@TomOliver18
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Landscape conservation ; steered by history; I love railways; am steeped in Anglicanism and troubled by injustice. I don’t necessarily support re-posts.
Central London & countryside
Joined April 2010
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Tom Oliver retweeted
🇳🇴🇺🇦 Sandra Andersen Eira left Norway and came to Ukraine just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
A former Sámi Parliament politician and professional fisherman, she became a combat medic with Ukraine’s International Legion. She served near Bucha and Irpin.
Sandra later continued her service in Ukraine’s Marine Corps, serving alongside Ukrainian soldiers under Russian fire.
She saw their courage up close. She was wounded by Russian shelling and survived.
From the far north of Norway to the front lines of Ukraine,
She came as a foreign volunteer. She stood with Ukraine and stands with it even today
Awesome woman, respect 🫡❤️
Save Rousham and our Countryside - Sign the Petition! c.org/ttNLSG9ZSc via @UKChange
Tom Oliver retweeted
September 19, 1940. German soldiers are rounding up men off the streets of Warsaw.
One man sees the roundup coming and walks straight into it.
On purpose.
His name was Witold Pilecki. He was a Polish cavalry officer in the underground resistance, and he had volunteered for a mission nobody else would take. Get arrested. Get sent to the new German camp at Auschwitz. Find out what was happening inside. Build a resistance. Get word out.
Nobody had ever tried to break into a concentration camp before.
He went in under a fake name, Tomasz Serafiński, and became prisoner number 4859.
Inside, he started organizing. Small cells of five men who didn't know the other cells existed, so if one was caught and tortured he couldn't give up the rest. They stole food and medicine, helped the weakest survive, and planned for an armed uprising if the outside world ever sent help.
And he started sending out reports.
They were smuggled out with released prisoners and through contacts on the outside. Some of the earliest intelligence the Allies received about Auschwitz came from Pilecki. Mass executions. Starvation. And eventually, the gas chambers.
The uprising never came. The help never came.
After nearly two and a half years inside, Pilecki decided the only way to get the world to act was to tell them himself.
On the night of April 26, 1943, he was working a shift at a camp bakery outside the main fence with two other prisoners. They cut a phone line, forced open a door, and ran.
All three made it out.
Most people would have stopped there. Pilecki didn't.
In 1944 he fought in the Warsaw Uprising, was captured again, and spent the rest of the war as a German prisoner of war. When the war ended he joined Polish forces in Italy.
Then Poland fell under Soviet control. So he went back. Again. Undercover. This time to gather intelligence on the new communist regime for the Polish government in exile.
In May 1947 the communist secret police arrested him.
They tortured him for months. When his wife was finally allowed to see him, he reportedly told her that Auschwitz had been a game compared to this.
He got a show trial. The man who volunteered for Auschwitz to expose the Nazis was branded a traitor and an enemy of the state.
On May 25, 1948, he was taken to a cell in Mokotów prison in Warsaw and shot in the back of the head.
His family never got his body.
It was dumped in a secret grave. Communist Poland erased him. His name disappeared from history books. For decades, almost nobody outside his family knew who he was.
After communism fell, Poland cleared his name. In 2006 he received the Order of the White Eagle, the country's highest honor. His Auschwitz report was finally published in English in 2012. A British historian once ranked him among the six bravest people of the entire war.
Investigators have dug up a section of Warsaw's Powązki cemetery where the regime buried executed prisoners. They have identified hundreds of victims.
Witold Pilecki has never been found.
The man who broke into Auschwitz is still somewhere under Warsaw. Nobody knows where.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Morning has come to Ukraine, and many Ukrainians, especially in Kyiv, spent another night sleeping underground.
Yes... such videos no longer shock anyone - neither here in Ukraine, nor beyond the borders of my country. A person gets used to many things; the world has simply grown used to seeing this through the screen of a mobile phone. Bad things just happen in our lives, and then they become a part of them. It is very frightening to realize that such things in Ukraine have become a part of our reality, and that you can no longer surprise anyone in this world with this. We just seem to be drifting along, sighing as events unfold... sighing from our inability to find a way out of this situation, a way out of this war.
Tom Oliver retweeted
"We don't hate anybody."
"Well you should. Makes life more fun."
Truly the French spirit.
The Peace of Westphalia of 1648, recreated in a comedy sketch from the BBC program The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (1999).
Tom Oliver retweeted
Ukrainian forces are mounting a major missile and drone raid into western Russia tonight.
Russian channels describe the raid as the largest in weeks, with hundreds of drones in the air, and hits already reported.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Cockpit view from a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29, with the pilot flipping off a Russian attack drone he just shot down.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Beautiful everyday Ladybird things
The Mamod model steam engine
Artist: Harry Wingfield
Tom Oliver retweeted
PM Burnham is considering delaying a decision about when the government will increase defence spending until the autumn of next year in the hope that Britain’s economy improves. I’m sure Britain’s many enemies will give him the breathing space he requires to make up his mind. It’s not as if it’s a dangerous world.
Tom Oliver retweeted
🇷🇺🇺🇦 SICKENING PROPAGANDA
Food supplies from the Russian side to Oleshky are attacked by drones to ensure a humanitarian catastrophe.
The supplies are for families: no one would deliver cat litter to random people in a war zone, and truck boxes are labeled “mama.” This convoy was organized by friends and family of people from Oleshki.
In case you wonder why Ukraine would attack civilian food supplies? Wonder no more.
After stopping all Russian food convoys, Ukrainians delivered food themselves and told Russians to stop starving people.
They only do this because they know MSM would hide the facts, to amplify the narratives for Ukraine.
Journalists like ABC empower this by hiding the cause of the starvation for their agenda. A grandma was starving because ABC journalists ignored the situation for their agenda.
It’s all so tiring.
The Ukrainian city of Oleshky — under Russian occupation since 2022 has become "hell on earth," officials and aid workers say, as remaining residents face starvation and hundreds flee through a war zone littered with mines and bodies.
Read more: abcnews.link/yEhjB1M
Tom Oliver retweeted
“Next time, if it’s captivity or death, I’d rather kill myself. I will never be taken prisoner again.”
Olesia Melnychenko was a paramedic captured after leaving Azovstal.
Instead, she survived — and spent 223 days in russian captivity, including at the Olenivka prison camp where the massacre took place.
28 women were crammed into a cell meant for 6. She lost 12 kg. They were given barely edible food and water with tadpoles in it.
During interrogations, she was locked in a cage. russian men threatened and humiliated her.
But the worst part was hearing Ukrainian men being tortured behind the wall.
For days.
She feared dying because her little son might grow up with no memories of his mother.
She was freed on December 31, 2022, and returned to the Ukrainian army.
This is what russian captivity means.
Thousands of Ukrainians are still living through this hell.
Don’t be silent.
#FreeUkrainianPOWs
#FreeAzovstalDefenders
Tom Oliver retweeted
103-year-old Captain Eugeniusz Niedzielski, the last surviving soldier of General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Polish Armoured Division, has finally received the Polish passport he had long hoped for.
He was a teenager when the Soviets arrived to deport him and thousands of other Polish families to Siberia. His family had just one hour to pack. "My mother took a few essential items, mainly food and warm clothes," he recalled.
No documents proving his place of birth survived, which meant he was unable to obtain Polish citizenship. He has lived in the UK since the war and holds a British passport.
Following efforts by the Polish Consulate in London, his Polish citizenship has now been restored.
"I can’t wait to go to Poland and, for the first time in my life, show my Polish passport at the border," he told us, moved.
Godspeed, Captain!
Tom Oliver retweeted
In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles on its roads than every other country on earth put together, and they were all delivering milk.
There were tens of thousands of them. The milk float: open sided, battery under the floor, top speed of about 15 miles an hour, and a whine you could pick out in your sleep. It was charged overnight at the depot and was back there by lunchtime.
It carried glass bottles. Each one was collected from your step the next morning, washed and refilled. A bottle went round like that 20 or 30 times before it broke. The foil cap went for scrap. There was no other packaging.
The milk had come from farms within a few miles, through a local dairy, and was on the step before 7.
So here is what the country had. A zero-emission delivery fleet. Reusable containers with a return rate any modern scheme would kill for. No plastic. A supply chain you could cycle the length of. A man who noticed if an old lady's bottles were piling up, and knocked.
It was dismantled in about 15 years, because a supermarket could sell milk a few pence cheaper in a plastic jug as a way of getting you through the door.
Every piece of that system is now the subject of a government target for 2040.
It was running in 1967, silently, in the dark, and nobody thought it was worth a mention.
Tom Oliver retweeted
While others buried their heads in the sand, she was among the first to dare to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. While others were afraid to say a word against Putin, she stood firm despite Kremlin threats and supported the establishment of Ukrainian defense production on Danish soil.
This courageous woman is Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark and one of the most sincere and steadfast friends of the Ukrainian people. 🇩🇰
While some countries spent months arguing over what could and could not be given to Ukraine, Denmark simply stepped up and helped.
Mette Frederiksen has visited Ukraine repeatedly, supporting us not only with words but with her personal presence. She has addressed the Verkhovna Rada and repeatedly emphasized that Ukraine must receive everything it needs to prevail. Without fear. Without hesitation. Without unnecessary restrictions.
Under her leadership, Denmark has provided Ukraine with dozens of military aid packages worth billions of euros. Artillery, ammunition, heavy weapons — all of this is helping Ukrainian soldiers fight the Russian occupation and save Ukrainian lives.
Denmark was also among the first countries to make the historic decision to provide Ukraine with modern F-16 fighter jets. At a time when many said it was impossible, Denmark helped prove otherwise. That decision significantly strengthened the defense of Ukrainian skies.
And that is far from all.
Denmark pioneered direct financing of Ukrainian weapons production — including Bohdana self-propelled howitzers, drones and missiles — inside Ukraine itself. Denmark is not merely helping us fight today; it is investing in making Ukraine stronger tomorrow.
Moreover, despite constant threats from the Kremlin, Denmark agreed to host a facility operated by the Ukrainian company Fire Point for the production of rocket fuel. It is an extraordinary step and another demonstration that Russian intimidation does not dictate Danish policy.
Overall, Denmark has committed support to Ukraine equivalent to more than 3% of its GDP — one of the highest levels in the world. For a country of around six million people, this is more than generous assistance. It is an example of genuine responsibility and solidarity.
Denmark's military support alone has reached tens of billions of Danish kroner — billions of euros. Behind those numbers are lives saved, Ukrainian cities defended, and thousands of Ukrainian soldiers given a better chance to protect their homeland.
Denmark has also extended a helping hand to thousands of Ukrainian families forced to flee the war, providing them with refuge, safety, humanitarian assistance and financial support when they needed it most.
This is what a true friend looks like.
Not someone who talks endlessly, but someone who stands beside you when everything around you is dark. Not someone who searches for reasons to say no, but someone who finds a way to help.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank Mette Frederiksen for her courage, humanity and unwavering support for Ukraine. And we owe the same immense gratitude to the people of Denmark, who have stood shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion.
🇺🇦🇩🇰 Kindness is never forgotten. Ukrainians will always remember those who did not turn away in our darkest hour, but stood beside us and helped us endure.
And as long as Ukraine has friends like Denmark, our faith in victory will only grow stronger.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Following a short lull in reported operations against narco-terrorist elements in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has released a statement saying that Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere (JTF-WHEM) conducted a strike on a go-fast boat operating in known trafficking routes in the Caribbean. Per the release, intelligence confirmed the vessel was participating in narco-trafficking activities and 4 narco-terrorists were killed in the strike.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Switzerland's glacier report 2026 is out.
Swiss glaciers have lost 5% of their ice volume this year. Only the last 5 years accounted for nearly 20% of the total ice loss across Switzerland. The numbers are devastating.
Full report → doi.glamos.ch/pubs/annualrep…
Tom Oliver retweeted
A dozen Chinese volunteers are fighting for Ukraine in one reconnaissance unit, repairing drones, training as FPV pilots, handling explosives.
Super interesting & unexpected. I thank them for their decision.
2/
Ukraine F-16 Pilots Rationing Missiles as Russian Attacks Intensify | NEWSMAX2
Ukraine’s American-made F-16 fighter jets are defending the skies against Russian drones and cruise missiles — but a critical shortage of U.S.-made missiles is putting that mission at risk.
In an exclusive NEWSMAX interview from Kyiv, Ukrainian F-16 wing commander “Phantom” tells foreign correspondent Shelby Wilder that Ukraine needs additional Patriot and AIM-120 missiles, warning that an aircraft without weapons is a “useless tool.”
The shortage has reportedly become so severe that Ukrainian pilots are rationing missiles and, on some missions, relying on their F-16s’ onboard cannons to take down Russian aerial threats.
Tom Oliver retweeted
Grangemouth and Lindsey refineries closed on Miliband's watch because of Miliband's policies and now he's calling for maximum refinery production. 🤡🌎
Today @G7 members have agreed coordinated measures to stabilise energy supplies, build resilience in supply chains and shield households and businesses from price shocks.
We agreed to:
- Release strategic reserves of 100m barrels, coordinated by the IEA
- Maximise global refinery production
- A joint commitment to refrain from export restrictions between G7 countries.
- Calling for the immediate and full restoration of navigational rights and principles in the Strait of Hormuz
Full statement below 👇
gov.uk/government/news/g7-le…
