Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:12 pm

War in Ukraine. Summary 06/30/2022
July 1, 0:19

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/30/2022

1. Lisichansk.
Fighting in Lisichansk itself, in Privolye, Verkhnekamenka, on the outskirts of Volcheyarovka and beyond Belaya Gora. The battles for Zolotarevka, Disputed and Verkhnekamensk began.
The enemy is trying to hold the corridor through Belogorovka to Seversk in order to be able to move away from Lisichansk. The grouping continues to remain in the operational environment, but there is no full-fledged boiler yet - one more road remains to be cut.

2. Soledar.
Fights near Nikolayevka, in Berestovoye and Belogorovka. The enemy began to fortify the chain of settlements between Soledar and Seversk, where he expects to delay the advance of our troops after the fall of Lisichansk.

3. Artemovsk.
Our troops are slowly advancing in Klinovoe. The enemy's defense in Pokrovsky is holding. The enemy began to prepare for the defense of the outskirts of Artemovsk, expecting the imminent start of battles for the city.
Our troops are stepping up pressure on Kodema and Semigorye in order to cut off the group defending the Uglegorsk TPP and Novolugansk.
In Ukraine, they say that they will transfer reinforcements to the Donbass to keep the situation in this direction.

4. Slavyansk.
It is reported about the capture of Sidorovo and Bogorodichny. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denies the loss of Bogorodichny and states that he still controls part of the village. According to Sidorov, the situation is still unclear. If the village is taken, then this means the imminent start of battles for Mayaki north of the outskirts of Slavyansk.
On the Izyum direction without significant changes - there is no advance in the area of ​​Dolina and Krasnopolye.

5. Kharkov.
Against the backdrop of ongoing systematic attacks in the area of ​​Kharkov and Chuguev, after the occupation of Dementyevka, the RF Armed Forces are stepping up pressure near Verkhny Saltov, Tsupovka and the village of Udy.
The processing of the Zolochevsky fortified area continues. It is also worth noting the Tu-141 Strizh UAV flying in the direction of Kursk, which was probably trying to identify the capabilities of Russian air defense systems before possible strikes in the Kursk region using OTRK and American MLRS.

6. Avdiivka.
No major changes. Fighting, as before, is taking place near the Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway. There is no serious progress in the direction of Ochertino and Krasnogorovka. New York has no significant changes so far.

7. Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka without significant changes. Positional fights. It is worth noting that the head of the DPR, Pushilin, after the exchange of prisoners of war in the Zaporozhye region in the Kamensky region, announced the continuation of negotiations on a further exchange of prisoners of war, which will probably also be held in the Zaporozhye region.

8. Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog and Nikopol directions. The enemy claims that he was able to repel the attacks of the RF Armed Forces in the Potemkino area and keep the village behind him.
The RF Armed Forces continue to strike at headquarters and concentrations of troops in the Nikolaev region.

9. Odessa.
The Russian Armed Forces left Zmeiny Island due to increased artillery and rocket attacks.
Ukraine stated that it would establish control over the island, but later stated that conditions for this still needed to be created, fearing that when landing on the island, Ukrainian forces would already become a target for missile strikes.
Politically, the departure from Zmiinoye is linked to the unblocking of grain exports from Ukrainian ports as part of the negotiations that have been going on in Turkey since May. Linking the Serpentine issue with the issue of cargo transit to Kaliningrad has not yet been officially confirmed.

10. Ugledar, Marinka, Raisins - no significant changes.

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https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7711512.html

Satellite images of Snake Island 06/29/2022
June 30, 20:33

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Satellite images of Zmeiny Island from June 29 after the withdrawal of the Russian garrison. There are traces of strikes from last week, where 1 Pantsir air defense missile system was declared destroyed. Some property is smoking on the pier, which was destroyed before leaving. Also, some dilapidated house is smoking from among those that did not break during the May battles.

In Ukraine, they say they want to establish physical control over the island, but everything seems to be limited to demonstrative events with the landing of small troops by boats or helicopters, the raising of the flag and photographs. Obviously, if you try to linger on the island, missile attacks on the island will follow, if Ukraine does not have the ability to cover the island from the air.

It is also worth noting that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announces the transfer of artillery systems and MLRS, with the help of which they fired at Zmeiny in the Donbass, in order to deter the advance of Russian troops on Artemovsk and Slavyansk.

Image

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https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7711224.html

Blame Russia, Russia and Russia again
June 30, 19:03

About Biden's statements following the NATO summit.

1. Only Russia is to blame for all the economic troubles of the United States.
The Biden administration continues to stand its ground despite growing criticism of such a position within the United States and falling ratings ahead of the midterm elections. They cannot deviate from this line, as this will mean admitting that the administration in the economic field has completely failed, so they will hammer on the topic "Putin is to blame for inflation and rising prices for food, gasoline and gas", just like they hammered the topic earlier "Putin hacked the US election, and Trump is a Kremlin agent." At the same time, no improvements are expected - US residents, according to Biden, "should pay the price as much as necessary."
Let's look at the fruits of this information line in autumn.

2. The US and its satellites will continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.
This is, frankly, not news. Old supplies are gradually being ground down, so new supplies are needed. Their range will obviously expand - they will strive to focus on artillery, MLRS and air defense systems of short and medium range.
All this is an unnecessary reminder that in Ukraine we are at war with the US and NATO, if someone thought it was a "war with Ukraine." Ukraine is just an instrument of American policy here. They expect to use the same tool in the upcoming war for Taiwan, where the puppet government is defiantly heading for a military clash with the PRC.

3. Deliveries of F-16s to Turkey.
Here, the Biden administration actually made a serious concession to Erdogan in order to put pressure on Russia, removing one of the key demands on Erdogan - to abandon the use of the S-400 under the threat of cutting off arms supplies from the United States. This is again a demonstration of the weakening of US influence, when a formal overlord is forced to make concessions to his vassals in order to achieve what he wants. The times of directive control of the world are long gone.

PS. Regarding Erdogan, he skimmed a lot of cream off this issue.

Erdogan announced the price of his consent to the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO. In addition to the written commitments of Sweden and Finland, which are recorded in a joint declaration and related to the cessation of support from Sweden and Finland to the Gülen organization and Kurdish organizations, Sweden and Finland must extradite more than 70 Kurds associated with the PKK to Turkey. In addition, Biden said today that the United States should supply Turkey with F-16s, as Turkey demanded (the United States had previously refused these deliveries under the pretext that until Turkey abandoned the S-400, it would not receive aircraft from the United States). For complete happiness, the extradition of Gülen and the withdrawal of American troops from Rojava are still not enough.

Also, Sweden and Finland are warned that if they do not fulfill their obligations, the Turkish parliament will not support the approval of the admission of these countries to NATO.

In general, "Drug Rejep" was able to twist the hands of the US and NATO and is now trying to fix its winnings. No joke - from the point of view of Turkey, an excellent combination. But the Turks, of course, suspect that they can be thrown.

To better understand the dilemma of the Europeans. In order to get Turkey's consent, they need to extradite 73 people to Turkey who were under political protection on the territory of a European country and were not considered terrorists. On the contrary, Turkey's claims for their extradition were strongly rejected.

Now, for the sake of political necessity, they need to extradite these people (in Turkey, at best, a prison and long sentences await them on charges of terrorism). Erdogan offers this choice to those who like to talk about it. that they "will never exchange democratic principles for political necessity." For Sweden and Finland, this is a complete Faustian deal.

The price of joining NATO is the extradition of 73 people for reprisal.
We'll watch with interest how the European Democrats will try to seep "between the raindrops" on this issue.


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(Couldn't bring myself to use a Ben Garrison cartoon.)

Google Translator

***********************

No, NATO Will Not Get Ready For War

I had a good laugh when I read this nonsense:

NATO to boost troops on high alert to over 300,000 -Stoltenberg

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will boost the number of troops on high alert by more than sevenfold to over 300,000, its secretary-general said on Monday, as allies prepared to adopt a new strategy describing Moscow as a direct threat four months into the Ukraine war.
...
Stoltenberg said NATO in future would have "well over 300,000" troops on high alert, compared to 40,000 troops that currently make up the alliance's existing quick reaction force, the NATO Response Force (NRF).
The new force model is meant to replace the NRF and "provide a larger pool of high readiness forces across domains, land, sea, air and cyber, which will be pre-assigned to specific plans for the defence of allies," a NATO official said.


NATO does not have 300,000 troops to put on high alert. The troops are controlled by member states and I see no willingness by any of them to shoulder the costs that a real high alert status would have. Units on high alert means that they fully manned with no one on vacation and with enough supplies ready to sustain weeks of battle. All of that costs money. Member states will instead designate existing units as 'high alert' ones and change nothing else in their usual equipment and training.

The statement is pure NATO public relations fluff. Stoltenberg did not even ask or inform member states before he made that announcement:

Stoltenberg’s announcement caught the top defense officials of many NATO members off guard, leading them to question which of their forces, if any, were being included in the 300,000 figure.
“Maybe it’s number magic?” said one senior European defense official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the confusion.

Several senior European security policymakers said they were taken by surprise, with no advance notice of the plan to expand NATO’s quick-response force from its current size of 40,000 in light of the Ukraine war and Russia’s ongoing military threats to NATO territory.


This was one of the ideas that are typical for NATO bureaucrats who live in their own fantasy world. They are the reason why the French president Macron has called NATO 'brain dead'. And no, it is really nothing more than an idea:

A NATO official, speaking on the condition of anonymity per the alliance’s ground rules, said that country-specific numbers still needed pinning down. Even the 300,000 total is theoretical for the moment: “The concept has not been fully worked up yet,” the official said. “We will have to do more to build up the model before we can work out what national commitments can be.”
Even so, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has already said her country will offer up 15,000 troops — a full division.


Lambrecht offered nothing. She will put the fake 'high alert' label on an existing division and change nothing else. That she did this is actually quite revealing. If Germany as one of the bigger NATO countries offers only one division size element where will the other 19 division size elements come from that are needed to make up a 300,000 strong force? Do they even exist?

NATO is just a shadow of its former self. Member states now have only a few troops that can be designated to work under NATO. Even those lack ammunition and depot weapons to make up for eventually losses. Some now even lack the industries to make more systems and grenades. They are also unable to make new ones that are fit for their purposes.

Neither of the big or small 'modern' weapons that were given to Ukraine has made a difference. The Javelins had empty batteries, the British NLAW anti-tank weapons were too weak to defeat Russian armor. Switchblade suicide drones are not controllable under Russian electronic warfare conditions. Stinger missiles have heat sensors that are too slow to acquire a fast moving target. The 'light' howitzer M-777 are too light for real battle conditions and tend to break.

NATO countries have put too much money into their air forces which will be unable to break through Russia's excellent air defenses. NATO's air defense is in contrast too weak. Just ask the Saudis how well their Patriot systems worked against Yemeni drones. Those systems can do nothing against Russia's medium range missiles. System like Iskander and Kalibr, of which Russia has many, are hard to find in NATO armies.

What is the last time NATO units have trained under electronic warfare conditions?

The New York Times interviewed nearly two dozen Ukrainian soldiers over the last several weeks who all pointed to similar problems: Russians jammed their radios constantly; they didn’t have enough communication gear; and they often had difficulty getting through to a commander to call for artillery support. Talking to units stationed nearby was also an issue, they said, which has led to Ukrainian forces occasionally firing on one another.
...
The General said that his two off-the-shelf radios were jammed constantly.
“They would use the stronger signal on the same frequency,” he said.

Troops in more specialized units have been issued U.S.-supplied encrypted radios and can speak to one another unhindered, one soldier said, but the radio’s high output means the Russians can find the locations they are broadcasting from.

“This is why we stopped communicating and only communicated the necessary minimum, such as if an evacuation was needed or an urgent help,” the soldier, who goes by the name Raccoon, added.


Materially NATO is not ready to fight. Politically it is also not ready.

John Helmer quotes excerpts from an interview with the former chief of staff of the Polish army, Miecyslaw Gocul:

You complain, and [NATO Secretary-General] Jens Stoltenberg has announced: “The NATO summit in Madrid will be groundbreaking. With a new strategic concept, we will make a fundamental change in NATO’s deterrence and defense.”
Before the NATO summit in Warsaw [in 2016]), at the Pact’s military committee, I asked Stoltenberg: what will be the guarantees for the eastern flank? He replied with a question: what else does Poland expect? I said straight out: security and prosperity, which is what the rest of us sitting at the table want.”

“Just like then, I hear the same slogans today, such as ‘do more with less’. There are also other fine-sounding calls, but these are only political slogans calculated for a positive public reaction and minimizing costs. They do not really bring about any political and military solutions.
...
Now the tension between Russia and Lithuania is growing, because the sanctions are blocking the Kaliningrad Oblast more and more. Could this be a hotspot?

If Putin wanted to start the war further and decided to cut a corridor through the Baltics to the Kaliningrad District at the Suwałki Gap, what forces could stop him? Could the forces of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland stop Putin? Not at all. Putin will not be stopped by the Americans, who are present on the eastern flank only in small numbers. I repeat, Russia talks and calculates only with strong countries and organizations. And NATO in our region is weak.


It indeed is. And except for few east European hot heads, everyone hopes that it will stay so. None of the bigger NATO member countries wants a large fight with Russia. That includes the United States. Why then prepare for it? Why buy weapons that will never be used?

On the other side Russia does not want anything from Europe. It does not have an ideology that seeks expansion. It wants to be left alone.

NATO is a cold war relict that was kept alive to give the U.S. some political advantages. Its real purpose has never changed: keep Germany down, Russia out and the U.S. in Europe. That will only change when western Europe starts to rebel against it.

Unfortunately the chances for that are low.

Posted by b on June 30, 2022 at 15:41 UTC | Permalink

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

forwarded from
RODION_MIROSHNIK
Allied troops are attacking Lisichansk from four sides.

In the suburbs of Lisichansk from the south and east, most of the settlements are already under the control of the allied forces of the LPR and Russia. Today they completed the cleanup at the Lisichansk Oil Refinery - in Verkhnekamenka, in nearby Zolotorevka and the southern suburb of Lisichansk - Belaya Gora. There the situation is clear and indisputable in favor of the liberators.

The attack on Lisichansk and the advance inside Lisichansk are already underway from four directions:

From the south, in the area of ​​the RTI plant (rubber products), the allied forces not only advanced into the city, but also carried out a sweep of nearby quarters.

From the north - from the side of the glass factory Proletary, the offensive is also actively developing. Peacekeeping troops advanced into the depths of urban development by about 3-4 blocks;

On the right bank of the Seversky Donets, after yesterday's crossing of the allied units, a wide bridgehead was formed with a center in the area of ​​​​the helipad. From there, with a fairly wide front, they move in a south-westerly direction towards the city center.

Another group of allied troops is moving to meet them from the concrete goods section and the Melnikov mine, squeezing the vise around the central regions of Lisichansk.

At the same time, the allied forces are striking another satellite of Lisichansk - Novodruzhesk. Fortified areas with underground passages were found there, where Ukrainian militants are still hiding. How many of them will survive there after massive artillery strikes, only God knows, but under such an onslaught they will not be able to hold this area for a long time.

As a result, the Lysychansk group is dismantled from four directions at once, pushing large enterprises away from the main large urban industrial zones, where the enemy could potentially catch on, but they leave less and less chances of such, step by step, bringing the complete liberation of the territory of the Lugansk Republic closer.

***

Сolonelcassad
The Russian embassy in Bulgaria proposed to cancel no later than 12 noon on Friday the decision to expel 70 Russian diplomats by the Petkov government, which was recently passed a vote of no confidence. In response to this vote, the already outgoing Petkov decided to take revenge on Russia, accusing the Russian ambassador and Russia as a whole of the fact that it was because of her that the government was fired (in fact, the reasons for the strengthening of the opposition against the background of the worsening socio-economic crisis in Bulgaria, with which the Petkov government could not cope). On this basis, 70 diplomats and technical staff of the diplomatic mission are expelled on false charges of espionage.

Now, Russia is telling Bulgaria that in response to such actions, a break in diplomatic relations between Russia and Bulgaria may follow, suggesting that the Bulgarian "elites", in addition to Petkov, roll back the decision. It is obvious that the West will seek to direct events along the lines of a complete rupture of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and Bulgaria. But there is a nuance here - the Bulgarian opposition wants to resume negotiations on the resumption of gas supplies to Bulgaria under the ruble scheme, as many other European countries are doing. It is quite clear that with the rupture of diplomatic relations, there is simply no chance of resuming gas supplies to Bulgaria, and this will come back to haunt Bulgaria in the coming autumn and winter.

***

Сolonelcassad
The Kremlin said that Russia will not comply with any decisions of the ECtHR related to foreign mercenaries. Regarding their fate, one should contact the DPR.

Recently, the father of a Moroccan mercenary sentenced to death turned to Putin with a request to pardon his son. This is also his answer. All questions about mercenaries - to the DPR.
Of course, Russia has ample opportunities to influence the decisions of the DPR. But it is objectively beneficial for Russia to switch contacts to people's republics, which requires the actual recognition of their existence, through recognition of the decisions of their legal system. You can choose not to recognize the DPR de jure as much as you like, but if you want to somehow discuss foreign mercenaries, you will have to do it de facto.

***

Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Severodonetsk-Lysichansk direction
as of 21:00 on June 30, 2022

Despite the statements of officials of the Luhansk People's Republic, the battle for Lysichansk is still far from over. There is no question of any control of 30-50% of the city.

▪️From the side of Severodonetsk , the combing of the left bank of the Seversky Donets continues: scattered detachments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, national battalions and territorial defense are hiding in dachas and groves. Until the entire territory is completely cleared, it is somewhat premature to talk about establishing full control.

▪️The cleanup of the Lisichansk oil refinery has been completed . The Ukrainian units that retreated to Zolotarevka are trying to gain a foothold along the last route of the retreat route from Lysichansk . After the capture of the village, the allied forces will deprive the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the only communication route between Lisichansk and Seversk. Now Ukrainian units are withdrawing in fields under artillery fire through Belogorovka .

The front line runs along the railroad in the area of ​​Novozolotarevka station . The village of Verkhnekamenka south of the railway is controlled by the RF Armed Forces. There are fierce battles.

▪️To the west of Lisichansk, Allied forces advance on Seversk from two directions: from the refinery towards Verkhnekamenskoye and from Nikolaevka towards Disputed .

To the west of Verkhnekamenskoye, the remnants of the 111th Terodefense Brigade are hastily equipping positions . Of the "serious" weapons, two MANPADS "Stinger" and "Perun" remained.

▪️On the southern outskirts of Lisichansk , fighting continues in the area of ​​the RTI plant and Belaya Gora .

▪️Chechen units crossed the Seversky Donets near Privolye from Staraya Krasnyanka and, together with the People's Militia of the DPR, are storming the settlement. The message about the complete capture of Privolye was premature: pockets of resistance remain in the village.

Image

***

Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction
as of 19.30 June 30, 2022

▪️Currently, the battles in this direction are taking on a positional character. Artillery duels are underway, the sides are probing for weaknesses in the defense.

▪️To track the activities of Russian troops on the line of contact from the Kanatovo airfield , at least one Bayraktar UAV operated. A Mi-8 helicopter was operating in the vicinity of Pribugsky .

▪️Engineering units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are strengthening fortifications at the Tokarevo - Nikolaevka line .

▪️A batch of diesel fuel arrived in Konstantinovka , supplied by the Polish oil refinery Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen .

▪️Artillery units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the positions of the RF Armed Forces in Andreevka , Vysokopole Lozovoe , Pravdino and Ivanovka .

In addition, an attempt was made to sabotage in the form of detonating a small explosive package in the area of ​​the pre-trial detention center in Kherson . There were no casualties.

▪️The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation struck at the stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Novonikolaevka . As a result, two servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed and three wounded.

🔻The situation in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction has not undergone serious changes . Due to the large involvement of forces and means in the Donbass , the Ukrainian side is not able to proceed to the previously announced counterattack, mainly holding positional defense.

However, the restoration of control over Zmeiny Island , provided there is no retaliatory action by the RF Armed Forces, will free up most of the resources involved in the Odessa region. The bulk of them will be sent to the area of ​​active hostilities in the Soledar direction, and the rest, most likely, will be used for the planned counteroffensive in the Kherson region.

Image

***

forwarded from
War Through the Eyes of a Journalist
About the battles in the north of Slavyansk

I was repeatedly in Sidorovo, Mayaki and Slavyansk before the war, here is a small analytics

1. In 1943, the Red Army was already fighting the hardest battles on the Mius Front in these parts. The Germans, as well as now the Ukrainians, occupy the dominant heights along the Sidorovo-Mayaki-Slavyansk highway. In some places, the track generally passes on both sides of the heights, reaching up to 20 meters in height.

2. As in 1943, there is no room for armored groups to maneuver. To the east from the highway Sidorovo - Mayaki - Slavyansk flows the river Seversky Donetsk, to the west - a dense forest (Mayatskoye forestry)

3. Back in the fall of 2014, local residents from Sidorovo called us and said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were mining all the fields and plantings. In this regard, the allied forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR have only one way left - to break through the Ukrainian defenses along the highway. All this takes time.

But I have no doubt that we will soon return to Slovyansk, as promised in 2014.

***

Сolonelcassad
Support for the NWO in Russia, according to a recent public opinion poll, is 72%, as in the spring. The number of non-supporters even slightly decreased from 19 to 17%. The hopes of the US and NATO that economic problems, sanctions or a delay in the operation in Ukraine will be able to dilute this support have not fully materialized at the moment. Although even in the first half of spring they still harbored hopes for "anti-war protests" and "overthrow of the regime." Now they admit at the official level that this bet did not work and they are betting on a long exhausting campaign.
Oddly enough, the actions and statements of the West and Ukraine themselves play an important role in maintaining support for the SVO, which, in their clarity, perfectly explain to citizens against whom and why the SVO is being carried out. Hence the existence of a certain percentage of citizens who at the beginning of the NWO did not support it, but then, after looking at the statements and actions of the enemy, changed their minds.

***

Сolonelcassad
Regarding the statements that Zmeiny was exchanged for transit to Kaliningrad as part of the "grain negotiations" and the deal allegedly looks like this - the Russian Federation withdraws troops from Zmeiny, Ukraine clears ports and starts exporting grain to Turkey (from a certain stage under the control of Russian ships? Russia demanded inspection of ships , Ukraine refused), and the EU unblocks Kaliningrad (allegedly from Monday), then we will be able to see at the beginning of next week how much this is true.

***

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 01, 2022 1:10 pm

Zmeiny and Severodonetsk
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 07/01/2022

Image

The news of recent days, both on the political and diplomatic as well as the military front, remind us that war implies a certain tactical flexibility when it comes to meeting objectives that change as the situation consolidates and that neither side can expect that the advances and setbacks on the front are definitive. This has been confirmed this week with two cases that are different from each other and that will have different consequences. Last week, in a statement that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry called premature and accused of putting the operation at risk, the governor of the kyiv-controlled part of Lugansk announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Severodonetsk, one of the the last two cities in the region still under Ukrainian control. And yesterday Thursday,

The abandonment of Zmeiny, the island of Serpents, captured in the first hours of the Russian intervention and controlled ever since at an increasingly costly price, represents a military setback and, above all, a media defeat. Having lost the information war against the Western machinery, Russia has not tried to present this march as a strategic withdrawal but as a gesture of goodwill , presenting it as part of a process that can lead to the resumption of Ukrainian exports -fundamentally grain- from the port of Odessa.

Ukraine will have to gain control of Snake Island by landing on a garrison that, according to Russian sources, would have been destroyed. Maintaining these positions will also depend on the Russian willingness not to raise the cost of that presence, since the island will obviously be vulnerable to Russian attacks from the Black Sea fleet and from Crimea. It is precisely the security of Crimea that could be compromised by Ukraine's permanent presence on the island, especially now that, thanks to Western supplies, it has weapons capable of reaching the peninsula. Both sides will have to show their intentions, which will have consequences if Ukraine aspires to use Snake Island to attack Kherson, under Russian control, or Crimea, territory under Russian sovereignty,

The Russian departure from an objectively strategic position is also a reminder of the debate that had already arisen: the cost of maintaining that garrison was always high, but it increased notably with the arrival of heavy Western weapons. Despite what experts _Westerners continue to claim that the lives of soldiers have little value for Russia, preserving the lives of the troops present there is an important factor in the Russian decision. The Russian contingent in Ukraine is limited and every life, especially in the case of officers, matters. That same logic, that of recovering soldiers and officers alive, has also marked the exchange of prisoners of war that has taken place this week. 288 prisoners were released from it, including a large number of Azovstal defenders, including members of the Azov regiment, many of them seriously wounded. For them, Russia and the People's Republics have obtained an equal number of troops, including officers, two pilots and both Russian and Republican soldiers. It is they, the armies of the People's Republics, who are suffering much of the weight of the battle in areas of great importance and in which the Russian presence is less.

The controversy that has arisen as a result of this exchange is due to the contradiction between the objective of denazificationmarked by Russia in February and the inclusion of soldiers from the Azov regiment. Russia, by direct order of its president, canceled plans to storm Azovstal in Mariupol, where hundreds of these soldiers were besieged. Although the objective was to preserve the lives of the Russian and Republican troops, this decision also made it possible to preserve the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers, including such important members as Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment, and Svyatoslav Palamar, captain of the group formed by Andriy Biletsky. The Russian decision to include members of the regiment, although not its officers, is thus consistent with the performance in the battle, although not with the initial objective of ending a group that Russia - and not only Russia - has described as neo-Nazi. The option of occupying all of Ukraine and directing thatdenazification - if such a possibility was ever seen as an option - only a political settlement in which Ukraine was willing to ban groups like Azov could accomplish that goal. A political agreement between Russia and Ukraine is currently impossible, the objective of denazification has been diluted in an increasingly crude war in which all parties to the conflict are suffering significant casualties.

That victory for the propaganda that Russia has handed over to Ukraine also in the case of the prisoner exchange -Moscow has not even sought to take the media initiative by announcing the return of its pilots and waited for Kiev to announce the return of Azovstal defenders who even the Duma stated that it would not hand over - contrasts with the situation on the Donbass front, the main battle of this war. Ukraine continues to insist that it is a fact that it will recover the lost territories while its troops withdraw from the last positions they still hold in the oblast.from Luhansk. This was stated in a long message published on social networks by the adviser to the Office of the President Mijailo Podoliak, insisting that Ukraine will achieve this victory by military means.

To do this, Ukraine is confident that the arrival of heavy weapons from NATO countries will change the initiative on the front. kyiv has already demonstrated its willingness to use this heavy artillery against the civilian population and against positions of no military value. Western artillery has made its presence known in the indiscriminate shelling of the city of Donetsk and US HIMARS were used against Perevalsk, a small town that even before the Russian intervention was in the rear of the LPR. However, the front is moving in the opposite direction to the interests of Ukraine, which despite everything tries to present these setbacks as temporary.

The Western press plays an important role in this, ready to present every Russian advance as a sign of weakness. The advance in Lugansk will force Russia to end its offensive prematurely, argued, in a meaningless statement, the think tank Institute for the Study of War. Also this week, Financial Timeshe described the withdrawal from Severodonetsk as strategic. Since the battle for Mariupol began, both kyiv and the Western press have highlighted the high cost to Russia - also to the People's Republics, but neither these as a political entity nor their armies are a factor for analysts - capturing the Donbass cities, which is getting completely destroyed. The Ukrainian strategy has taken care of it. As he made clear with his words to The New York TimesMijailo Podoliak a few days ago, Ukraine's action in Donbass involves taking refuge in the cities and sheltering behind the facilities to find refuge - between residential neighborhoods and industrial zones - to fight in the urban sphere. The high price that Russia and the People's Republics are paying for these advances is obvious, as well as the high cost that Ukraine is suffering from these battles, which finally end up in retreat.

The abandonment of the last Ukrainian positions in Severodonetsk would have been a strategic withdrawal had it occurred at the beginning of the battle as proposed by the Ukrainian military authorities. Contrary to the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army, Valery Zaluzhny, the Office of the President, the only government in Ukraine right now, decided that it was necessary to fight to the end, perhaps to a time when withdrawal could be presented as temporary. With hardly any positions left to vacate, the Ukraine withdrew from Severodonetsk, promising to recapture the city using newly arrived Western artillery. Nor is the argument for the defense of Severodonetsk from more advantageous positions at Lisichansk any longer convincing, especially when there is already a partial retreat from those positions. yesterday thursday,Sky News stated that “Lisichansk's days are numbered”.

The war in Ukraine pits the world's second-largest army against the army that has proclaimed itself the strongest in Europe, which has had in these eight years a progressive flow of financing that, in the last four months, has become a constant supply of heavier weapons. This phase of the conflict has nothing to do with the wars that the United States has waged in recent years and neither with Ukraine's fight against the People's Republics, two armies formed from militias and that have always suffered from serious shortages of personnel and material. . As Serpent Island or Severodonetsk have shown, each advance carries a high cost, which is sometimes outweighed by the cost of retreat. It is clear that the destructive capacity of Ukraine increases with the arrival of heavy weapons from the West, which supposes an increase of the danger in the front line and in the rear. But it is also true that Russia and the People's Republics are consolidating their advances, especially in Donbass, and even in those cities destroyed by the battle, the reconstruction process is slowly beginning, which makes it even more difficult for Ukraine to recover those territories, not only the lost in 2014, but those lost since February 24. This is where the difference lies between the loss of a militarily strategic but irrelevant position in terms of population and the loss of the last cities in the Lugansk region. And even in those battle-destroyed cities, the reconstruction process is slowly beginning, making it even more difficult for Ukraine to recover those territories, not only those lost in 2014, but those lost since February 24.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/07/01/zmein ... more-24947

(Edited for repeating text. What causes that?)

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A View on Ukraine’s Future from Donbass
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 30, 2022
Dmitry Plotnikov

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During his 2019 election campaign, Ukraine’s current President Volodymyr Zelensky constantly repeated that his mission was to unite the country and breach the ideological gap between the EU-leaning West and the Russian-speaking East.

This was the division that resulted in the declaration of independence by the Donbass republics, in 2014.

However, but the differences are so deep that even the present, and obvious, threat to the state’s territorial integrity has failed to fully unite Ukrainians. One of the principal issues is language, those in the West prefer to use Ukrainian and the east is mostly Russian speaking.

There is a historical reason, of course. Modern Ukraine was created – by the Soviet Union – as a result of sticking various territories together. Thus, parts of the south-west came from Hungary and Romania, a large chunk of the West is historically Polish land and places like Odessa and Kharkov have long been Russian.

Indeed, many soldiers from the western regions don’t want to risk their lives fighting in the East, but would happily defend their home regions.

RT spoke with Vladislav Ugolny, a journalist and expert on the history of Novorossiya, about the attitude of one group in Ukrainian society towards the other. We also asked Vladislav if there is any hope for reconciliation.

–We keep seeing videos online showing soldiers from western Ukraine refusing to fight in the East. It seems that they don’t want to risk their lives defending the eastern territories.

[Some of] the territorial defense units mobilized in western Ukraine have different objectives. They are not eager to die for Kharkov or Kiev; they don’t feel that it’s their land and they have no warm feelings towards the people living in these cities. We’ve seen the video showing the mother of a Ukrainian soldier from Dnepropetrovsk who tried to receive humanitarian aid in Lviv, where she had been evacuated, and she was refused because she spoke Russian. This is very typical.

They join the army in western Ukraine only because it gives them a chance to get their hands on a weapon. The territorial defense forces in Lviv have turned into the personal guard of Mayor Andrey Sadovoy and are well-equipped and well-trained. Instead of defending ‘the motherland’, this team serves as leverage in Sadovoy’s negotiations with Kiev.

Large shipments of humanitarian aid and weapons from Western Europe and the US get stuck in western Ukraine and never make their way to the frontline. This boosts the separatist potential of the West.

We can look at this in the context of the Donbass conflict. Just imagine Viktor Yanukovych winning after the 2014 political crisis. In that case, we could’ve expected an armed conflict in Galicia (a historical and geographical region that includes western Ukraine — RT). They could’ve also played out the Crimea scenario. Galicia has always been a separatist region, it’s just that right now separatism is not in their best interest.

– Why not?

They are dominating right now. The western [Ukrainian] elites have usurped power in the country. The same happened previously in Donbass. The Donbass ‘clan’ was very successful – especially under [President Viktor] Yanukovych. The Donetsk elites were powerful, and you don’t need separatism when you have power. The Donbass started pulling away from Ukraine when those elites began to lose power.

– So the soldiers from the southeastern regions are more motivated to defend the Ukrainian identity?

You have to understand that Ukrainian nationalism has various iterations. The western ‘strain’ is the classic one – with Stepan Bandera, the usual bogeyman of the Russian media. This is your ‘rural’ ideology based on deep hatred of Russians, Poles, and Jews. But there are more sophisticated varieties of Ukrainian nationalism that originated in the East.

Right Sector (banned in Russia), Azov and some other organizations represent this type of nationalism. You can see from the videos of Azov’s POWs that many of them come from the Russian-speaking regions in southeastern Ukraine – Novorossiya – mostly the Dnepropetrovsk area. These are the areas that fostered the ultra-right ideology that Russians are familiar with.

The nationalism in eastern Ukraine is more militaristic and employs Third Reich aesthetics, similar to many ultra-right groups in Western Europe and Russia for that matter.

Many international students, especially from Asia and Africa, attended universities in Kharkov. And they were always threatened by racist skinheads from football fan clubs. Similar things happened in Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa, although to a lesser degree. The people living in southeastern Ukraine also have more experience with formal military structures, because they have a history of fighting in all the major wars that Russia was involved in, whereas Galicia mostly draws on its tradition of fighting for its land in guerilla wars.

–Strangely, after 2014 the southeastern part of Ukraine was very concerned about the nationalist ideology of the Kiev regime…

The southeast is very diverse. You have Odessa and Kharkov on the one hand, where there is still significant potential for separatism. Then there is Zaporozhe, where the separatist mindset is present but not as prevalent. This is why the pro-Russian civil-military administrations have been successful in places like Melitopol for example. Dnepropetrovsk, on the other hand, has always been the domain of Ukrainian nationalism.

–Why Dnepropetrovsk?

The situation here is largely defined by the consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union. Dnepropetrovsk was a major industrial center, and many Communist Party leaders [such as Leonid Brezhnev historically] came from this city and remained in power after Ukraine gained independence. These elites had to find a new foundation for Ukrainian statehood. They were used to having ideological principles in the Soviet Union, and now they had to separate themselves from Russia, which was wealthier and more attractive.

The new authorities also understood that they would be ‘devoured’ by Russian elites if Ukraine decided to reintegrate. This was happening regardless. We are speaking here in central Donetsk, near the old office of Sberbank. This Russian bank was operating in Ukraine, whereas Ukrainian banks never managed to bring their businesses to Russia. Ukrainian nationalism was the only way for them to justify Ukraine’s independence.

–How come western Ukraine is now perceived as the cradle and citadel of Ukrainian nationalism?

Western Ukraine has never been a major industrial or wealthy region, but the elites there were always very good at capitalizing on their ideology and advancing their political and cultural agenda. They worked hard to spread this agenda using the finances of the elites of the southeast, who wanted to gain their independence from Russia by funding these processes.

– But didn’t the Ukrainian government try to do something after 2014 to include south-easterners in the country’s political life, to unite the nation, so to speak?

It was a purely economic thing. After the recession of 2014-2015, money began to pour into the eastern regions. But nothing concrete was done to incorporate them into the common Ukrainian national identity. We must remember, though, that the Ukrainian national state was the only political project in Ukraine after Euromaidan, with no alternatives. And people either faced pressure or chose a version of Ukrainian identity that they felt was the least nauseating. Some bought the story that Ukraine is Europe [in the EU sense], and Europe is where you can make money. In fact, most were offered economic incentives, while the most passionate could join the army. That was until Zelensky came along.

Zelensky’s presidency offered a different vision. In a nutshell, his ideology was that you can speak any language you want, as long as you fight for Ukraine against Russia. However, he was not a pioneer in this regard. Similar ideas had been put forward by former Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, and the leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, Yulia Tymoshenko. Unlike nationalists from western Ukraine, who had only deepened the rift inside the country, these people had a clear idea of what to do and how to do it – they were building a stable state.

– They don’t seem to have been particularly successful.

Here’s the problem. You have to understand that there are only two unique centers of urban culture in Ukraine: Lviv in the west and Odessa in the east. Lviv has touted itself as a piece of Europe, a fragment of the Habsburg Empire. Odessa has also drawn on imperial nostalgia, but in relation to the Russian Empire. However, after the two Maidans, Odessa found itself under great ideological pressure as the Lviv cultural paradigm became dominant.

Dnepr and Kharkov have nothing to offer the rest of Ukraine in terms of culture. But Galicia has an ideology, a ready package of Ukrainian identity. And even though Galicians have never been able to come to power in Ukraine – simply because the region doesn’t have that much money – they will impose their agenda on any Ukrainian government that tries to disassociate itself from Russia.

– Could the current conflict strengthen the ideological position of southeastern Ukraine?

Look, there is [former Ukrainian President] Petro Poroshenko with his ‘Armiya, Mova, Vira’ (‘Army, Language, Faith’, his slogan for the 2019 presidential campaign). This is a man who relied on western Ukraine and who embezzled huge sums of money in defense contracts. And then there is Zelensky, who didn’t use nationalist rhetoric and who didn’t embezzle money from the army, which seriously improved Ukraine’s defense capabilities, and generally did a lot to strengthen the Ukrainian identity and the Ukrainian national project. But guess who is loved and who is despised in western Ukraine.

– Yes, Zelensky has always had little support from western Ukraine. Even in the 2019 elections, when he garnered a record vote, people from the west supported Poroshenko.

Exactly. Eastern Ukrainians (“skhidnyaks” is the derogatory term used in the western parts of the country) may go to the front and die all they want. When no one has to die any longer, they will be put in their proper place. For Galicians, Russian-speaking people will always be second-class citizens. Their version of Ukrainian identity, which is about loyalty to the state, loyalty to the passport, and not what language you speak, has no chance of becoming dominant. However great the contribution of Russian-speaking southeasterners to Ukraine’s defense, Galicians will always dominate. And the Russian speakers will remain second-class citizens until they give up their language – at the very least.

Any attempts to end repressions against Russian speakers, to separate Ukrainian identity from ethnicity and language and to center it around the Ukrainian state will always be doomed to fail.

It is true that the elites currently in power in Ukraine come from the southeastern regions. But they have no other identity except what Galicians, with their cult of Bandera, have to offer. The collective Lviv will always maintain that as long as you speak Russian, you’re an “agent of the enemy,” that is, an agent of Russia – even despite the fact that Russian-speaking ‘skhidnyaks’ are bearing the brunt of the combat. All that common people from the southeast can hope for in the Ukrainian statehood project is to die for it. The only party that benefits from this situation in the southeast is the ‘big money,’ that is, those who own the means of production. And, as I’ve said, they will never have any other choice but to support Ukrainian nationalism.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... m-donbass/

Dunno about this analysis, it lacks 'class'.

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THE WEST PROMOTES SUPREMACISM TO GLOBALIZE TERRORISM

Eder Pena

Jun 30, 2022 , 10:28 a.m.

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Irregular warfare, as it has been conceived by the United States and Europe in recent years, has been characterized by the formation of paramilitary groups that, on the one hand, are branded as terrorists while on the other they are functional to the hegemonic plans of Western powers. This has happened with several Islamist factions that have joined the "springs" that have been organized from that corner of the planet to achieve regime changes in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Libya.

With their peculiarities, these groups ended up becoming a skein of "problems" for Europe and the United States, to the point that they organized terrorist attacks in the cities of the metropolises that financed and encouraged them. Different reports showed how a good part of these groups, from Al-Qaeda to Daesh, were made up of significant percentages of European citizens and that they were "radicalized" in the Global North itself (the Commonwealth, the EU and NATO).

In this new cycle of military confrontation, the West continues to walk on the edge of an abyss in which the scenarios of military strengthening of extreme right-wing groups seem to reveal some false or incomplete narratives regarding values ​​such as freedom, democracy, equality. These are times of dismantling and demolition of illusory categories with which they have wanted to maintain global dominance, but in which the banner has been that the emptiness of those values ​​prevail even in the "new" expressions of terrorism.

Here are three examples of how the West has turned irregular warfare into a way to empower far-right groups.

WHITE SUPREMACISM: " THE MOST PERSISTENT AND DEADLY THREAT"

Product of more than 200 years of racialization of social tensions in the United States, in recent years the violence carried out by extreme right-wing terrorism made up of white sectors of that country has been growing (or reappearing in the media spectrum). Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, stated in a report dated October 2020:

"As Secretary, I am concerned about any form of violent extremism […], however, I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally deadly in their abhorrent attacks" in recent times. He added to the document that this "white supremacist" terrorism would remain "the most persistent and deadly threat in the country" going forward.

Some data:

*Crimes such as that of Dylann Roof (a 21-year-old white man), who in 2015 murdered nine faithful of a congregation of the African Methodist Church in Charleston (South Carolina, USA) with an assault rifle, are classified as hate crimes and not as terrorism.
*Almost 70% of the attacks and plots that the country had suffered in the first eight months of 2020 were framed in "white supremacism", a category framed in the extreme right. In these attacks 39 people died.
*60% of the attacks of this type of terrorism are perpetrated by individuals who do not belong to any group.
*In the last five years, terrorist attacks labeled as far-right have grown 320% worldwide, according to the Global Terrorism Index, one of the reference indicators in the matter and prepared by the Institute of Economy and Peace ( IEP).
*In 2010, the IEP recorded only five attacks carried out by type of terrorism, almost a decade later that figure rose to 58 attacks in the year, with 77 people being killed.
*At the end of the last decade, there were even more terrorist attacks in the West inspired by the far right than by jihadist terrorism (17.2% vs. 6.8%, respectively), according to the report .
*In 2019, the arrests of far-right terrorists had increased for the third consecutive year while their murders had multiplied by seven in the last three years.
*Beginning on July 22, 2011, when Norwegian far-rightist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in front of an official building in Oslo and then entered a Labor Party youth camp to massacre 77 people, the attacks linked to the far-right intensified: Christchurch (New Zealand, 2019), 51 dead; El Paso (USA, 2020), 22 dead; Hanau (Germany, 2020), nine deaths; Pittsburgh (USA, 2018), 11 deaths.

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The attacks linked to the extreme right have intensified since 2011 (Photo: Institute for Economy and Peace)
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where far-right parties have gained support as a result of the current refugee crisis and jihadist terrorist attacks (financed by some of their governments), the British intelligence chief acknowledged that year that this type of violence is one of the "greatest threats" facing his country, while the then German Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, declared that "it is the greatest threat to us".

His government had to disband an elite army unit for its links to neo-Nazi groups amid plots to create a terrorist group within its armed forces.

NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF "SOCIAL DARWINISM"?

According to an interview conducted by the BBC with the researcher Cristina Ariza, coordinator in the field of the International Observatory for Studies on Terrorism (OIET) and analyst at the Tony Blair Institute of Global Change, the causes of the dissemination of these groups could lie in " the years of economic crisis [after the great recession of 2008] and the resulting political processes that promoted radical right-wing political formations, a reaction to the virulence of jihadist terrorism in these years, the feeling of some sectors against the migratory waves... His reasons are varied.

Other authors such as JM Berger, author of the book Extremismo , affirm that changes at a global level, such as the rise of social networks, have made it easier for any decentralized terrorist cause to seek to perpetrate violence on a larger scale and with less sense.

It is a spectrum of movements that varies from the Ku Klux Klan, white nationalist groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens, neo-Nazis such as the National Socialist Movement in Detroit, skinheads such as Vinladers Social Club or Hammerskin, identity fundamentalist groups Christian, neo-confederate and criminal gangs in prisons like Aryan Circle.

The West has stimulated this cultural aspect by promoting policies and economic packages based on the so-called "social Darwinism", which has nothing to do with what Darwin postulated, but with supremacist agendas incubated in the very genesis of globalizing capitalism (forgive the redundancy ).

The covid-19 pandemic stimulated the existence of these groups by brutally showing the deep injustices in liberal societies along with narratives full of fanaticism and intolerance, they even managed to organize numerous mobilizations in Europe and the United States and spread their messages in the social networks with phrases like "Where Hitler failed, the coronavirus will succeed".

In just three months, a group of 34 covid-19 conspiracy portals achieved 80 million interactions on Facebook, according to a UN alert report. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO), trying to provide true information, only got 6.2 million.

The legal prosecution of these crimes undertaken by members of organized white supremacist or pro-Aryan groups against racial minorities to advance a racial agenda is complex, and they also converge with the naturalization of supremacist messages, practices and garments in societies of the Global North. If we review the cultural matrix from which the entire Euro-Atlantic colonial practice derives, it is pure supremacism, it is the "we do and the rest of the world does not" applied in every facet of international relations.

Somehow, this is how Alberto Rodríguez García, a journalist specializing in the Middle East, propaganda and terrorism, expresses it in an opinion column:

" [The West] is the only one that fills its chest talking about tolerance, democracy and respect, while imposing its obtuse vision of the world by force, while removing and putting governments at its convenience, while being unable to understand, accept or allow systems and ways of life alien to liberal-Western values ​​that, by the way, are so decadent that they only generate social, racial... identity problems".

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The practice of the extreme right groups is similar to the Euro-Atlantic colonial one: pure supremacism (Photo: MintPress News)

LATIN AMERICAN MERCENARIES: CHEAP AND DISPOSABLE LABOR

After the assassination of Haitian President Juvenel Möise, in July 2021, by mercenaries trained for weeks to fulfill that mission, it was possible to gauge the scope of a practice that lasted several decades and found a place in Latin American countries such as Colombia, Panama, El Salvador and Chile, among others. It is about the lucrative transnational market of "security companies" that have mercenaries as cheap and disposable labor.

In the case of Colombia, its Military Forces with some 220,000 uniformed personnel are a breeding ground because thousands of them retire due to lack of possibilities for promotion, misconduct or because they have completed 20 years of service. Practically and ideologically, it is a military establishment that is linked to the actions of narco-paramilitary groups financed by sectors of the national and transnational oligarchy, so that by exporting a mercenary, Colombia potentially exports a weapon trained for massacre and displacement of rural populations where the United States needs it.

There are more than 7 million internally displaced persons in that country. This figure is not the product of climate change or geological catastrophes, but of a dispute over territory in which powerful political-economic sectors, drug traffickers and extractive interests (agribusiness and mining) from the Global North participate.

The media reported how at least one of the mercenaries who participated in Möise's murder is linked to a judicial process for "false positives", a practice that was naturalized in Colombia during the governments of Uribe, Santos and Duque in which, only between 2002 and In 2008, soldiers executed more than 6,000 civilians to pass them off as combat casualties in exchange for benefits, but this has continued until almost the end of the long Uribe period.

The work of the mercenaries ranges from monitoring oil pipelines in the United Arab Emirates to fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen or "defending" Ukraine from the ongoing military operation carried out by Russia. In particular, their services have been deployed in the irregular war against Venezuela since 2004, when national authorities arrested 153 Colombian paramilitaries who were part of a plan to assassinate then-president Hugo Chávez.

Since the inception of Plan Colombia, between 2000 and 2015, the United States has spent nearly $7 billion to train, advise, and equip Colombian security forces. Already in the 1980s, the Israeli mercenary Yair Klein coordinated the first training of paramilitary squads in the country, which would later carry out acts of intimidation against peasants and bloody massacres. Before a Colombian court, Klein assured that his work with the paramilitaries had had the direct support of the National Army and other Colombian state institutions, in addition to having received financing from someone who would later become president of the country.

In recent years, the US government has promoted the "export of security", which is nothing more than exporting a model of unconventional warfare in which there are no clear codes beyond massacre and displacement at the service of the agendas neoliberals of the Euro-Atlantic hegemon. Some other features:

*The United States began to replace its troops in Southwest Asia with "private security companies because they imply a lower political cost in terms of casualties and a gray area in international law, " Jorge Mantilla, a researcher of criminal phenomena at the University , told AFP . of Illinois in Chicago.
*In the event of possible violations of human rights, "the legal responsibility will be assumed by the material authors" and not by the State or company that hired them, adds the analyst.
*Today there is a global market where American companies such as Blackwater (or Academi), English, French, Belgian or Danish, recruit mercenaries mainly in Latin America or in countries that have had armed conflicts such as Zimbabwe and Nepal.

It is a business that, in addition to outsourcing the war , contributes millions of dollars to the companies of the US military-industrial complex, protected by its powerful lobby in Congress and functional to the advancement of the geopolitical agenda that does everything to distort the correlation of forces in strategic conflicts.

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The US government has promoted the export of an unconventional warfare model from Colombia (Photo: Joseph Odelyn / AP Photo)

The New York Times has just published that the United States, in particular the CIA, knew that the Colombian army had provided a list of targets from the left-wing Patriotic Union (UP) party to the paramilitaries, who killed 20 workers on a banana plantation in a well-known massacre, but they continued to send billions of dollars in aid to the Colombian government.

IS EVERYTHING OUT OF CONTROL IN UKRAINE? EVERYTHING IS OUT OF CONTROL IN UKRAINE

Between November 2013 and February 2014, Ukraine suffered a bloody coup that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, leading to mass protests in Crimea, Odessa, Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, in which villagers demanded that Ukraine be a Federal state. The acting president, Alexander Turchinov, started a real war in which the armed forces participated.

The top leader of the US State Department, the neoconservative Victoria Nuland, went to kyiv to support the coup plotters of the Right Sector, who glorify the collaborators of the German occupation, as their ideologue Stepán Bandera proclaimed.

In the middle of the "spring" of 2014, when there was no legitimate authority in Ukraine, Crimea became independent from Ukraine, rejoined Russia, and the population of Donbas decided their own destiny in a referendum, proclaiming the independence of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. For a considerable time after the Maidan coup , Western scholars were seriously concerned about the popularity of Nazism in the Ukraine.

In 2020, the New York Times published an article called "Once We Fight Jihadis, Now We Fight White Supremacists," authored by Democratic Congressman Max Rose and former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan; even Reuters devoted an entire column to how neo-Nazis in Ukraine treat members of sexual minorities.

After the start of the special operation that Russia began on February 23, even with the obvious violent Nazi practices by the Ukrainian government establishment, the Western media have ignored the facts and have validated the censorship ordered by NATO and the EU. . Institutions that would have to fight against the popularization of Nazism, including the Auschwitz Museum, the University of London Holocaust Library, and a number of Jewish Holocaust memorial institutions and organizations, began openly whitewashing the kyiv regime, declaring that there is no extreme right, there is no extremism in Ukraine at all.

Since 2014, Rodolfo Bueno reports , the pro-NATO sector:

"(...) banned Russian, the most widely spoken language in that country; banned opposition political parties; imposed its laws by threatening governors, mayors and judges; murdered children, women, the elderly, opponents, journalists and writers; he attacked unarmed people in Odessa and burned about fifty of them alive, then fired on the ambulances carrying the wounded, and committed more barbarities, such as the murder of fifteen thousand Russians from Donbass in the last eight years" .

Journalist Alexander Rubinstein refers in The Grayzone to a security report in the United States that warns about the more than 20,000 neo-Nazi foreign volunteers who return from fighting against Russia and Venezuela, they are "racially motivated violent extremists - white supremacy (RMVE -WS, in English)" with new tactics learned on the Ukrainian battlefield. This allows us to see what will happen to the figures published above in this text.

Rubinstein adds that, for four years, the FBI has indicted several white nationalists linked to the Rise Above Movement (RAM, for its acronym in English, or "Rise"), after having trained in kyiv with the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment and the National Corps, its civil wing. Today, federal security forces are completely unaware how many US neo-Nazis are active in the war in Ukraine, or what they are doing there, the journalist noted in his report.

However, the Biden administration is allowing the Ukrainian government to recruit American violent extremists at its embassy in Washington and at consulates across the country. In turn, the weapons that NATO sends to Ukraine circulate throughout Europe and their quantity is already many times greater than that which the West supplied to the mujahideen during the ten years of war in Afghanistan. More disastrous consequences than those of 9/11 are expected in the heart of those countries.

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Members of the Ukrainian nationalist Azov regiment (Photo: File)

If there were any doubts that NATO is the ideological basis of the supremacism that these groups represent, it is enough to ascertain the falsity of the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the face of the unilateral coercive measures applied against 19 countries; the unreliability of the western financial system, which stole more than 300 billion dollars from Russian reserves; the repression of everything in Russia, including the right to compete for its athletes, to perform for its artists, to listen to music or read books by Russian authors and even for Siberian cats to participate in beauty contests.

Is it coincidence or causality that in these case studies groups are being armed whose coincidence is to represent the most rancid of supremacist and conservative thought?

https://misionverdad.com/investigacione ... terrorismo

Google Translator

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Ukraine begins exporting electricity to Europe
Xinhua | Updated: 2022-07-01 08:31

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Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is visible on a screen during the finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting of the Group of 7 (G7) most industrialized nations in Koenigswinter, near Bonn, Germany May 19, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]

KYIV - Ukraine began exporting electricity to Europe on Thursday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

"The long-awaited export of Ukrainian electricity to Europe has begun," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

Shmyhal said the first flows of Ukraine's electricity went to Romania at an initial capacity of 100 megawatts.

In the future, Ukraine aims to increase the capacity of electricity flows to Europe to 2.5 gigawatts, he said.

According to Shmyhal, Ukraine has the potential to earn more than 70 billion hryvnyas (about $2.4 billion) per year from electricity exports to European countries.

In March, Ukraine's electricity grid was synchronized with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202207/ ... 69ac8.html

Where are they getting this 'juice' from? Is it hydro, Russian gas? I suspect the estimate is wildly optimistic.

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Lugansk started issuing Russian passports
July 1, 11:43

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The first point of issuing Russian passports has opened in Lugansk. Now residents of the LPR who have applied for a Russian passport no longer need to go to Russia to receive the coveted document. The point of issuing Russian passports is located in Luhansk at 18a Shevchenko Street. The point was opened as part of the implementation of Putin's decree on simplifying the acquisition of Russian citizenship.
Prior to this, for many years, residents of the LNR, after applying for Russian citizenship, went to pick up their passports in the Rostov region.

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https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7712222.html

Ukraine in Google Trends
July 1, 10:29 am

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A steady decline in interest in Ukraine and the war in Ukraine in Google Trends.

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Bucha has practically disappeared from the agenda.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7711801.html

Google Translator

Well, I guess the paucity of this morning's offering bears witness to this last entry...More, later.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 02, 2022 1:28 pm

The main threat
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 07/02/2022
Original Article: Alexey Zotiev

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Modern history, as well as the history of previous periods of humanity, is full of information about military conflicts and threats that prevent a kind of golden age from reigning on the planet, a time when there would be universal peace and general prosperity. The last global conflict, in which dozens of states actively participated, ended in 1945 with the complete defeat of the state that started it. From then on, there would only be local clashes on our planet that, in principle, could not cause large-scale turbulence.

If we trust only the official sources, which diligently hide the role of the United States of America in everything that is happening, any threat to peace comes exclusively from all kinds of terrorist organizations, against which every legitimate State has the sacred combat task. The appearance that the West as a collective was seeking to do something similar with Russia had been taken for granted for years. It was an appearance until the plans to draw Russia into a large-scale military conflict became apparent and our Western partners began an open confrontation in which the parties to the new global conflict were clearly identified. Another global war broke out on the territory of Ukraine and it was not Russia that started it.

The West again makes an attempt to expand to the East. The vanguard of this movement is not Germany, but Ukraine, which suddenly forgot its history and decided to hate everything Soviet and, by default, everything Russian. As before, Russia was, of course, in its way with a revived predatory ideology that upset those who try to impose democracy everywhere, even without taking into account the opinion of the local population [in a joint press conference with George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin stated that if democracy was what the United States had brought to Iraq, Russia did not want democracy- Ed]. This situation required a serious review of the list of priorities, which occupied the most prominent representatives of Western society, who had previously conscientiously fought against the eternal evil in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or Syria.

"The Russian Federation is the most significant and direct threat to the security of the Allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region," NATO said in a statement posted on its website. The member countries decided that they will continue to counter "Russian threats", "irresponsible rhetoric" and respond to "hostile actions". It was predictable, but illogical, fundamentally because there is no objective basis for these assertions.

Today, in the territory of Ukraine, which has never been part of NATO, Russia is defending its national interests, its sovereignty and that of those republics it has recognized and where a large part of the population already has Russian citizenship. But accusations that Russia is taking offensive action against the North Atlantic Alliance are baseless, as Russian troops have not crossed the border of any member country. Moreover, in recent months, which have been tremendously tense and difficult, not a single Russian projectile has fallen on the territory of any of the countries that belong to the Western military bloc. Considering that Ukraine is a non-aligned country, any NATO interest in what is happening on its territory raises many questions.

In itself, the fact that Russia has been declared “threat number 1” from NATO countries does not surprise anyone. The important thing is not that the West is trying to justify its attempts to advance eastward by containing a hypothetical Russian advance westward. Nor that the venerable democrats have gone out of their way to protect and support the regime that was formed on the territory of Ukraine. What is relevant is that what is published in the populist statement that designates Russia as the main threat of the countries of the Western alliance is that it is basically prophetic.

Russia posed no threat to the NATO bloc and certainly did not plan to expand westward by capturing territory from its member countries. Russia was only trying to restore order on its borders and save from being completely annihilated those who consider themselves Russians not only in words, but think like Russians. But now the West has created a situation where Russia will decide sooner or later to become the main threat. In reality, the United States and the European Union are forcing us to radically reconsider our foreign policy [which since 1991 has openly and overtly looked west- Ed ] by fighting us through the Ukrainians and numerous mercenaries, who are being sent weapons and ammunition from depots in Western countries.

Russia is methodically destroying the formations that have been created in Ukraine during these years precisely on the basis of money and direct participation of the West. Russia is forced to expand its borders to the west, although this was not the goal at the beginning of the intervention [in March, Russia was ready to abandon the captured territories in Kherson and Zaporozhie in case of agreement with Ukraine- Ed ]. Russia is also going to transfer to Belarus weapons capable of carrying, if necessary, nuclear warheads.

And most importantly, Russia continues to form its own coalition, which, if necessary, is ready to put pressure on the West in the geopolitical field, significantly undermining its economic and political power. At the last BRICS summit, two more countries announced their intention to join this coalition. Doesn't this suggest that Russia will indeed become a threat to NATO in the near future? It is obvious, but it is not Russia that is to blame for what is happening, but rather the United States and the European Union, which by planning NATO's expansion to the east, provoked Russia's expansion to the west.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/07/02/la-pr ... more-24953

Google Translator

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News of the death penalty in the DPR
July 1, 21:14

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The DPR clarified the procedure for the implementation of the death penalty.

1. The execution of a convicted person is carried out non-publicly.
2. Execution is carried out for each sentenced person separately.
3. The body of the executed person is not handed over to relatives.
4. The body of the executed is secretly buried.
5. The method of carrying out the sentence is execution.

Two more British mercenaries face the same charges, on which 2 British and 1 Moroccan mercenaries have already been sentenced to death. The trial will take place soon and they are also expected to be sentenced to death. Appeals are now being considered for those already sentenced + the father of the Moroccan mercenary has already sent a petition to Putin for pardon (in the Kremlin he was politely sent to the DPR).
A trial of two Nazis from the SS Bears group has also been announced.
They also fall under the article, which involves the use of the death penalty.

Accordingly, if the indicated persons are sentenced to death, then there will already be at least 7 of them.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7713218.html

Britain condemns condemnation of British mercenaries
July 2, 14:00

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Britain once again officially condemned the DPR for bringing to court the cases of two more British mercenaries who are under an article for which the death penalty is provided.
She had previously condemned the death penalty for two other British mercenaries.
At the same time, Britain refuses to enter into contact with the DPR regarding the discussion of the fate of its mercenaries, having delegated negotiations on them to Ukraine. Two of those already sentenced earlier publicly stated that they would like to be exchanged for Medvedchuk (the question "Why do we need Medvedchuk?" is still relevant).

The mercenaries are now considering an appeal under local law, who are trying to challenge the verdict and get the death penalty commuted to life imprisonment or a long prison term.
From my point of view, the execution of at least a couple of mercenaries would be a very symbolic event.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7714900.html

Lysychansk 07/02/2022
July 2, 12:34

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In Lisichansk at the middle of the day 02.07.

1. After the capture of Privolya and Shipilovka, our troops entered Novodruzhesk. The cleansing of the city began. Previously, the Lysichansk defense headquarters was located there.
2. They report the capture of Zolotarevka north of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery. Before Belogorovka remains 6 kilometers in a straight line.
3. The only formal road you can take to leave Lisichansk passes through Belogorovka. It is already under artillery shelling of the RF Armed Forces.
4. Fighting continues near Novozolatarevka, Verkhnekamensky, Disputed and Belaya Gora, as well as in the industrial area near the RTI plant.
5. The RF Armed Forces continue to strike at the AFU grouping near Seversk, which will become the next target after the liberation of Lisichansk.
6. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are building a line of cover for Seversk-Soledar, but at the same time they are engaged in fortifying Artemovsk, which will be the next after the breakthrough of the Seversk-Soledar line.
7. In general, the full liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic from Ukrainian occupation will be announced in the near future.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7714653.html


Military potential of Sweden and Finland
July 1, 18:41

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The military potential of Sweden and Finland, which is growing NATO.
But the greatest threat is rather the deployment of strike carriers on the territory of these countries.
This, in turn, will require building up the military potential of the Russian Federation in the north-west of the country and in Kaliningrad.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7712794.html

Google Trasnslator

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Russia Slams US Claims That NATO Is a ‘Defensive Alliance'

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Jul. 1, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@trhaber_com
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said claims that NATO is an exclusively defensive alliance are "ridiculous and disgraceful."

Lavrov made his comments Friday at a meeting with students and teachers at the Belarusian State University.

On the White House's recent claim that neither Russia nor anyone else should fear NATO at all, as the U.S.-led military bloc is a defensive alliance, Lavrov said that "it is already ridiculous to hear adults say such obvious nonsense. I would say, it is simply disgraceful."

The Russian diplomat said that "when someone pushes forward, establishes control of territories and deploys armed forces and military infrastructure there, it is not exactly what is called defense. It's just the opposite," noting that "NATO has moved eastward five times."

Lavrov added that the West "has never proved its ability to keep its word." NATO's promises that it would not expand eastward, have "turned out to be lies."


On this occasion, the foreign minister also said that NATO had abandoned commitments not to permanently deploy significant combat forces on the territories of the bloc's new member states, as in the case of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act.

He warned that "the latest decisions by the Madrid summit proclaim a colossal increase in the armed forces, weapons and military infrastructure on NATO's so-called eastern flank."

According to the top Russian diplomat, NATO has completely neglected another of its core duties, that of ensuring the indivisibility of security. Under this formula, "no country, no organization, and no alliance have the right to lay claim to a dominant role in Europe," Lavrov said, adding that this is precisely what NATO is doing.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/__export ... er_com.png

True State Terrorism is Kiev’s Militarization of Residential Areas
JULY 1, 2022

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Fire in a shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine. File photo.

By Andrew Korybko – Jun 28, 2022

The dispute over who’s to blame for what just happened in Kremenchuk leads to the larger question about what exactly constitutes state terrorism in the Ukrainian Conflict.

Zelensky accused Russia of so-called “state terrorism” after a fire in one of Kremenchuk’s malls that he claimed was caused by his opponent’s missiles reportedly killed 18 people so far. The Russian Ministry of Defense swiftly responded by revealing that their country actually hit an arms stockpile that was located next to that mall, which caused the hidden munitions to explode and create a fire that spread to what it described as that non-operating site. The dispute over who’s to blame for what just happened leads to the larger question about what exactly constitutes state terrorism in the Ukrainian Conflict.

Kiev of course believes that all collateral damage that Russia inadvertently causes to civilian infrastructure qualifies as such, while Moscow’s stance is that their opponent’s militarization of residential areas is what’s truly state terrorism. If Russia was really carrying out so-called “genocide” in Donbass and Ukraine, then it would just carpet bomb their cities instead of risking its troops’ lives by having them fight street-by-street battles against the militants who are hold up in residential areas there. Moreover, if wanted to “terrorize” Ukrainians, then it could just bomb those on Kiev’s beaches.

Building upon that last point, it’s telling that Ukrainians in the capital are so calm amidst Russia’s alleged “genocide” of their own people elsewhere in the country that they’ve been thronging to their cities’ beaches on the Dnieper River all this month. This isn’t the attitude of a people who are experiencing a so-called “Second Holocaust” like the US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) has ridiculously implied, but of folks who genuinely feel safe because they don’t seriously think that Russia’s going to “terrorize” them by bombing a bunch of families on the beach like it would if it was “genociding” them.

Back to the battlefront further east, people are unable to utilize the humanitarian corridors that the Russian Armed Forces (RAF) agreed to create for them precisely because Kiev wants to exploit them as human shields in order to stall their opponents’ advance. President Putin elaborated at length in July 2021 on his belief in the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians, which is why he wants to keep civilian casualties in this conflict to an absolute minimum. This explains why he’d rather order his troops into harm’s way fighting street-by-street to liberate those cities than to simply carpet bomb them.

While Kremenchuk isn’t near the front, its secret arms stockpile that was recklessly located right next to a non-operating mall supplies Kiev’s forces and thus keeps the conflict unnaturally dragging on longer than if NATO wasn’t exploiting that former Soviet Republic as part of its proxy war on Russia. This explains why the RAF targeted it, after which the resultant fire spread to the neighboring building that Zelensky hysterically said was housing over 1,000 people in spite of footage showing an almost completely empty parking lot with some uniformed soldiers interspersed with the very thin crowd.

The real state terrorism therefore wasn’t Russia hitting a secret arms stockpile, but Kiev hiding it literally right next to a non-operating mall as part of its strategy of militarizing residential areas so as to delay its opponents’ advance and deter strikes against its stockpiles far behind the lines. Not only that, but its much more brutal militarization of residential areas at the front is unquestionably an act of state terrorism, albeit one that’s tacitly supported by the US-led West for Machiavellian reasons of “military convenience” related to indefinitely prolonging the conflict as long as possible.

(One World)

https://orinocotribune.com/true-state-t ... ial-areas/

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Ukraine - The Bear Caught The Kraken By Using This Trick
This is the map that shows the historic development of Ukraine.

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Russia is, in my opinion, aiming at taking the pink and yellow parts which have predominantly Russian speaking populations. The most north- western pink oblast is Kharkov which is also the name of the oblast's main city.

On March 1 the city was already under attack.

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There were a number of artillery impacts (red dots) on military targets in and around the city.

But the situation soon stagnated. The current mayor or Kharkov Igor Terekhov was on the side of the Zelenski regime. The rowdy soccer fans of the city's main club had formed the original Azov regiment. A militia group that split from them at the start of the war were the Kraken:

The Kraken unit was formed by Azov Battalion veterans on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, a military spokesman said. That makes the Krakens something like a kid brother to the older Azov unit, whose fighters achieved world renown status last month for their epic last stand inside Azovstal, a sprawling steel complex in the port city of Mariupol.
Like the Azov fighters, whose name comes from the Sea of Azov, the regiment's name and insignia evoke a different maritime theme: the kraken, a mythical sea monster resembling a giant squid.

Their commander is Konstantin V. Nemichev, a political and military figure in Kharkiv. The son of a schoolteacher and an electrician, Nemichev, 26, launched a political career in the right-wing National Corps party before he graduated from college, including an unsuccessful bid last year to become Kharkiv's mayor. He drew heavily on the support of rowdy young soccer fans, many of whom now serve in his unit.

...
The Kraken unit operates somewhat in a gray zone — a force that answers to the Defense Ministry but is not part of Ukraine's armed forces. Soldiers in Ruska Lozova say the unit has about 1,800 soldiers. The military spokesman declined to say how many serve in the unit.

The Kraken follow, like Azov, a fascist ideology. The mayor and the Kraken units had prepared for fighting within and around the city. They had fortified areas and took positions in houses that faced the Russian lines.

The Russian attackers did not want to destroy the city and its Russian inhabitants. They never were ordered to launch an all out attack. Over several months the positions on either side hardly changed. This is the map of the situation on May 1.

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The western side of the map the Russian held territory had been given up after the move on Kiev had been reversed. On the eastern side they had gained the area around Iizum. But the fighting around Kharkov had continued for more than two months with nearly unchanged lines.

Then something curious happened. In an orderly move the Russian forces around Kharkov began to pull back. Here are the positions on May 15.

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The Ukrainian military and the Kraken felt victorious. They had 'defeated' the enemy. They left their prepared positions in and around the city to pursued the Russian forces which continued to move back. They did not smell the trap.

Here is the situation on May 31.

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The defenders of Kharkov were now in small towns or the open country side. Since the end of May the map showed few changes but daily heavy bombardment of Ukrainian units.

On June 5 Stars & Stripes reported:

The Kraken unit — which in recent weeks has helped take back villages north of Kharkiv — filled its ranks with "gym rats," bouncers and "ultras," the professional soccer fans who sometimes showed their love for Kharkiv's Metalist team with riotous behavior.
...
But their unit also draws veterans from the regular army, battle-tested paramilitary fighters from Donbas and other volunteers who range in age from 25 to 60.
...
By the time the Kraken unit liberated this suburban village of about 5,000 people at the end of April, many had fled. Maleev estimated Tuesday that only 200 or so remained in what amounted to a newly liberated ghost town. Few here even stepped outside as Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to trade mortar fire.
Much of the village has also been damaged or destroyed, including the Church of St. Nicholas, the village council building and a small hospital. Elsewhere, a tidy row of beehives stood in a field near houses whose heavy wooden roof beams had been snapped and charred.


The report mentioned that there were several Russian drones in the air above the unit. The soldiers hide from them. It is not the only one that has been drawn out of Kharkov city and received such treatment.

Since the end of May Russian artillery as well as aerial bombing has been raining down on them day by day. It achieved the desired results. The Ukrainian militia had significant losses.

On June 26 the Russian Defense Ministry mentioned the Kraken in its daily report:

Attack launched by Russian artillery near Pitomnik (Kharkov region) has resulted in the elimination of up to 100 militants from Kraken Nazi group and about 10 units of combat equipment. Commanders of the militants have decided to abandon the positions and to withdraw the rest of this unit to Kharkov.
...
High-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the elimination of 4 command posts, including those of Kharkov-1 and Kharkov-2 Territorial Defence battalions near Kharkov, as well as a training base of mercenaries deployed near Nikolayev.


Some 100 dead and four command post on one day is quite a bit. But those were not the only attacks that day and the campaign ran for over 30 days. President Putin's order to 'demilitarize' and 'denazify' the Ukraine gets executed well.

Here is the situation on June 30.

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After a full month of such artillery preparations, which heavily diminished the units that originally had been protecting Kharkov, the Russians are again on the move.

The person who runs the excellent Military Summary And Analysis channel reported today (vid) that today several towns on the Kharkov frontline had been retaken by the Russians. (That is not yet reflected in the pro-Ukrainian LiveUAmap we both are using here.) He painted arrows on the map that show the future Russian movements he anticipates to happen.

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It is another pincer move on Kharkov. A third arrow could probably be pointed from the Izium area southeast of Kharkov which the Russians have under their control.

The Russian trick to catch the kraken has worked. For more than two month they had been trying to take Kharkov without destroying it. The fortified positions in and around the city had made that impossible.

The controlled move back to the border area drew the defenders of Kharkov out into open fields where the Russian artillery then had a full month time to hunt them down. Now, as the enemy has been decimated, the Russian move towards Kharkov can be renewed.

Posted by b on July 1, 2022 at 17:04 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/u ... .html#more
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 02, 2022 10:44 pm

Lithuania’s Brinkmanship
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 1, 2022
Scott Ritter

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Lithuanian government building in Vilnius. (Pofka, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

The restoration of Russia’s rail connection with Kaliningrad is urgently needed to avoid a conflict in the Baltics that has worried NATO for a long time.

On June 18 the government of Lithuania acted on a decision by the European Commission that goods and cargo subject to European Union sanctions could be prohibited from transiting between one part of Russia to another, so long as they passed through E.U. territory.

Almost immediately Lithuania moved to block Russia from shipping certain categories of goods and materials by rail to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, encompassing the former East Prussian Baltic port city of Konigsberg and its surrounding environs. They were absorbed into Russia proper as a form of war reparations at the end of the Second World War.

Lithuania cited its legal obligation as an E.U. member to enforce E.U. sanctions targeting Russia. Russia, citing a 2002 treaty with Lithuania which ostensibly prohibits such an action, has called the Lithuanian move a blockade and has threatened a military response.

Lithuania, as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, is afforded the collective security guarantees spelled out in Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which stipulate that an attack against one member is an attack against all. Through its actions, Lithuania risked bringing Russia and NATO to the brink of armed conflict, the consequences of which could be dire for the entire world given the respective nuclear arsenals of the two sides.

From the moment Russia initiated its so-called “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine, the nations that comprise NATO have been engaged in a delicate dance around the issue of how to support Ukraine and punish Russia without crossing the line of committing an overt act of war that could prompt Russia to respond militarily, thereby triggering a series of cause-effect actions that could lead to a general European conflict, and perhaps World War III.

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A formation of NATO fighter jets flying over Lithuania in 2015. (NATO)

In retrospect, the early debates in the European halls of power about whether to provide Ukraine with heavy weaponry seem almost innocent when compared to the massive infusion of weaponry that is taking place today.

Even Russia has softened its hardline stance going in, where it had threatened unimaginable consequences for any nation that interfered with its military operation in Ukraine.

Today the situation has evolved to the point where NATO is engaged in a de facto proxy conflict with Russia on Ukrainian soil which is designed, frankly speaking, to kill as many Russian soldiers as possible.

Russian Objectives

Russia, for its part, has adapted its posture into one that is designed to absorb these NATO-linked blows while pursuing its stated military and political objectives in Ukraine with a single-minded purpose.

Ukraine has used NATO-provided weapons and NATO-provided intelligence to lethal effect on the battlefield, killing several Russian generals, sinking the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and killing and wounding thousands of Russian soldiers while destroying hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles and pieces of military equipment.

The relative restraint of the Russian approach is evident when contrasted with the hysteria of the United States during its two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Qassem Suleimani, an Iranian general who oversaw an Iraqi resistance against the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the mid-2000’s that was purportedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. servicemen, was assassinated by the U.S. government more than a decade after his alleged activities. And it was only a year ago that the U.S. media was in an uproar over allegations (subsequently proven false) that Russia was offering bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

The latter claim best illustrates the hypocrisy of the U.S. today. The “bounty” claim was premised on a single attack that left three U.S. servicemen dead. The U.S. today openly brags about killing hundreds of Russians in Ukraine.

Red Lines

Russia’s red lines in Ukraine have evolved to encompass two basic principles — no direct military intervention by NATO forces on Ukrainian soil/airspace and no attack against Russia proper.

Even here, Russia has displayed great patience, tolerating the presence of U.S. special operations forces in Ukraine and holding back when Ukrainian forces, most likely supported by NATO-provided intelligence, engage in limited attacks on targets inside Russia.

Rather than respond by attacking the “decision making centers” outside Ukraine responsible for supporting these actions, Russia has engaged in a graduated campaign of escalation inside Ukraine, striking the very weapons being delivered under the oversight of U.S. commandos and the Ukrainian forces who use them.

It is in this context that the Lithuanian decision to impose a rail blockade on Russia seems to be a stark departure from current NATO and E.U. policy.

Russia immediately made its ire known, indicating that it viewed the Lithuanian actions as an overt act of war which, if not reversed, would result in “practical” measures outside the realm of diplomacy to rectify the situation.

The rhetoric was ratcheted up to high, however, when Andrey Klimov, a Russian senator who chairs the Commission for the Defense of State Sovereignty, called the Lithuanian action “an act of aggression” which would result in Russia seeking to “solve the problem of the Kaliningrad transit created by Lithuania by ANY means chosen by us.”

The Suwalki Gap


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Close-up at the Suwalki Gap. (Jakub Luczak, Wikimedia Commons)

For years, NATO has worried about the possibility of a war with Russia in the Baltics. Much of NATO’s attention has been focused on defending the “Suwalki Gap,” a 60-mile-long stretch of border between Poland and Lithuania that separates Belarus from Kaliningrad. Western military experts have long speculated that, in the event of any conflict between Russia and NATO, Russian forces would seek to advance on the Suwalki Gap, joining Kaliningrad with Belarus and severing the three Baltic nations from the rest of Europe.

But while NATO has focused on defending the Sulwaki Gap, a Russian lawmaker has suggested that any Russian military attack in the Baltics would avoid involving Belarus. Instead, it would focus on securing a land bridge between Kaliningrad and Russia by driving north, along the Baltic coastline, to Saint Petersburg.

A series of wargames conducted by RAND around 2014 showed that NATO was, at the time, not able to adequately defend the Baltics from a concerted Russian attack. According to the wargame results, Russian forces were able to overrun the Baltics in about 60 hours.

Similar projections of Russian offensive prowess against Ukraine — where some military officials, including U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Miley, predicted that Russian forces would take Kiev within 72 hours — proved wrong. But the reality is that the militaries of the three Baltic nations are not on par with those of Ukraine, either in quality or quantity, and there is little doubt Russia, even distracted in Ukraine, could deliver a fatal blow to the militaries of the three Baltic nations.

Escalating Rhetoric

The rhetoric out of Russia continues to escalate. Vladimir Dzhabarov, a deputy head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, has threatened that any continued blockade of Kaliningrad “could lead to an armed conflict,” noting that “the Russian state must protect its territory and ensure its security. If we see that a threat to our security that is fraught with a loss of territory, we will certainly take extreme measures, and nothing will stop us.”

If there is one take away from the Russian military operation in Ukraine, it is that Russia doesn’t bluff. NATO and the rest of Europe can rest assured that unless a solution is found that brings an end to Lithuania’s blockade of Kaliningrad, there will be a war between NATO and Russia.

With this reality in mind, the E.U. is working on a compromise arrangement with Lithuania that seeks to have the Russian rail connection with Kaliningrad returned to normal in the near future. This deal, however, must work to Russia’s satisfaction, an outcome which is yet uncertain.

Unlike the Ukrainian conflict, a war in the Baltics will have existential aspects for both sides which brings the possibility — indeed probability — of nuclear weapons being used. This is an outcome that benefits no one and threatens everyone.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... nkmanship/

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Is Russia’s Bombing of the Mall in Kremanchuk Another False Atrocity Story Being Used to Justify Ongoing Military Intervention in Ukraine?
By Jeremy Kuzmarov and Steve Brown - July 1, 2022 4

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A thousand people? Where are all the casualties? [Source: npr.org]

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Where are all the cars? [Source: npr.org]

Empty mall parking lot and existence of a munitions plant nearby raise questions about official narrative advanced in mainstream U.S. media
On Tuesday June 28, mainstream media outlets reported that at least 18 people were killed and dozens injured in a Russian missile strike on a “crowded shopping mall” in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday.

Thirty-six other people were said to be missing and a survivor was on record saying that she had been shopping with her husband when the blast threw her into the air.

Russian strike hits Kremenchuk shopping center with more than 1,000 civilians inside, Ukraine says

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Firefighters put out blaze in Kremanchuk shopping center. [Source: nbcnews.com]

The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, NPR and other news outlets reporting on the story used Ukrainian government officials as their primary source, notably Mayor Vitaliy Maletskiy—who wrote on Facebook that the attack “hit a very crowded area, which is 100% certain not to have any links to the armed forces.”

But they made no independent investigation as to the truth of the self-serving statement. Also without verification they quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—who said in a Telegram post that the number of victims was “unimaginable,” and cited reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack.

However, other reports contradict Zelensky and suggest that the Russian missile attack in Kremenchuk is just one more false story about alleged Russian atrocities known to have been fabricated by Ukraine’s very active propaganda mill.

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[Source: euronews.com]

For example, there are reports that the mall—which Zelensky claims was filled with 1,000 civilian shoppers—had actually been closed for months. Zelensky himself claimed that the mall had been evacuated after air sirens went off earlier in the day—contradicting his own claims about 1,000 civilians being inside.

This seems credible because there were virtually no cars in the mall parking lot during the attack, let alone enough cars for 1,000 shoppers. And according to satellite imagery, adjacent to the mall was a machine plant that manufactured weapons.

This plant, Russia said, was the target of a legitimate military strike, which resulted in a fire in the adjacent mall that had been closed to business since the war began in February.

First Casualty of War is Truth
The crucial Russian counterclaim was not reported by most news media outlets, including alternative media. The Ukrainian commissioner for human rights, Lyudmila Denisova, was recently fired by parliament in part because she was fabricating and feeding false reports of Russian atrocities to Western news media.

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Lyudmila Denisova [Source: wikipedia.org]

This looks potentially to be another case of that. Since the war began, a large percentage of the torture, mutilation, rape and mass killings featured daily in Western media have been committed by Ukrainian forces–sometimes out of mere brutality, as revealed by their own videos that they have posted online–but also as “false flag” events blamed on Russia to inflame world anger and encourage the West to send Ukraine more money and armaments.

Most prominently implicated in multiple war crimes is Ukraine’s notorious Azov Battalion, which boasts of its love for Hitler and has been committing torture, mutilation, rape and mass murders of Russian-speaking Ukrainian women and children in the Donbas region since 2014.

RT News Report

An RT News report featured Ukrainian government videos from the scene of the missile attack—videos which correlated with photographs featured on NPR’s website and those of other media outlets—that showed dozens of men, many in military uniforms, running in the mostly empty parking lot outside the burning building as black smoke rose into the sky.

Live updates: G7 vows more support to Ukraine as conflict drags on
The empty parking lot—with just the odd car. Not the sign of a crowded mall. [Source: cgtn.com]
The people running curiously did not seem to be running out of the building but next to it.

The article raised the legitimate question about why there were so few cars in the parking lot if 1,000 people were really inside the mall as Zelensky claimed.

It also referenced the factory next to the mall and a railway junction that was often a target of Russian missile strikes.

“Just Scrutinize the Facts”

Moon of Alabama’s June 28th political blog provided a link to satellite imagery confirming that the shopping mall in Kremanchuk was next to a large machine plant, which Moon said manufactured armaments that were being delivered to Ukrainian troops in Donbass.

After noting the Russian Defense Ministry’s claims, Moon wrote: “Ahhh—‘don’t trust the Russians!’ you say. Well, don’t trust anyone I say, just scrutinize the facts.”

Moon goes on to report about the empty parking lot and fact that only 16 people died and 25 were injured–meaning that over 900 survived unscathed. The video showed at most several dozen people in the parking lot, raising questions as to where all the survivors went.

Image
[Source: telegra.ph]

The Ukrainian government published surveillance video from a park located next to the machine plant which caught the moments of the two explosions, Moon notes.

Image
[Source: moonofalabama.org]

A large flash appeared and people began running away as some debris—coming obviously from the machine plant after it was struck—fell down.


Satellite image. The light gray shopping area can be seen south of the machine plant in the center. The small park from which the surveillance videos come is directly north of it. The factory has direct rail access at its southern side with several rail tracks for loading and unloading machinery. Rail access makes it an ideal space for preparing or reparing heavy weapons. [Source: moonofalabama.org]
Moon concluded that: “the shopping center was obviously as empty as its large empty parking space…It somehow came on fire after the factory next door was bombed. Those who died were most likely soldiers or factory workers who were preparing ‘western’ weapons for delivery to the front.”

More Evidence to Cast Doubt

In response to Moon’s column, one reader wrote:

“People with far more commonsense than me posed a simple question: if it is a shopping mall then like all shopping malls around the world, there will be shoppers who will post—for good or for ill—their opinions of how good or bad their experience was. So they went out and looked and, sure enough, you can find online rating on a zero-to-five star scale for that shopping centre. All of those reviews—all of them—ceased at the end of February of this year i.e. when Russia launched its special military operation. The reasonable conclusion is that the moment this war began, that shopping mall was closed and its floor space turned over to the use of the Kredmash machine plant. 1,000 shoppers were inside that building? Bullsh**t.”

Google reviews of the Amstor mall in Kremanchuk confirm what the reader was saying in that the reviews end four months ago when the war started and state that the mall was temporarily closed.

A video surfacing on telegram on June 25 did suggest that the mall was open by showing shoppers (the date though was hard to verify), and Human Rights Watch said it spoke to 15 people, including local officials and some of those they said were injured in the attack, who said the center was open.

Claims about a crowded mall being struck are still misleading, nevertheless, because a) we don’t yet know if the mall was ever directly struck by a missile; b) the empty parking lot could be explained by the mall’s having been evacuated earlier in the day if it was open to shoppers.

A drone view of the mall furthermore and photo of the rear facade shows that it burned—from the back where the factory is located—but there is no impact crater.

On June 29, President Zelensky released a new video published on CNN which claimed to provide more proof of the Russian strike on the shopping mall. However, the video actually showed an explosion next to some kind of industrial facility or scrap yard and no evidence of a mall being hit, lending greater credibility to the Russian narrative.

Image
Ukraine released this image of an explosion at the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. Photo: CCTV via Instagram @zelenskiy_official

Video released by the Ukrainian government which does not actually show a mall being bombed. [Source: scmp.com]

Whom Do You Believe?

The evidence, to be sure, is not yet conclusive, but at the very least the reporting by RT News and Moon of Alabama lays out some pertinent facts that are missing from the mainstream and even some alternative media.

RT and Moon of Alabama demonstrate that the target of the Russian missile strike was almost certainly the machine plant located near the mall—not a civilian shopping mall—something that was confirmed by The New York Times which reported that one of the missile strikes “hit an industrial site next to the mall [that was] operated by Kredmash, a manufacturer of asphalt-mixing plants.”[1]

RT and Moon of Alabama raise question marks about whether the mall had any shoppers at all at the time of the strike —let alone the 1,000 claimed by President Zelensky—based on the fact that its parking lot looked empty and people were not running from it but next to it as the building burned.

The Donbass Insider reported that the video released by Zelensky on June 29 shows that one of the two missiles launched by Russia hit the railway leading to the factory which are just behind the shopping centre. This is confirmed by satellite images from June 28 showing a crater on the rails that were used to bring in military equipment. This is where the fire most likely spread to the shopping centre.

Pretext For Further Escalation of War
The alleged mall attack is being used now to validate the further expansion of Western involvement in Ukraine.

At the G-7 summit in Madrid this week, President Joe Biden proclaimed that the United States was strengthening its forces in Europe and announced the establishment of a permanent military base in Poland, Russia’s traditional enemy.

British Prime-Minister Boris Johnson said that the mall attack showed “the depths of cruelty and barbarism to which the Russian leader will sink,” just as British troops were set to be part of a massive expansion of NATO forces in Eastern Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile on Tuesday called the Russian attack in Kremanchuk “a new war crime,” while Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council saying Russia was a “terrorist state,” committing “daily terrorist acts.”

“We need to act urgently to do everything to make Russia stop the killing spree,” Zelensky said.


1.The BBC disputed that the plant manufactured any military equipment, claiming that it made road equipment, and machines for road
construction. ↑

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/0 ... n-ukraine/

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Lysichansk Is Under Control Of The Russian Side

Lysichansk is now under control of the Russian side of the war.

This was reported by a Russian speaking journalist from the Lysichansk City Park (map) which is at the center of the city. There are a few locals around him who seem to be happy. There is no background noise of shooting or artillery fire or impacts in his report.

The Lugansk People’s Republic now has the entire territory of the Lugansk oblast under its control.

This comes only a week after the cauldron around Lysichansk began to close. Until a few hours ago there was still a chance to flee from Lysichansk but the only passable road was under Russian fire. It is not know yet how many made it out or how many gave up and were taken prisoners.

Some of those who retreated went to Siversk some 20 kilometer west of Lysichansk. That city will be the next bigger target in that campaign sector.

The speed of this operation was much faster than the one in Mariupol. That points to diminished capabilities and soldier motivation of the Ukrainian forces.

The now much shortened frontline frees up several battalion tactical groups on the Russian side which can now be refitted and rested to then move elsewhere.

Posted by b on July 2, 2022 at 16:42 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/l ... l#comments

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Liberation of Lisichansk
July 2, 19:50

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Victorious footage from Lisichansk. Cossacks from the LPR and the Chechen National Guard in the central regions of Lisichansk.
The cleansing is still going on in the city, but in fact the enemy’s defense in the city has disintegrated and we can assume that Lisichansk is passing under the control of the RF Armed Forces today, and therefore, the liberation of the LPR is being completed.

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Voenkor Zhuravlev sends greetings from Lisichansk.

(Videos at link)

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7716184.html

Release Wedge
July 2, 16:36

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In addition to the successes in Lisichansk, good news came from near Artemovsk. The Armed Forces of Ukraine were driven out of Klinovoye, part of the Pokrovskoye-Klinovoye defensive line, which was covered by Artemovsk from the east.

The fighting there went on for a long time, the enemy fought back relying on an artillery group concentrated in the Artemovsk area. But already the other day, even before our troops squeezed out the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Klinovoe, preparations for defensive positions began on the southeastern outskirts of Artemovsk, local residents began to be evicted from their houses, where they began to equip firing positions, digging trenches and equipping anti-tank positions intensified. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine obviously suspected that Klinovoe could not be held for a long time and began to strengthen the defense of Artemovsk in this direction in advance. The battle for Artemovsk is approaching.

Wedge, by the way, was taken by the fighters of the Wagner PMC. Another plus for the reputation of strong assault infantry.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7715628.html

Briefly in Lisichansk. 07/02/2022
July 3, 0:58

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Briefly on the situation after the liberation of Lisichansk.

1. Lisichansk. The city was liberated today. There is a cleanup going on. The remnants of the group fled through Belogorovka to Seversk, where they plan to build defenses. In the coming days, Lisichansk, like the entire Lisichansk direction, will leave military reports. The liberation of the LPR from Ukrainian occupation will most likely be announced after the capture of Belogorovka. In fact, this problem has already been solved. The enemy has lost all the major cities on the territory of the former Luhansk region. The Gauleiter of the territories of the LPR occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine was actually left without work. Another heinous crime of the aggressor! Of course, we are waiting for the calculation of the real losses of the enemy (how many fled, how many remained) + trophies.

2. Soledar. The Seversk-Soledar line will become the next line of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, covering Artemovsk and the Slavyansk-Artemovsk highway. The enemy has already brought up reserves here and expects to delay the offensive of the Russian troops after they finish clearing the Lisichansky salient. So far, our troops are fighting in the area of ​​​​Nikolaevka and Disputed, and also working on Verkhnekamenskoye, through which the advance to Seversk will go. In Berestovoye and Belogorovka (other) no changes.

3. Artemovsk. PMC "Wagner" achieved success in Klinovoe, knocking out the enemy from the village. Prerequisites are being created for further advancement to Artemovsk. Pokrovskoye is still held by the enemy. On the south-eastern outskirts of Artemovsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are equipping positions in residential buildings, expelling residents. Also, fighting continues in the area of ​​​​Kodema and Semigorye, where our troops are trying to cut off the grouping defending the Novolugansk and Uglegorsk thermal power plants from the main enemy forces.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7716828.html

Banner of Victory over Lisichansk
July 2, 23:19

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Hoisting the Banner of Victory over Lisichansk.

Image

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7716374.html

Google Translator

Ya gotta wonder how Russia's rulers feel about the prominence of the banner of their class enemies in these victory photos. I guess they figure, 'a necessary evil'(in their view), but genies, bottles, & all that...

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

forwarded from
RIA News
Special operation, 2 July. The main thing:

✔️Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces General Gerasimov checked the groupings of Russian troops in Ukraine

✔️ a number of ministries in the DPR will be headed by experienced managers from Russia, the head of the republic said

✔️the head of Chechnya said that Lisichansk was taken under control by allied forces

✔️RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the scene that Ukrainian militants, leaving Lisichansk, blew up and destroyed part of important administrative buildings, including the city hall

✔️Russian troops destroyed four Ukrainian platoons of multiple launch rocket systems and 39 command posts in a day

✔️The Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed five command posts and three warehouses with ammunition of the Ukrainian military in a day

✔️the President of Belarus said that they are trying to draw the Belarusian side into the conflict in Ukraine, but Minsk does not want this

✔️ a few days ago, the Ukrainian military tried to strike at military facilities in Belarus, but all the missiles were intercepted, Lukashenka noted

***

Сolonelcassad
🇬🇧🇺🇦What's going on under the Carbon? Chronicle of fighting June 22-July 2

The front in the area of ​​Ugledar actually stopped in March, so one might get the impression that there were no clashes there. This is not so: the situation at the site is simply poorly covered in the media due to serious communication problems in the region.

There are constant artillery duels along the line of contact, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine even attempt to attack. One of them happened at the end of last month.

Background

Since spring, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been trying to periodically attack the positions of the RF Armed Forces and the NM of the DPR on the Pavlovka-Nikolskoye-Vladimirovka line. The Ukrainian army did not have any significant successes: even with a numerical superiority, only a few villages were taken all the time, such as the settlement. Novomayorskoyesouthwest of Ugledar.

Settlements along the line of contact became a zone of humanitarian catastrophe , and some of the inhabitants could not be evacuated in an organized manner due to constant shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The course of the battles

▪️By the end of June, the Ukrainian command was able to concentrate up to several incomplete battalions in a small area and go on the offensive. On the evening of June 21, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the positions of the Russian Armed Forces in Pavlovka from the north and west.

▪️The settlement was held by only one unit of the Marine Corps, and fighting broke out in it. By the middle of June 22, Ukrainian units captured the village and its environs, and several Russian servicemen were taken prisoner. The small Shevchenko

farm was also under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On the same day, the Ukrainian units tried to capitalize on their success and launched an attack on Yegorovka, however, they encountered resistance from units of the RF Armed Forces and a separate battalion-tactical formation (OBTF) of the DPR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Heavy clashes broke out on the outskirts of the village.

▪️The next day, June 23, several companies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made an attempt to covertly go to the rear of the allied forces in Yegorovka through the beam, but they were quickly detected by the UAV crew of the OBTF. Artillery fire was opened on the attackers, and the arriving helicopters of the army aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces accurately covered them from the air.

Ukrainian units suffered very heavy losses and retreated to Pavlovka. According to radio interception, the survivors refused to go on the next attack and accused their own command of betrayal and sabotage.

▪️Since June 23, the allied forces have been conducting a counteroffensive in the area: they pushed back the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Yegorovka and established control over Shevchenko by placing positions there. Pavlovka is still occupied by the Ukrainian army.

What is the result?

🔻The attackers failed to achieve even significant tactical successes. The Ukrainian attack bogged down, and the heavily outnumbered units of the RF Armed Forces and the NM of the DPR even recaptured some of their positions and continue to occupy the “gray zone”.

🔻The idea of ​​the Ukrainian command also raises questions: there are no strategically significant supply lines or facilities in the sector near Vuhledar, access to which could seriously complicate the position of the allied forces. The capture of one single village can hardly be called even a satisfactory result given the incomparably higher losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

🔻At the same time, Kiev will again try to launch an offensive near Ugledar. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not yet have critical problems with manpower, so the Ukrainian command will continue, despite the losses, to send a large number of untrained units into battle with the expectation of taking advantage of the numerical superiority over the RF Armed Forces and the NM of the DPR in the area.

Image

***

forwarded from
Vladlen TatarZky
Nothing darker than the villages of the Volnovakha district, now, closer to Velikaya Novoselovka, I have not seen. Most of the yards look shabby. Most of the houses were built during the Soviet era. Of course, schools and kindergartens of the same time.

It can be seen that in the early 2000s, some wealthy, by the standards of the village, residents managed to install plastic windows and ennoble their yards a little.

There are well-built farms, but they did not contribute to the prosperity of the village. The roads are dead, everything is gloomy. Most of these farms have now been destroyed by Grads.

It is difficult for local residents to adhere to any ideology, since absolutely nothing has changed for them for decades. They don't see the point in it. Many immediately took the side of the DPR, hoping that Russia would quickly finish everything and their cow would not come under fire.

The people in the villages are bitter. There is no light, communication in certain places, no pension, humanitarian workers do not travel. The front is near, so very careful in communication. The spoken language is surzhik.

***

forwarded from
Denazification UA
0:30
“We were waiting for you, relatives”

This is how the inhabitants of Lisichansk meet the soldiers-liberators.

This city has been waiting for liberation from Ukrainian occupation for eight years

. Video by @dolg_z

***

Сolonelcassad
0:24
The clown asks, "Where are the boys from Bakhmut?"

The boys from Artemovsk serve in the army of the DPR and will soon come to liberate their hometown from you and your brothers.

Many fighters of the DPR army are fighting, among other things, just to return to their home, where they have not been for 8 years. And the day of their return to Artemovsk is approaching. But the time of the Ukrainian Bakhmut is running out.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10593
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Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sun Jul 03, 2022 2:08 pm

The Battle of Lisichansk
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 07/03/2022

On Friday, June 24, the governor of the small part of the Lugansk region still under Ukrainian control, Serhiy Haidai, prematurely announced the strategic withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the city of Severodonetsk, which was already in the hands of Russia and the RPL. For several weeks, the Ukrainian presence, which had already made a partial withdrawal to avoid a situation like the one in Azovstal, was limited to the industrial zone of the city, specifically to the Azot plant, a chemical company owned by Dmitro Firtash. With this withdrawal, Ukraine lost the city that had served as the capital of the region since the (temporary, according to kyiv) loss of Lugansk in the summer of 2014.

During this week, both the authorities and the press have tried to present the withdrawal from Severodonetsk, a city already destroyed and whose battle was already lost, as strategic. Lisichansk, on the other side of the Severski Donets and higher up, made it possible to defend Severodonetsk from advantageous positions. However, the speed with which Russian and Republican troops have advanced from north and south towards Lisichansk, seizing strategic industrial areas and entering the city has once again made it clear that the withdrawal from Severodonetsk was forced by circumstance. Moreover, throughout this week there has already been a withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops from Lisichansk, where the battle has not been carried out according to the pattern of war to the end that had been followed in Rubezhnoe, Popasnaya or Severodonetsk.

Yesterday afternoon, Ukraine denied that the Ukrainian troops had been surrounded in the city and the advisor to the Office of the President Oleksiy Arestovich affirmed that the Russian troops had not reached the center of Lisichansk. Hours earlier, images of Russian Federation troops, National Guard units and RPL troops had already been published in two central positions: a Soviet monument, to which the Victory flag was placed, and the destroyed local administration.

Defended by Alexey Mozgovoy's Prizrak Brigade, the RPL militias lost Lisichansk and Severodonetsk to advancing Ukrainian troops in July 2014. After the loss of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, their defense was impossible, so in order to prevent the destruction of the city and the senseless death of its population, the militias fell back towards Lugansk and, in the case of Prizrak, towards Alchevsk. Eight years later, the RPL flag returned to Lisichansk, thus Ukraine loses the last city of the former Lugansk region still under its control.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/07/03/la-ba ... more-24963

Google Translator

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Shelling of Belgorod
July 3, 4:41 am

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At night, Belgorod, Kursk and Melitopol were fired at by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the MLRS. There is a video on the channel https://t.me/boris_rozhin
In Belgorod and Kursk, most of the missiles were shot down by air defense systems, but not all - in Belgorod, as a result of arrivals, there are wounded and dead (information at 4-30 has not yet been confirmed). Several houses were damaged, one was destroyed. Windows were shattered in some high-rise buildings. In Kursk, no arrivals were reported, everything seemed to be shot down there.
In Melitopol on the outskirts of several explosions. Most likely, the Uragan MLRS was used for shelling.
Thus, Ukraine marked its complete defeat in the battle for the LPR by undertaking traditional terrorist attacks.
From Belgorod, in response, they worked out in Kharkov - 5 Iskanders were fired, 2 of which hit one target. Jokes for 300 about decision-making centers are attached.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7716950.html

Google Translator

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Ukraine Shells Residential Areas of Donetsk to Blame Russia

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The head of Russia's Defense Management Center Mikhail Myzintsev, reported that his country demined 3,560 hectares the territory of Donbass, southeastern Ukraine, local press highlighted. | Photo: Twitter @PrensaLatina_cu

Moscow has warned time and again of Kiev's plans to carry out false flag operations to blame Russia for attacks against Ukraine's civilian population.


Ukrainian Armed Forces shell residential areas in the city of Slavyansk to blame Russia for killing civilians, a senior Russian official has revealed.

"In Slavyansk, Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out artillery shelling of residential areas and the Slavyansk food factory on June 30, 2022, in order to blame Russia for the extermination of the civilian population of Ukraine," the head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, reported on Saturday.

According to the Russian military officer, the Ukrainian reporters arrived at the site minutes after the shelling, which proves Kiev's intention, i.e. everything was coldly calculated and the attacks were staged for the purpose of anti-Russian provocation.


During such shelling, one woman was killed and 10 were wounded.

Russia is consolidating its positions in the east of Ukrainian territory with the goal of achieving the main objective of its military operation it launched on February 24 in its western neighbor: the "demilitarization" and "denazification" of the Slavic country.


Moscow has warned time and again of Kiev's plans to carry out false flag operations to blame Russia for attacks against Ukraine's civilian population. Moreover, Russian authorities have assured that they pose no threat to the civilian population since their operations only target the neighboring country's military infrastructure.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ukr ... -0004.html

President of Belarus Denounces Ukrainian Provocative Attack

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Lukashenko says Belarus intercepted attempted missile strikes by Ukraine. | Photo: Twitter @mam37ir

Published 3 July 2022 (8 hours 53 minutes ago)

Alexander Lukashenko assured that Ukraine fired missiles at Belarusian military facilities in order to drag Belarus into war.


Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko reported on Saturday that the Ukrainian armed forces recently attacked Belarusian military facilities, an act of provocation to drag his country into the conflict in Kiev.

During a meeting in Minsk, prior to the anniversary of its liberation from Nazi Germany troops by the Soviet Red Army, the head of state detailed that several missiles were fired days ago from Ukrainian territory, where since last February 24 Russia has been carrying out a special military operation.

The head of state noted that the Pantsir anti-aircraft systems intercepted the rockets, fired to provoke, to force Minsk to take the way of arms and to give the West a pretext to try to destroy both Ukraine and Russia at the same time.

At the same time, the head of state stressed that Belarus will not enter the conflict. He stated that there is not a single soldier of his country in the Ukrainian theater of operations.

"They want it because they have orders from outside and they do not care about civilian deaths," President Lukashenko noted, also detailing that the only policy his counterpart Volodymir Zelenski follows is that "the more Ukrainians die, the more he will shout to the world about the atrocities of the 'fascists from Russia and Belarus'.


The head of state noted that history repeats itself, as in the last century Europe created another monster, fascist Germany, and then, in order to survive, had to throw itself into the arms of those nations it wanted to harm.

The Red Army liberated the city of Minsk on July 3, 1944, a sacred date that was later declared National Independence Day. According to experts, the Soviet fighters annihilated about 20 German divisions in the military operations near the Belarusian capital, thus precipitating the defeat of the Third Reich and German fascism.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pre ... -0001.html

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Moscow condemns Ukraine's deliberate attacks on Russian cities

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Russian anti-aircraft defenses managed to neutralize the missiles, but one of them hit the residential area of ​​Belgorod; in addition to drones loaded with explosives in Kursk. | Photo: Sputnik
Published July 3, 2022 (2 hours 36 minutes ago)

The mayor of Belgorod said that four people were also injured, and at least 39 houses were damaged, including five completely destroyed.

The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine on Sunday of launching deliberate attacks on residential areas of the Russian cities of Belgorod and Kursk, resulting in the death of three civilians in the first of these cities.

From the military entity they maintained that “this morning, the kyiv regime launched a deliberate attack with Tochka-U ballistic missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, and Tu-143 Reis drones against residential neighborhoods in Belgorod and Kursk where there were no military targets. . It was a planned and executed attack against the civilian population of Russian cities."

They detailed that the anti-aircraft defenses intercepted the three Tochka-U missiles, carrying cluster munitions, in the air, but the fragments of a downed projectile fell on a residential building.

To which is added the shooting down of two Ukrainian drones "loaded with explosives", when they were approaching the city of Kursk.

Regarding the attack, the governor of Belgorod province, Viacheslav Gladkov, specified that the attack resulted in three deaths and four injuries; in addition to at least 39 houses that were damaged, including five totally destroyed; and damages similarly caused in 11 apartment blocks, he added.

Meanwhile, a neighbor told local Russian media that the fatalities were people who fled from Kharkov after the armed conflict began, and who were hit by a projectile that destroyed the wing of the house where they were staying.

Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, several border regions, including Belgorod and Kursk, have reported civilian casualties and damage to non-military infrastructure as a result of impacts from projectiles launched from Ukrainian territory.

For this reason and as a security measure, the airports of both cities, as well as nine other destinations in the southern European region of Russia, have been closed since February 24, when hostilities began.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-co ... -0007.html

Google Translator

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The West’s Debacle in Ukraine: A Conversation with Jacques Baud
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 3, 2022

Image

Jacques Baud continues his analysis of the crisis in the Ukraine, this time focusing on the failures that are now facing the West in its confrontation with Russia. The only real winner in the West seems to be a revitalized NATO. Thomas Kaiser of Zeitgeschehen im Fokus leads the discussion.

Thomas Kaiser (TK): The May 19th New York Times editorial questioned the point of U.S. war strategy in Ukraine and questioned further involvement. How should this be understood?

Jacques Baud (JB): In the English-speaking world, the U.S. and European Union strategy is increasingly being questioned by military and intelligence officials. This trend is reinforced by U.S. domestic politics. Republicans and Democrats have a very similar view of Russia. The difference, however, lies in the effectiveness of the investments in support of Ukraine. Both share the goal of “regime change” in Russia; but Republicans have noted that the billions spent tend to backfire against the Western economy. In other words, they seem unable to achieve their intended goal while our economies and influence weaken.

TK: So, the Republicans don’t really have a different position from the Democrats?

JB: In Europe, we tend to think of the Republicans and the Democrats as the political “right” and “left.” That’s not quite true. First of all, we have to remember that historically, until the beginning of the 20th century, the Republicans were “on the left” and the Democrats “on the right”. Today, they differ not so much in their vision of the United States in the world as in how they want to achieve that vision. That’s why you have Democrats who are more to the right than some Republicans and Republicans who are more to the left than some Democrats.

TK: What does this mean for the Ukraine crisis?

JB: The Ukraine crisis has been managed by a small minority of Democrats who hate Russia. They seem more interested in weakening Russia than strengthening the United States. Republicans see that not only this strategy against Russia does not work, but it leads to a loss of credibility of the United States. The upcoming midterm elections and the growing unpopularity of Joe Biden are fueling criticism of U.S. strategy in Ukraine.

TK: Is this “rethinking” taking place only in the English-language media?

JB: In Europe, and in the French-language media in French-speaking Switzerland, France and Belgium, the rhetoric faithfully follows what the Ukrainian propaganda says. We are shown a fictitious reality that announces victory against Russia. The result is that we are not able to help Ukraine overcome its real problems.

TK: Do people in the EU really see it that way?

JB: Yes, there is a general anti-Russian mood there. People are more Catholic than the Pope. That was also the case with the oil embargo. The U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, advised the EU against an oil embargo. But the EU wanted to do it anyway, leading to skyrocketing oil prices. So, it is obvious that there is a certain dynamic in the EU related to the generation of the current political leadership. European leaders are very young, have no real experience, but are ideologically fixed. That is the reason why European leadership tends not to have a mature assessment of the situation.

TK: What are the consequences of this?

JB: In Europe, our understanding of the problem lags behind that of the USA. We are not able to discuss the situation calmly. In the French-language media, it is impossible to take an alternative view of the problems without being called “Putin’s agent.” This is not only an intellectual issue, but first and foremost a problem for Ukraine. By confirming the view proposed by Ukrainian propaganda, our media have pushed Ukraine towards a strategy that costs a huge number of lives and leads to the destruction of the country. Our media believes that this strategy is effective to weaken Vladimir Putin and that Ukrainians should continue on this path. However, the Americans seem to start realizing that this is a dead end, as Joe Biden stated that military aid to Ukraine is only to strengthen Ukraine’s negotiating position.

TK: What is the view in the U.S.?

JB: In the United States, a distinction must be made between the government and the mainstream media on the one hand, and the military and intelligence professionals on the other. Among the latter, there is a growing sense that Ukraine will suffer more from Western strategy than from a war with Russia. This sounds like a paradox , but more and more intelligence people seem to recognize that. In French-speaking Switzerland—in my experience—people do not understand that. They follow the rhetoric of the American government. This is an intellectually limited, extremely primitive, extremely dogmatic and ultimately extremely brutal view towards the Ukrainians. It is, again, a view that is more Catholic than the Pope, because even the US military seems to understand that this approach will lead to failure.

TK: What does this mean in practical terms?

JB: Let us consider the situation in Mariupol. Our media seem to deplore that the fighters of the Azov Movement surrendered. They feel sorry for them. They would have preferred that they all died. This is extremely inhumane. But now it appears their fighting had no longer any impact on the situation. If you read the Swiss French media, they should have fought to the death, to the last man. These media would have done a “wonderful job” during the defense of Berlin in April 1945! By an irony of history, the two situations are very similar. The situation in Berlin at that time was completely hopeless, and among the last fighters of the Third Reich—the last defenders of the Führer—were French volunteers of the “Charlemagne” division!

TK: What does the use of such volunteers mean?

JB: It is something quite remarkable, actually, because foreign volunteers go to combat not out of patriotic duty, but because of conviction, because of dogmatism—and this is exactly the same mentality as some of our media. A soldier who defends his country does not do so out of hatred for the enemy, but out of a sense of duty and respect for his community and his country. A volunteer who becomes politically involved, like the volunteers of the SS division “Charlemagne” in their time, follows a kind of vocation to fight. It is a different intellectual mechanism. The same thing can be observed in Ukraine. These volunteers of the Azov Movement, called “republicans” by some Swiss politicians, threatened to kill Zelensky for accepting the surrender of Mariupol. These volunteers are not fighting for Ukraine, but against Russia. This is the same mindset as that of the journalists in French-speaking Switzerland. They are just as vehemently against Putin as these volunteer fighters.

TK: What is the worldview behind this?

JB: Of course, this event [Mariupol’s surrender] upsets the narrative that Ukraine is defending itself heroically and that its determination is bringing about Russia’s defeat. Little David (Ukraine) defends itself against Goliath (Russia) and succeeds. However, the reality is quite different. More and more soldiers of the Ukrainian regular army say that they do not want to fight anymore. They feel abandoned by their leadership. Moreover, the Russians have a reputation for treating their prisoners well. Those who still are eager to fight for Ukraine are the paramilitary volunteers. The myth of a victorious resistance was created; but today the Ukrainian military feels betrayed. That Ukraine is losing this war is, paradoxically, perhaps due in large part to the narrative spread by our media.

TK: The fact that reality is being misunderstood can also be seen in the case of NATO. Those responsible are only too happy to declare that NATO keeps the peace and guarantees freedom and security in Europe.

JB: These statements must be put into perspective. First of all, NATO is not a peace organization. NATO is fundamentally a nuclear-power organization, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. That is the purpose of NATO—to put allies under the nuclear umbrella. NATO was founded in 1949, when there were only two nuclear powers—the U.S. and the USSR. At that time, an organization like NATO was justified. On both sides of the Iron Curtain, there were people who wanted war. That was the case under Stalin, but also in the United States.

TK: Some Western political leaders wanted to keep the war going?

JB: Yes, that was the reason why Winston Churchill did not want to disarm part of the German Wehrmacht that had surrendered. A war against the Soviet Union was expected. The idea of a nuclear umbrella can be justified under these circumstances. But with the end of the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact dissolved, this justification faded.

TK: Can a military organization be completely eliminated?

JB: It is certainly necessary to have a collective security organization in Europe. There is no question that certain arrangements should be made for a common defense. This idea is relatively well accepted. The problem lies more in the form of this organization and in the way the defense should be conceived.

TK: What should have happened with Russia?

JB: Since the early 1990s, the Russians had a conception of security in Europe that was inspired by the OSCE: security through cooperation, not confrontation. That’s why the Russians were interested in joining NATO at that time. But the very concept of NATO, with a dominant power tied to the very nature of the organization itself, cannot integrate the Russian perspective. If you look at the current challenges in the world, the Russian vision can be seen as much more realistic than the Western vision.

TK: Why do you judge it that way?

JB: Humanity is facing multiple complex challenges. We forget that in 1967, NATO published the Harmel Report in which it reflected on its own future. This is now more than 50 years ago. This report was exemplary and extremely modern. In it, NATO outlined all the current and future challenges and laid down certain guidelines for the organization’s development. It was forward-looking; and I see it as a model for what NATO could look like. In this report, the security concept was rethought. That is, you find there environmental and social problems that were integrated into the security concept. When I look at the problems we face worldwide, and also in Europe, in particular, the Harmel Report offers a lot of food for thought and ideas.

TK: What happened to this report, or its ideas?

JB: The Gulf War and then the Balkan War put us back into conventional thinking. Thus, NATO missed the chance to think in a new direction. Tanks, artillery, aircraft, etc. still define NATO’s model of thinking. Not only was this model unsuitable for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but NATO did not really learn the right lessons from those wars. So, we have increased suffering and misery, without containing terrorism. This is a complete failure at the operational, strategic, intellectual, and human levels.

TK: What do you see as the cause of this obvious failure?

JB: The very concept of war was not adapted to the realities. NATO is a regional security and defense organization. It was designed in 1949 for a war in Europe with nuclear weapons, tanks, artillery, etc. In Afghanistan, however, there were no nuclear weapons, tanks, or fighter-bombers. That was a very different kind of war. But NATO did not identify the problem.

TK: Why did NATO not grasp the situation correctly?

JB: To make it simple, let’s say that a war in Europe is a technical challenge. A war in Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a societal challenge. NATO has not understood this essential difference. I mentioned the war in Afghanistan because NATO was engaged there as an organization. In Iraq, it is better to talk about “NATO countries.” But the fact remains that they did not understand that they were waging totally different types of war. Western armies are not prepared for it and have a dogmatic understanding of war.

TK: What does this mean for NATO?

JB: The alliance has remained at the 1949 level, of course with more modern weapons; but the logic has remained the same. We see this also in the Ukraine crisis. NATO is certainly not involved in the fighting, but it is providing support through training, advice and reconnaissance. Ukraine’s weaknesses are therefore NATO’s weaknesses: they wage a war at tactical level, while the Russians are fighting at operational level. Ukraine was in the same operational conundrum in 2014. The Ukrainian army was poorly advised. Since then, NATO has trained more and more Ukrainian instructors who are making the same mistakes today as they did eight years ago. We see that NATO’s conception of war is inadequate and does not follow developments in world’s societies. War is thought of as it was in the First World War. It is seen as a balance of power.

TK: What should happen here?

JB: I think that NATO should dissolve itself to be reborn in a different form. I think we need a collective security organization in Europe that is independent of the United States. But it needs to be tailored to modern security challenges and be able to deal with them cooperatively.

TK: I would like to come back to the OSCE. You said that Russia favors this model. Wouldn’t that be an alternative to NATO?

JB: Yes, of course. By the way, this was a proposal of the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He was inspired by an idea of former French President Charles de Gaulle—a Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. Gorbachev called it “the common European house.” Even today, it is a truism—the best way to avoid war is to have good relations with your neighbors. It sounds banal, but it is so.

TK: Why don’t states manage to do that?

JB: There are several reasons. The first is the U.S. “obsession” since the 1970s with preventing closer cooperation between Europe and Russia. The Russian idea of a “common European house” would be a rapprochement between Russia and Europe that the U.S. does not want. This has focused particularly on Germany. Germany is the largest economic power in Europe, has historically been a strong military power, and has had a special relationship with the Soviet Union. The U.S. has always been afraid of having a large Europe as a competitor.

The second reason is that the former Eastern bloc countries that are now part of the EU and NATO have no intention of getting closer to Russia. Their reasons are historical, cultural and political. But they are also a culture of intransigence that has been observed since the 1920s and continues to be seen in their domestic policies.

TK: In what respect?

JB: For example, in the supply of gas from Siberia. The U.S. arguments against “Nord Stream 2” are not new. Germany has been receiving gas from Siberia since the 1960s and 1970s. Even then, the U.S. feared that closer cooperation between the FRG and the USSR would have an impact on Germany’s determination to remain in NATO. Therefore, they did everything they could to sabotage the gas pipelines.

TK: Yes, I can still remember that. There were articles in Der Spiegel and other German newspapers reporting cruel working conditions for workers in Siberia, etc. It was the prevailing mood like we find again today.

JB: In 1982 Ronald Reagan signed a Presidential Executive Order authorizing the CIA to sabotage the “Brotherhood” gas pipeline between Urengoy (Siberia) and Uzhhorod (Ukraine). The pipeline was sabotaged but quickly repaired by the Soviets. Yes, that was the same rhetoric as today. It is tragic, but we are still in the same intellectual dynamic.

TK: This shows that tangible U.S. interests are at stake here, and this will influence the whole development in Europe.

JB: Yes, the idea of a common European house, as formulated by Gorbachev and favored by the Russians, is inconceivable to the United States. For this reason, Russia has always had a certain respect for the OSCE. After the end of the Cold War, this model could have been expanded to build security through cooperation rather than confrontation. This could have been a viable model. But NATO lacked the intellectual flexibility to rethink itself. NATO remained incapable of formulating genuine strategic thinking. NATO’s output is intellectually extremely weak.

TK: So, would Switzerland’s rapprochement with NATO definitely be a step backwards into the Cold War?

JB: No, not really, since we were never in NATO. Besides, a 2017 US Army study found that the USSR did not attack Europe because it never intended to. So, our security does not depend on NATO, but on our ability to have good relations with our neighbors. In fact, I believe that NATO membership would put our security at risk. That applies equally to Finland and Sweden.

TK: Can you explain that in more detail?

JB: There are two reasons. First, as a member, Switzerland could be involved in operations that are not necessarily related to its own national interests. In the fight against terrorism, for example, NATO does not have the doctrinal capacity to address this issue effectively. If we were to engage alongside NATO, we would only attract terrorism to ourselves. That’s what happened with Germany, for example. Besides, it is not very satisfying intellectually to be involved in defeats. Secondly, our neutrality; and I am talking here about Swiss neutrality, which, unlike other countries, like Belgium, has been confirmed and internationally recognized by the major European powers. This recognition has successfully protected us over the last two centuries.

TK: Even from attacks by Nazi Germany?

JB: The Third Reich had planned at least three operations against Switzerland, but Germany never had the opportunity to implement them. That said, we have to remember that this planning was done because Switzerland had not behaved according to its neutrality policy.

TK: In what respect?

JB: One must not forget that the headquarters of the OSS [Office of Strategic Services] in Europe, under the direction of Alan Dulles, had been in Bern since 1942.

The OSS was the predecessor organization of the CIA. Swiss intelligence worked with the OSS and the British services to support resistance networks against the Nazis in Germany, in France and northern Italy. In addition, members of the 2nd Polish Infantry Division interned in Switzerland were clandestinely trained with the help of the Swiss Army to fight with the Resistance in France. Obviously, the neutrality policy was only a façade.

TK: What were the consequences?

JB: I certainly don’t want to criticize Switzerland’s involvement, especially because part of my family fought in the French Resistance. On the other hand, if we take a step back, we must acknowledge that Switzerland was not entirely neutral. And this had its price, because the Nazis knew about these activities. For this reason, Switzerland had to make concessions to the German Reich. The reasons for these concessions were never really explained to the Swiss people, but in 1995-1999 they were widely criticized in Switzerland.

TK: What conclusions can we draw from this?

JB: If neutrality is applied consistently, it also has a protective function. On the other hand, the protection that NATO would offer Switzerland is very limited. If an enemy were to reach the Swiss border in the event of a conventional conflict, this would mean that NATO already had an existential problem. In such a situation, Swiss neutrality would de facto fall. In case of a nuclear conflict, the USA would never bomb Moscow in order to liberate Bern. Anyone who believes this is a fantasist.

TK: What about the new applicant countries?

JB: The same applies to Helsinki and Stockholm. Anyone who believes that the USA would put Los Angeles, New York or Washington in danger is absolutely not of this world. The U.S. would attack Russia with nuclear weapons only in an extreme situation. In fact, the U.S. would do anything to keep a possible nuclear exchange on European soil. So, membership in NATO only has the effect of increasing the likelihood of being hit directly by tactical-operational nuclear weapons. The idea of improving Swiss national security through a rapprochement with NATO is one of incredible naiveté.

TK: The military chief strategist of the Swiss Department of Defense, Pälvi Pulli, openly pleads for closer ties to NATO. All this stems from the mood that has been created in recent years and months that Putin is pursuing an imperialist policy and wants to expand the country further and, in the end, even attack Switzerland. Surely this is nonsense?

JB: I know Mrs. Pälvi Pulli. She is an intelligent person. But she is making the mistake that people in the West make and that results from the disinformation spread by our media. We depart from the idea that Russia wants to conquer Europe and that Vladimir Putin is an irrational person. This is wrong. We know from Ukrainian and Western sources that the Russian decision had its origin in the planned Ukrainian offensive against the Donbas. So, Vladimir Putin’s decision was perfectly rational, even if one can argue whether it was the best one. It is also clear that the Russians have tried to resolve all this diplomatically. This includes other sets of issues, such as nuclear weapons in Ukraine, joining NATO, etc.

Clearly, the West has not even tried to implement the Minsk agreements, or to solve the other problems politically. Russia perceives these problems as existential. It was ready to negotiate. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive, Zelensky was also ready to negotiate. He was prevented from doing so by the U.S. and the U.K., as well as by the far-right elements of the Ukrainian security apparatus, which is very strongly supported by our media. I don’t think NATO is playing a stabilizing role in this crisis. On the contrary.

TK: Mr. Baud, thank you for the interview.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... ques-baud/

Western Arms Supplied to Ukraine Offered on Darknet
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 2, 2022

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Journalists were able to swiftly agree the purchase of a US-made Phoenix Ghost kamikaze drone

The lavish deliveries of ‘lethal aid’ from the US, UK and other NATO countries to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia have led to marketplaces where some of those weapons can be purchased popping up on the dark web, RT Russian has learned.

The Ukrainian traders claim to offer not just small arms or body armor there, but also such sophisticated hardware as Javelin and NLAW anti-tank systems or Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade explosive drones.

That said, it’s not possible to completely rule out that the sellers actually did not have the said weapons in stock, as the RT investigators did not complete the purchase. Scamming schemes are common for dark web marketplaces.

RT was able to contact one of the said sellers through a marketplace on the darknet and agree the purchase, for a price of $4,000, of a Phoenix Ghost loitering munition, which had been developed by the US especially for the needs of the Ukrainian military.

The journalists, who pretended to be interested buyers, said they were also interested in a batch of American M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mines, but were told that those were out of stock.

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As for the drone, the trader assured that it’ll be placed into a stash, with its coordinates and the photo of the spot to be shared after the payment is made through the marketplace, acting a guarantor of the deal. The parcel is going to be dug into the ground in the woods, he said.

When asked if the Phoenix Ghost could be delivered to an area outside Ukraine, specifically the Polish border town of Przemysl, he replied this won’t be a problem, but would cost an extra $1,000.

This potentially suggests that the Ukrainian arms smugglers may have already established contacts with border guards and are able to cross in and out of Poland without complications.

RT has also exchanged messages with another trader, nicknamed ‘weapons ukraine,’ who was looking to sell batches of US-made body armor at the price of $ 1,500 for five units, and M4 rifles with a silencer and a hundred bullets for $2,4000 thousand per set.

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That person also offered a wide selection of old Russian- and Soviet-made arms, including AK-47 rifles, handguns, grenades and sniper rifles.

The prices on the marketplace turned out to be shockingly low. For example, the British-made NLAW system is being sold there for just $15,000, while acquiring the anti-tank weapon legally could cost from $30,000 to $40,000, according to the media.

Last month, the head of Interpol Jürgen Stock warned that the conflict in Ukraine will result in numerous weapons appearing on the black market.

“Criminal groups try to exploit these chaotic situations and the availability of weapons, even those used by the military and including heavy weapons. These will be available on the criminal market and will create a challenge,” Stock acknowledged, adding that those arms could be “trafficked not only to neighboring countries, but to other continents.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in May that he discussed the importance of tracking and safeguarding the US-supplied arms with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and defense minister Aleksey Reznikov, who assured him that they’ll make sure that the accountability is there.

Moscow has warned against supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine, arguing that it only prolongs the fighting, while increasing the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... n-darknet/

******

Over 2.2 million people evacuated from Ukraine, Donbass to Russia

Among them are 3,922 children, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. A total of 2,265,057 people, including 356,884 children, have been evacuated from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Donbass republics to Russia since the special military operation started, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Saturday.

"In the past 24 hours, 29,252 people, including 3,922 children, have been evacuated to the Russian Federation from dangerous areas of the Donbass republics and Ukraine, without any participation of the Ukrainian authorities," said Mizintsev, who heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

"Since the beginning of the special military operation a total of 2,265,057 people, including 356,884 children, have been [evacuated]," he added.

Mizintsev said that 351,225 private vehicles had crossed into Russia, including 4,702 in the past 24 hours.

https://tass.com/defense/1474935

*************

Poland intervenes after Ukrainian ambassador denies wartime massacre of Poles and Jews
JUL 1, 2022 | HISTORY, POLITICS

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Poland’s foreign ministry has intervened after Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany denied that Ukrainian national leader Stepan Bandera was responsible for the mass murder of ethnic Poles and Jews, and also sought to justify his collaboration with Nazi Germany.

The episode has renewed tensions over what has long been a sensitive issue in Polish-Ukrainian relations. In response, Ukraine’s foreign ministry has distanced itself from the words of the ambassador, Andrii Melnyk, saying that they were just his “own opinion”.

The remarks came in an interview on the Jung & Naiv show in Germany. The ambassador was asked by host Tilo Jung about Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which carried out massacres and ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews.

Jung asked Melnyk how a figure resposible for mass murder could be treated as a hero today in Ukraine. The ambassador answered by claiming that “Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles”. He said that such claims are part of a “Russian narrative”.

Jung then quoted a propaganda leaflet signed by Bandera calling for Russians, Poles, Hungarian and Jews to be “wiped out”. Melnyk responded that he “will not distance myself from it. That’s my decision [even if] you may not understand it”.

“There is no evidence that the Banderites murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews,” claimed Melnyk. Regarding the murder of Poles, he argued that “there were also massacres of Poles against Ukraine…It was a war”.

He also said that ethnic Ukrainians had been persecuted in interwar Poland “in a way that is hard to imagine” and that for Ukrainians Poland was an enemy in the same way as was the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

On the issue of Bandera’s collaboration with Nazi Germany, the ambassador noted that there were “collaborators all over Europe – in France, Belgium, in every country”. Bandera was simply using the conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to gain independence for Ukraine, he argued.


Melnyk’s comments quickly drew condemnation. In a widely shared post, pianist Igor Levit – who was born to a Jewish family in Russia but has lived in Germany since childhood – called the remarks a “shameful…denial of history”.

Former Polish foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski, who is now an MEP for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, criticised the ambassador’s words as a “strange thanks for Poland’s [support of Ukraine’s] EU candidacy, hosting millions of [Ukrainian] refugees and donating large amounts of weapons”.

Last last night, Poland’s current foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, announced that he had spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba about Melnyk’s “false statements”. He thanked Kuleba for his “quick public intervention in this matter”.


The latter was a reference to a statement released by the Ukrainian foreign ministry in which it said that the ambassador’s comments were “his own opinion and do not reflect the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine”.

The ministry thanked Poland for its “unprecedented support in the fight against Russian aggression”, adding that “there are no issues that divide us because both Kyiv and Warsaw share a complete understanding of the need to preserve unity in the face of shared challenges”.


Between 1943 and 1945, Bandera’s UPA led an ethnic cleansing operation that resulted in the deaths of up to 100,000 Poles, in what is known as the Volhynia massacre. Polish state authorities, including parliament, have recognised the killed as a genocide, though Ukraine has denied this.

The issue has long been a source of tension between the two countries. Last year, the Polish and Israeli ambassadors to Kyiv jointly condemned the naming of a stadium in Ukraine after a collaborator with Nazi Germany who is linked to the massacres of ethnic Poles and Jews.

However, there have also been efforts to reach an understanding over the difficult history. In 2020, the two countries’ presidents, Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelensky, jointly declared a desire to “respect historical truth”, including allowing the exhumation of victims (something authorities in Ukraine had previously blocked).

https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/07/01/ ... -and-jews/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sun Jul 03, 2022 11:06 pm

Fighting began at Seversk
July 3, 22:33

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After the capture of Belogorovka and Verkhnekamensky, battles began for Seversk. In the event of the loss of the city, the Seversk-Soledar line will begin to crumble quite quickly and our troops will not only be able to move further to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk (on which artillery attacks are increasing), but also roll from the north to the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Soledar, and then at Artemovsk.

Of course, they will also try to organize an offensive from the Klinovoye area, but there is no rapid progress expected there, at least until the occupation of Pokrovsky. It is the battles for Seversk, Soledar and Artemovsk that will be the focus of attention in the coming weeks. The enemy will try with all his might to slow down the pace of the offensive of our troops in order to transfer the battles east of Slavyansk into a positional phase.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7718338.html

A question of price
July 3, 19:37

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Zradofilsky article in "The Times" on the topic that something went wrong with the "victory over Russia".

A question of price

In order for Ukraine to defeat Russia, the Western powers have yet to answer painful questions for themselves.
At some point, our experts believe that Ukraine will win. The next moment we are warned that Russia is winning. But what does "victory" mean? And is the West really ready to pay the necessary price for it?
There is some tragic irony here. Russia, Ukraine and the West are each in their own way committed to their own struggle, not knowing for sure how its ending or endgame should or will look like. For Moscow and Kyiv, this is happening, in fact, because they are waiting for the verdict that the battlefield will give. And for the West, this situation is due to the fact that we are not yet ready to discuss the most difficult issues.

What does victory look like?
If Russian forces can take the entire Donbass and the "Crimean corridor", then Vladimir Putin will be very pleased. While this will not be the complete takeover of Ukraine that he apparently originally planned, it will be more than enough for him to present it as his victory. After all, Putin often employs "look back" strategies, doing the best he can in the moment and then presenting it as what he has always wanted to achieve. Putin will take everything he can take and hold, but he does not yet know what it will be in the long run.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may be telling G7 leaders that Ukraine "will only negotiate from a position of strength" and that he aims to liberate the entire country by winter. But the chances that the Ukrainians will be able to push Russia out of all of Donbass this year, let alone annexed Crimea, are extremely slim.

More and better weapons do help Ukraine, but Russia still has much larger reserves and strategic depth. If Kyiv suddenly wins, it will be only because Moscow decides to minimize its losses, seeing nothing to gain from continuing the war, and not because it was seriously injured on the battlefield.

Then will the Ukrainians have to make compromises, possibly exchanging Crimea for Donbass, as Henry Kissinger already suggested? At this stage, they reject any such deals, but as their human losses increase, it is possible that such an "ugly" world may become quite acceptable for them

. But what about the West? Boris Johnson spoke for many of his colleagues when he said the UK and its allies would "stay the same course". But where does this course lead? Johnson told the BBC that "it's up to Volodymyr Zelensky and his people to decide what they want" and that "no one here in the G7 sees an alternative to simply supporting Ukraine in restoring its sovereignty."
Although everything here is not at all simple.

Privately, off the record, many officials from across the West admit that the mantra that it is up to Ukrainians to decide how and when this war ends is not entirely true. "Of course, we have our own interests," admitted one French diplomat. "Just as long as they coincide with the interests of Kyiv." A German official issued a similar warning: "In the present moment, we fully support Ukraine's position."

However, it is already clear that the White House is seized by doubts that the Ukrainians will be able to retake the Donbass, and therefore Washington is already beginning to discuss what, in the opinion of the American administration, will be a “plausible” victory for Kyiv. In other words, as far as the West is concerned, Ukraine seems to be able to decide how the war ends, but Westerners expect it to listen to their concerns and opinions as well.
After all, we in the West have the right to vote. Putin will have very little reason to make a peace deal with Ukraine without the prospect of some relaxation of Western sanctions. And this is exactly what Zelensky cannot negotiate. Like it or not, if we in the West are convinced that this conflict cannot be resolved solely on the battlefield (which is in fact extremely unlikely), then at some point we will have to intervene in it. Are we going to wait until the last minute even to start a conversation about what kind of world we consider acceptable? And this despite the fact that it is still not so easy and fast to achieve?

Part of the problem is that, behind all its general statements, NATO is not truly a single entity. It is precisely in order not to make this obvious that the alliance has so far refrained from making any clear statements about the form of a possible future victory.
There are hawkish countries who believe that it should not only be about returning every square inch of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, but also about hitting Russia so hard that it cannot pose a threat to any of its neighbors. in future. It is often implied that this also signifies regime change. "Let me put it this way," said an expert close to the Polish government. "I don't think we can feel safe as long as Putin is in power."

"Doves" are primarily concerned about ensuring peace in Ukraine. Many of them would have agreed with the withdrawal of Russian troops to their positions before the start of the special operation, effectively ceding Crimea and the “pseudo-states” of the DPR and LPR to Russia. One Scandinavian official probably summed up this dove creed when he acknowledged that "such a deal would be unfair, but it would be practical."

And there are still "ostriches" who want this whole problem to simply disappear. This is especially wanted by governments in the South of Europe (but not only), who say the right things and approve of collective communiqués, but whose concerns are focused on internal affairs or some other problems. They tend to lean towards doves in general, but are essentially looking for the line of least resistance.

Even the hawks reluctantly agreed that NATO ground forces should not be deployed to the battlefield because of the risk of an unmanageable escalation of the conflict. And even less confrontational ideas, such as deploying small contingents of NATO troops in western Ukrainian cities, away from the front lines, to counter missile attacks, quickly fell through due to a lack of consensus.

The West is doing a lot around the conflict. Ukraine has been promised over $27 billion in military aid, seven times the country's pre-war defense budget (and more than half of that amount has already been provided). However, even newer and more powerful weapons systems will not have an immediate or decisive effect on the battlefield.

The same applies to the sanctions regime. Although it is both unprecedented and very tough. The Russian economy will remain scarred by the sanctions for years to come. But the sanctions have not destroyed Russia's public finances, and while Putin sounds quite optimistic, loudly repeating that "the economic blitzkrieg strategy has failed."

Basically, there are two wars going on. There is a very traditional 20th century war going on in Ukraine, and a new type of 21st century "non-contact" economic, political and even cultural war waged by the collective West against Moscow is being waged around all of Russia.
Putin seeks to win both on the basis of willpower and the ability to overcome a "war of attrition", betting that Russia, with its 144 million people under his increasingly authoritarian rule and an economy under sanctions and withstood, will be able to defeat both Ukraine and the West.

So far, Ukrainians show no signs of defeatism or disunity. The West sees a different picture, causing him anxiety. The economic costs of the conflict are growing: Ukraine has been promised not only military assistance, but also financial support in the amount of more than $30 billion. And this is just the beginning. The International Monetary Fund estimates that Ukraine needs about $5 billion in external financing every month just to keep its system of government afloat.

The stinginess and reluctance with which the Scots and Welsh contributed to Johnson's promised £1bn of UK-wide military aid to Ukraine is symptomatic of growing "Ukraine fatigue" in the West. The point is not that the electorate still regrets its support for the Ukrainians, but that they are beginning to notice that money is not being spent on domestic priorities at all.

Joe Biden faces a possible blowout in the midterm congressional elections in November. Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and other leading European leaders are increasingly facing their own internal problems. So far, none of them has really explained to their constituency what the long-term consequences of Ukrainian affairs at home will be.

These consequences include the military, given the influx of masses of modern weapons on the battlefield. The United States, for example, has already transferred more than a third of its arsenal of Stinger and Javelin anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, and this figure is expected to reach half by the end of the year.
And it's not just about money. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Chief of Defense Staff, told the House of Lords Committee on Foreign Relations and Defense: "You can't instantly rebuild an arsenal of modern weapons by rapidly producing them."
For example, while Congress has allocated $9 billion to replenish the US military arsenal, not only is the price of weapons rapidly rising due to increased demand, but many arms manufacturers are simply overwhelmed with orders. Although Raytheon has received a $624 million contract for Stinger missiles, Raytheon has warned that it won't even start executing it until next year.
It can be argued that for the time being this does not really matter. We have not yet reached the point where we have to raid the Imperial War Museum for weapons to send to Ukraine, and with the Russian military too busy there, there is no direct military threat to NATO.

However, Ben Wallace, the British Secretary of Defense, like many of his European colleagues, is demanding an increase in defense spending. In the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, we spent 4% instead of 2% on defense, and a NATO official admits that this is probably a more plausible level, especially now when it comes to weapons and support as well. Taiwan. Who speaks openly today about such a reorientation of public spending?

None of this means that - with patience - the West cannot or will not support Ukraine all the way to victory. Rather, it depends on whether we ask ourselves difficult questions and, more importantly, whether we answer them.
What is the strategic goal? To what extent is this war aimed at liberating Ukrainian land, rather than damaging or even overthrowing the Putin regime? The latter goal, to put it bluntly, can only be achieved by continuing the war for as long as possible, in order to bleed Russia out just as the Afghan occupation bled the Soviet Union.

What are we ready to endure in the name of Ukraine, and how long will we have to endure? How will political unity be maintained not only within the West, but also within our country? Given that the £1 billion recently earmarked for military aid to Ukraine could build two hospitals? When will geopolitics and pre-election calculations begin to collide?
How far are we willing to go in depleting our arsenals? Especially since in the long run we are committed to rearming the Western alliance, which has enjoyed peace dividends for longer than was reasonable?

In the past, we have relied on "strategic ambiguity" in our relationship with Putin. Essentially, we let him know what we found unacceptable, but not what we would do about it. This approach did not work. The Russian leader, accustomed to us talking tough but not going through with our toughness, as happened after his invasion of Georgia in 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, decided that we were again just bluffing.
It is time for less ambiguity and more willingness to tackle the toughest issues.

https://inosmi.ru/20220703/ukraina-254812013.html- zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7717768.html

Persecution of the Kononovich brothers
July 3, 18:49

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Persecution of the Kononovich brothers

On March 6, comrades from the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, the Kononovichi brothers, were arrested by the Kyiv SBU. Martial law is an excellent opportunity for the regime to finally resolve the issue with all those who are objectionable, especially with representatives of the left movement. Naturally, the authorities could not get past Mikhail - the head of the red youth organization - and his faithful comrade and brother Alexander.

Previously, the guys had already been subjected to terror by the brown detachments: they were tried to intimidate them, promised to deal with relatives, beaten, illegally detained. Now the Kononovichi have revealed “pro-Russian and pro-Russian convictions,” that is, they have committed a crime of thought. In the current conditions in Ukraine, this is tantamount to high treason and is punishable by the highest measure. Sources say that perhaps at the moment the brothers are no longer alive ...

Comrades from leftist organizations around the world are calling for the immediate release of prisoners of conscience. We, the members of the Tula organization of the Revolutionary Komsomol, the RKSM(b), also responded to the appeal of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY). We held pickets in support of comrades from the Komsomol of Ukraine. Of course, it is impossible to reason with words the big capital of the imperialist state. Our action is aimed, first of all, at accelerating the formation of an international bloc of class forces, a new Comintern, which will oppose fascism, wherever it originates.

We call on comrades from other leftist organizations to join us. Only together can we fight the brown plague.

https://rksmb.org/rksmb/reports-from-st ... unizaczii/ - zinc

Comrades from the RKSMB should remember that fascism and its various variations take persuasion and attempts to convince with words extremely badly - he considers all this as a sign of weakness. All this was well understood even during the Spanish Civil War.
Of course, this does not negate the need to fight for the freedom of the Kononovich brothers, whom the Bandera regime is persecuting for communist beliefs.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7717500.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
on July 2-3, 2022

▪️Ukrainian armed formations launched a massive missile attack on Belgorod at about 3 am , resulting in the death of 5 civilians, at least 5 more were injured.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine also tried to attack Kursk using the Tu-143 Reis, but the UAVs still of Soviet production were shot down by Russian air defense systems.

▪️The RF Armed Forces hit enemy positions in the villages of Volkovka and Bachevsk bordering Russia in the Sumy region .

▪️In the north of Kharkiv Oblast , the Ukrainian Armed Forces retreated from the eastern bank of the Seversky Donets, where they had previously held positions in the vicinity of Khotomly . Now Ukrainian troops are holding the line Udy - Prudyanka - Russian Tishki - Petrovka - Upper Saltov .

▪️In Donbass , the Allied Forces complete the final liberation of the Lugansk People's Republic .
➖Russian units reached the southern outskirts of Belogorovka and took control of the administrative borders of the LPR.
➖Separate pockets of enemy resistance remain in Lisichansk in the industrial zone and on the southern outskirts of the city.
➖The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are moving towards Seversk , however, in order to start a full-fledged assault on the city, it is necessary first to take Grigorovka and Serebryanka and finally eliminate the fortified areas in Verkhnekamensky and Disputed .
➖In the Soledar direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing for the offensive of the Russian troops and strengthening defensive lines in the Pokrovskoye - Soledar - Belogorovka - Berestovoye sector . The enemy formed the "Charlie" group, which includes UAV crews, a battalion of the 14th OMB of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and anti-aircraft missile units.
➖In the vicinity of Bakhmut, "PMC Wagner" took Klinovoye and are fighting for Pokrovskoye .
➖The offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Vuhledar bogged down: the Ukrainian formations, having suffered heavy losses, recaptured two insignificant villages of Pavlovka and Shevchenko, which had been in the gray zone for a long time.

▪️On the territory of the Zaporozhye region , artillery duels continue in the area of ​​Orekhov and Gulyaipol . In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the airfield of Melitopol, which is under Russian control.

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction , the RF Armed Forces attacked enemy targets in Zelenodolsk and Bolshaya Kostromka. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, in turn, responded with fire on the positions of the Russian army in Vysokopolye.

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***

forwarded from
Operation Z: Military commissars of the Russian Spring
0:23
‼️🇺🇦🏴‍☠️Zelensky admitted that the Russian army is destroying the Armed Forces of Ukraine - a new statement

▪️He confirmed the flight of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Lisichansk and recognized the strong superiority of the Russian Army in firepower. He said that the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would return to the city after receiving the required amount of weapons from Western countries.

▪️The Russian army is hitting the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Kharkov from the Smerch MLRS. Russia can use tens of thousands of artillery shells daily on one sector of the front;

The clown continues to feed Ukrainians, who believe in the indispensable victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with sweet breakfasts .
t.me/RVvoenkor

***

Сolonelcassad
The situation in the Kharkiv direction
by the end of July 3, 2022

▪️The offensive of Russian troops continues in different sectors of the front. Ukrainian forces left the area of ​​​​Vesely and Borshcheva , retreating to the line of Udy - Prudyanka - Russian Tishki - Petrovka - Upper Saltov .

▪️To deter the offensive of the RF Armed Forces in various sectors of the front, engineering equipment of strong points is being carried out, as well as the creation of false firing positions.

▪️In Zolochiv and Svetlichny , personnel were rotated. Additional crews of MANPADS have been deployed in the area of ​​Cherkassky Tishki and Chernoglazovka .

▪️The RF Armed Forces delivered strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​Svetlichny , Zolochev , Petrovka, Russkaya Lozova, Prudyanka, Slatino , several strikes were made on Kharkov . Ukrainian artillery crews fired on the outskirts of Borshcheva , Vesely , Zarechny .

🔻In the Kharkiv direction, Russian military personnel are attacking the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, pushing the front line away from the state borders.

Losses in manpower and the transfer of units to the Soledarsk and Slavyansk directions became the reason for forced mobilization in Karasevka , Zolochev and Shestakovo .

In addition, Ukrainian artillery began to conduct barrage fire on the opposite bank of the Seversky Donets in anticipation of the crossing of the river by Russian units. At the end of June, reconnaissance groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were driven out of Khotomli . This is a direct confirmation of the complete return of control over the left bank of the Seversky Donets up to the Pechenegsky reservoir under the control of the RF Armed Forces.

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Сolonelcassad
🇺🇦 On Ukrainian Propaganda

Since the beginning of the special military operation, the question of the need for more active information work on the part of the relevant units of the RF Armed Forces has been repeatedly raised, since in this area they are much inferior to the CIPSO specialists trained by the Americans and the British.

Under their leadership, Ukrainian psychic fighters work out various training manuals. Moreover, they use not only social networks and the Internet to send false information, but also other means of communication, such as the international system of maritime navigation messages NAVTEX .

NAVTEX is used to transmit and receive navigational, meteorological information about closed or dangerous areas for traffic, as well as to send distress signals.

In particular, on one of the standard frequencies (490 kHz) from a station in Odessa , there is a mass mailing of information about allegedly possible operations of the Russian Navy under a "false flag" against merchant ships in the Black Sea . Messages reach ships and ships that are even in the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition, the Ukrainians accused Russian ships of deliberately mining the Black Sea in order to “defame” the Ukrainian authorities and in advance placed all responsibility for what could happen to civilian ships on Russia.

The absence of any confrontation with this kind of propaganda is extremely convenient .for the Ukrainian side: any of their actions, even those aimed at merchant ships in the Black Sea area, can easily be attributed to Russian ships . Such an indifferent attitude to this problem is fraught with an increasingly negative attitude towards the Russian Federation, not only in Ukraine, but also in other regions (the NAVTEX station broadcasts at a distance of up to 600 nautical miles) . And dry reports will not help in any way in this matter.

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine at 10.40 on July 03, 2022, especially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1.
Lisichansk.
The city has been liberated. There is a cleanup going on. The remnants of the group fled through Belogorovka to Seversk.
In the coming days, Lisichansk will leave military reports. The liberation of the LPR from the occupation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be announced after the capture of Belogorovka. The enemy has lost all the major cities on the territory of the former Luhansk region.
2.
Soledar.
The Seversk-Soledar line is the next line of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, covering Artemovsk and the Slavyansk-Artemovsk highway. The enemy has pulled up reserves, expects to delay the offensive of the RF Armed Forces after the cleansing of the Lisichansky ledge is completed.
The RF Armed Forces are fighting in the area of ​​​​Nikolaevka and Disputed, they are processing Verkhnekamenskoye, through which the advance to Seversk will go.
In Berestovoye and Belogorovka (other) no changes.
3.
Artemovsk.
The "Wagner Group" drove the enemy out of the settlement. Wedge. There are prerequisites for advancing to Artemovsk. Pokrovskoye is still held by the enemy.
On the southeastern outskirts of Artemovsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are equipping positions in residential buildings, driving out residents.
Fighting in the region of Kodema and Semigorye, where our troops are trying to cut off the grouping defending the Novolugansk and Uglegorsk thermal power plants from the main enemy forces.
4.
Slavyansk.
Fights at Bogorodichny, Dolina, Krasnopolye, Sidorovo. Strengthened work on the grouping defending Slavyansk. After the capture of Seversk, the advance to Slavyansk from the east will begin.
5.
Raisins.
Positional battles at Bolshaya Kamyshevakha, Kurulka.
The enemy is trying to strain the flank of the Izyum group, shelling Barvenkovo, trying to force the Seversky Donets, but has not achieved success. The front in the direction of Barvenkovo ​​does not change. The RF Armed Forces carry out missile strikes on Pavlograd along the supply line of the Slavic grouping.
6.
Avdiivka.
Without changes. Fighting near the Avdeevka-Konstantinovka highway. It is not possible to advance to Krasnogorovka. No promotion for New York.
The enemy shells Donetsk, Makeevka, Yasinovataya + launches rockets into the depths of the territory of the LDNR, aiming at ammunition depots and headquarters on an American tip.
7.
Carbon.
Fighting in the area of ​​Pavlovka, Yegorovka, Shevchenko. The activity did not bring success to the enemy, although it forced our troops to strain to repel an offensive attempt. Operationally, the situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine has not improved. In Novomikhailovka and Marinka no changes.
8.
Zaporozhye.
On the Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselka line, no changes were made. Positional battles, mutual activity of DRGs. Activation here is possible towards the end of summer and depends on the course of the battle in the Donbass. The enemy will try to organize an attack on Pologi or Vasilievka in the next couple of months.
9.
Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Nikolaevsky, Krivorozhsky and Nikopol direction. In the Krivoy Rog direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine occupied Ivanovka, which was located in the gray zone.
The RF Armed Forces continue to deliver high-intensity missile strikes on Nikolaev.
10.
Kharkov.
On the night of July 3, Belgorod was shelled from the Kharkov direction from the MLRS. Hits in the center of Belgorod on Mayakovsky Street. Destroyed private houses. At 10.00 Moscow time, 5 dead were reported.
The RF Armed Forces are stepping up pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​Dementievka and the Upper Passages. The Armed Forces of Ukraine recognize the withdrawal from the border and the advance of the front to the northern outskirts of Kharkov.
The assault on Kharkov is not expected. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are improving positions, grinding down the opposing enemy forces (in some parts of the loss - up to 20-30% per week), do not allow the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to transfer forces to the Donbass, where there is an acute shortage of combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
11.
Serpentine.
The enemy struck at the equipment of the Russian Federation abandoned on the island. Prior to this, the island was bombed by aircraft of the Aerospace Forces. The infrastructure on the island is destroyed. The enemy does not land, citing mining. We are waiting for a helicopter assault for a photo shoot in order to cover the difficult situation in the Donbass with pictures from Zmeiyne. The island is still in the "grey zone".

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 04, 2022 1:23 pm

Kremlin: West Is Bent on Continuing War in Ukraine

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Western countries led by the US are committed to continuing the conflict in Ukraine, not allowing the Ukrainians to talk about or negotiate peace, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Sunday. | Photo: Twitter @LaVozDelSur_1

Published 4 July 2022 (7 hours 4 minutes ago)

The Western nations, led by the United States, do not allow Ukrainians to talk about peace, negotiate it or even think about it,” Peskov noted in an interview published on Sunday by the Rossiya channel 1.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the West is betting on prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, but he warned that negotiations on the basis of Russia's conditions will be resumed sooner or later.

The western nations, led by the United States, do not allow Ukrainians to talk about peace, negotiate it or even think about it,” Peskov noted in an interview published on Sunday by the Rossiya channel 1.

Peskov referred to the potential reasons why German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron discontinued their calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and indicated this was another sign that sugests western leaders are not interested in achieving peace through dialogue and negotiations.


Sometimes they get swept along by the current, follow in the wake of the collective West to the detriment of their own interests, Peskov added.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman noted that he was confident that sooner rather than later, common sense will triumph.

We will have to sit down to negotiate again and Ukrainians will have to assimilate again all our conditions and accept them,” the Russian presidential spokesman concluded.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Kre ... -0001.html

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Lavrov Gets It Right by Comparing European Union and NATO to Hitler’s Old Axis
JULY 2, 2022

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Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov called EU and NATO "Hitler's old Axis." Photo: AP.

By Guilherme Wilbert – June 28, 2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on June 24 that the European Union and NATO appear to be building a military coalition for a war against Russia. The statement was given in Baku in Azerbaijan during an interview.

“They are creating a new coalition for fighting, that is, for war with Russia. We will follow this very closely,” the minister rightly declared, because that is what has been happening anyway. But first let’s go to the archetypes of the entities mentioned.

The European Union, in its initial design, may have come up with good proposals for the integration of Europeans, with some Balkan countries, for example, applying to be part of the economic and diplomatic bloc, but it so happens that few people pay attention to history, especially history during World War II.

Hitler wanted a union of the European countries, what he called a “Pan-European Union,” a form of closer integration between countries that would naturally be against the Soviet Union and communism in general. No wonder Hitler set up puppet governments in some European countries such as Denmark, for example, which was under the tutelage of Nazi Germany during the period August 1943 until May 1945, after the success of Operation Weserübung.

As for NATO for example, it is seen as a super aggressive military alliance that causes barbarism in various parts of the world, especially in the former Yugoslavia, which had its territory balkanized after an intervention in the country in 1999, where war crimes were committed as those bombs would hit civilian buildings, such as the famous bombing of Serbian TV, which was not a legitimate military target, but turned out to be a Yugoslav “propaganda broadcast” (obviously) at the time.

So it didn’t take much effort on the part of some “non-aligned diplomats” (which is the case of Lavrov) to understand that the European Union and NATO act together to stand up to the former Soviet Union, now Russia. NATO even characterized the country as an “enemy” several times, emphasized by Vladimir Putin in his speeches.

It’s not as if they left options for today’s Russia, unfortunately
After NATO’s expansions into Eastern European countries, even after a verbal agreement made between Soviet and American diplomats at the time that they would not move “an inch east” in the early 2000s, the opposite was seen and this was stated several times before the start of Operation Z, and was characterized in various ways by Kremlin spokespersons that Ukraine’s entry into NATO was a criminal act. And it was.

And like any criminal act, the police power, even if governed by a country’s Armed Forces, needed to come into effect because after the NATO vs. Russia diplomatic rounds no documentary agreement properly bound by international law was reached. And to make matters worse, Zelensky would state on February 19, in a speech at the European Security Conference in Munich (just five days before the start of Operation Z), that he would no longer ratify the Budapest Memorandum, which is a treaty that denuclearizes Ukraine since 1994.

This would sound an alarm throughout Russia because its door to Europe would be lined with nuclear missiles possibly aimed at Moscow, with orders coming from Washington for provocation after the fall of Putin’s allied government of Yanukovych.

With that said, Lavrov’s comparison of Hitler’s Axis with the current European Union and NATO is once again correct, because the current prejudice against Russians was seen against Jews in Nazi Germany, the attempt at various provocations such as the recent case of the Lithuanian blockade of Kaliningrad (Russian exclave) was seen when Hitler spoke of “vital space” putting countries neighboring Germany on invasion alert, and many more are the parallels.

This is a lost war and Ukraine needs to recognize this, or else hardly a resident of Kiev will be able to enjoy the good beaches of the Black Sea.

https://orinocotribune.com/lavrov-gets- ... -old-axis/

World’s Largest Imperial Power Sponsors Calls for Russia to ‘Decolonize’ and the Lack of Self-Awareness is Palpable
JULY 2, 2022

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Native American protesters and supporters gather at the Black Hills, now the site of Mount Rushmore, on July 3, 2020 in Keystone, South Dakota. Photo: Getty Images / Micah Garen.

By Daniel Kovalik – Jun 28, 2022

The United States, the most powerful colonial empire in modern history, is sponsoring a discussion on its adversary’s ‘imperialism’

On June 23, 2022, an organization funded by the US Congress, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe – also known as the Helsinki Commission – held a virtual conference calling for the “decolonizing of Russia.”

This begs the question of why they are not seeking the decolonization of the United States. After all, the country was literally founded by the successors of white colonists who had crossed an ocean to violently seize the territory from its indigenous people.

While the conference speakers, who can be listened to here, used the current crisis in Ukraine as a jumping off point, they demanded that the Russian Federation “decolonizes” from regions and republics which have been governed by Moscow since the 16th century (e.g. Siberia and Tatarstan) and others going back to the early 1800’s (e.g. Chechnya).

This is, of course, tantamount to calling upon the US to relinquish nearly all of its territory from the Atlantic to Pacific, not to mention more recent holdings such as Hawaii.

Indeed, when a conference attendee asked what the US should do with Hawaii in light of this “decolonization” discussion, the panel speakers danced around this issue and quickly changed the topic, showing they are not so concerned about “decolonization” at all, but are truly interested in breaking up the Russian Federation for its own sake.

The conference speakers focused greatly on Soviet-era Russia, though again the republics they cited were part of Russia long before the multi-national 1917 Revolution. If anything, the USSR gave these places greater independence than they ever had. Raising the specter of the Soviet Union, and conflating it with modern-day Russia is the standard canard used to drum up hysteria against Moscow as some type of imperial power seeking to conquer the world.

But this attempt fails, for the irony, of course, is that, as great historians such as Eric Hobsbawm and Jean Bricmont have emphasized, there was no country in the world that supported Third World liberation struggles against colonialism (and this was invariably Western colonialism) more than the Soviet Union. And, certainly after World War II, it was the US which fought mercilessly to retain Western colonialism.

Thus, when one looks at the cases of Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Palestine and Nicaragua, just to name a few examples, it was the USSR that aided the national independence struggles of these countries, while the US militarily defended the ancien régimes. Of course, the most notable case of this was South Africa and the southern African frontline states where the US, and its partner Israel, tried desperately to maintain Apartheid and settler colonial domination while the Soviet Union, and its ally Cuba, fought, and quite successfully, to end these systems.

In addition, it must be emphasized that it was the Soviet Union, more so than any other country, which led the fight, in the 1940s, against the attempt of Nazi Germany to colonize Europe – and indeed the rest of the world. And the USSR lost 27 million people doing so.

Meanwhile, since WWII, the US has created an empire on a scope hitherto unknown in the world. It is now estimated that “the United States has approximately 800 formal military bases in 80 countries, a number that could exceed 1,000 if you count troops stationed at embassies and missions and so-called ‘lily-pond’ bases, with some 138,000 soldiers stationed around the globe.” No other country in the world has, or ever has had, such a military reach. Indeed, the relatively few other countries that have military bases abroad have a combined number of bases totaling not even one-tenth the number of US bases.

Thus, “only 11 other countries have bases in foreign countries, some 70 altogether. Russia has an estimated 26 to 40 in nine countries, mostly former Soviet Republics, as well as in Syria and Vietnam.” (emphasis added). And speaking of Syria, while the Helsinki Commission speakers attempted to claim that Russia has been engaged in some type of neo-colonial effort there, it is in fact the US which is the uninvited (and therefore illegal) invader in Syria and is now occupying one-third of the country against the wishes of the Syrian government and regularly plundering Syrian oil from this occupied land in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

And of course, it is the US, not Russia, which has, in just the past 29 years, traveled halfway around the world to invade, and invariably destroy, other nations such as Iraq (twice), the former Yugoslavia, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan. In a brazen act of colonial theft, the US simply stole $7 billion (or about 40% of national revenue) from Afghanistan after its 20-year war there. The US continues to hold these funds even as Afghanistan faces a looming famine and the after effects of a devastating earthquake. Similarly, the US purloined Venezuela’s greatest single source of national revenue – its US-based oil company CITGO, which is now being sold off by Washington in pieces. And of course, the US stole billions of dollars of Russian financial reserves held in American banks earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Washington continues to maintain its colonial hold over territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, Guantanamo Bay, and Hawaii, not to mention the fact that the entire territory of what is now known as the United States of America represents lands stolen from indigenous peoples and Mexico.

In short, the US government and its compliant NGOs have no business talking about “decolonizing” anyone before they get down to the business of decolonizing their own lands. Such an effort could start with the removal of US military bases from around the world and the accompanying withdrawal of all US foreign troops; the return of all stolen monies and resources to such countries as Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela and Russia; the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba; holding referendums in Puerto Rico and Hawaii on independence; and paying major reparations to the indigenous peoples of the United States and the descendants of former slaves.

Such a focus on one’s own country’s sins is not only the right thing to do but has greater prospects for success and also avoids the risks attendant in advocating the forced break-up of other nations, such as the Russian Federation – something the Helsinki Commission is at least implicitly calling for in its demand for the “decolonization” of Russia.

https://orinocotribune.com/worlds-large ... -palpable/

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FIGHTING WORDS – WHAT THE POLES SAY WHEN THEY DARE DO NOTHING

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By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with

The Poles have always had a serious problem with their neighbours.

They have the Germans on their western flank, the Russians on their eastern flank, and inside their borders there used to be the Jews, but now there are the Ukrainians. In September 1939 there were about 3.3 million Polish Jews. Since February 24 of this year, the Ukrainians in Poland have come to the same number.

The war which the Polish government and military have been fighting against Russia is proving to be almost worthless politically to Law and Justice (PiS), the ruling party in Warsaw; and also to the Civic Platform (PO) and its allies, the principal opposition coalition (KO). The PiS was 15 percentage points ahead of the KO in the voter polls a year ago, 35% to 20%; the margin between them now is 11 points, 38% to 27%. The gains for each are close to the margin for statistical error.

Economically, the war is costing much more in public outlays for the refugees than the value of US and NATO arms flows and related war income. By the time Warsaw pays for its new US weapons, it will owe more than when the war started; and there is still no relief from the European Union funding freeze and penalties.

What’s to be done, the Poles ask themselves – and who’s to blame when they realise the answer is something between not much and nothing.

The principal American in Poland Ambassador Marek (Mark) Brzezinski (lead image, right), has recently called for regime change in Warsaw. He said it this way: “I look at the way we cooperate with the Polish government in a completely different way. We have been consistent in our commitment to security, democracy, values, the economy and people-to-people contacts. One is not subordinate to the other. And we can do several things at the same time. There is no doubt that we unequivocally support Poland in terms of security. There is also no doubt that our approach to the issue of Polish democracy is the same…The priority issues that we see in Poland are equal for us in terms of value. We have worked together as friends in each of these areas: security, democracy, the rule of law, the economy, people-to-people contacts. We are grateful to President Andrzej Duda for some of the actions taken. As President Biden said in Poland, each of us has a job to do. In the Biden administration, we are also working on our democracy and the rule of law. ”

What the Polish audience understands Brzezinski is saying is that “democracy and the rule of law” mean the replacement of the PiS and its leader, Jarosław Kaczynski (lead image, left). By Polish “democracy” Brzezinski doesn’t mean Lewica, the coalition of Poland’s left parties, which are currently drawing 10% in the polls. The US, according to Brzezinski, is as ungrateful to President Duda for most of what he and the PiS are doing as the US is grateful for “some”. As for the Polish economy, it is going to pay $14.1 billion for its new F-35 fighter aircraft, Abrams tanks and Patriot missiles without discounts or domestic production offsets. By “people-to-people” contacts, what the US ambassador means is his special relationship with the sworn rival of the PiS in next year’s campaign, Rafał Trzaskowski; he is the Warsaw city major since 2018 and PO presidential candidate in 2020, when Duda narrowly defeated him.

For more on Duda’s trip to Kiev and his speech to the Verkhovna Rada on May 22, read this. For the March 15 meeting which Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and PiS leader Kaczynski say they held in Kiev with Ukrainian officials, along with the Slovenian and Czech prime ministers, click to read the backfile.

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For a summary of the Polish political lineup and the party acronyms, click to read. For the poll tracking and enlargement of the chart, click to view.

Warsaw political analyst Stanislas Balcerac, a political independent, believes the PiS is likely to lose next year’s election. That, he says in a newly published article in Warszawska Gazeta, is because it lacks majority voter support, and will be unable to recover it so long as the eastern Polish regions, where the PiS strength was demonstrated in the presidential election, remain the main source of PiS voter support. Balcerac’s recommendation is that Duda and Morawiecki invoke the emergency powers of the Polish Constitution and postpone the election.

MAIN CITIES OF POLAND


EAST-WEST DIVIDE — HOW THE POLISH REGIONS VOTED IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/

For the eastern vote for PiS, read this. https://www.politico.eu/article/poland- ... zaskowski/

CONCENTRATION OF UKRAINIANS IN THE POLISH CITIES

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Source: “Urban hospitality -- rapid growth, challenges and opportunities”, Report on Refugees from Ukraine in the largest Polish Cities, Centre for Analysis and Research of the Union of Polish Metropolises, April 2022.

Balcerac writes: “Although the war has established itself in our country for good, it has not changed the attitude of the opposition. Instead of supporting the government in strengthening the country’s defenses, they are engaged only in attacking it. Poland is already involved in the war in Ukraine as a logistics platform. It also has a war on its border with Belarus. A front-line country involved in a war should have a state of emergency or martial law on its territory, so that the state can control its territory and fight against diversion and disinformation. According to Article 228 of the constitution of the Republic of Poland, during a state of emergency and within ninety days after its end, the term of office of the Sejm [Polish parliament] may not be shortened, a nationwide referendum may not be held, elections to the Sejm, the Senate, local government bodies and elections of the president of the republic may not be held, and the terms of office of these bodies shall be extended accordingly.”

ARTICLE 228 OF THE POLISH CONSTITUTION

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Source: https://www.sejm.gov.pl/

Balcerac continues: “For comparison with Poland, Lithuania introduced a state of emergency not on the 3-kilometer strip near the border with Belarus, but on the entire territory of the state. What impact does the war have on the behavior of Polish voters? In the latest electoral polls, PiS gets 34.2% of the vote (according to the United Surveys poll for Virtual Poland), 34.5% of the vote (according to IBRIS for Rzeczypospolita), 36% (according to Kantar for TtvN ) and 38% (Estimator poll for DoRzeczy.pl).”

“We don’t see too much of a war bonus here; that’s to say, there is no wall of voters backing he PiS government and the state’s defense policy. ‘We must win this war,’ Jarosław Kaczyński said in mid-June in Gazeta Polska. But if a front-line country like Poland is to win this war, the government must have strong support from its citizens. 34% percent of the vote does not give such support, and this is a worrying sign before the 2023 elections. Part of the media has already begun to carve up the carcass of the bear and speculate about the loss of power by the PiS. ‘With the PiS there is no chance of independent rule. The opposition has a chance if it would be able to form a majority coalition,’ wrote the weekly Wprost on June 22. The problem is, however, that if the PiS were to lose its parliamentary majority in the 2023 elections and seek a coalition, it would have to seek compromises with the PSL [agrarian Polish People’s Party], the Left, or the Confederation [far right]. Except that according to the IBRIS poll, the Confederation would have trouble getting over the 5% electoral threshold. However, in the face of war with Russia and in the current party system in Poland, it must be said that the capacity of the PiS to form a coalition with a majority in parliament is close to zero.”

PARTY STANDINGS IN THE CURRENT SEJM AND POLISH SENATE

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejm

Balcerac: “Poland is being played on from several sides. On the one hand, the Russian invasion of Ukraine causes an increase in the prices of energy raw materials, and the acceleration of inflation is being exploited by the opposition. On the other hand, the European Union bureaucracy manipulated by Berlin is blocking the disbursement of EU funds to Poland; that too is being exploited by the opposition.”

“In addition, our biggest ally, the United States, is playing a double game, dreaming up plans for regime change in Warsaw. This is evident from the activity of US Ambassador Marek Brzezinski, who spends more time praising the opposition than talking to government representatives. Example: a few days before the provocation by [Civic Platform] MP Klaudia Jachira in the Sejm, Ambassador Brzezinski posed for photos with Jachira in his residence, with his arm around her.”

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June 14 – Brzezinski embraces Jachira at his residence. Behind him is the US flag, behind her, the LGBT flag. Jachira’s tweet says: “Soon the day will come when the new Polish government will organize meetings on the occasion of the LGBT+ Pride Month, and at the Sejm, next to the [Polish] white-red and European [flags], the rainbow flag will proudly fly. In the meantime, I thank Mark Brzezinski, the U.S. ambassador, for his hospitality.”

“Everything points to the fact that billions in arms contracts for the USA, which [Defence] Minister [Mariusz] Błaszczak signs in a batch and without offsets, do not arouse American reciprocity in feelings towards the PiS government. Before the ordered military equipment will reach Poland, the country may already be ruled by a completely different team. It is symbolic that while Minister Błaszczak is sweating over the US terms in the arms contracts, the Americans are organizing high-level meetings in Washington for Rafał Trzaskowski; for example, at the end of April he met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

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Trzaskowski in Pelosi’s office at the Capitol, April 27, 2022.

“[Security service spokesman Stanislav] Zharyn and the [Secret Services Minister Mariusz] Kamiński should learn from the recent electoral defeats of the pro-Ukrainian governments in Slovenia and Bulgaria. Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Jansa was accompanied by Jarosław Kaczyński and Mateusz Morawiecki on their famous expedition to Kiev in mid-March. A month later, his party lost the parliamentary elections to the left. In turn, in Bulgaria, after a vote of no confidence in the Bulgarian parliament, the government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov collapsed a few days ago. TVP Info wrote ‘the Gazprom party has overthrown the government of Bulgaria’. According to TVP Info, it is the pro-Russian president of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, ‘supporter of cooperation with Moscow’ may again be the biggest winner of the next phase of the political crisis in the country…After Slovenia and Bulgaria, the next on the Russian list will probably be Poland. And what is most interesting of all — the regime change in Poland will be carried out with the help of the American TvN station established under the supervision of Russian services. And no one even dares to write about the interference of the Kremlin.”

“So far, the PiS government does not seem to be aware of the danger. Spokesman Zharyn minimizes the Russian threat… and the government naively assumes that the 2023 election campaign conducted in the front-line country, where powerful foreign influence agencies operate, will be fair and democratic. We are faced with an impending disaster.”

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Left: Stanislas Balcerac; right, General Mieczysław Gocuł.

Also in Warsaw this week, the Gazeta.pl portal published a lengthy interview, broadcast a lengthy interview with Polish army general Miecyslaw Gocul. He is a tank commander who rose to be chief of the Polish General Staff for two terms between 2013 and 2017. Gocul also served in staff training roles in Canada and in the UK. His only career exposure to hostile fire was in Iraq, under US command in 2003-2004.

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Source: https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/

Here is an English translation of excerpts of Gocul’s interview, published in Warsaw on June 28, as the NATO summit got under way in Madrid.

“I am very concerned that the NATO summit in Madrid is going in the wrong direction. Instead of looking for ways to win peace — because this is the essence of the problem of the eastern flank — the summit is to convince us that we will win the future war if, or rather when, it happens… First of all: NATO at the 2014 summit in Newport, by creating the Readiness Action Plan, increased the Response Force to 40,000 troops, including land, sea, air, space and cyber components. Now, in 2021-22 — because the Russians mobilized their forces for this war in October last year — we have a war. And what happened on NATO’s eastern flank? US troops arrived, but importantly, the NATO Response Force did not arrive. And yet, if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine close to our borders did not cause a reaction by the NATO Response Force, then it is necessary to ask the head of NATO whether the Alliance’s crisis response procedures have been launched at all.”

“If the Pact triggered them, after the initiating phase (conflict detection), it would be necessary to move on to the next phase — strategic assessment by the commander of the combined NATO forces in Europe. Such an assessment should be presented by the commander at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council [NAC – NATO’s most important decision-making body]. After all, this assessment ought to be a simple one. Russia deployed over 150,000 troops and launched an invasion of Ukraine. It was therefore to be expected that the NAC would share the [NATO] commander’s assessment. The next step in NATO’s crisis response should have been to use Response Options Development. But nothing like that happened. We in Poland and the Baltic states understand the threat, but the approach of other NATO states is diametrically different.”

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The North Atlantic Council chamber, Brussels, meeting on March 16, 2022.

“Unfortunately, even those US troops now on the eastern flank have never been placed under NATO command. Thus, the Alliance’s nerve centre or command structure has not been mobilized to coordinate the actions of the NATO Response Force, which also has not been deployed. So what if we have 40,000 men in NATO? What are the Response Forces if they haven’t moved? And have you heard that the famous NATO Spearhead [Very High Readiness Joint Task Force – VJTF] has appeared in Poland or in the Baltic States? Again, no. And yet it was created in 2014, after Russia’s war in the Donbass and the annexation of Crimea. It was supposed to react within 72 hours.”

“Question: Since 40,000 did not move, it’s likely 300,000 won’t move either, since even the Spearhead has not moved with the current state of leadership in the member states and NATO itself?”

“Gocul: Yes. It is not a question of the number of forces announced, but of the lack of a decision to deploy. It is similar with our army – the key is not whether we have 100,000 or 300,000 soldiers, but what capabilities the Polish military has and whether it has the ability to stop a Russian invasion. Let’s forget about the numbers. When humans fought with stone spears, the actual number was decisive. But not now.

You complain, and [NATO Secretary-General] Jens Stoltenberg has announced: “The NATO summit in Madrid will be groundbreaking. With a new strategic concept, we will make a fundamental change in NATO’s deterrence and defense.”

Before the NATO summit in Warsaw [in 2016]), at the Pact’s military committee, I asked Stoltenberg: what will be the guarantees for the eastern flank? He replied with a question: what else does Poland expect? I said straight out: security and prosperity, which is what the rest of us sitting at the table want.”

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Stoltenberg and Duda at the NATO meeting in Warsaw, July 8, 2016.

“Just like then, I hear the same slogans today, such as ‘do more with less’. There are also other fine-sounding calls, but these are only political slogans calculated for a positive public reaction and minimizing costs. They do not really bring about any political and military solutions.

No breakthrough in NATO, even if there is a real risk of a war with Russia?

If Stoltenberg says it will be a turning point, it is probably only so for him. But that’s because it will be the last summit for him as the head of the Pact. The summit will definitely not be a breakthrough, because – first of all – NATO does not want to take a big step forward.

What should happen for a breakthrough to become a reality?

Let’s be honest: if there is to be a breakthrough, we should have 360 degrees of security for the Alliance – on each of its borders. And let’s also honestly answer the question: is the eastern flank safe? are Poland and the Baltic states safe? Well, we are not safe – NATO does not give us security now and the current summit in Madrid will not change this. And yet such slogans – of total security – had already been voiced at the previous summits of the Pact in Brussels, Warsaw, and Newport. They always ended up with security slogans. This time it will also be like that.

Now the tension between Russia and Lithuania is growing, because the sanctions are blocking the Kaliningrad Oblast more and more. Could this be a hotspot?

If Putin wanted to start the war further and decided to cut a corridor through the Baltics to the Kaliningrad District at the Suwałki Gap, what forces could stop him? Could the forces of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland stop Putin? Not at all. Putin will not be stopped by the Americans, who are present on the eastern flank only in small numbers. I repeat, Russia talks and calculates only with strong countries and organizations. And NATO in our region is weak.

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Source: https://www.globalsecurity.org/

NATO is not strong on the eastern flank, but does it have enormous potential which it does not want to transfer to our region?

NATO has military potential, but does not have the political potential to use it to build real security in our part of Europe. European leaders are not equal to the task. I don’t want to criticize individual leaders, but the role of statesmen is to make difficult but necessary decisions.

These leaders do not seem to understand that the war in Ukraine has already caused hundreds of billions of euros in damage, and will still bring trillions of damage to the entire world. It will also bring hunger and the millions of victims of hunger that Russia is blackmailing the world with. If the leaders thought seriously, they would very quickly make decisions about the forward and enhanced presence of NATO on the eastern flank, so that it could carry out specific operational tasks, which we are able to precisely define to ensure security. However, for this to be possible, a NATO division should be stationed in Poland.

After the NATO summit in Warsaw, we formally created an international division in Poland – it should be linked to the chain of command and be subordinate to the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, which is a rapid reaction corps. And this corps should be subordinate to the Allied Command of NATO’s Joint Forces in Brunssum, so that NATO would be responsible for the security of the eastern flank.

And what would result from this?

And the fact that the allied troops arriving on the eastern flank would be tied to the NATO chain of command. Today, after all, the battalion battle groups present in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as a result of the NATO summit in Warsaw are not even commanded by NATO, but by the individual member states. Everything should be tight, but it isn’t.

The Estonian prime minister says: ‘Estonia [in the event of an attack by Russia] would be wiped off the map of Europe and its capital razed to the ground’, so NATO’s strategy follows the principle of ‘lose and then liberate’. And this is what it would be like in the event of the Russian invasion of the Baltic states?

This, unfortunately, is true. But let’s start with the basic thing: what is the definition of security? It is the freedom to choose the path of development of the country. After all, what we have today on the eastern flank – in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia – is a contradiction of security. There is no free development; there are a lot of restrictions; there is a huge pressure to increase defense spending. And if there is no security, it means that NATO is not meeting the goals set out in the Washington Treaty, so NATO is not a strategic concept today…

And in your opinion today is it fiction?

If Stoltenberg is reading correctly the Treaty and the Charter of the United Nations, to which the preamble to the Treaty refers, then he should be aware that NATO was not created to reflect NATO territory. And today it would be forced to do so, because it is not able to defend the territory not only of Estonia, but also of Poland. It must be emphasized that NATO was created to defend NATO territory – to prevent the conflict from escalating and, as a result, from taking over at least part of NATO territory by the enemy.

However, there were already a great many declarations that NATO would defend every scrap of the territory of a member state. In fact, it is impossible?

Today, NATO is actually saying we will not give up any land to Russia. However, this is a fairy tale, and Putin probably scoffs at it. Because what did NATO – apart from the rhetoric and Stoltenberg’s many meetings — do about the war in Ukraine? NATO has a Spearhead – it did not send it. NATO has a Response Force of 40,000 troops — they didn’t move. NATO has a command system – it has not moved. And if NATO wants to increase its Response Force to 300,000 or whatever number someone thinks would be right, that sounds like a joke, because the 300,000 wouldn’t move either.

One should also pay attention to the condition of our army, which would also have trouble moving. The operational units are stripped by the territorial defense forces. We have a shortage of officer cadres, problems with mobilization, and a broken crisis response system. We have announcements of huge purchases of weapons and the propaganda creation of a new division, but I dare to suspect that we are not able to deploy as many highly completed units as we declare for the NATO table of forces.

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Source: https://warsawinstitute.org/

You paint a dramatic picture of the lack of determination and strength of NATO and the Polish army.

…. At the plenary session of the NATO military committee – before the summit in Warsaw – I argued to the Americans: if you want a NATO Response Force in Spain, they will sleep in their shoes and with rifles in their hands, and they will come to Poland too late anyway. I proposed: the forward presence of these troops on the eastern flanks is needed, so that the soldiers sleep in their pajamas, train and relax, but if there is a threat, they will get dressed in one day, have time to eat, get their equipment and go to the front.

It took Putin over a year to collect 150,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine – maybe this is the time to transfer NATO troops from Spain or Italy to the eastern flank?

I will answer without violating the official secrecy. There once was an incident in the Baltic Sea when over 30 Russian ships suddenly appeared on it [Exercise Ocean Shield 2019 — https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/secur ... candinavia . Total surprise. And yet ships at sea are not a tank that can be hidden in the forest. If more than thirty such ships went to sea and NATO knew nothing about it, will NATO be able to react quickly enough when Putin really wants to attack?…

So are NATO guarantees mostly on paper and there’s little response capacity?

If anyone says that by increasing the declared number of soldiers of the NATO Response Force to 300,000 and also that we want to increase the size of our own army to 300,000, we will ensure our own safety, that’s talking nonsense. If someone says that the Polish army will be so strong that it will win a war with Russia, that is also gibberish. In fact, even with these numbers of NATO forces on the eastern flank and of our army, the Russians will demolish the country.

I am very concerned that the NATO summit in Madrid is going in the wrong direction. Instead of looking for ways to win peace, because this is the crux of the eastern flank problem, the summit is to convince us that we will win the future war if, or rather when, it occurs. This rhetoric ended as we see it in Ukraine.

However, it is to increase support for the eastern flank.

But it will only cement the status quo. And the status quo is that NATO has done nothing to prevent a future war between Russia and NATO on the eastern flank.”

http://johnhelmer.net/fighting-words-wh ... more-68836

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Nothing more permanent than temporary
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 07/04/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

Original Article: Anna Ponomareva

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European fears of the complete closure of the Russian gas valve will come true in a few days. Moscow will temporarily stop both supply lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. According to mainline operator Nord Stream AG, gas supply will be stopped from July 11-21 for routine technical inspection. As a result, despite the fact that these are pre-planned tasks that were agreed with all partners and participants in the transport chain, Europeans are sad. And taking into account the traffic blockade to Kaliningrad, imposed by Lithuania with orders from overseas, that maxim that there is nothing more permanent than temporary can be fulfilled.

It is no coincidence that Germany is trying to solve the problem of the blockade of the Russian region of Kaliningrad. According to the German press, Berlin has appealed to Vilnius to reconsider the issue and lift the blockade so as not to further complicate already difficult relations with Moscow. Otherwise, it will be difficult for everyone without exception.

In the context of what is happening due to the reduction of Russian fuel supplies due to the scandal of Siemens gas turbines, which Canada does not return after the planned repairs, for Europe it is a constant nightmare. Slovakia, for example, is hysterical and alert that supplies from Russia have dropped sharply. “The reduction continues. The 10% reduction started about two weeks ago, followed by 30% two days later. Soon after, supplies were reduced by 50%,” complained Richard Prokypczak, CEO of the Slovak state gas company.

Hence, the entire Russian gas supply is being dedicated to consumption and not to replenishing storage capacity in preparation for winter. And all the demands of the European Commission to keep the reserves filled to 80% by the winter of 2022 and 90% for the following winter remain a cheap joke.

Austria also regrets the fact that the country is experiencing a tense situation because of this issue. “Vladimir Putin can no longer be trusted, he is no longer a reliable partner. So we have to do everything possible to prepare for winter in the best possible way”, said Austrian Foreign Minister Leonore Gewessler, who completely forgets that the energy crisis in the European Union was created entirely artificially by the people themselves. Europeans at Washington's behest.

Things are not better in Germany either. Local politicians are willing to pay whatever it takes to fill German reserves. The country is going to introduce additional taxes on the population and companies to deal with the increase in import prices. It doesn't matter if that tax is going to mean increasing the price of blue fuel for everyone. What's more, the prices of everything will increase, including electricity (most power plants require gas supply) and food.

To all this we must add the added panic due to the United Kingdom's desire to leave continental Europe without gas. According to experts, the British could at any time block the two gas pipelines that connect the islands with the mainland. There are two connections: one of the gas pipelines (BBL) from the Dutch city of Balgzand to the British city of Bacton and the second, from Belgium, which supplies gas in both directions in a variable way. That is, in winter, the United Kingdom receives three times more fuel through BBL, while in summer it sends the surplus to the European Union.

However, now that the time has come to give back, London announces that, due to the scarcity of energy resources, they plan to completely stop gas supplies to the European Union. In other words, when it comes to compliance, the British have spit from the top of the bell tower on all agreements and obligations between partners. Now is not the time to be lazy, but to hoard. But, in any case, the EU knows nothing but to blame Moscow for all its problems, which are showing the world with all their obstinacy the fiction of Western solidarity.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/07/04/nada- ... more-24958

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 04, 2022 10:23 pm

Anatomy of a Coup: How CIA Front Laid Foundations for Ukraine War
Kit Klarenberg
Jul 1

Obvious examples of Central Intelligence Agency covert action abroad are difficult to identify today, save for occasional acknowledged calamities, such as the long-running $1 billion effort to overthrow the government of Syria, via funding, training and arming barbarous jihadist groups.

In part, this stems from many of the CIA’s traditional responsibilities and activities being farmed out to “overt” organizations, most significantly the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Founded in November 1983, then-CIA director William Casey was at the heart of NED’s creation. He sought to construct a public mechanism to support opposition groups, activist movements and media outlets overseas that would engage in propaganda and political activism to disrupt, destabilize, and ultimately displace ‘enemy’ regimes. Subterfuge with a human face, to coin a phrase.

Underlining the Endowment’s insidious true nature, in a 1991 Washington Post article boasting of its prowess in overthrowing Communism in Eastern Europe, senior NED official Allen Weinstein acknowledged, “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

It Begins

Fast forward to September 2013, and Carl Gershman, NED chief from its launch until summer 2021, authored an op-ed for The Washington Post, outlining how his organization was hard at work wresting countries in Russia’s near abroad - the constellation of former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact states - away from Moscow’s orbit.

Along the way, he described Ukraine as “the biggest prize” in the region, suggesting Kiev joining Europe would “accelerate the demise” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Six months later, Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in a violent coup.

Writing in Consortium News earlier that month, investigative legend Robert Parry recorded how, over the previous year, NED had funded 65 projects in Ukraine totaling over $20 million. This amounted to what the late journalist dubbed “a shadow political structure of media and activist groups that could be deployed to stir up unrest when the Ukrainian government didn’t act as desired.”

NED’s pivotal role in unseating Yanukovych can be considered beyond dispute, an unambiguous matter of record - yet not only is this never acknowledged in the mainstream press, but Western journalists aggressively rubbish the idea, viciously attacking those few who dare challenge the established orthodoxy of US innocence.

As if to assist in this deceit, NED has removed many entries from its website in the years since the coup, which amply underline its role in Yanukovych’s overthrow.

For example, on February 3rd 2014, less than three weeks before police withdrew from Kiev, effectively handing the city to armed protesters and prompting Yanukovych to flee the country, NED convened an event, Ukraine's lessons learned: from the Orange Revolution to the Euromaidan.

It was led by Ukrainian journalist Sergii Leshchenko, who at the time was finishing up an NED-sponsored Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellowship in Washington DC.

Alongside him was Nadia Diuk, NED’s then-senior adviser for Europe and Eurasia, and graduate of St. Antony’s College Oxford, a renowned recruiting pool for British intelligence founded by former spies. Just before her death in January 2019, she was bestowed the Order of Princess Olga, one of Kiev’s highest honors, a particularly palpable example of the intimate, enduring ties between NED and the Ukrainian government.

While the event’s online listing remains extant today, linked supporting documents - including Powerpoint slides that accompanied Leshchenko’s talk, and a summary of “event highlights” - have been deleted.

What prompted the purge isn’t clear, although it could well be significant that Leshchenko’s talk offered a clear blueprint for guaranteeing the failure of 2004’s Orange Revolution - another NED-orchestrated putsch - wasn’t repeated, and the country remained captured by Western financial, political and ideological interests post-Maidan. It was a roadmap NED subsequently followed to the letter.

Along the way, Leshchenko specifically highlighted the importance of funding NGOs, exploiting the internet and social media as “alternative [sources] of information,” and the danger of “unreformed state television.”

So it was that on March 19th, representatives of the far-right Svoboda party - which has been linked to a false flag massacre of protesters on February 20th, an event that made the downfall of Yanukovych’s government a fait accompli - broke into the office of Oleksandr Panteleymonov, chief of Ukraine’s state broadcaster, and beat him over the head until he signed a resignation letter.

That shocking incident, motivated by the station broadcasting a Kremlin ceremony at which Vladimir Putin signed a bill formalizing Crimea as part of Russia, was one of many livestreamed by protesters that traveled far and wide online.

The brutal defenestration of Ukraine’s state TV chief notwithstanding, much of this livestreamed output served to present foreign audiences with a highly romantic narrative on the demonstrations, and their participants, which bore little or no relation to reality.

The Revolution Will Be Televised

Writing in NED’s quarterly academic publication Journal of Democracy in July that year, Leshchenko discussed in detail the media’s role in the Maidan coup’s success, drawing particular attention to the fundamental role of “online journalist” Mustafa Nayyem.

He kickstarted the protests the previous November, rallying hundreds of his Facebook followers to protest in Kiev’s Independence - now Maidan - Square, after Yanukovych scrapped the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement in favor of a more agreeable deal with Moscow.

Nayyem was no ordinary “online journalist”. In October 2012, he was one of six Ukrainians whisked to Washington DC by Meridian International, a State Department-connected organization that identifies and grooms future overseas leaders, to “observe and experience” that year’s Presidential election.

Funded by the US embassy in Kiev, over 10 days they “[gained] a deeper understanding of the American electoral process,” meeting candidates and election officials, and touring voting facilities. They were also invited to discuss “Ukraine’s progress towards a more fair and transparent election process” with “equally curious” representatives of US government agencies.

With whom the sextet met is unstated, although promotional pictures show Nayyem filming a personal summit with John McCain on his smartphone. The video was posted to his personal YouTube channel - in it, Nayyem asks the noted warhawk for his thoughts on Ukraine, to which he responds, “I’m concerned with the influence of Russia.”

This is striking, for McCain flew to Kiev in December 2013 to give an address to Maidan protesters, flanked by known Neo-Nazi Oleh Tyahnybok. Then-State Department official Victoria Nuland, now Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, was also present, notoriously handing out motivational cookies to attendees.

On February 4th 2014, one day after Leshchenko’s NED presentation, an intercepted recording of a telephone call between Nuland - now Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs - and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt was leaked, in which the pair discussed how Washington was “midwifing” Yanukovych’s ouster, and named several handpicked individuals to head the post-coup government.

Whether Nayyem’s influential US contacts in any way motivated his decision to ignite the Maidan demonstrations in November 2013 isn’t certain. The pivotal part he played in promoting the protests globally is far clearer, for he was a key founder of digital broadcaster Hromadske TV.

In his Journal of Democracy article, Leshchenko records how Hromadske hadn’t even officially launched when it began streaming Maidan demonstrations live, the literal second they erupted at Nayyem’s direction.

While Leshchenko coyly states that Hromadske “drew most of its modest funding from international organizations and the donations of Ukrainian citizens,” it actually received hundreds of thousands of dollars in financing from a variety of questionable sources, including the US Embassy in Ukraine, intelligence front USAID, George Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation, American oligarch Pierre Omidyar, and - of course - NED.

Hromadske’s audience expanded rapidly both within and without Ukraine thereafter, its embedded output eagerly recycled by countless mainstream news outlets, meaning Western viewers were presented with a single, partisan perspective on the unrest - and a highly misleading one at that.

Based on Hromadske’s coverage, overseas onlookers would’ve been entirely forgiven for concluding the protests were wholly energized by concerns over human rights and democracy, and overwhelmingly - if not universally - popular.

In a representative February 2014 essay dismissing as Russian propaganda the demonstrable fact that both the Maidan demonstrators and their leadership were riddled with neo-Nazis, academic and Journal of Democracy contributor Andreas Umland boldly declared that “the movement as a whole…reflects the entire Ukrainian population, young and old.”

Nothing could’ve been further from the truth. An extraordinarily revealing Washington Post op-ed by North American academics Keith Darden and Lucan Way published that same month detonated that narrative, which has endured - and intensified - ever since.

The pair forensically exposed how less than 20 percent of protesters professed to be driven by “violations of democracy or the threat of dictatorship,” only 40 - 45 percent of Ukrainains were in favor of European integration, Yanukovych remained “the most popular political figure in the country,” and no poll conducted to date had ever indicated majority support for the uprising.

In fact, “quite large majorities oppose the takeover of regional governments by the opposition,” and the population remained bitterly divided on the future of Ukraine, Darden and Way wrote. Such hostility stemmed from “anti-Russian rhetoric and the iconography of western Ukrainian nationalism,” rife among the demonstrators, “not [playing] well among the Ukrainian majority.”

Of the 50 percent of Ukraine’s population residing in regions that had “strongly identified with Russia” for over two centuries, “nearly all [were] alienated by anti-Russian rhetoric and symbols.”

“Anti-Russian forms of Ukrainian nationalism expressed on the Maidan are certainly not representative of the general view of Ukrainians. Electoral support for these views and for the political parties who espouse them has always been limited,” Darden and Way concluded. “Their presence and influence in the protest movement far outstrip their role in Ukrainian politics and their support barely extends geographically beyond a few Western provinces.”

‘Pro-Ukrainian Agenda’

Despite - or perhaps because of - such slanted coverage, Hromadske only grew from strength to strength subsequently. Such was its surging popularity, Leshchenko records, even Ukraine’s state broadcaster “struck a deal” to amplify its output, “thus handing this small ‘garage’ webcasting enterprise an audience of millions.” In the process, Ukrainians - and the world - were well-educated in the false narrative of Yanukovych being overthrown via popular will.

Hromadske’s potential to influence perceptions was evidently not lost on other Western governments either. In 2015, the British Foreign Office provided significant funds to develop “radio broadcasting” initiatives in the Russian-majority regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, for a project dubbed “Donbas calling”. The next year, London proferred more sums to the outlet, so it could serve as a local “information provider” to an “audience of up to one million people.”

In 2017, Hromadske again received hundreds of thousands of pounds to expand even further into the breakaway regions. Among other things, Britain supported the installation “of 16 FM transmitters in Ukraine-controlled areas along the contact line and ‘grey zone’ in the east,” meaning the station could reach up to two million citizens potentially possessed of separatist perspectives.

The public profiles of Leshchenko and Nayyem concurrently rose exponentially too. In Ukraine’s October 2014 elections, both were elected to parliament as part of Petro Poroshenko’s bloc, the former becoming a member of its anti-corruption committee, the latter its cross-party group on European integration, leading to glowing profiles in the Western media. All along, NED closely monitored their progress, hailing the pair as emblems of the new, liberated Ukraine that flowered in the wake of Maidan.

Nonetheless, Leshchenko’s personal commitment to democracy was rather undermined in August 2016, when he and Artem Sytnyk, head of Kiev’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, leaked documents - dubbed the “the black ledger” - identifying payments to Donald Trump’s then-campaign manager Paul Manafort from Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, to the US media.

Leshchenko expressed his “hope” that the disclosure would damage Trump’s electoral chances and would be “the last nail in Manafort’s coffin lid,” as “a Trump presidency would change the pro-Ukrainian agenda in American foreign policy.” He was one of several prominent politicians in Kiev “involved to an unprecedented degree in trying to weaken the Trump bandwagon,” as the Atlantic Council, NATO’s propaganda arm, conceded at the time.

Manafort duly resigned, and the RussiaGate racket erupted - a connivance that went some way to ensuring the “pro-Ukrainian agenda in American foreign policy” wasn’t compromised one iota.

Indeed, Trump’s term in office was typified by ever-escalating hostility between Washington and Moscow, the Oval Office resident going to dangerous lengths his predecessor had consistently refrained from to arm and galvanize the most reactionary and violent elements of the Ukrainian armed forces, including the notorious Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, and tear up Cold War arms control treaties, much to Moscow’s chagrin.

In December 2018, a Ukrainian court ruled that Leshchenko and Sytnyk’s release of the “black ledger” was illegal, amounting to “interference in the electoral processes of the US” that “harmed the interests of Ukraine as a state.”

In May the next year, a corruption probe was launched after Leshchenko purchased a $300,000 apartment in central Kiev, a sum far in excess of his apparent means. Two months later, he was voted out of parliament, a candidate of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party taking his seat in a landslide. His friend and collaborator Nayyem simply opted not to stand, in order to seek a government post “connected to the Donbas.”

Despite no longer being part of the legislature, Leshchenko has continued to wield significant sway over the Ukrainian government, directly advising Zelensky on “Russian disinformation” to this day.

What direct influence NED still exerts over him - and Ukraine’s President by extension - isn’t certain. Although, mere days before the Russian invasion began, in an interview with The Guardian, Leshchenko referred to the Minsk Accords - which Zelensky stood on a specific platform of implementing - as “toxic”, suggesting the leader would “betray” his country by adhering to their obligations, which included granting autonomy to Donetsk and Luhansk.

This reflects NED’s position - on February 14th this year, its Journal of Democracy published an article declaring the Accords to be “a bad idea for the West and a serious threat to Ukrainian democracy and stability,” not least because they would mean “tacitly accepting Russia’s false narratives about the Donbas conflict” - namely, that the conflict “was caused by the West-orchestrated ‘coup’ in 2014.”

In other words, an objective analysis of what actually happened and why, in which NED is completely central. Still, the organization didn’t need to rely purely on Leshchenko to keep the Minsk Accords moribund. Its extensive network of assets in the country, and Washington’s dark alliance with Ukraine’s far-right, was more than sufficient to ensure that Zelensky’s overwhelmingly popular mission of restoring relations with Russia would and could never be fulfilled.

‘In Solidarity’

In the hours following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NED hurried to remove any and all trace of its funding for organizations in Ukraine from its website.

A search of the NED grants database today for Ukraine returns “no results,” but a snapshot of the page captured February 25th reveals that since 2014, a total of 334 projects in the country have been awarded a staggering $22.4 million. By NED President Duane Wilson’s reckoning, Kiev is the organization’s fourth-largest funding recipient worldwide.

An archive of NED funding in Ukraine over 2021 - which has now been replaced with a statement “in solidarity” with Kiev - offers extensive detail on the precise projects backed by the CIA front over that pivotal 12-month period.

It points to a preponderant focus on purported Russian misdeeds in eastern Ukraine. One grant, of $58,000, was provided to the NGO Truth Hounds to “monitor, document, and spotlight human rights violations” and “war crimes” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Another, of $48,000, was provided to Ukraine’s War Childhood Museum to “educate the Ukrainian public about the consequences of the war through a series of public events.” Yet another received by charity East-SOS aimed to “raise public awareness” of “Russia’s policies of persecution and colonization in the region, and document illustrative cases,” its findings circulated to the UN Human Rights Council, European Courts of Human Rights, and International Court of Justice.

There was no suggestion this wellspring would be used to document any abuses by Ukrainian government forces. UN research indicates 2018 - 2021, over 80 percent of civilian casualties were recorded on the Donbas side. Meanwhile, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reports show that shelling of civilian areas in the breakaway regions intensified dramatically in the weeks leading up to February 24th, potentially the precursor of a full-blown military offensive.

As such, NED’s expurgation of records exposing its role in fomenting and precipitating the horror now unfolding in southeast Ukraine not only protects de facto CIA agents on the ground. It also reinforces and legitimizes the Biden administration’s sprawling, fraudulent narrative, endlessly and uncritically reiterated in Western media, that Russia’s invasion was entirely unprovoked and groundless.

Ukrainians now live with the mephitic legacy of that reckless, unadmitted meddling in the most brutal manner imaginable. They may well do so for many years to come. Meanwhile, the men and women who orchestrated it rest comfortably in Washington DC, insulated from any scrutiny or consequence whatsoever, every day cooking up fresh schemes to undermine and topple troublesome foreign leaders, hailed as champions of liberty by the mainstream press every step of the way.

https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/an ... front-laid

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Germany’s Union Head Warns of Collapse of Entire Industries
ByAlexander Kell
July 3, 2022, 5:46 AM EDT

Top German industries could face collapse because of cuts in the supplies of Russian natural gas, the country’s top union official warned before crisis talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz starting Monday.

“Because of the gas bottlenecks, entire industries are in danger of permanently collapsing: aluminum, glass, the chemical industry,” said Yasmin Fahimi, the head of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), in an interview with the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. “Such a collapse would have massive consequences for the entire economy and jobs in Germany.”


The energy crisis is already driving inflation to record highs, she said. Fahimi is calling for a price cap on energy for households. The rising costs for Co2 emissions mean further burdens for households and companies, Fahimi added. The crisis could lead to social and labor unrest, she said.

Gas Shock

Potential German GDP losses due to production cutbacks in the case of natural gas rationing*

Note: Calculations based on the 2018 German input-output table produced by the Federal statistics office. * Shocks to non-prioritized industrial sectors and to services depending on the natural gas intensity of their activities.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck said on Saturday that the government is working on ways to address the surging costs both utilities and their customers face, without giving details. Earlier he had warned that the squeeze on Russian gas supplies risks creating deeper turmoil, likening the situation to the role of Lehman Brothers in triggering the financial crisis in 2008.

Russia has reduced shipments through Nord Stream pipeline by 60% and the pipeline is scheduled for a full shutdown this month for maintenance. Germany has raised doubts that Nord Stream will resume supply after that.

(more...)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... industries

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See if you can count all the lies and unsubstantiated claims in this propaganda.

EU to set up a platform for Ukrainian reconstruction — live updates

At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union would set up a platform to coordinate the rebuilding of the country after Russia’s invasion. DW has the latest.


EU to set up platform for Ukrainian reconstruction
Pope Francis wants to go to Moscow and Kyiv
Russia can wage war for a "really long time," says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
The UK will host a conference next year focused on helping Ukraine recover
The article was last updated 15:04 UTC/GMT

UK to introduce new sanctions on Belarus

Britain said it would on Tuesday introduce new economic, trade and transport sanctions on Belarus over the country's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The new package will include import and export bans on goods worth around 60 million pounds (€70 million) including on exports of oil refining goods, advanced technology components and luxury goods, and imports of Belarusian iron and steel.

Britain will also ban more Belarusian companies from issuing debt and securities in London.

Britain has already raised import tariffs on a range of products from Belarus by 35 percentage points and sanctioned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and senior government officials.

Ukraine’s PM says his country needs $750 bln for recovery plan
Ukraine needs $750 billion (€718 billion) for a three-stage recovery plan in the wake of Russia's invasion, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday.

Shmyhal also told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano that there had been over $100 billion (€96 billion) of direct damage to infrastructure from Russia's invasion.

He added that the Ukrainian government believed that a key source of funding for the recovery plan should be assets confiscated from Russian oligarchs.

According to Shmyhal, Ukraine's recovery plan has three phases: A first focused on fixing things that matter for people's daily lives like water supply which is ongoing, a "fast recovery" component that will be launched as soon as fighting ends including temporary housing, hospital and school projects, and one that aims to transform the country over the longer term.

EU to set up platform for Ukrainian reconstruction

The European Union will set up a reconstruction platform to coordinate the rebuilding of Ukraine after its war with Russia, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission said on Monday.

The platform will be used to map investment needs, coordinate action and channel resources, von der Leyen told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Swiss city of Lugano.

"Since the beginning of the war, the European Union has mobilized around €6.2 billion ($6.48 billion) in financial support," von der Leyen said. "And... more will come. We will engage substantially in the mid- and long-term reconstruction."

The platform will bring together countries, institutions, the private sector and civil society. It will also include international organizations like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.

"Through the reconstruction platform, the European Commission can offer its extensive expertise in running programs that combine reform and investments," von der Leyen said.

"In addition, we have been working closely with Ukraine for a long time. And this work will only intensify now that Ukraine has formally become a candidate to join our Union."

Europe has a special responsibility and a strategic interest to be at Ukraine’s side, she added.

"The Kremlin’s goal is the military, political and economic destruction of Ukraine," she said. "They want to undermine Ukraine’s very existence as a state. We cannot and we will not let this happen."

Zelenskyy says Ukraine reconstruction is 'common task' of democratic world
Rebuilding Ukraine is the "common task of the whole democratic world", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, insisting the recovery of his war-torn country would serve world peace.

"Reconstruction of Ukraine is the biggest contribution to the support of global peace," Zelenskyy said, speaking via video link to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, southern Switzerland.

"Russia's war against Ukraine is not only an attempt to seize our land and destroy state institutions, to break our independence. It is a worldview confrontation. The anti-democratic and anti-European system built in Russia is trying to prove that it is supposedly stronger than all of us: Ukraine, Europe, and the democratic world," he said.

Turkey investigates Ukrainian claims about Russian grain ship

Turkey has halted a Russian-flagged cargo ship off its Black Sea coast and is investigating a Ukrainian claim that it was carrying stolen grain, a senior Turkish official said on Monday.

"Upon request, the ship named Zhibek Zholy was halted off Karasu (port)," a senior official said. "The allegations are being investigated thoroughly. It is not written on the grain who it belongs to."

He said Turkey was in contact with Russia, the United Nations and third parties regarding the issue.

Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey said on Sunday the Zhibek Zholy was detained by Turkish customs authorities. Ukraine had previously asked Ankara to detain it, according to an official.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since their invasion began in late February. The Kremlin has previously denied that Russia has stolen any Ukrainian grain.

Ukraine says it has raised its flag again on Snake Island
The Ukrainian flag has been raised again on Snake Island in the Black Sea, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said on Monday.

"The territory (Snake Island) has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine," Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command, told a news conference.

The Russian troops occupied the island in the first days of the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Snake Island is the only noteworthy island in the Black Sea close to Ukraine's southwestern coastline. Controlling it allowed Russia both a launching point for attacks from the sea and the ability to impede maritime traffic entering or leaving Ukraine.

Putin congratulates Russian troops on 'liberating' Ukraine's Luhansk region
President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Russian troops on "liberating" the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, a significant milestone for Moscow in its military campaign in Ukraine.

In a televised meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, Putin said the troops involved in the operation to capture the Luhansk region should rest but that other military units should continue fighting.

"Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans," Putin told Shoygu.

After giving up on its initial aim of capturing the capital, Kyiv, following tough Ukrainian resistance, Russia has focused its efforts on securing full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Pope Francis wants to go to Moscow and Kyiv

Pope Francis is considering a trip to Moscow amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to Reuters, Francis noted that there had been contacts between Vatican Foreign Minister Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about a possible trip to Moscow.

"I would like to go [to Ukraine], and I wanted to go to Moscow first," Francis said, adding that he had exchanged messages with Putin hoping for "a small window to serve the cause of peace."

"And now it is possible, after I come back from Canada, it is possible that I manage to go to Ukraine," he said. "The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals."

Francis is expected to visit Canada on July 24-30.

When the Vatican first asked about a trip several months ago, Francis said Moscow replied that it was not the right time.

Commenting on the interview, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Ukraine renewed its invitation to Pope Francis to visit Ukraine and urged him to continue to pray for the Ukrainian people.

Ukrainian officials expect Russian military to move focus to Donetsk region
Following Russia's weekend capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, its troops are turning their attention to the city of Slovyansk in Donetsk region, the Ukrainian general staff says.

"The Russians are trying to establish control over the villages of Bohorodychne, Dolyna and Mazanivka, in the direction of Slovyansk," the military's general staff said in its daily update.

All three villages are located less than 20 kilometres to the north and northeast of Slovyansk, on the south side of the Siversky Donets River.

Russian troops were attempting to push Ukrainian forces back to a new defensive line between the towns of Siversk, Soledar and Bakhmut, according to the report. These three towns are about 30 to 40 kilometres east of the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk urban area.

Lysychansk was the last major settlement in Luhansk region still under Ukrainian control, allowing the Russian military to turn its eye to Donetsk.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai also said that he expected the city of Slovyansk and the town of Bakhmut in particular to come under attack as Russia tries to take full control of what is known as the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

UK estimates Ukraine grain export to drop by two-thirds
The UK Ministry of Defense says the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to have a devastating impact on Ukraine’s agricultural sector.

It says the war has affected supply chains for seed and fertilizer that Ukrainian farmers need.

The ministry also said the Russian blockade of Odesa was preventing the export of food. It said Ukraine's grain exports in 2022 unlikely to be more than 35% of the total last year.

Meanwhile, after the last remaining major population center in the Luhansk region — Lysychansk — fell under Russian control, the UK ministry said Russia's focus would likely switch to Donetsk. A large portion of that part of Donbas remains under the control of Ukrainian forces.

"The fight for the Donbas has been grinding and attritional and this is highly unlikely to change in the coming weeks," the ministry said.

Ukraine says G20 summit attendance depends on whether Russia goes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his participation in November’s G20 summit in Indonesia depends on whether Russia will attend the gathering.

"Our participation depends on the Russian Federation, whether it will be there," Zelenskyy was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the summit's host, issued an invitation to Zelenskyy during his visit to Kyiv last week.

"I told the Indonesian president that we are grateful for the invitation, but we have a security situation," Zelenskyy said, adding that he doubted many leaders would attend the summit if the Russian president planned to be there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already signaled his intention to attend the G20 summit. But it remains unclear whether he plans to attend the event virtually or in person.

Ukraine recovery meeting to open in Lugano
Leaders from dozens of countries, international organizations and the private sector are meeting in Switzerland to discuss a recovery plan for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the gathering virtually.

The two-day conference had been planned well before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24. It had originally been slated to discuss reforms in Ukraine, but after the war began the focus was shifted to reconstruction.

Rebuilding Ukraine once the war ends is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The effort will require "colossal investments," Zelenskyy said at the weekend.

Kyiv School of Economics has estimated the damage done so far to buildings and infrastructure at nearly $104 billion (€100 billion).

It estimated that at least 45 million square meters of housing, 256 enterprises, 656 medical institutions, and 1,177 educational institutions had been damaged, destroyed or seized, while Ukraine's economy had already suffered losses of up to $600 billion.

Ukraine's ambassador to Switzerland Artem Rybchenko said ahead of the conference that it would help create "the roadmap" to his country's recovery.

Scholz: Russia can wage war for a 'really long time'
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russia's decision to invade Ukraine was made "one year before it started or possibly earlier," adding that he believes Moscow will be "able to continue with the war for a really long time."

During an interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation," Scholz also defended Berlin's delays in delivering weapons to Ukraine.

He said the wait was due to the need to train Ukrainian soldiers in Germany.

"We will always see that Germany is one of the countries that is doing the most, because what we are sending now is the most sophisticated technology you can use," Scholz said.

He also admitted that it had been a mistake by European countries to become so dependent on Russian energy.

"We should have invested all over Europe in infrastructure that gives us the ability to change the supply, from one day to the other," he said. "This is the lesson that has been learned... be prepared for a situation like this."

UK to host Ukraine recovery conference

The UK will host a conference next year focused on helping Ukraine recover from the damage caused by the Russian invasion, the Foreign Office said.

This year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference is taking place in Switzerland from Monday.

The meeting brings together representatives from Ukraine and other nations as well as international organizations and civil society groups.

"We have led on support for Ukraine during the war and will continue to lead in supporting the Ukrainian Government’s Reconstruction and Development Plan," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

The Foreign Office said Britain had been asked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to champion the recovery of Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Recap of Sunday's events.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that his forces have withdrawn from Lysychansk, the last holdout city in the eastern Luhansk region.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin was discussing with allies what security guarantees can be given to Kyiv when the war is over.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke out against urging Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war. Moscow has accused Western nations of preventing peace negotiations, thus dragging out the conflict.

During talks with Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged further military support, including armored vehicles and drones.

Turkish customs authorities detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain that Ukraine says is stolen.

Several people died when Russian troops shelled Slovyansk in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Ukrainian military described as the "biggest" bombardment in recent times.

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-to-set-up-a-pl ... a-62345352

I counted ten but proly missed a couple.

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The new head of the Kherson region
July 4, 17:47

Image

The government of the Kherson region was headed by the first vice-premier of the Kaliningrad region Sergey Eliseev.
After Kiriyenko's recent visits to the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions, the process of strengthening civil administrations, including personnel administration, began to be accelerated at the expense of Russian officials, as had already happened in the DPR and LPR. An important step for future integration with Russia. Since the war will be long, the processes of managing and organizing life in the liberated territories are no less important than purely military tasks. As the organizational and economic isolation of these territories from Ukraine, the administrative and economic orientation towards Russia will increase, this time without the intermediate format of people's republics, but as regions intending to become part of Russia without obtaining the intermediate status of independent states.

How effectively these processes will be organized will become clear in the fall, when it will be necessary to demonstrate readiness for winter, the completion of the harvesting campaign and progress in the distribution of Russian passports. Of course, there are still tasks of CTO, but these are already issues related to the activities of the FSB, the National Guard and the military.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7719561.html

Google Translator

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U.S. Generals Have Been Wrong On Ukraine. We Shouldn’t Be Shocked

ByDaniel DavisPublished2 days ago

Image

Frederick B. Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army-Europe, claimed last month that Ukraine’s forces would soon slow Russia’s advance and, the New York Times reported, begin “to roll back its gains by late summer.” Hodges said his confidence was based on his belief that “the Ukrainian logistical situation getting better each week while the Russian logistical situation will slowly degrade.”


Such claims, however, are in contradiction to observable reality on the battlefield – and continue a disturbing, decades-long trend of poor and misleading advice given by America’s top military officers.

Listening over the past four months to what America’s retired generals and admirals have said on TV, one would be forgiven for believing that Ukraine is winning its war with Russia, that Putin’s troops and leaders are incompetent, and that soon Ukrainian troops will begin rolling the Russians back.

Such belief, however, would be badly misplaced, as substantial evidence indicates virtually the opposite.

A Rosy Look at the Brutal Battle in Ukraine

Rosy, optimistic – and inaccurate – assessments from U.S. flag officers have unfortunately become the norm over the past few decades. While some current and former generals give excellent and accurate assessments, there are far too many that don’t. The consequence to American policy has often been severe. It is time to reassess how much credibility we should place with American generals and admirals.

As I have chronicled on these pages, the conditions and military fundamentals clearly evident for years have strongly suggested that Ukraine could not win a war with Russia, and that both Kyiv and Washington should have made different policy choices based on that reality, both before and since Russia’s illegal invasion. But as graphically detailed below, active and retired flag officers have continually claimed that – ignoring clear evidence to the contrary – Ukraine has a chance to win the war.

Encouraging Ukraine to Keep Up the Fight

Such unwarranted assertions have led policymakers and the American public to believe, improperly, that we should continue encouraging Ukraine to maintain its fight against Russia. American official policy has been to provide Kyiv with substantial armaments to defend itself and overwhelming emotional support.

If the generals were right, if Ukraine were indeed close to winning the war, and if the aid we have offered could tip the scales in Kyiv’s favor, then our policy might make sense. But it doesn’t. Ukraine isn’t winning the war and isn’t even close to parity, much less superiority, to Russian forces.

In my most recent piece at 19FortyFive, I detail many of the practical, military reasons Ukraine is losing the war and is likely to continue losing. In my assessment, if Kyiv continues refusing to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia – something that is understandably repugnant to many Ukrainian citizens and government – they are in danger not merely of sliding into a long-term stalemate, but of outright losing the war.

I do not hesitate to admit that I can’t guarantee an outcome in this war. There are too many variables and information I don’t have, and do not have access to the secret council of either the Russian or Ukrainian general staff, or that of the western NATO leaders. A number of things could change the dynamics and trajectory of the war, which are not publicly known. Of course events that have yet to happen could result in major course changes.


But as I have laid out in detail, the current trends and military fundamentals reveal Ukraine is unquestionably losing this war. For the conditions to change dramatically enough to make an eventual Ukrainian military victory possible, as many generals continue to claim, would require a radical shift from today’s realities. Beyond mere rhetoric, there is no evidence such a radical shift is forthcoming. It is therefore irresponsible, I argue, to tell the American people that the desired outcome is possible when all evidence screams that it’s not – and downright cruel to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and civilian population, to foster a belief that they have a chance.

Should Washington Change Course?

To have the best chance to protect America’s vital national interests and save as many Ukrainian people as possible from being killed, Washington must change course and begin to form policy based on a frank and honest assessment of the combat, economic, and diplomatic realities of this war. It will be hard to get to that rational place, however, unless we first recognize the consistently rosy pictures painted by America’s flag officers over the past few decades have been atrocious.

My 21 years of active service in the U.S. Army, including four combat deployments, has put me in a position to personally observe many of the mistakes and bad judgments of both active and retired generals. The cumulative result of their frequently flawed advice has been uniformly bad for our country, resulting in some of the worst military and foreign policy decisions our country has made.

Whether it was routine claims, made over a 20-year period, of success in the Afghan War when events conclusively proved it was always a disastrous failure, or perpetual claims of success during and after the 2003 Iraq war – before the Iraqi Security Forces the U.S. trained melted away at the first contact with the Islamic State – senior American military leaders have consistently misled the American public on the true state of affairs.


Since virtually the beginning of the Ukraine-Russian war, American active and retired generals have consistently claimed that Russian troops were incompetent, that their troops were ill-disciplined, arrogant, unmotivated, and sometimes rebelled against their leaders and refused to fight. The Russians, many generals claimed, could not win, with Gen. Hodges claiming that Ukraine would begin rolling back Putin’s troops before the end of this summer.

Yet Russia controls more than 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and continues conquering urban center after urban center in the Donbas, killing upwards of 200 troops per day, wounding another 500 in the process.

Russia outguns Ukraine 20-1 in howitzers, 40-1 in artillery shells and Rockets, and has a significant advantage in air power. There is no rational basis upon which to claim that Ukraine can stop the Russians, much less roll them back.


It is appropriate, in light of the awful record active and retired general officers have amassed over the past few decades, that both the media and public should give more scrutiny to future claims made by generals. It is understandable why many would give blanket trust to the word of a senior commander: they typically have 30-plus years of experience and have served at the highest levels. But evidence confirms that this trust has been misplaced and it is up to the generals to earn that trust back. Telling the truth and giving honest assessments would be a good place to start.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/07/u-s ... e-shocked/

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U.S. military analyst calls NATO summit in Madrid 'a gesture of desperation'
03 July 2022 15:07

U.S. military analyst calls NATO summit in Madrid 'a gesture of desperation'

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Global Look Press / Sgt. Armando Elizalde / Keystone Press Agency

Washington, 3 July. The creation of a 300,000-strong rapid reaction group on NATO's eastern flank will not be able to have a significant impact on the balance of power in Europe. This was stated by American military expert Scott Ritter .

In his opinion, the results of the Madrid NATO summit can be called a failure, since in fact no new decisions were made at it. Even the announced deal with Turkey, which would allow Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance, is in limbo. President Erdogan has already announced that the decision on the possibility of joining the North European states to NATO will be made by the Turkish parliament based on the results of the fulfillment by Helsinki and Stockholm of their obligations to the Turkish side. To do this, according to Ritter, the Swedes and Finns will have to "bring Turkey more than 70 heads" of Kurds, many of whom are citizens of these countries, which puts their authorities in a serious dilemma.

Image
Xinhua/Global Look Press

At the same time, Ritter called the announced decision to increase NATO's rapid reaction forces in Eastern Europe stupid, because in the event of hostilities, these forces, which do not have heavy weapons, will simply be destroyed.

“How much artillery will this 300,000-strong group have and how many shells will they have? What has become clear from the Ukrainian conflict - the side with the most artillery - wins.

NATO does not have enough guns and even if they find them, NATO troops will be left without ammunition in 10 days. Then they will die,” the expert believes.


Ritter believes that the Madrid summit was intended to demonstrate the continued relevance of the organization. The idea of ​​the next expansion of the Alliance is also designed for this.

“NATO's logic of action is currently based on desperation. Now we are all focused on Ukraine, but last year the Alliance experienced the worst humiliation in its history. As a result of the flight from Afghanistan, NATO experienced an existential crisis. Many countries thought that the United States could abandon them too, ”the analyst is sure.

Nevertheless, even the announced decisions to return to the realities of the Cold War and confrontation with Russia, as well as the inclusion of China in the list of threats, are unlikely to be able to revive the North Atlantic Alliance, since Europe and the United States are simply not ready for real military deterrence. This is evidenced even by Biden's statement made during his March visit to Poland. Speaking about the "sacred obligations" under the fifth article on collective defense, the US president said that in the event of an attack on any member of the Alliance, other countries should immediately develop countermeasures. Ritter notes that Biden is not talking about an "immediate military response," limiting himself to

Even the conflict in Ukraine plays against NATO, as it causes deep divisions within the organization. The expert notes that Russia, acting with an extremely limited contingent, has already been able to achieve significant success in Ukraine, despite the supply of Western weapons to Kyiv.

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Global Look Press / Cover Images / Keystone Press Agency

“NATO is being destroyed in Ukraine: NATO's reputation is being destroyed there, NATO weapons are being destroyed, NATO's proxy forces are being destroyed, NATO is being destroyed as a reliable ally. These are today's NATO realities,” Ritter points out.

In this light, he calls Lithuanian attempts to blockade Kaliningrad insane, emphasizing that, if necessary, Russia will wipe the Baltic state off the face of the earth. At the same time, he doubts that NATO allies will want to come to the aid of Vilnius.

https://riafan.ru/23517712-amerikanskii ... tchayaniya

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

Сolonelcassad
❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of July 4, 2022

▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine again tried to strike at the territory of the Kursk region using UAVs. As a result of the raid, one person was slightly injured in the village of Popovka , and air defense worked over the region.

In Taganrog , as a result of a pilot error, a Russian Forpost drone fell on a residential building. There was a fire, there were no casualties as a result of the incident.

▪️The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation struck at the objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the border settlements of the Sumy region : in the village of Chervonoe, the place of deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was hit.

▪️In the northern part of the Kharkiv region , the offensive of the RF Armed Forces continues: there are battles near Pitomnik . In addition, Russian troops inflicted fire damage on enemy targets in the Shevchenkovsky district of Kharkov , Tsirkuny and Petrovka.

▪️In the Donbass , the parties are regrouping in anticipation of a further offensive by the RF Armed Forces to the west.
➖Allied forces are mopping up Lisichansk and its environs. Separate centers of resistance of the remaining Ukrainian units are found in the southern districts of the city.
➖The offensive continues in the direction of Grigorovka and Serebryanka on the right bank of the Seversky Donets. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, in turn, are drawing up reserves from Seversk to Bakhmut and Soledar.
➖The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are preparing for the capture of Verkhnekamensky , Disputed and Berestovoye for the final liberation of the territory of the Luhansk People's Republic.
➖In the Bakhmut (Artemovsky) direction, after the capture of Klinovoye, the allied forces entrenched themselves on the Bakhmut-Novoluganskoye highway . In Kodem and Zaitsevo , Ukrainian troops continue to strengthen their positions.
➖Despite the large-scale artillery preparation, the RF Armed Forces did not begin to storm the territory of the Uglegorsk TPP .
➖In the Slavic direction , the retreat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Mazanovka was confirmed.
➖Throughout the day, Ukrainian formations were actively shelling Donetsk and Yasinovataya . As a result of attacks on the railway station of the capital of the DPR and the surrounding cities, at least 3 civilians were killed, about 30 were injured. At night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at the Snezhnyanskkhimmash plant in Snezhnoye , where, presumably, an ammunition depot was located.

▪️On the territory of the Zaporozhye region , the RF Armed Forces attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the vicinity of Gulyaipol and Orekhov.

▪️Positional battles continue in the Krivoy Rog direction . In the area of ​​​​Novovorontsovka , Russian artillery destroyed the ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Image

***

Сolonelcassad
🇺🇦💀 Contracts, salaries, tribunal for desertion: recruiter of foreign mercenaries about serving in the "International Legion" and "Carpathian Sich

"

It is led by a certain Morgan , presumably a citizen of Spain. According to him, he has been recruiting foreign mercenaries since the beginning of March and for all the time he personally brought 40 people to the legion . Morgan created the recruiting channel we found on June 21, and on July 2 he gathered the first group in Krakow for further transfer to Ukraine.

Morgan also kindly shared the features of service in the "International Legion":

▪️The unit bears the costs of the transfer and accommodation of mercenaries in Krakow and Warsaw.

▪️Due to frequent refusals to fight, the curators of the legion introduced a minimum term of service , prescribed in the contract - 2 months . Mercenaries who leave the legion before the stated deadline are considered war criminals and are subject to a tribunal .

▪️The "International Legion" promises recruits a three-week training course before being transferred to the front.

▪️Salaries in the "International Legion" and "Carpathian Sich" are similar: $ 500 for the duration of training and $ 1300-2600 per month for the period of participation in hostilities.

▪️The "International Legion" is currently recruiting only English-speaking fighters , mercenaries from Latin America without knowledge of English are assigned to the "Carpathian Sich" battalion.

▪️Both units do not guarantee the return of the bodies of dead mercenaries to their homeland or payments to their families.

▪️July 22 in Krakow, Morgan meets the second group of recruited mercenaries.

Through this channel alone, Morgan managed to recruit about 30 people from Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, including active military personnel, veterans of special forces and marines.

***

Forwarded from
INTERNATIONAL FAN
1:07
🇬🇧🇺🇦Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the National Guard of Ukraine withdrew all

equipment from Lisichansk The message was posted on the Telegram channel of the 131st Special Reconnaissance Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“All the equipment is leaving, the Cossacks (armored personnel carriers) are leaving, all the armored cars are leaving. The guys are left without anything ... We, with only machine guns, are fighting with everything that is possible and impossible, ”says the Ukrainian fighter.

The fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine emphasizes that it was the National Guard - which includes battalions of Ukrainian nationalists - that took away all the military equipment when fleeing Lysichansk.

At the same time, according to the information of the author of the Telegram channel of the 131st Orb of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,“there were no tasks to provide fire cover for the retreating forces” - the equipment simply runs and does not try to cover the retreating Ukrainian units. At the same time, some Ukrainian units never received an order to withdraw.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:15 pm

"What Makes Humans Human"
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 07/05/2022

Image

Without excessive political experience, but with a great deal of experience in the field of communication, the Government of Ukraine - in reality the Office of the President, the only political body with real decision-making capacity in the country - continues to manage the situation to try to present each defeat as triumph and each success as irrefutable proof of its future victory in the war against Russia. In this sense, it is necessary to read the public performance of Ukraine in relation to the latest changes on the front. As announced by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian troops left Zmeiny, the island of Serpents, due to the high cost that their defense was assuming. Ukraine announced yesterday that the Ukrainian flag is flying again in those positions, a rare success, since Zmeiny would be strategic only in case Ukraine wanted to take the war to places like Crimea, which since the political conflict turned into war in 2014, has not been the scene of military action. The The victory is even more meager considering that, according to Natalia Gumeniuk, press secretary of the Southern Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the flag was not raised, but was dropped from a helicopter.

It is no coincidence that Ukraine has made this image coincide, more mental than real, a symbolic act that will only gain importance depending on the use that kyiv makes of the island, with the end of the battle for the Lugansk People's Republic. Yesterday, after his meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian and Republican troops for the liberation of the entire territory of the Luhansk People's Republic. Just a few days ago, experts and visionaries such as Anders Åslund - who in this war had already had the misfortune of publishing his article on the inevitability of the Russian defeat in the Battle of Donbass with the advance of Popasnaya, which made possible the subsequent progress towards Svetlodarsk and towards Severodonetsk - predicted that, in a more advantageous position for defense, The Ukraine would not miss or lose anything in Lisichansk, more important and more fortified. Lisichansk is also protected by the Severski Donets, the river that Russian troops have had so much difficulty crossing.

However, even before the announcement of the withdrawal from Severodonetsk, the few journalists on the ground on the Ukrainian side had noted a partial withdrawal, not towards Lisichansk but towards the second line. This is not a staggered withdrawal, but a change of strategy at the front. Hence, it was foreseeable that the Ukraine would not fight to the last, as it has done in Severodonetsk, Popasnaya, Rubezhnoe or Mariupol, but rather to protect the retreat, first towards Seversk and perhaps now towards Artyomovsk or even Kramatorsk.

Evident from the images published by the Russian media on Saturday, Ukraine resisted for hours admitting the loss of Lisichansk, the last of the LPR cities still under its control. Russian soldiers placed the Victory flag on one of the monuments that commemorate the fallen in World War II and hours later, soldiers from the army, the National Guard and the RPL were photographed with Russian, Chechen and People's Republic flags with local residents next to the town hall. Ukraine, in the mouth of the media Oleksiy Arestovich, affirmed then that the Russian troops had not reached the center of the city. On Sunday afternoon, when the Command of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Army had already published in its official profile on social networks the withdrawal from the city,

The press, as usual, repeated his words as proof of Ukrainian control over the city, ignoring the images published by Russian journalists on the ground. Minutes later, the confirmation of the Ukrainian military authorities changed the headlines of the western press, which at no time saw the need to explain why Zelensky's empty words are considered evidence while the images of the city are not. Crossing the front from kyiv is impossible and accessing the part controlled by Russian and Republican troops through Russia means, in practice, refusing to return to Ukraine - which would consider such presence as proof of illegal entry into Ukraine, which exposes the press to future deportations - so the presence of Western journalists in theRussian side is practically nil. Without its own journalists on the ground and with contempt for the collective of Russian journalists, openly branded as propagandists or even members of intelligence, the Western press continues to base its information on the other side of the front on the words of Kiev and the reports of think-tanks and allied intelligence.

Hence, using British intelligence reports, part of the press yesterday explained the situation on the front by repeating that the Russian troops are exhausted and their offensive potential is declining. For weeks, British intelligence has published in its daily reports that the morale of the troops is low and their offensive capacity is weak. Along the same lines, the neocon Institute for the Study of War, the most cited of the American think-tanks , has shown itself , which in its daily maps presents as objective information what is published by British intelligence, which can hardly be considered a disinterested party in the conflict.

Although the number of articles by prominent political and media figures questioning the possibility of Ukrainian victory and asking for realism in Ukraine's aspirations in the war is increasing, it is not the Western public but the Ukrainian that needs explanations to understand the contradiction between the victory speech and the constant withdrawals at the front. Zelensky's talent and ease with the cameras make the Ukrainian president's speech credible, but the contradictions with the statements of his advisers and the record of the high number of casualties and destruction in the country make it increasingly difficult to maintain Fiction.

Even so, the Ukrainian discourse continues its marked line, regardless of the situation on the front. The defeat in the battle for Severodonetsk-Lisichansk is not only not such, but it is a “successful military operation”, Oleksiy Arestovich wrote yesterday. Arestovich's reaction is consistent with his point of view so far. Able to allege one day that the war will end in two or three weeks and the next day that it will last ten years, the advisor to the Office of the President also considered the operation successful, which ended with the massive surrender of more than a thousand soldiers from the 36th Brigade of the Ukrainian Army in its attempt to break the siege of Mariupol. Arestovich alleges that the fighting has given Ukraine time to receive weapons from its partners and prepare the second line of defense, but, above all, that it has inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.

The senseless fighting to the point of decimating some of the most combat-ready units and then claiming a strategic withdrawal is cause for celebration for Oleksiy Arestovich, who has seen in it the birth of a new national military school. The Ukraine no longer fights to the last, as the Red Army did and as the Ukrainian Army did in Ilovaisk, but inflicts casualties on the enemy to withdraw in time.

Such a withdrawal would have been strategic and would have been an advantage for Ukraine if it had been carried out when the military authorities proposed it. However, at the behest of the President's Office, the fighting in losing battles like Popasnaya and Severodonetsk has been practically to the end. And despite the insistence of the Ukraine and the Western press on the casualties they assume the Russian advance has cost, nothing indicates that the Ukrainian casualties have been few. The price of the advance thus becomes the price of the withdrawal.

The contradictions do not end there. Ukraine continues to demand more weapons, more heavy artillery, more tanks and more funding from its partners in order to recover the territories lost since February 24 (and perhaps those lost since 2014) by military means. This was confirmed by Mijailo Podoliak, who has also described the Ukrainian strategy of using urban warfare as a form of defense, thus confirming the tactic of using human shields that Russia and the People's Republics have denounced since the battle for Mariupol began. But that strategy and the will to take the war to places that, up to now, have not been affected, is not incompatible with presenting itself as a cause for peace. This is what Volodymyr Zelensky did yesterday in his speech at the conference that seeks to raise funds for aMarshall plan to rebuild the country. Just a few hours earlier, Ukrainian heavy artillery had attacked Torez and Snezhnoe, in the rear of the DPR. And while Zelensky claimed that "rebuilding Ukraine means rebuilding everything that makes humans human", his army inflicted a new artillery attack on residential areas of the city of Donetsk, an attack with no other military objective than to terrorize the already exhausted population. of the DPR capital, attacked daily since May 29.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/07/05/lo-qu ... more-24973

Google Translator

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US mulls plan to train Ukrainian military: US ambassador
Xinhua | Updated: 2022-07-05 09:29

KYIV - The United States is considering the possibility of providing training to the Ukrainian military, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Monday, citing the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

"I can't tell the exact number or the plan, but I can say that I talked about it with officials from the Pentagon," Brink said after her visit to Washington.

The United States is working to provide Kyiv with more aid designed to strengthen Ukraine's positions on the frontline, the ambassador said.

On June 15, the US embassy in Ukraine said on Twitter that the US government had provided 4.6 billion US dollars worth of defense aid for Kyiv amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to the embassy, the United States sent to Ukraine 26,500 Javelin and other anti-armor systems, 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 108 howitzers, and 75,000 sets of body armor and helmets.

On June 23, Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said his country received High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202207/ ... 6a639.html

Russian forces hold key Ukraine city in new setback for Kyiv
China Daily | Updated: 2022-07-05 07:45

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Smoke billows over the oil refinery outside the town of Lysychansk on June 23, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]

SIVERSK, Ukraine-Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared victory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk, one day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from their last remaining bulwark of resistance in the province.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin in a televised meeting on Monday that Russian forces had taken control of Lugansk, which together with the neighboring Donetsk Province makes up Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas.

Shoigu told Putin that "the operation" was completed on Sunday after Russian troops overran the city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Lugansk.

Putin's declaration came as Russian forces tried to press their offensive deeper into eastern Ukraine after the Ukrainian military confirmed that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk on Sunday. Lugansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city to avoid being surrounded.

"There was a risk of Lysychansk encirclement," Gaidai told The Associated Press, adding that Ukrainian troops could have held on for a few more weeks but would have potentially paid too high a price.

In an address late on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Kyiv would fight on and ensure the military had "the most modern weapons".

The latest country to provide aid was Australia, after its Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday pledged further military support, including armored vehicles and drones during a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv.

On Sunday, Moscow accused Kyiv of firing three cluster missiles at the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, which came a day after neighboring Belarus said it had intercepted Ukrainian missiles.

In what would represent an escalation of the conflict, Russia said its anti-aircraft defenses shot down three Tochka-U cluster missiles launched by "Ukrainian nationalists" against Belgorod.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said 11 residential buildings and 39 houses had been damaged.

Russia has previously accused Kyiv of conducting strikes on Russian soil, particularly in the Belgorod region.

'Colossal' work

On Monday, leaders from dozens of countries and organizations were meeting in the Swiss city of Lugano, where they aim to hash out a "Marshall Plan" for Ukraine's reconstruction, which is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The plan is aimed to begin even as conflict continues to rage.

Zelensky, who was expected to take part virtually, warned on Sunday that the work ahead in the areas that have been liberated alone was "really colossal".

Ukraine will also face demands for broad reforms, especially in cracking down on corruption after Brussels recently granted Kyiv candidate status in its push to join the 27-member European Union bloc.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202207/ ... 6a52f.html

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IMPLICATIONS AND WESTERN DESPAIR
NATO EXPANDS ITS "STRATEGIC CONCEPT" TARGETING CHINA AND RUSSIA
Jul 4, 2022 , 8:18 p.m.

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The doors of NATO's global expansion are opening to all corners of the world (Photo: Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

73 years ago NATO was created for "defensive purposes" in the face of the cold (or rather hot, depending on how you look at it) war between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the rise of the American unipolar moment, symbolically and politically inaugurated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the organization began to expand towards Eastern Europe and with it a policy of threatening the Russian Federation with increasingly larger military installations and weapons. close to Moscow.

This was veiled by nominal connotations. The last time NATO published a strategic document was in 2010, in which it described Russia as a "partner" and did not even mention China. Now, with the summit held in the Spanish capital, Madrid, he has nothing to hide.

The Atlanticist organization published a new Strategic Concept that declares Russia as a "direct threat" and China as a "challenge" to "our values ​​and interests." In fact, around the Asian giant it expands the category to "systemic challenge".

Bearing in mind that Moscow and Beijing make up a comprehensive strategic alliance, both "direct threat" and "direct challenge" apply to both emerging powers, budding leaders of multipolarity.

These changes in the Strategic Concept have a declarative importance that was already appearing with Washington's movements in the Asian Pacific and the aforementioned European expansion of NATO, plus the unrestricted support to the Nazified Ukraine since 2014 with weapons, logistics and training.

FROM THE "DIRECT THREAT"

The 30 NATO members would be joined by the formally invited Finland and Sweden, two Nordic European countries that would be putting an end to decades of nominal neutrality, which Russia judges (and not without foundation) as a calculated provocative move against its national security and an attack on attempts to achieve peace negotiations around Ukraine.

The integration of the Finns and Swedes would double NATO's land border with Russia and increase the already burgeoning presence of the nuclear-armed alliance in the Arctic region. This new expansion would once again threaten the proclaimed strategic balance that President Vladimir Putin and the main officials of the Kremlin have been defending in different diplomatic spaces over the last few years and, now, in the military spectrum, with the special operation in the Dombas.

In short, the fact that the block goes ahead with the expansion only denotes a "direct threat" to the efforts to find an agreement of mutual security and maintenance of international peace by Russia and despised by the United States, the European Union and, in short, NATO.

Russia, with its special military operation in Donbas, has also shown that it is no longer afraid to apply military-technical measures to prevent the continuation of the negative expansion of the Atlanticist organization.

We must add to this that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO had already been done laterally through think-tanks , since in addition to all the members of the entity, both Nordic countries, Austria and Switzerland, sponsor the Center for Cooperative Cyber ​​Defense Excellence (CCDCOE), tied to the circuit of foundations and strategic study centers of the Atlantic alliance.

Let us remember that think-tanks such as CCDCOE aim to promote the transformation of NATO, among other things, by developing new concepts and strategic doctrines, and improving the cooperation capabilities of the different armed forces -air, land and sea- and training and develop command staff and specialists.

Said center alleges that the Internet is full of dangers linked mainly to Russia while contributing to turning cyberspace into a field of offensive military operations. At the end of 2017, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that they themselves must also explore the offensive possibilities of digital technology.

We repeat it in another way: Who represents the real "direct threat" of a world in constant deepening of greater waves of conflict?


OF THE "SYSTEMIC CHALLENGE"

The NATO summit held in Madrid also made it clear that the military axis led by the United States is adopting a position of war against China.

The Atlantic organization invited for the first time four Pacific countries that have increasingly echoed US rhetoric against China. The presidents of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea were in Madrid to form a coalition called the "Asia-Pacific Four" (AP4), a NATO appendage to that region.

But this would only be an addition to the two initiatives led by the United States in its eagerness to turn the Pacific Ocean into a combat zone directed against China: it is the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, called in English Quad, and the AUKUS pact, both dominated under military and strategic interests planned from Washington, DC.

Furthermore, Washington is factually abandoning the half-century-old One China policy for the purpose of antagonizing Beijing, beyond the declarative tactics of Joe Biden and his administration officials. In the middle of last June, Senators Bob Menendez and Lindsey Graham, warmongering politicians from the Democratic and Republican Parties respectively, announced the introduction of the bipartisan law called the Taiwan Policy of 2022, with which it is proposed to create

"a new initiative to bolster Taiwan's defense capabilities by providing nearly $4.5 billion in security assistance over the next four years. The bill also bolsters support for Taiwan's democratic government; provides additional support for the Taiwan's participation in international organizations and the multilateral trade architecture; takes concrete steps to counter the PRC's aggressive campaigns of coercion and influence; creates a Taiwan Scholarship Program; and designates Taiwan as a major non-State ally. NATO".b

The aforementioned senators visited Australia, Japan and Taiwan in April, coordinating political efforts to reformulate the US establishment's policy towards China.

We are talking about attempts to further globalize NATO's cadres of hostility towards all corners of the world. It is no longer just about dominating the Atlantic and pivoting it against Russia, integrating even Latin American countries into its system (such as Colombia, a global partner of the organization in question) but also latitudes that are of strategic interest to China.

The provocation towards Russia in the form of the Nazified Ukraine armed by NATO is equivalent to that established towards China with a Taiwan armed by the United States. The Atlanticist fence expands ignoring the land, sea and air borders of Asia-Pacific.

An editorial in Strategic Culture describes NATO's strategy as follows: "Ultimately, it is the United States and its imperial interests that are being served and given direction. This is what the vague and seemingly benign incantation of ' our values ​​and interests. And he concludes: "Clearly, and without resorting to hyperbole at all, it can be said that this week's NATO summit was equivalent to a war planning conference. The axis led by the United States has created a new global cold war ".

But beyond the statements, the "systemic challenge" is being carried out by the West itself with its desire to continue maintaining a unipolar moment that has already signed its death certificate with its own blood. The drowning kicks only double the negative consequences for the system that the United States tries to maintain, even if it is in the form of a corpse.

To the extent that China and Russia are not willing to submit to Washington's imperial mandate, Washington is redoubling efforts to contain them in a multifactorial manner, without much success so far. Beijing and Moscow lead the new multipolar world that is appearing with new financial and commercial architectures from different platforms, whether from the Eurasian axis or from the BRICS, whose countries represent 40% of the world population, 25% of the world economy, 18% of world trade and contribute more than 50% to world economic growth.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/la ... na-y-rusia

Google Translator

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'Western' Media Spread Copium To Prolong The War In Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is clearly progressing in Russia's favor. That is why I am appalled by the incompetent descriptions in 'western' media of past and current operations in that war.

Consider this June 21 map of the Lysichansk cauldron as it was developing. The frontline extended over 125+ kilometers (78 miles).

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Fourteen days later and the map looks like this.

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The frontline has been shortened to 25 kilometer (15 miles). On Sunday the Russia Defense Ministry announced that it troops had 'liberated' 184 square kilometer over the last 24 hours.

When I was in the military my tank battalion was expected to operate on a generally five kilometer (3 miles) wide frontline. That was of course just a rule of thumb depending on the terrain and other circumstances. But we can expect that a Russian Battalion Tactical Group (BTC) has similar abilities of frontline coverage.

Russia needed some 25 BTCs to cover the frontline on June 21. It now needs only 5 BTC to cover the current line. There were and now are of course additional reserve troops and some BTC are rotated out as rested ones come in just as Russia's president has ordered them to do:

Shoigu told Putin that “the operation” was completed Sunday after Russian troops overran the city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Luhansk.
Putin, in turn, said that the military units “that took part in active hostilities and achieved success, victory” in Luhansk “should rest, increase their combat capabilities.”


In a week or two those BTCs which now rest and resupply will be back. They will create a new cauldron around Siversk and maybe Bakhmut, decimate the Ukrainian forces within it to then capture the whole area.

Despite this obvious path to progress for the Russian side the Associate Press headlines:

High cost of Russia gains in Ukraine could limit new advance

The only purported evidence of high Russian costs are the assertions of a 'military analyst in Ukraine' who claims that some Russian units lost half of their soldiers. I have seen nothing that would support such a claim.

The AP writer then adds this:

The limited manpower has forced the Russian commanders to avoid ambitious attempts to encircle large areas in the Donbas, opting for smaller maneuvers and relying on heavy artillery barrages to slowly force the Ukrainians to retreat.

Please. Look at the above maps. What did Russia just do? It had made an ambitious attempt to encircle a large are in Donbas and succeeded with the effort in just a few days. The Ukrainian army threw everything it had available into the cauldron and lost thousands of men while the Russian army avoided direct men against men fighting to minimize its own casualties.

So while the Ukrainians will also benefit from the now shorter frontline they have lost many soldiers and abandoned lots of equipment during the last weeks and will have difficulties to create any reserves.

There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Russian forces are not able to repeat the process over and over.

Copium pieces like the AP's one have the purpose of claiming that the Ukraine can still win the war and deserves wide support to achieve that.

Battlefield reality speaks against that. There is no chance that the Ukraine can gain superiority over the Russian army. No weapon delivery will help.

Yes, the HIMARS artillery system, directed by U.S. intelligence, can hit badly camouflage Russian weapon depots some kilometers behind the frontline as it did on two occasions so far. But Russia has no lack of ammunition and will take countermeasures to better protect it. Functioning armies always adopt to such challenges.

Any prolonging of the war will only lead to more deaths of Ukrainian soldiers, more wounded who will need care and more destruction. The only sane thing that can be done now is to press the Ukrainian president Zelensky to restart negotiations with Russia and admit the defeat of his troops.

Its much better to capitulate now instead of waiting for the Chechen leader Ramsan Kadyrov to come to Kiev and make him do so.

Posted by b on July 5, 2022 at 12:10 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/w ... .html#more

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Europeans Protest NATO Summit as Russia Gains in Donbas
July 4, 2022 fwstaff International News 0

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NATO target of anti-militarism protest in Spain. | Photo: Global Look Press / Michael Kappeler
By David Sole

On June 26 thousands of demonstrators marched through Madrid to say no to militarism, imperialism and the U.S./NATO Ukraine proxy war. They gathered from across Spain, with additional delegations from other European countries and even the Middle East.

The protest was scheduled just days before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held a summit meeting in the Spanish capital set for June 29-30. A second march to coincide with the opening of the NATO summit was banned by the Spanish government. Participants in the anti-militarism event included students, trade unionists and pensioners.

According to the Tehran Times:

“Demonstrators called for NATO to be dissolved and demanded the military bases maintained by Washington in their country’s territory be shut down. Protesters criticized an increase in military spending in Europe which was urged by NATO, saying it poses a threat to regional peace and security.”

One of the march organizers, Javier Martorell was quoted as saying:

“We think NATO is a criminal organization that doesn’t help the working classes…..with them it’s just war and misery. So we don’t want NATO in our country.” Another marcher said : “Twice as much money is being spent on the army and militarism as before, and that money is being taken away from health, education…”

On June 25 thousands demonstrated in Munich, Germany just prior to a meeting of the G7 in a castle in the Alps. The G7 are the major capitalist economic powers, excluding Russia. They are the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The anti-G7 protest focused more on the failure to address climate change and social inequality, rather than militarism and imperialism. Still it was reported that 18,000 German police were mobilized in Munich and at the mountain retreat where the G7 met.

The United States and its NATO allies continue to push their proxy war against Russia even as the military situation for Ukraine deteriorates. The Business Insider reported on June 11 that “the Ukrainian military is experiencing ‘massive losses’ and cases of desertion are growing.”

In May a bill was introduced in the Ukraine parliament giving commanders authority to summarily execute soldiers for desertion. The bill was withdrawn on May 24, but the fact that it was introduced highlighted a growing problem.

Perhaps more alarming, and indicative of a growing hostility to the war inside Ukraine itself is the fact that 9 political parties have been outlawed and had their funds seized by the government for being “pro-Russian.” As early as March these 9 and an additional two parties were suspended by Ukraine’s National Security Council with the more severe action taken a few months later. (RT.com 6/16/22)

Meanwhile the Russian Federation forces allied with ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the Donbas region of Ukraine gained control of the city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk province. The conservative New York Post, part of the Rupert Murdoch right-wing media empire, had to report this advance in Russia’s Special Military Operation, on June 25. Of course the “news report” continued the widespread media slant that Russia cannot continue to gain its objectives and is suffering massive losses. The western capitalist media have almost uniformly given false reports about the war in order to help keep the public from turning against the U.S./NATO proxy war.

https://fighting-words.net/2022/07/04/e ... in-donbas/

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Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Hired as Zelensky's Adviser
Yesterday

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NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen (File) - Sputnik International, 1920, 04.07.2022
© AFP 2022 / JOHN THYS

After his career as NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen launched a political consultancy of his own, among others, becoming an adviser to Ukraine's previous president Petro Poroshenko.

Former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has adopted a new role of top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In his new capacity, he visited the Ukrainian city of Irpen before joining Zelensky himself in Kiev as a member of a group of international experts who will advise the Ukrainian leader on “security guarantees” for his country.
The group Fogh Rasmuseen currently co-chairs, consists of a number of international experts from global politics, foreign policy, diplomacy and academia from across the political spectrum. Other members include former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt.
On Twitter, Fogh Rasmussen said it was an “honor” to meet Zelensky, stressing that his group discussed “what more the democratic world must to support Ukraine”.

“The group's task is to look at how we can give Ukraine sufficient security guarantees in the time until they may in the future become members of NATO”, Anders Fogh Rasmussen told TV2. “Ukraine still has that ambition, but our task is to discuss what we can do here and now to secure Ukraine”, he added.

In a press release in connection with Rasmussen's new mission, the working group said it would examine how Ukraine's partners can help “strengthen and rebuild Ukraine's armed forces” to “avoid future aggression”. At the same time, Anders Fogh Rasmussen emphasised that no commitments from other countries can “replace Ukraine's own, strong defense capabilities”.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen left his post of Danish prime minister in 2009 to become Secretary General of NATO. After leaving his post in 2014 with a questionable legacy that includes the wide-reaching bombing campaign of Libya in 2011 that plunged the country into an ongoing civil war, and has since worked as a political consultant at Rasmussen Global.

This is not the first time Fogh Rasmussen assists a Ukrainian president. In 2016, Fogh was hired by then-President Petro Poroshenko as an adviser.

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Anders Fogh Rasmussen (file) - Sputnik International, 1920, 10.03.2022

Situation in Ukraine

Former NATO Secretary General Cannot Rule Out Bloc Sending Fighter Jets Against Russia
10 March, 05:48 GMT

Over the years, Fogh Rasmussen has made copious anti-Russian statements, among others calling it a “strategic adversary”, and claimed Russia would “invade” the Baltic States and beyond unless it is somehow “stopped” by NATO. Furthermore, Fogh Rasmussen also ventured that the West made a “mistake” in not providing Georgia and Ukraine with a clear path to NATO membership. Regarding the present conflict in Ukraine, Rasmussen suggested that the West “cannot let Russia win”.
On 24 February Russia launched a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine. The announcement of the operation followed Moscow's decision to recognize the independence of the then-self-proclaimed people's republics in Donbass after Kiev intensified its shellings, which caused mass civilian evacuations. The West responded by doubling down on massive arms assistance to Kiev and numerous gestures of support.

https://sputniknews.com/20220704/former ... 27335.html

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RUSSIAN SPECIAL FORCES FOUND NEW EVIDENCE OF OSCE COLLABORATION WITH UKRAINIAN AND NATO SPECIAL SERVICES

Russian Special Forces Found New Evidence Of OSCE Collaboration With Ukrainian And NATO Special Services

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On July 4, the Russian National Guard reported that it found documents of the OSCE which testified to the cooperation of the OSCE international monitoring organization with the Ukrainian special services and the special services of NATO countries.

The documents were found by the Special Forces of the Russian National Guard in the house of Ukrainian General Vyacheskav Savchenko, former head of the regional department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in the city of Kherson.

The fashionable mansion of the Ukrainian general located on Budyonny Street was stormed during a security mission of the Russian Special Forces. The documents were found in one of the rooms. The special forces seized a handwritten diagram with the locations of the units of the Russian Armed Forces in Crimea, as well as in the Russian Rostov, Smolensk, Belgorod and Voronezh regions.

According to representative of the Russian National Guard, the found documents confirm that “the representatives of the foreign mission, located in Kherson, enjoyed the personal patronage of Savchenko”. The OSCE staff visited the general on a regular basis, which was confirmed by the testimony of witnesses from among local residents.

The documents are another evidence of illegal intelligence activities carried out by the OSCE employees in the interests of the Ukrainian special services, as well as the special services of NATO countries. They confirm once again the long and close cooperation of the international organization with the Kiev regime far beyond the official framework.

https://southfront.org/russian-special- ... -services/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 05, 2022 11:12 pm

The Agony of the West
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 5, 2022
Thierry Meyssan

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (front left), US President Joe Biden (center) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (front right) and other leaders of the G7 sit at a session during the first day of the G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau, Germany, on June 26, 2022. Photo: AFP

Sergey Lavrov used to compare the West to a wounded predator. According to him, it should not be provoked because it would be taken by madness and could break everything. It is better to accompany it to the graveyard. The West does not see it that way. Washington and London are leading a crusade against Moscow and Beijing. They roar and are ready for anything. But what can they really do?

The G7 summit in Bavaria and the Nato summit in Madrid were supposed to announce the West’s punishment of the Kremlin for its “special military operation in Ukraine”. But, if the image given was that of Western unity, the reality attests to their disconnection from reality, their loss of audience in the world and ultimately the end of their supremacy.

While the West is convinced that what is at stake is in Ukraine, the world sees it facing the “Thucydides trap” [1]. Will international relations continue to be organized around them or will they become multipolar? Will the peoples who have been subjugated until now break free and gain sovereignty? Will it be possible to think differently than in terms of global domination and to devote themselves to the development of each individual?

The West has devised a narrative of the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine that overlooks their own actions since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They have forgotten their signing of the Charter for European Security (also known as the OSCE Istanbul Declaration) and the way they violated it by making almost all the former members of the Warsaw Pact and some of the new post-Soviet states join one by one. They have forgotten the way they changed the Ukrainian government in 2004 and the coup d’état by which they put Banderist nationalists in power in Kiev in 2014. Having made a clean sweep of the past, they blame Russia for all the ills. They refuse to question their own actions and consider, at the time, they were forced into power. For them, their victories make the Law.

To preserve this imaginary narrative, they have already silenced the Russian media at home.
No matter how much they claim to be “democrats”, it is better to censor dissenting voices before lying.
So they approach the Ukrainian conflict, without contradiction, by convincing themselves that they have the duty to judge alone, to condemn and sanction Russia. By blackmailing small states, they managed to obtain a text from the UN General Assembly that seems to prove them right. They now plan to dismantle Russia as they did in Yugoslavia and tried to do in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen (Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy).

To do this, they began to isolate Russia from world finance and trade. They cut off its access to the SWIFT system and Lloyds, preventing it from buying and selling as well as transferring goods. They thought this would cause its economic collapse. In fact, on June 27, 2022, Russia was unable to pay a debt of $100 million and the rating agency Mody’s declared it in default [2].

But this did not have the desired effect: everyone knows that the reserves of the Russian Central Bank are full of foreign currency and gold. The Kremlin paid the 100 million, but could not transfer it to the West because of Western sanctions. It has placed them in an escrow account where they await their debtors.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin, which is no longer paid by the West, has begun to sell its production, especially its hydrocarbons, to other buyers, particularly China. The exchanges that can no longer be made in dollars are made in other currencies. As a result, the dollars that their customers used to use are flowing back to the United States. This process had already begun several years ago. But Western unilateral sanctions have accelerated it sharply. The huge amount of dollars accumulating in the US is causing a massive price increase. The Federal Reserve is doing everything it can to share it with the eurozone. The price increase is spreading at high speed across the entire Western European continent.

The European Central Bank is not an economic development agency. Its main task is to manage inflation within the Union. it cannot slow down the sudden rise in prices at all, so it tries to use it to reduce its debt. The Member States of the Union are therefore invited to compensate for the drop in purchasing power of their “citizens” by lowering taxes and providing benefits. But this is a never-ending circle: by helping their citizens, they tie their hands and feet to the European Central Bank, they chain themselves a little more to the US debts and become even poorer.

There is no remedy for this inflation. This is the first time that the West has had to mop up the dollars that Washington has recklessly printed for years. The rise in prices in the West corresponds to the cost of imperial spending over the last thirty years. Today and only today is the West paying for its wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen.

Until now, the United States killed anyone who threatened the supremacy of the dollar. It hanged President Saddam Hussein for refusing it and looted the Iraqi Central Bank. They tortured and lynched the leader Muamar el-Gaddafi who was preparing a new pan-African currency and looted the Libyan Central Bank. The gigantic sums amassed by these oil states disappeared without a trace. The only thing we saw was GI’s taking tens of billions of dollars wrapped in large garbage bags. By excluding Russia from dollar trade, Washington itself has brought about what it so feared: the dollar is no longer the international reference currency.

The majority of the rest of the world is not blind. It has understood what is happening and has rushed to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, then tried to register for the virtual Brics summit. They realize -a little late- that Russia launched the “Partnership of Greater Eurasia”, in 2016 and that its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, had solemnly announced it at the UN General Assembly, in September 2018 [3]. During four years, quantities of roads and railroads were built to integrate Russia into the networks of the new “Silk Roads”, land and sea, imagined by China. It was thus possible to shift the flow of goods within a few months.

The fall in the value of the dollar and the shift in the flow of goods are causing an even greater rise in energy prices. Russia, which is one of the world’s leading exporters of hydrocarbons, has seen its revenues increase considerably. Its currency, the ruble, has never been in better shape. In response, the G7 has set a price ceiling for Russian oil and gas. It ordered the “international community” not to pay more.

But Russia is obviously not going to let the West set the prices of its products. Those who do not want to pay market prices will not be able to buy them, and no customer intends to go without to please the West.

The G7 tries to organize, at least intellectually, its supremacy [4].. This no longer works. The wind has changed. The four centuries of Western domination are over.

In desperation, the G7 has committed itself to solving the global food crisis that its policies have caused. The countries concerned know what the G7 commitments mean. They are still waiting for the great African development plan and other smoke and mirrors. They know that the West cannot produce nitrogen fertilizers and that they prevent Russia from selling theirs. The G7 aid is only a band-aid to keep them waiting and not to question the sacred principles of free trade.

The only possible option for the rescue of Western domination is war. Nato must succeed in destroying Russia militarily as Rome once razed Carthage. But it’s too late: the Russian army has much more sophisticated weapons than the West. It has already experimented with them since 2014 in Syria. It can crush its enemies at any time. President Vladimir Putin exposed the staggering progress of its arsenal to his parliamentarians in 2018 [5].

The Nato summit in Madrid was a nice communication operation [6]. But it was only a swan song. The 32 member states proclaimed their unity with the despair of those who fear to die. As if nothing had happened, they first adopted a strategy to dominate the world for the next ten years, naming China’s “growth” as a concern [7]. In doing so, they admitted that their goal is not to ensure their own security, but to dominate the world. They then opened the accession process for Sweden and Finland and considered approaching China with, as a first step, the possible accession of Japan.

The only incident, which was quickly brought under control, was the Turkish pressure that forced Finland and Sweden to condemn the PKK [8]. Unable to resist, the United States dropped its allies, the Kurdish mercenaries in Syria and their leaders abroad.

With this, they decided to increase the NATO Rapid Reaction Force from 40,000 to 300,000 men, 7.5 times, and station it on the Russian border. In doing so, they have once again violated their own signature, that of the Charter for Security in Europe, by directly threatening Russia. Russia has no possibility to defend its huge borders and can only ensure its security by ensuring that no foreign force sets up a military base on its borders (scorched earth strategy). Already, the Pentagon is circulating prospective maps of the dismantling of Russia that it hopes to implement.

The former Russian ambassador to NATO and current director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has responded by publishing on his Telegram account the coordinates of the NATO decision-making centers, including the Madrid summit room [9]. Russia has hypersonic launchers, for the moment impossible to intercept, which can carry a nuclear warhead in a few minutes to the NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Pentagon in Washington. To avoid any misunderstanding, Sergei Lavrov specified, alluding to the Straussians, that the martial decisions of the West were not taken by the military, but by the US State Department. It would be the first target.

So the question is: will the West play for all it’s worth? Will they take the risk of a Third World War, even though it has already been lost, just to avoid dying alone?​

Translation by Roger Lagassé

This article is a follow-up to :
1. “Russia wants to force the US to respect the UN Charter,” January 4, 2022.
2. “Washington pursues RAND plan in Kazakhstan, then Transnistria,” January 11, 2022.
3. “Washington refuses to hear Russia and China,” January 18, 2022.
4. “Washington and London, deafened“, February 1, 2022.
5. “Washington and London try to preserve their domination over Europe“, February 8, 2022.
6. “Two interpretations of the Ukrainian affair”, 16 February 2022.
7. “Washington sounds the alarm, while its allies withdraw”, 22 February 2022.
8. “Russia declares war on the Straussians”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 5 March 2022.
9. “A gang of drug addicts and neo-nazis”, 5 March 2022.
10 “Israel stunned by Ukrainian neo-Nazis”, 8 March 2022.
11. “Ukraine: the great manipulation“, March 22, 2022.
12. “The New World Order being prepared under the pretext of war in Ukraine“, 29 March 2022.
13. “The war propaganda changes its shape”, 5 April 2022.
14. “The alliance of MI6, the CIA and the Banderites“, 12 April 2022.
15. “The end of Western domination“, April 19, 2022.
16. “Ukraine: the Second World War never ended“, April 26, 2022.
17. “Washington hopes to restore its hyper-power through war in Ukraine” May 3, 2022.
18. “Canada and the Banderites“, 10 May 2022.
19. “New war brewing for post-defeat against Russia,” May 24, 2022.
20. “Ukrainian secret military programs“, May 31, 2022.
21. “Ukraine: misunderstandings, misunderstandings and misunderstandings“, 7 June 2022.
22. “Poland and Ukraine“, June 14, 2022,
23. “The ideology of Ukrainian banditry“, 21 June 2022.
24. “The Scuttling of Peace in Europe,” June 28, 2022.

Notes:

[1] Destined For War: Can America and China escape Thucydides’s Trap?, Graham T. Allison, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2017).

[2] « Government of Russia : Missed coupon payment constitutes a default », Moody’s, June 27, 2022.

[3] “Remarks by Sergey Lavrov to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly”, by Sergey Lavrov, Voltaire Network, 28 September 2018. “UNO : birth of the post-Western world”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 2 October 2018.

[4] « Communiqué des chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement du G7 d’Elmau », Réseau Voltaire, 28 juin 2022.

[5] “Vladimir Putin Address to the Russian Federal Assembly” by Vladimir Putin, Voltaire Network, 1 March 2018. “The new Russian nuclear arsenal restores world bipolarity”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 6 March 2018.

[6] “What to remember from the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid”, Voltaire Network, 29 June 2022.

[7] 2022 NATO’s Strategic Concept.

[8] “Turkiye, Sweden, Finland Memorandum”, Voltaire Network, 28 June 2022.

[9] “Russia threatens Western decision-making centers”, Voltaire Network, 29 June 2022.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/07/ ... -the-west/

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Permanent mobilization
July 5, 21:33

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Permanent mobilization

In recent days, the topic of permanent mobilization has intensified in Ukraine, which is associated with the already quite obvious spillover of hostilities to 2023 and the need to compensate for the growing losses in manpower.
Hence the statements that the majority of Ukrainians "will go through the front" (including women), as well as the binding of citizens to the military registration and enlistment offices and the announcement of mobilization through the Diya application follow.

All this is, of course, the implementation of the US and NATO strategy of "war to the last Ukrainians", where Zelensky's gang must ensure the corral of cannon fodder to the front, no longer paying attention to readiness for service and even gender. The front needs meat and it needs to be provided. Obviously, this activates various schemes for evading service and fleeing abroad, which has been observed since the beginning of the NWO. Catching gaping citizens on the street solves the problem only partially, and in conditions where a battalion of reservists can come to a non-combat-ready state after 1-2 weeks of fighting, a lot of such battalions are required.

Ironically, this is happening in a country where for another 3 years the majority voted for Zelensky and the slogan of stopping the war. But Zelensky's gang of the expected tore up the Minsk agreements and headed for war, where they are now driving their voters who wanted peace. Such is the bloody retribution for the choice "if only not Poroshenko." Now, instead of the desired peace, we have to go to rot in the trenches near Izyum or Kharkov. And there is no end in sight, because for the owners of the Zelensky gang, the population of Ukraine is a waste resource in the global struggle for dominance.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7720870.html

How the mayor of Mariupol led the inhabitants of the city to the slaughter
July 5, 21:49

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How the mayor of Mariupol led the inhabitants of the city to the slaughter

Today there was a small, but in our opinion an important event. For the first time, a representative of the authorities in Ukraine, People's Deputy Serhiy Taruta, confirmed:

the evacuation from Mariupol, which was NOT announced by the authorities;
Lack of notification of Mariupol residents about the need for evacuation;
That there was an opportunity to leave the city;
That the lack of evacuation of people is always on the conscience of local authorities;
That the leadership of the city left, but the people did not know about it, and were sure that everything was under control;
That Boychenko's betrayal greatly influenced people's attitude to power.

On our own behalf, we add that Boychenko not only organized NOTHING and fled the city. He also inspired the townspeople through social networks that the city would stand.

We wrote about it here ( https://t.me/ZeRada1/8135), here ( https://t.me/ZeRada1/8386 ) and here ( https://t.me/ZeRada1/9114 ). Finally, there were people's deputies ready to support this topic.

Today's recognition of Boychenko's criminal actions should be the first step towards bringing him to justice. Every mer who abandoned his city and his voters for the sake of "work" in social networks should know that he will have to answer for this!

https://t.me/ZeRada1/9374 - zinc


Boychenko solved the problem of providing a human shield for the group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which planned to defend Mariupol. It is quite obvious that without a human shield, the assault on Mariupol would have gone faster, since the army of the DPR and the RF Armed Forces would have to spend less effort on rescuing civilians who were taken hostage by Ukrainian terrorists. This is a conscious and coordinated step, which was implemented not only in Severodonetsk.

Since Boychenko himself did not plan to become a human shield and knew perfectly well what fate was in store for Mariupol, he almost immediately fled the city to Zaporozhye and from there he deceived the inhabitants, urging them to stay in the city, where street fighting was soon to begin.
Of course, no one in Ukraine will bring Boychenko to justice, because such actions are not his private initiative, but are a continuation of the strategy of state terrorism.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7721145.html

about stolen money
July 5, 22:32

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about stolen money

Regarding Russian assets stolen in the West.

1. Of course, Russia compensates for a significant part of what is stolen in the West by confiscating Western assets in Russia, which is already happening when Western companies are forced to sell their assets in Russia at half price. When transferring blocked assets to Ukraine, we will most likely see a net confiscation

as well . . Hence the warnings of some financiers and Western politicians that these 300 billion could cost the West much more.

3. As noted earlier, even now Ukraine needs 1 trillion. dollars. After 4 months of a war that will not end this year. Accordingly, even all Russian assets stolen in the West will not save the "father of Ukrainian democracy." We can rather talk about the banal embezzlement of money, as happened with the Venezuelan and Libyan assets stolen by the West.

4. Nevertheless, despite all of the above, one should not forget about the stolen. In my opinion, it is necessary to legislate the topic of stolen assets as a "historical" debt of countries that have stolen certain assets, and in the future to use this topic in any contacts with such a country. Not excluding the topic of accruing debt interest on the fact of the inability to use the stolen funds. Now, of course, this will be just a demarche and no one will return anything to Russia now. But history knows many examples when the issues of such historical debts are passed on to the next generations and who knows how the millstones of history will turn further. So, in my opinion, it should be within the framework of the paradigm "Russians always come for their money", and not be limited to lamentations "oh, the West stole our money from us, we have already written it off",

https://cdn.ren.tv/cache/960x540/media/ ... daccc9.jpg

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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forwarded from
Readovka
Map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of July 5

⚔️The situation on the fronts over the past day:

▫️There was no movement of troops on the Kharkov front . Artillery carries out "processing" of enemy positions. Of the significant successes for the day - a Russian fighter shot down a Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force in the Kharkiv region during an air battle;

▫️On the Slavic sector of the front, Russian troops approach Seversk . The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine recognized the loss of the village of Spornoe .
In addition, Russian troops carry out strikes on Zvanovka and Verkhnekamenskoe . The quick capture of Zvanovka will allow the Russian Army to cut off Seversk from the south and go to the rear of the defensive line of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Seversk - Soledar - Bakhmut (Artemovsk). And the liberation of Verkhnekamensky opens the way to Seversk . Read our article for a detailed analysis and forecast on this front .

▫️On the Donetsk front , according to people's deputy Gonarenko, the Armed Forces of Ukraine returned control of the village of Sladkoe near Volnovakha . Russian troops are conducting a stubborn counter-battery fight in the direction of Bakhmut ( Artemovsk ). Also , a Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down in the area of ​​Vuhledar today .

▫️On the southern flank - no change. There is a regrouping of troops, as well as special operations forces are conducting raids to destroy the enemy's nomadic DRGs.

🚀"Arrivals" from the APU. Strong shelling of Donbass cities is going on again. It should be noted that the Ukrainian army attacked the center of Donetsk , a 10-year-old girl died . Kuibyshevsky and Petrovsky districts of Donetsk were also fired upon . In the latter, a civilian was killed. Arrivals were reported in Gorlovka , Stakhanov and Maryinka .

🛡Borderlands . Today Roman Starovoit reported that in the morning the settlements of the Kursk region were under artillery fire. Also this morning, the village of Zernovo in the Bryansk region was under artillery fire. Closer to dinner, it became known that three unknown people with weapons in their hands today tried to break into the territory of military unit 12721 in the city of Klintsy . The attack was repulsed by sentries who opened fire on the attackers.

🎯Calibration. The Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed the location of the 79th separate air assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Nikolaev .

🌎In the world. The Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden signed protocols on joining NATO. Both countries have officially confirmed their willingness and ability to meet the political, legal and military obligations of NATO membership.

👁Interesting. The Armed Forces of Ukraine in Lysichansk used prohibited mines "Petal" (PFM-1). Before retreating, they scattered "petals" in the central districts of the city - local residents neutralized them on their own. Military correspondents of Readovka followed in the footsteps of Ukrainian nationalists - in those areas that were badly damaged by strikes, mines, "petals" and looting.

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forwarded from
🇺🇦Open Ukraine | Open Ukraine
The Daily Telegraph: if Kiev does not turn the tide before autumn, then the West will start curtailing aid The difficulty lies in the fact that in this case the West will curtail its assistance to Ukraine.

Western politicians are not at all romantics who fight for the freedom of other peoples and selflessly defend them. If the project does not bring benefits, it is curtailed, which will happen to Kyiv, because its military and financial support during the further retreat of the Ukrainian army under the pressure of the Russians loses all meaning.

The publication notes that the collective West is already beginning to guess the senselessness of its attempts to help Kyiv, because the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering huge losses, they are running out of easy-to-use Soviet-style weapons, and the Ukrainians mobilized “from the plow” deftly wield only a shovel, so the development of high-tech Western weapons will take them months. And without trained personnel, arms deliveries are useless.

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Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of July 5, 2022

▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at the areas of Kursk and Bryansk regions bordering Ukraine . As a result of the artillery attack, there were no casualties, but there was significant damage to civilian buildings.

▪️Russian forces carried out artillery and rocket strikes on enemy positions in Belopolsky, Yunakovsky, Seredina-Budsky and Shostsky districts of Sumy Oblast . In the city of Shostka , the stationing point of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at one of the local industrial enterprises was hit.

In the Chernihiv region , the Russian Armed Forces inflicted a fire defeat on the concentrations of Ukrainian forces in the settlement. Iron Bridge and Mosses.

▪️In the north of the Kharkiv region , Ukrainian troops are actively preparing for the offensive of the Russian Armed Forces: enemy military personnel are equipping positions and mining the approaches to Petrovka , Zolochev and Odnorobovka .

A missile strike hit one of the locations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the north-east of Kharkov .

▪️In Donbass , the opposing sides continue to prepare for a new round of hostilities.
➖In Lysychansk , the cleansing of the remnants of Ukrainian units in the southern outskirts of the city continues.
➖The RF Armed Forces are advancing on the right bank of the Seversky Donets towards Grigorovka and Serebryanka . Grigorovka is fighting .
➖Allied forces are advancing in the vicinity of the village of Disputed southwest of Lisichansk.
➖As a result of massive artillery and rocket attacks by Ukrainian formations on the territory of the DPR and LPR, at least 3 civilians were killed. A ten-year-old girl died after the attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk .
➖Russian artillery continues to suppress enemy positions in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk .

▪️In the morning hours, the Russian Armed Forces carried out rocket attacks on the Dnepropetrovsk region : several shells were shot down over Sinelnikovo and Dnepropetrovsk. The positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the settlement were struck. Cover in the south of the region.

▪️On the territory of the Zaporozhye region , the parties continue to conduct artillery duels in the area of ​​Gulyaipol and Vasylivka.

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction, the parties regularly carry out artillery attacks on each other's positions along the entire demarcation line. There are episodic battles in the area.

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Denazification UA
Ukraine has acknowledged that military products coming from the West are being sold.

“Even military goods are sold for cash. We have established such facts,” the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine reported.

The wild "African" corruption of the Kiev regime certainly plays into the hands of the Liberation Forces - after all, a significant amount of weapons, ammunition and ammunition simply did not reach the front line.

The same is with the plundering of funds collected by Ukrainians "for the war." For example, an all-Ukrainian fundraiser for the Bayraktar UAV was announced, then it became known about the gratuitous transfer of several drones, but the money had already disappeared without a trace

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Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Nikolaevsko-Krivoy Rog direction
as of 19.00 July 5, 2022

▪️In the Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing to conduct a counteroffensive in certain sectors of the front.

▪️In the area of ​​Kirovo , Blagodatny , Novoegorovka , Novoaleksandrovka and Bereznogovaty , four car columns arrived with military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries deployed from the northern regions of the country.

▪️Construction of engineering structures continues in the vicinity of Kirovo and Mirny . The positions of two ATGM crews are also posted.

▪️Artillery and mortar crews of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired using 155-mm M777 howitzers and 60-mm M224 mortars in areas in Novopetrovka , Petrovsky , Vasilki , Lyubimovka , Kreshchenovka, Chernobaevka .

▪️In turn, the RF Armed Forces attacked the areas of concentration of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kirovo, Chervona Dolina , Bereznogovat, Belaya Krinitsa , Nikolaev , Limanakh , Luparevo , Shevchenkovo , Mirny, Kobzartsy , Partizanskoye , Zarechny , Bashtanka , Shirokiy Lana , Ivanovka , Potemkino , Knyazevka , Dobryanka , Trudolyubovka , Osokorovka , Topolino .

▪️Reconnaissance UAVs, including at least one Bayraktar UAV, operated in the areas of Davydov Brod and Mirny.

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INTERNATIONAL FAN
🇺🇦

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the " propiska " for conscripts in Ukraine This was reported on the official Facebook page of the General Staff (Meta Corporation, which owns Facebook, is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia).

“The norm of the Law of Ukraine “On military duty and military service”, which has been in force since 1992, provides that in wartime it is forbidden to leave the place of residence for conscripts, conscripts and reservists without the permission of the head of the relevant territorial recruitment and social support center,” the General Staff of Ukraine says. .

The statement of the General Staff provoked strong criticism among experts and the general public. Thus, lawyer Rostislav Kravets emphasized that the requirement to obtain permission from the military registration and enlistment office to travel outside the place of residence will lead to the spread of corruption on the ground and bring down the economy due to legal and logical inconsistencies in the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Political expert Yuriy Romanenko called the decree of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "stupid". In his opinion, the only explanation for the initiative is the creation of a "giant feeder" that will bring millions to any employee of the military registration and enlistment office.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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