International
Hero Marine blows himself up with bridge to halt advance of Russian troops
A Ukrainian soldier’s name and photo will go down in history for his heroic actions today. Vitaly Shakun was manning Ukraine’s Henichesk bridge in the Kherson region when Russian troops attempted a takeover.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Facebook page, the battalion decided the only way to stop them was to blow up the bridge, reports the Daily Mail. Shakun, a marine, blew himself up along with the bridge; an act of bravery and valor so great it is hard to comprehend.
According to the Facebook page, Shakun told his comrades he had no time to escape and was going to detonate. Immediately after, they heard the explosion.
Ukrainians are showing a stunning display of resilience, vowing to “give Putin hell from every house” that his men advance upon. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky uploaded a video on Thursday night to address the nation.
“We are all here. Our soldiers are here. The citizens are here and we are here” said Zelensky who made clear he still holds government office. “We defend our independence. That’s how it’ll go. Glory to our defenders, both male and female, glory to Ukraine!”
Zelensky also noted this could mark the last time he is seen alive, an acknowledgement that Russia has publicly stated it is going after Zelensky in order to take control of his government.
China has a vast network of psychiatric institutions that it uses to suppress dissent, according to a recent report by Safeguard Defenders, an NGO that focuses on human rights violations in China and other Asian countries. The report compiled data found on 99 victims involved in 144 instances on involuntary hospitalizations in 109 institutions from 2015 through 2021. Of the 99 victims in the report, 80 were petitioners [i.e., those who file complaints against officials] and 14 were activists.
But this is hardly a new phenomenon. “China’s regime has been torturing, maiming, and killing dissidents and others in psychiatric facilities for seven decades,” said Gordon G. Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China and The Great U.S.-China Tech War. “The only way to end the horrific abuse is to end the rule of the Communist Party.”
The report detailed especially harsh treatments, which include: forced medication (in 77 percent of cases), physical restraints on the bed (60 percent), beatings by staff or other patients (25 percent) and electroshock therapy (14 percent). Otherwise normally healthy people were given anti-psychotic and psychotropic medications, causing severe side effects like memory loss, insomnia and tremors. Electroshock therapy was often administered to the victims as they were fully conscious, rather than under anesthesia in small doses as would be clinically appropriate for certain patients. According to the report, “[Electroshock therapy] without anesthesia is not only unimaginably painful and frightening for the patient but carries serious side effects, including the risk of bone fractures, joint dislocation, muscle tears, disruption of the heart beat and lung damage.”
Family and friends are often used as weapons against the victims. They were not permitted to call or visit the victims in 76 percent of cases, which essentially makes these cases “enforced disappearances.” 11 percent of cases were committed with the assistance of family (either voluntarily or coerced by authorities). Family and friends who petition for the victim’s release are often faced with persecution, and involuntarily commitment themselves.
The peak of psychiatric detentions occurred from 2015 through 2016, which was around the same time as China’s “709 Crackdown” where the government persecuted hundreds of human rights lawyers.
Some of the detentions are rather draconian. As a petitioner who called for local authorities to investigate a robbery in his house, Zeng Jiping was detained for almost two years. For “live tweeting herself splashing paint over a portrait of Xi Jinping,” Dong Yaoqiong received 1 year, 4 months detention. Twenty-nine out of the 99 victims in the report were hospitalized more than once. In two-thirds of cases where data was known, the authorities did not perform a psychiatric evaluation, in direct violation of China’s Mental Health Law.
The report also gives the example of Andy Li, a member of the “Hong Kong 12” pro-democracy protestors, as falling victim to involuntary detention in Hong Kong’ Siu Lam Psychiatric Center in 2021. The report noted that, as Li’s family didn’t know about his detention, “Li’s cases appears to be a worrying sign that the political abuse of psychiatry practiced on the mainland is now being exported into Hong Kong…”
Those who are finally released from their involuntary committals face lasting physical and phycological pain, and stigma within their communities. People seeking damages for their treatment are often faced with doctors and attorneys who do not want to assist them for fear of retaliation from the government.
Conclusion
According to the report, China is using “peace and health asylums” and other healthcare institutions to “punish and remove activists and petitioners from society without the trouble of going through a trial.” While the report details various Chinese laws that are supposed to protect citizens from such involuntary hospitalizations, in reality Chinese authorities do not abide by these laws and the citizens are not protected. The policy of involuntary hospitalizations show the extent to which the Chinese Communist Party will go to suppress dissent.
You can follow Steve Postal on Twitter @HebraicMosaic
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Christy Marani
February 25, 2022 at 5:18 pm
Beyond a hero – a true freedom fighter. This Marine is an angel hero now. May God bless and protect Ukraine.
Nina Bolla
February 25, 2022 at 8:57 pm
US should honor this man’s sacrifice by taking back Energy independence and he’lexporting oil & gas. It’s the only way to make us and our Allie’s stronger while reducing the hold Russia has on everyone.
I condolences to this brave Ukrainian’s family and countrymen. The heart of America is with you!
Harry & Sally Parmer
February 25, 2022 at 9:05 pm
All of us as individuals can make a difference in this David vs Goliath 2022 war by boycotting and not purchasing things made in Russia, China India and any other country that supports Putin. I for one want to do something and this is all i can think of to do in addition to praying for Ukrainians and this world. If i knew how Russian pull is used in the US, i wouldn’t buy or products from those users. If all of us boycott, it can make a difference, one penny at a time.
Helen T Hillock
February 25, 2022 at 9:45 pm
Sorry the united states didn’t do more for your country!! I pray for a miracle. God still is the miracle worker.
Linda Muench
February 25, 2022 at 9:54 pm
I am so humbled by the Ukrainian people. I hope we as Americans would be as bold & self sacrificing. I pray all the time for their safety, resolve & victory. God bless all of you!
L M Reiher
February 25, 2022 at 10:08 pm
sara,
i tried to send this to sean; but it didnt go through. can you please get it to him?
thanks,
larry
sir, while watching fox this eve, either you or tucker [ i think it was you ] had a short piece about a ukranian grandmother who put sunflower seeds in the pocket of an invader and told him she wanted them to grow from her country’s ground when he was killed in the battle.
my wife and i were blown away by her BALLS! my wife had the idea to start a movement here [and, perhaps around the world ] to foster the planting of sunflower seeds in support of the ukranian people. hell, fox might even elect to promulgate the concept. the seeds are essentially free and their flowers are prolific.
so, what do you think? ccan you at least get me a clip of the item to use for promotional purposes?
i eagerly await your response.
thanks in advance,
larry reiher and wife martha matt
maximus
February 25, 2022 at 11:18 pm
He may be one of those Neo Nazis escaping in front of Russians
Fred Fredricksen
February 26, 2022 at 12:16 am
So they knew they were coming for months now, and failed to place explosives, yet its heroic for the marine to die blowing it up. Yeah sure, sounds like our current generals level of leadership to me.
Terry
February 26, 2022 at 1:23 am
If Ukrainians all fight like this I wouldn’t want to be attacking them. I read yesterday that many of the legislature put on armored vests and took up AKs to defend their country! Can you even imagine US senators and representatives doing this? NO, neither can I. Many of them would be seeking out enemy soldiers to surrender to!
CECILE BARBOUR
February 26, 2022 at 5:06 am
God Bless this young man So sad HE IS A HERO. ❤
Diana
February 26, 2022 at 8:09 am
What a sacrifice, he is a Hero here and an Angel in Heaven!
Bedeyah Emmanuel
February 26, 2022 at 9:43 am
WAR : by Facebook: You all are Doomed if the Father doesn’t step in & save you.
(the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s “FACEBOOK PAGE”,
the battalion decided the only way to stop them was to blow up the bridge, reports the Daily Mail. Shakun, a marine, blew himself up along with the bridge; an act of bravery and valor so great it is hard to comprehend.
According to the “FACEBOOK PAGE”, Shakun told his comrades he had no time to escape and was going to detonate. Immediately after, they heard the explosion.
When was he fighting……. 1750? When the military couldn’t have a delayed explosion?
Are you “SERIOUS?’
Saul mcManus
February 26, 2022 at 10:34 am
The Precious cost of Freedom – the very thing the dimmocrats here are trying to DESTROY! God Bless this Soldier and may his soul find Peace! A TRUE HERO!!
Michelle Brown
February 26, 2022 at 11:49 am
God bless you young man. You are a hero to your nation and may your name never be forgotten.
Michael J Foy
February 26, 2022 at 2:03 pm
A true credit to the Ukrainian Marines and a hero to Marines everywhere. Rest in Peace my Ukrainian brother Marine! Putin thinks he will control a people such as this? In the immortal words of the Skunk Island defenders; “Russian warship…(read Putin) … Go F***k yourself!”
Vitaly Shakun
Kathryn M Rendina
February 26, 2022 at 3:04 pm
May Shakum’s soul rest in peace. That’s how much he loved his people and country !
KAPIL
February 26, 2022 at 5:03 pm
May patriot Shakun’s soul rest in everlasting peace.
Sandra
February 27, 2022 at 12:50 am
The U.S. should have listened to General Patton when he wanted to drive
Russia as far back as possible.
Randy Tracy
February 27, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Note that gunfire and resultant killing and wounding had been going on in the east since 2014. Where was the west’s outrage then?
MicMac69
February 28, 2022 at 3:11 am
Meanwhile the MAGA americans were quietly eating their cornflakes when antifa-blm were occupying Seatle and arsonning the country… To have or not to have… cojones
Валерий Барышев
February 28, 2022 at 5:02 am
Криминальная сущность российской власти со всей полнотой проявилась этой братоубийственной войной. Не хватило ума и элементарной культуры понять, что так делать нельзя. Необоснованность развязывания этой войны в стиле безумности Путина, растлившего правосудие, представительскую власть, правоохранительные органы и основные институты общества. Российский народ виновен в том, что позволил укрепиться в течение тридцати лет самой реакционной, антинародной власти, уничтожившей конституционные нормы и свободы, завоёванные прошедшими поколениями. У нашей молодёжи нет будущего кроме вонючего страха и мракобесия властей.
Julie
February 28, 2022 at 2:05 pm
You would rather have the insidious parasitic globalist freaks cruelly dominate the Ukraine territory? The terrorists are the globalist psychopaths developing bioweapons in the bio labs in Ukraine, to further target billions of innocent humans. Russia is a white hat for his own country, as Trump is a white hat for ours. Get rid of the globalist elites from every country. Klaus Schwab dictator wannabes have no right to claim planet earth…unless We humans are to flaccid to protect ourselves.
Bessel Func
February 28, 2022 at 9:41 pm
We cannot confirm or deny that this happened.
Bonnie Rogers
March 3, 2022 at 10:59 am
Thank you for your braving