No doubt readers have heard about Polish foreign minister Sikorski’s statements. But a thousand Ukrainian refugees are set to be evicted in the German state of Saxonia. They have failed to find their own housing and must make way for other refugees. Two Ukrainian teens died while fleeing the Polish police on May 29. On May 30, it was announced that those aged 17 years and older studying at foreign universities must return to Ukraine and enter their details at the mobilization office.
On May 30, Ukraine’s judge at the European Court of Human rights stated in an interview that Ukraine occupies the top five countries with most court cases. The number of cases stands at 8,000 and is rising.
Mobilized Economy
First, economic effects. There aren’t enough public service workers in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (Bandera’s birthplace). The Chernihiv drama theatre has closed because too many staff have been mobilized. There are not enough workers in the Kiev Metro Line, leading to longer intervals.
The liberal-nationalist publication espresso.tv reported on May 24 that men in the Lviv region, even those reserved from mobilization, fear going to work, where they can be easily mobilized.
Cast the Net Wider
Militarily viable women will be fined if they don’t update military details. Imprisoned Ukrainian women, including murderers, will be mobilized, announced Ukraine’s Minister of Justice on May 29.
The training period for the mobilized was shortened on May 28. If before the official training period was two months, it is now 90 days. General command wants to reduce staff by 60%. Some will be sent to the front
Only 2% of those who get mobile conscription letters actually come, said a mobilization office representative on May 26. From June the ‘semi fit’ must also undergo military verification. 17 year olds can also be mobilized, according to a recent statement by the army. Those abroad must return to Ukraine and undergo military tests.
The government has been warning more and more lately about the danger of Russian disinformation regarding mobilization. A representative of Right Sector proposed a solution - Tik Tok must be banned to improve morale at the rear.
The Ministry of Defense urged the Rada on May 31 to adopt the law forming Military Police as soon as possible. This new formation will be responsible for finding and punishing deserters at the front. This has been a serious problem recently, with Forbes dedicating an article to it.
Energy and Taxes
Industry complains about energy crisis. On May 30, the head of Ukraine’s federation of metallurgists stated that it would be impossible for industry to import 80% of its energy. This was in response to the government decision to allow industry access to electricity during blackouts for those businesses that imported more than 80% of their energy. In case of blackouts, the Rada, the mobilization offices and military industry will keep lights on, according to a 28 May statement by the Cabinet of Minister.
This came after a 28 May statement by Ukrenergo that all thermal electricity stations are destroyed or damaged by Russian attacks.
‘By importing up to 1.7 GW of power from the EU, the resulting deficit can only be partially covered. It is impossible to restore all generating capacity before winter.’
From the first of June, energy bills for the population are rising. Tax increases are also planned, with VAT set to rise to 22-23%, up from the current 20%. Meanwhile, passions continue to boil on Ukrainian social media about the huge salaries of Ukrenergo officials, which are up to 2 million hryvnia a month. Most Ukrainians earn 10,000-30,000 a month. Among the top comments ‘Ukraine is a country of slaves, who have been brainwashed to think they are free!’
Poverty and Penguins
According to the latest figures from the World Bank, a third of Ukrainians live in poverty. This figure increased by 1.8 million people in 2023 as compared to 2020. One in five Ukrainians reported losing their job following the start of the war. If social payments composed one-fifth of household incomes in 2021, by 2023 it composed half. According to the report, the total population of Ukraine currently stands at 32 million people.
Strana notes that measuring poverty in Ukraine depends on the parameters - in 2021, Ukrainian demographers calculated that more than half of the population lived in poverty. At the time, the vice-speaker of the Rada agreed, stating that 19 million Ukrainians were poor.
These trends are set to be reinforced given news that the hryvnia continues slowly devaluing.
Many passions have erupted recently over government spending in a very distant place. Spending on Antarctic research has risen dramatically under Zelensky, reaching almost 600 million hryvnia a year in 2023 and 2024.
The hilariously odious Evhen Dykyy (his last name means ‘Savage’/’Wild’), gave an interview with Yury Romanenko where he defended spending on Ukraine’s station in the Southern Pole. Since 2018, he has been the head of Ukraine’s National Antarctic Centre, which is in charge of research.
Dykyy served in the rightwing Aidar Batallion in the Donbass back in 2014 and since has been a classic rightwing ‘veteran leader’. Way back in the 2000s, he was part of the Gene Sharp cutout ‘Pora’, a copy of Serbia’s Otpor (the words even have the same meaning in Serbian and Ukrainian).
Dykyy (left in the above photo) is also famous for statements such as his 2024 appeal to kill citizens who avoid mobilization:
When they [draft-dodgers] start gathering, it's like a bunch of frightened rats... If this happens, they will have to be cleaned out. We have enough hands, iron, and determination for this. And we will clean them up so that there will be no room left!
At this point, I cannot help citing from Roberto Bolano’s novella Distant Star:
In the crystal clear sky over the Arturo Prat base, Wieder wrote ANTARCTICA IS CHILE, and his exploit was recorded on film and in photographs. He wrote other verses too, about the color white and the color black, about ice, the occult and the smile of the Fatherland, a fine, frank, clear-cut smile, a smile like an eye that is in fact watching us
Court Cases and Mobilized Journalists
The court case regarding responsibility of Yanukovych’s Berkut riot police in Maidan killings was closed on May 24. The reason was that the amount of time has run out. Meanwhile, ultranationalist Lviv intellectual Iryna Farion won her court case on May 29 and will be back at the Lviv Politechnic. She had been fired for her statement in 2023 that she does not consider Russian-speaking servicemen to be Ukrainians.
The ever-vicious parliamentarian Mariana Bezuhla criticized head of the army Oleksandr Syrsky for Kharkov’s lack of defense. She also criticized Zaluzhny for fomenting revolt against Zelensky. I suppose she’ll criticize anyone with the slightest possibility of creating an alternative power base to Zelensky, even the totally obedient Syrsky, just to keep them in line.
Trust in the Rada (parliament) has fallen by half. No wonder parliamentarians aren’t too happy to continue following Zelensky’s demands, as I have written about in recent articles about splits in the Ukrainian elite.
A journalist who leaked the ‘black list’ of what Ukraine’s state media should avoid speaking about received a mobilization summons the following day, on May 31. The head editor of the economic branch of Ukraine’s New York Times - Economic Truth - was detained and mobilized on May 27.
Dead journalists also haven’t escaped the demands of the war machine. A dead sports journalist received two mobilization tickets on May 29