Maximilian Clarke

The owner of this channel has been inactive for the last 5 months. If they remain inactive for the next 9 days, they may lose their account and admin rights in this channel. The contents of the channel will remain accessible for all users.

The owner of this channel has been inactive for the last 5 months. If they remain inactive for the next 18 days, they may lose their account and admin rights in this channel. The contents of the channel will remain accessible for all users.

#Mariupol front with Chechen https://youtu.be/bMBqQf53ER8 Akhmat Sila

A member of the Russian military escorts a girl and her family, who had been living in a bombshelter for over a month in eastern Mariupol, towards safer and quieter neighbourhood

Ilicha iron and steel works: one of the final pockets of Ukrainian resistance in #Mariupol. Video from an #Azov vehicle
base with uniforms etc, from my #youtube https://youtu.be/hw5gSzMjIwo

A mother and daughter embrace after their house was destroyed by Ukrainian shelling in the #Donetsk village of Olenivka

#Donetsk - Petrovsky district. Civilians in the frontline still under Ukrainian shelling after 8 years https://youtu.be/6rFuLN_MzL4

War is hell. None of us can handle it. @patricklancaster . We are taking a day off but the death will never leave us.

A week in and around central #
Mariupol https://youtu.be/4OIaoOzyCNI

I don’t support the exploitation of animals. But when the manager of the #Mariupol zoo hands you a tiger cub, it’s impossible to say no

Neighbours exchange an emotional goodbye as one prepares to leave to family in #Donetsk, while the rest remain in their bomb shelters beneath their destroyed homes in #Mariupol

I tried to take today off- Mariupol is too intense, I’m concerned about my mental health. So I stayed in Donetsk. But Donetsk wasn’t a break: Ukrainians have been firing all day, Kievsky is burning. I don’t understand how people still live there- Ukrainian positions have been bombarding Kievsky for 8 years. https://youtu.be/42JGwsmZsvM

Multiple explosions over #Donetsk just now. https://youtu.be/hb4aDxN6wpw

Central Donetsk after a Ukrainian Tochka-U cluster bomb strikes the heart of a civilian area. 26 dead: this is the immediate aftermath, less than 10 minutes after detonation. Be warned, video is extremely disturbing. https://youtu.be/_7T1MYc4Y7s

At least four dead civilians on this bus alone. Maybe 20+ altogether. Right in the heart of Donetsk. A residential neighbourhood was hit by a Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missile. I have seen a lot of death here in the Donbass but today has come close to breaking me. Seeing a man screaming over his legless wife’s body; a person who appeared dead suddenly raising an arm, begging for help… the people of #Donbass are in hell.

No part of me supports what is happening in Ukraine.

There’s one aspect that I feel people don’t understand:

For Americans WWII led to the Greatest Generation. For us Brits we had spitfires and The Blitz Spirit. Russians had none of that and no fond memories. All they experienced was an invading force who came not for tactical victories and negotiations; but the utter and total elimination of every Russian man woman and child. The complete and utter elimination of their entire culture was at stake. The scars of that conflict run so deep that it resonates profoundly to this day. Every city, town and village has a memorial of that incomprehensibly nightmarish conflict and the pain is still very real. It is ingrained in the Russian psyche.

For decades Russia has first asked, then pleaded, then cautioned, then threatened against NATO expansion because they have bad associations with organised European armies massed at their borders. NATO are touted as a defensive force but Libya and Afghanistan would beg to differ.

Ukraine has never been culturally associated with The West.

People think NATO expansion is just a technicality that Putin is using to enact his own expansionist agenda. But it is more than just a technicality. And it’s not just about Putin. Every Russian I’ve spoken to is angry and frustrated by NATO and Europe. They do not want a unified and incredibly well funded pan European and American army massed on their borders. A non NATO buffer zone isn’t just some legal jargon but a very real comfort.

Russia had a friendly leader in Ukraine. Sure, Yanukovich was as incompetent as he was corrupt, or vice versa. But at least to them he was pro Russia. Seeing their democratically elected leader ousted by a mob angered Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians.

But this latest attempt to join nato proved to be the last straw: after those decades of requests and threats that amounted to nothing, Russia has finally acted on the threat that has been loudly and unambiguously trumpeted for years.

EDIT: this is not my justification nor am I an apologist. I am merely sharing a perspective that I feel many people simply have not considered