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 » Tue Aug 30, 2022 11:52 am

the south front
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 08/30/2022

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Yesterday morning, Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency announced the news that the inspection mission of the Zaporozhie nuclear power plant, in the town of Energodar, under Russian control, was "on its way" and was he hopes that he will be able to access the infrastructure throughout this week. Hours later, Russian sources published images of the damage caused by a Ukrainian shell on the roof of one of the buildings. Despite the obvious perforation caused on a building in which fuel is stored, local authorities guaranteed that radiation levels are within normal limits, although Russia continues to denounce Ukrainian bombardments that, since the night before, had intensified. Sunday night, Ukrainian shells hit residential areas of the city causing several fires. According to the Ukrainian newspaperStrana , the head of the President's Office, Andriy Ermak, accused Russia of carrying out the bombing with the aim of discrediting Ukraine. Also in the case of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Ukraine continues to accuse Russia of bombing the territory under its control. Following reports of a new bombing, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose army continues to play with fire around a nuclear power plant, accused Russia of "intimidating Europe" by making the plant "a battlefield."

The bombing of Energodar and the situation around the nuclear power plant were nothing more than a prelude to a larger attack that took place throughout the day. As several media outlets quoted Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the command of the southern troops, Ukraine has begun the long-awaited counteroffensive on the southern front. Coinciding with that statement, the CNN journalistJim Sciutto published the exclusive on said offensive citing two high-ranking officials of the US administration. According to the journalist, Ukraine is currently conducting training operations, which will include both ground operations and the use of aviation in preparation for the major offensive. Sciutto added that, according to the US intelligence assessment, Russia has not managed to deploy as many units as it had planned.

Triumphalism was immediate and, given the first reports of certain Ukrainian advances on one of the fronts - not towards Kherson, a prize that Ukraine hopes to achieve since it is the only Ukrainian regional capital under Russian control, but towards Novaya Kajovka-, Mijailo Podoliak, advisor to the Office of the President, showed his happiness on social networks. Trying to delegitimize the words of Gennady Trujanov, mayor of Odessa, who had appealed in an interview granted to an Italian media for a negotiation, Podoliak wrote on social networks: "The negotiations with Russia are being carried out today according to the only possible format by a delegation special Ukrainian, specifically in the direction of the southern front. The negotiations are going well. We look forward to new commitmentsin the form of goodwill gestures [by Russia].”

Beyond the confidence that Ukraine has always shown in the success of the great offensive, the information on what happened throughout the day in the different areas of the southern front is scarce. Unlike in Donbass, where the routine of war has created a whole series of war correspondents capable of providing information practically in real time, the southern front is less well known and less visited by the press, so it lends itself to all kinds of misinformation.

Although the balance of this first contact is difficult to assess and it will have to be the next few days that determine the trend that occurs on the front, the directions in which the fight will take place have been made clear. Possibly more anticipated attack in the direction of Kherson, it was not in that area where the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to advance several kilometers.

This is how Gray Zone picked it up yesterday :

A brief, albeit belated assessment of the emergence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Nikolaev-Krivoi Rog leadership:

Over the past three days and two nights, the Ukrainian side has chosen to focus on attacking with MLRS HIMARS systems targets of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Kherson region. Reconnaissance units have also worked in the area of ​​the Ingulets River [where the last Ukrainian advance in the region took place several weeks ago, although it never went beyond it- Ed ] , which have crossed the river in boats.

At night, after another attack with HIMARS, the opponent managed to advance in several directions. They used up to three pontoons, which could not be destroyed. The enemy advance was made with the support of a tank force that can be up to a company. The presence of enemy aircraft, at least one helicopter, was observed.

Of the opponent's attacks, three were complete. One of them went in the Andreevka-Lozovoe direction, with which the Ukrainian Armed Forces advanced 6 kilometers and occupied the village of Sukhoi Stavok.

There was also an unsuccessful break-in attempt by the Ukrainian side in the towns of Lyubimobka, Miroliubkovka, Dobrianka, Olgovka, Potemkino and Visokopole. Here the paratroopers and the guys from the Black Sea fleet gave a good answer. But the enemy keeps trying to encircle the Russian forces at Visokopole, though luckily they are unsuccessful. Depending on the tactic that has already been prepared, it is possible to use the territorial defense forces for assault tasks and to shoot down volunteer units.

In general, it is too early to speak more precisely about advances and setbacks. The situation is developing with different levels of success for each of the parties. We can safely say that the enemy does not treat the matter in any way, but with confidence in his capabilities. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have managed to hold on and create a bridgehead on one of the broken sections of the front. The enemy awaits the accumulation of forces. The main troop movement maneuvers are likely to take place after nightfall.

Russia acts defensively. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are expected to hit the road infrastructures of the Kakhovskaya power plant to the maximum.

The next few days will tell whether Ukraine has the necessary forces to launch a large-scale offensive and whether Russia has the necessary troops to efficiently defend the areas under its control, especially the cities of Kherson, Novaya Kakhovka, Energodar and Melitopol, all of them targeted by Ukrainian artillery and also by sabotage groups (possibly linked to the SBU), which continue to use means of controlled terror to kill those who collaborate with the Russian authorities. Yesterday, for example, the former deputy of Volodymyr Zelensky's party Alexey Kovalev and his partner were murdered in his home.

After weeks of increased bombing intensity, and gambling around the Energodar nuclear power plant, Ukraine is now trying to go on the attack in an unavoidable offensive. Rejected in March any possibility of recovering those territories through diplomatic channels, kyiv is now trying to reconquer that lost part that it does have an interest in preserving. Unlike Donbass, destroyed, with an industrial economic base that kyiv does not care about and with a population that it considers disloyal, the south, especially the fertile Kherson region, is indeed a target that Ukraine wants to recover.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/08/30/el-fr ... more-25384

Google Translator

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Ukraine: the never-ending war

Joe Biden’s actions, approving a new allocation of almost 3 billion dollars in arms for Ukraine and Josep Borrell’s initiative for the EU, in addition to providing arms to Kyiv and joining the bandwagon of sanctions against Russia, to train the Ukrainian military involved in a war, show that many have an interest in this war not ending.
Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@...
August 25, 2022 22:08:46 PM
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

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Both the EU and the US have hindered the search for peace in the conflict. Photo: Reuters

No unfounded premonitions: it is difficult to understand, but the world is being led – and quite rapidly – to the outbreak of a nuclear confrontation, perhaps the last, because it involves weaponry that can exterminate the population of the planet.

Let us look at the elements that make us think in this apparently apocalyptic way.

As recently as this August 24, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced a new package of arms shipments to Ukraine in the amount of 2.98 billion dollars. Enough money to feed or cure a few million African children who are dying for lack of food or medicine.

On the same day, the UN Security Council met, at Russia’s request, to discuss the Ukrainian military attacks on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which had already been attacked by Kyiv 17 times in the last few days and, in addition, fires had broken out near the facility.

The war in Ukraine has exposed the fact that the United States is using the Ukrainian population as cannon fodder, in its hegemonic eagerness to subdue Russia and turn all its guns against China.

Moscow warned from the very beginning: “We will not allow Russian citizens or citizens of Russian origin living in the Donbas region to be massacred by constant aggressions”.

And another Russian warning: “We cannot allow the United States and NATO to try to encircle Russia, bringing modern weapons to its border with Ukraine”.

Both reasons could well have been part of a dialogue without the interference of third countries and, of course, without the arrogant presence of NATO as the driving force of the war.

However, what has the European Union (EU) done but hinder the search for peace around the conflict and create an adverse economic and social situation, to the detriment of its own nations?

European governments that support U.S. policy on Ukraine, i.e. arming that nation and sanctioning and destabilizing Russia, should bear in mind that this nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe, with six pressurized water reactors and a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts, and anything that happens there can affect the countries of the old continent. In the worst case, the radioactive components can spread and act against the lives of millions of people.

Sending weapons to Kyiv and imposing sanctions of all kinds on Russia has favored the U.S. military complex.

With the policy of Russophobia pursued by the EU and many countries in that region, the situation of every European household and citizen is affected in an extraordinary way. This August 25, for example, the news could not be worse: the price of gas has risen to a record high of 3,200 dollars per thousand cubic meters.

Add to that, the adversity that Europe is today affected by the worst drought in the last 500 years and is the victim of an unprecedented heat wave, which has already caused more than a thousand deaths.

Nevertheless, the head of EU diplomacy has just proposed “a large training and assistance mission to the Ukrainian army”.

Joe Biden’s actions, approving a new allocation of almost 3 billion dollars in arms for Ukraine and Josep Borrell’s initiative for the EU, in addition to providing arms to Kiev and joining the bandwagon of sanctions against Russia, to train the Ukrainian military involved in a war, show that many have an interest in this war not ending.

Source :
Ucrania: la guerra de nunca acabar

https://groups.io/g/cubanews/topic/9326 ... 0f7bea2971

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On the "counteroffensive on Kherson".
August 29, 3:11 p.m

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Ukrainian sources claim a "counterattack on Kherson" and a strike in the direction of the village of Sukhoi Stavok (near Belogorka) and even the capture of the village of Sukhoi Stavok. So far, there has been an attempt to move from the Andreevka area in the direction of Bruskinskoye, Sukhoi Stavok and Kostromka.
In general, these are all the same attempts by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to implement the plans of mid-August with an attack on Berislav in order to cut off part of the bridgehead of the RF Armed Forces on the right bank of the Dnieper.

Intense artillery shelling of Berislav is also recorded (the workshop of the machine-building plant is on fire), as well as traditional positional battles on the Ingulets River (Kryvyi Rih direction) and in the Potemkino-Vysokopolye region (Nikopol direction - by the way, at night they covered the accumulation of enemy troops in the Novorontsovka area - many 200x). Enemy losses in people and equipment are noted in the Olginka and Vysokopolye regions.

Also, active battles are going on in the area of ​​​​Partizansky and Aleksandrovka, where, after the capture of Blagodatny, the front advanced towards Nikolaev.

In Novaya Kakhovka, the evacuation of residents to bomb shelters was announced due to many hours of shelling of the city from the MLRS. Air defense works in Kherson and in the area of ​​Nova Kakhovka. It is worth noting that one HIMARS rocket did not work properly and fell intact in the region. It has already been taken out for study.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7829564.html

Google Translator

"Counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Kherson". Evening 29.09.2022
August 29, 23:11

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"Counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Kherson". Evening 29.09.2022

In the area of ​​​​Blagodatny, Snigirevka, Vysokopole and Davydov Brod, the enemy failed to achieve significant success, despite the losses incurred. It was not possible to break through to Kiselevka, as well as to provide fire control over the road to Vysokopolye.

In the area of ​​the village of Sukhoi Stavok, the enemy was able to advance from the bridgehead near Andreevka and is now trying to gain a foothold in the village in order to try to cover the positions of the RF Armed Forces near Davydov Brod. They drove the enemy out of the village itself.

The enemy continues to actively strike at Berislav, Novaya Kakhovka, in the Kherson region. At least 1 ammunition depot was destroyed and a barge used to cross the Dnieper was damaged.
The RF Armed Forces are striking in the Krivoy Rog and Nikopol directions.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the enemy lost about 50 units of heavy and light armored vehicles, 2 attack aircraft, more than 560 military personnel killed during today's battles.

Against the background of the shelling of Berislav and the crossing of the Dnieper, the enemy is trying to increase pressure on the river. Ingulets to advance to Berislav. Despite the fact that in most areas the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ended unsuccessfully until the next crisis on Ingulets was resolved, it is too early to say that the offensive completely failed.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin - zinc

Video from the Nikolaev direction:

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/61728

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7830381.html

Entry into a building with nuclear fuel at the ZNPP
August 29, 19:00

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A hole from a 155-mm American howitzer M777 shell in the roof of a special building of the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
This building stores nuclear fuel for the operation of the station. Another trace of an explosion on the roof, the site of the fall of the Polish kamikaze UAV.

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Satellite images from MAXAR.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7829980.html

Google Translator

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Europe's Economic And Social Suicide - Provoked by The U.S. And Helped Along By Europe's Leaders

Due to the stupidity of Europe's political leadership the U.S. has managed to push it towards committing economic and social suicide.

On February 8 Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, wrote about the then upcoming conflict in Ukraine which the U.S. was intentionally provoking.

Michael Hudson: America’s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies

The sanctions that U.S. diplomats are insisting that their allies impose against trade with Russia and China are aimed ostensibly at deterring a military buildup. But such a buildup cannot really be the main Russian and Chinese concern. They have much more to gain by offering mutual economic benefits to the West. So the underlying question is whether Europe will find its advantage in replacing U.S. exports with Russian and Chinese supplies and the associated mutual economic linkages.
What worries American diplomats is that Germany, other NATO nations and countries along the Belt and Road route understand the gains that can be made by opening up peaceful trade and investment. If there is no Russian or Chinese plan to invade or bomb them, what is the need for NATO? And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors?
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Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat. ...
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The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor.


To provoke a war in Ukraine was easy as the movie production team ruling Ukraine was willing to sacrifice its people and country in a unwinnable war against Russia. The Ukrainian actor and president Vladimir Zelensky had already announced that the Ukraine would, by force, take back Crimea and the Donbas republics that were in the hand of a Russia aligned Ukrainian resistance.

On February 15 Professor John Mearsheimer gave a talk (vid) in which he documented how the U.S. had caused, and is responsible for, the whole Ukraine crisis.

Since last year about half of the Ukrainian army was positioned in the county's southeast at the ceasefire line with the Donbas republics. On February 17 it opened preparatory artillery fire against the resistance positions. Over the next days the barrage steadily increased.

The observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), positioned at the frontline, counted and documented each artillery strike and published daily summaries on its website. From 80 artillery impacts on February 16 the attacks increased each day to over 2,000 per day on February 22.

The OSCE observers also provided maps of where the grenades exploded (here of February 21):

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The vast majority of impacts were on three areas east of the ceasefire line on resistance held positions. Anyone with a bit of military knowledge will recognize such intense artillery campaigns along distinct axes as the preparation action for an all out attack.

The leaders of the Donbas republics as well as of Russia had to react to this upcoming attack. On February 19 the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic asked the Russia government for help. Left alone they would have had no chance to resist against the Ukrainian army the U.S. and its allies, since 2015, had financed and built.

Up to this point Russia had insisted that the DPR and LNR were part of Ukraine but should receive some kind of autonomy as provided by the Minsk agreements. But it now had to take steps that would legalize Russian support for the Donbas. On February 21 Russia recognized the republics as independent states. The three parties signed cooperation agreements which included clauses for mutual military support:

Russia’s treaty with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) stipulates granting the right to build military bases on their territory and provide mutual military assistance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told a plenary session of the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.
"An important aspect: the treaty stipulates the intentions by the parties to interact in the field of foreign policy, the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity and security provision, in particular, by way of rendering each other required assistance, including military aid, and granting the right to build, use and improve military infrastructure and military bases on their territory," the high-ranking Russian diplomat pointed out.


With the agreements in place Russian military help against the Ukrainian attack became (at least arguably) legal under Article 51 (collective self-defense) of the UN Charter.

On February 22, no Russia soldier had yet stepped onto Ukrainian ground, the U.S. and its allies imposed extreme economic sanctions against Russia. President Biden acknowledged that the U.S. had long prepared for this.

Over the last few months, we have coordinated closely with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world to prepare that response. We’ve said all along and I’ve told Putin to his face a mon- — a month a- — more than a month ago that we would act together and the moment Russia moved against Ukraine.
Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.

So, today, I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday. These have been closely coordinated with our Allies and partners, and we’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.


On February 24 Russian forces entered the Ukraine to preempt the coming attack on the Donbas republics. (The Russian plan A was to press on Kiev to agree to a fast settlement of the crisis. That failed in early April after Boris Johnson's intervention in Kiev. Russia switched to plan B, the de-militarization of Ukraine.)

The German government announced that the Nord Stream II pipeline, which is technically ready to deliver Russian gas to Germany, would not be launched.

On February 27 the German chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a hysteric and moralizing speech in front of the Germany parliament. It accused Russia of breaking peace in Europe.

The Minsk agreement, under which the Ukraine had committed to federalize and give some autonomy to Donbas, was not mentioned once. Germany and France were both guarantee powers who in 2015 had cosigned the Minsk agreement but had, over seven long years, done little to press for its implementation.

Instead of working for a fast ceasefire and a renewal of economic relations with Russia Scholz committed Germany to economic suicide.

On February 28 Professor Hudson published another deep analysis of the crisis:

America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: The MIC, BARE and OGAM Conquer NATO.

In a forward to the piece Yves Smith summarized:

Michael Hudson expands on his theme on how the conflict in Ukraine is the result of much bigger forces at work, and not necessarily the ones you have top of mind. He argues that preventing European countries, particularly Germany, from developing deeper economic ties with China and Russia is what’s really at stake.
Here, Hudson describes the hold key US interests have on foreign policy and how they see conflict as a way to hold off a possible fall in their status and power.


The Hudson piece is quite long and deep. I recommend to read it in full.

The U.S. idea is to isolate Europe from its Eurasian hinterland, to move Europe's industries to the U.S. and to buy up the rest for cheap.

To take Nord Stream II out and to get European countries to boycott Russian energy the U.S. had promised that it would 'help' by selling its (quite expensive) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe. But when natural gas prices started to rise in Europe free market forces set in and they also started to increase in the United States. High energy prices threatened to damage Biden and to tank the Democrats in the midterm elections.

Then a mysterious accident happened:

An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas has left nearby residents rattled and is taking a substantial amount of the fuel off the market at a time when global demand is soaring.
Freeport LNG will be offline for at least three weeks, the company said Thursday, following a fire in its export facility.
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Most of Freeport LNG's exports were going to Europe, according to Rystad Energy. Europe may be able to offset the lost volume with increases from other facilities, said Emily McClain, vice president at Rystad. Europe gets about 45% of its LNG from the U.S., and the rest comes from Russia, Qatar and other sources, she said.


Three weeks was too short to lower U.S. natural gas prices. The U.S. regulator for such plants, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), stepped in and prolonged the restart process:

The second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas export facility hit by fire earlier this month will not be allowed to repair or restart operations until it addresses risks to public safety, a pipeline regulator said on Thursday.
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U.S. natural gas futures tumbled 15% on Thursday due to the report and on a continued inventory build, contributing to a 33% price drop in June, the biggest monthly drop since 2018.
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"The actual process (of reviews, repairs and approvals) will take longer than three months, and potentially take six to 12 months," said Alex Munton, director of global gas and LNG at consultants Rapidan Energy Group.


There was also some news of sudden 'problems' at other LNG facilities.

It is not only natural gas but also petroleum products that the U.S. is withholding while Europe is in need:

The Biden administration is warning refiners that it may take “emergency measures” to address fuel exports as stockpiles of gasoline and diesel fuel remain near historically low levels in the Northeast.
Fertilizer making plants in Europe have shut down because of way too high natural gas prices. Steel and aluminum smelters are following. Glas production in Europe is severely endangered.

In a long piece today Yves Smith is looking at the economic and political consequences for Europe. In a breach of Betteridge's law</A she headlines:

Will Europe Go Down to Defeat Before Ukraine?

We will be so bold as to posit that not only has the sanctions war against Russia backfired spectacularly, but the damage to the West, most of all Europe, is accelerating rapidly. And this is not the result of Russia taking active measures but the costs of the loss or reduction of key Russian resources compounding over time.
So due to the intensity of the energy shock, the economic timetable is moving faster than the military. Unless Europe engages in a major course correction, and we don’t see how this can happen, the European economic crisis looks set to become devastating before Ukraine is formally defeated.
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As we’ll explain, this shock will be so severe if nothing is done (and as we’ll explain, it’s hard to see anything meaningful enough being done), that the result will be not a recession, but a depression in Europe.
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In theory, the EU could try to make up to Russia. But the time for that has passed. It isn’t just that too many key European players like Ursula von der Leyen and Robert Habeck are too deeply invested in Russia-hatred to retreat. Even if there were blood in the street come December, they wouldn’t be turfed out quickly enough.

It is also that Europe has burned its bridges with Russia beyond just the sanctions. Putin has repeatedly offered the EU the option of using Nord Stream 2. Even with Russia now using half its capacity, it could still fully substitute for former Nord Stream 1 deliveries. Putin did warn that option would not stay open for all that long, that Russia would start using the rest of the volume.
...
So the outcome seems inevitable: many Europeans businesses will fail, leading to job losses, business loan defaults, loss of government revenues, foreclosures. And with governments thinking they’d maybe spent a bit too freely with Covid relief, their emergency energy fillups will be too little to make all that much difference.

At some point, the economic contraction will lead to a financial crisis. If the downdraft is rapid enough, it could be the result as much of (well warranted) loss of confidence as actual losses and defaults to date.

The U.S. has, out of purely egoistic reasons, dragged Europe, and especially Germany, into a trap that will lead to its economic and social destruction. Instead of recognizing the danger, and taking the necessary countermeasure, the European and the German 'leaders' committed themselves to help with the process.

The best thing for Europe and Germany would of course have been to avoid the crisis. That failed because of a lack of insight and effort. But now, as Europe is deep down in a hole, the politicians should at least stop digging. It is in Europe's and especially Germany's obvious interest to keep the crisis as short as possible.


But the lunatics who are ruling over Europe are still doing the opposite:

Germany will keep up its support for Kyiv "for as long as it takes", Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday, calling for an enlargement of the European Union to eventually include Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.
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Germany had undergone a "fundamental change of heart" in recent months on its military support for Ukraine, he said.
"We will keep up this support, reliably and, above all, for as long as it takes," he told the packed university audience.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed the "as long as it takes" promise to Kyiv in a speech in Slovenia, calling for "a new strategic thinking" to uphold European values.


As those 'leaders' seem to see it, affordable energy, warm homes, sufficient food, jobs and pensions of Europe citizens are not part of the 'European values' they intend to uphold.

The economic and financial breakdown of Europe will be much faster than the obviously necessary political change of its third rate leadership.

The only political sector that will not be damaged by all this, at least in France and Germany, is the far right. That in itself is also a danger.

Posted by b on August 29, 2022 at 17:38 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/e ... .html#more

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Freeze or Starve? Sanctioning Russia Leaves Germans a Choice this Winter
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 29, 2022
C.J. ATKINS

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Freeze or starve? Sanctioning Russia leaves Germans a choice this winterFreeze or starve: With energy costs driving up the price of everything, Germans will face a choice this winter. Here, a pedestrian walks through the freezing winter fog in Berlin. | Maurizio Gambarini / dpa via AP

The biggest beneficiary in the whole affair, Pohl argues, has been U.S. imperialism. Its energy companies are breaking into the European market, and the costs of achieving its long-term goal of weakening Russia are being paid for, in part, with West European workers’ earnings and Ukrainian lives. “The winner of this war and sanctions will be the United States.”


BERLIN—“It’s going to be a choice many of us will have to face when winter comes: freeze or starve.” So says Günter Pohl, a glassworker from the the town of Sprockhövel in Germany’s industrial Ruhr region. “The sanctions are supposedly targeting Russia, but they’re hitting us a lot more than they are Russia.”

He was referring to the economic penalties Western governments have imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Though supposedly intended to cripple the Russian economy and pressure Vladimir Putin to bring his troops home, there are signs it’s the working people of Germany and other European countries who are bearing most of the punishment.

Pohl spoke with People’s World in Berlin on the sidelines of the UZ-Pressefest, a mass cultural and political festival hosted annually by Unsere Zeit, a socialist newspaper affiliated with the German Communist Party (DKP). His sentiment is shared by many here—understandable given that paychecks are covering less and less these days.

Inflation clocked in at 7.6% for Germany in summer 2022, a near 40-year high. At the core of the problem? Energy costs, which are up an astounding 38% according to official statistics. Before the war in Ukraine, Germany secured the natural gas that heats its homes and powers much of its industry from Russia. It had been that way for decades, even during the Cold War.

But in the wake of Putin’s invasion, construction on the nearly-finished $9.5 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline—which would have transported more gas from Russia to the German coast by going under the Baltic Sea—was abruptly canceled. Gas flows through the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe have already slowed by more than 60% and will go to zero by the end of August, at least for a while.

That shutdown presents a special problem for Germans. More than half of them—over 40 million people—use natural gas to heat their homes. During the summer, many still hoped the worst of the gas price hike might be avoided. Perhaps Ukraine and Russia would negotiate a ceasefire and the pressure on world energy markets would ease.

But now, fall can already be felt in the air in Berlin, and the prices of everything from food to transport to fuel continue to climb. Many are beginning to worry what will happen when the temperatures really begin to drop.

“We expect prices to double,” Pohl predicts. “And no one will be spared…it’s not just the heating of homes, it’s also the cooking, the hot water for bathing…all of it.” Making the stained glass windows which are his specialty also consumes a lot of energy, so the same problem is repeating in manufacturing and throughout the economy.

Even those Germans who use electric or oil for their homes won’t be able to avoid the rising costs. “A lot of people don’t earn enough money to do it,” he argues. “It’s going to be at least €2,000 more [$2,000 USD] for a family of four this winter. How will they pay?”

Where’s the resistance?

Wera Richter shares Pohl’s skepticism for the cold season ahead. “With prices shooting up, even people who have what are considered ‘decent’ incomes are going to have difficulty paying and surviving.” Richter is the editor-in-chief of Unsere Zeit and covers the latest developments of the war and its economic fallout for Germans in the pages of the newspaper.

She says the DKP and UZ were warning earlier this year of what lay ahead for working-class Germans if a reckless sanctions regime was the West’s response to the war. The continued flow of Russian gas at the tail-end of last winter and the warm weather of summer kept public discontent in check for a time, but when the choice becomes food or heat, will public opinion begin to change?

Richter’s chief concern is that there has so far been “nearly a total lack of resistance” to the ill-conceived structure of the sanctions against Russia. The peace movement is weak, and images of the brutality of the war in Ukraine along with German leaders’ declarations of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky’s government have kept most people on-side with the NATO campaign to back Kiev to the bitter end.

In the eastern part of Germany, the areas which made up the former German Democratic Republic, anti-war feelings are stronger, according to Richter. But the call for a negotiated ceasefire, which the DKP and UZ advocate (vs. an all-out military defeat of Russia which NATO says is the goal), is still a tough sell almost anywhere right now, Richter admits.

Heavily discounted public transport tickets and some small energy subsidies for households bought the government time in the spring and summer. It says the long-term strategy is to totally phase out Russian gas and switch to other sources.

It is the trade union leadership’s inaction on the energy inflation issue that is particularly worrying for Richter, though. “They haven’t organized anything,” she laments. Even if they remain bound to the government’s foreign policy stances, at least they should have something stronger to say about the war’s effect on their own members.

Melina Deymann, who works alongside Richter at UZ as the paper’s international affairs editor, told People’s World that the positions taken by some unions amount to almost a total neglect of duty to their members’ well-being. She cited one large service union whose leader last week told members it’s no time to fight with the government or employers “because the evil Russians are threatening the world, together with the even more evil Chinese standing behind them.”

Deymann says, “Under no circumstances would a Communist tell a worker to leave a union, but that kind of situation brings you pretty close to considering it.”

Sanctions war winners

Eagerly waiting to step into the energy void left by the sanctions, of course, are U.S.-based corporations looking for new customers. Before the scuttling of Nord Stream 2, their share of the European gas market was topped out at around 30%. But Russia’s war changed everything—essentially overnight. Soaring prices made expensive-to-produce gas from the U.S. more competitive on world markets, and European leaders could rely on sentiment for Ukraine among the general public to accelerate the turn away from Russia.

“Now they say we will buy fracked gas from the U.S.—ecologically the worst kind—but there’s not even enough ships and terminals to get it here,” Pohl says. American natural gas largely comes from the environmentally-damaging process of fracking, and getting it across the Atlantic requires liquefaction, huge tanker ships for transport, and specialized loading and offloading facilities.

“Maybe you can assemble a terminal pretty quickly,” Pohl grants, “but the number of ships they will need could take years to build.” So although U.S. gas is on the way, it could be a long time coming.

In the meantime, keeping up the economic charade of anti-Russia sanctions is leading to some pretty absurd tactics.

“The German government says we will not buy Russian gas because they are killing Ukrainians and conducting an illegal war, so instead we’ll buy gas and oil from Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” Pohl explains. But Qatar and Saudi Arabia (which is doing plenty of killing of its own in Yemen) can’t supply enough output to fulfill Europe’s needs. “So where do they get it? Russia! Russian oil and gas goes to places like Saudi Arabia, which then turns around and sells it to Germany.”

In this middle-man mark-up system, Germany still ends up buying the same Russian energy supplies it has sanctioned and forbidden—but at higher prices. “It would be funny if it wasn’t all so tragic,” Pohl muses.

In Russia, the oil is still flowing, but now more of it is heading east to customers like India and China. In fact, Russia is selling more oil than ever, and revenues are through the roof. The whole sanctions regime is boomeranging back on Europe; it’s estimated Germans will be paying over €5 billion [$5 billion USD] more for energy.

“Asia has saved Russian crude production,” said Viktor Katona, an energy analyst at the firm Kpler, told the New York Times last month. “Russia, instead of falling further, is almost close to its pre-pandemic levels.”

The biggest beneficiary in the whole affair, Pohl argues, has been U.S. imperialism. Its energy companies are breaking into the European market, and the costs of achieving its long-term goal of weakening Russia are being paid for, in part, with West European workers’ earnings and Ukrainian lives. “The winner of this war and sanctions will be the United States.”

Sanctions war losers

The whole sanctions regime seems to be a failure. The economic impact on Russia isn’t working out as planned, the war drags on with neither side willing to negotiate, and Germans’ euros are shrinking fast.

As for the climate? It’s another casualty of the war: Fracked U.S. gas is pouring onto the world market, more coal and other dirty fossil fuels will be consumed to make up for the lost energy, and Russia is burning off much of its unsold excess gas.

How long this state of affairs can go on is an open question. Will the labor movement leadership continue to sleep at the wheel while the economy heads for the ditch? Will the public’s willingness to pay for the costs of war hold out when the mercury drops? Will Russia and Ukraine work out some kind of peace?

Another determining factor will be the issue of how long the unity of the German ruling class holds up. Pohl says that it has long been split between two wings, “one Atlanticist, which was essentially pro-U.S.,” and a second one which was “neither pro-U.S. nor pro-Soviet (pro-Russia in the post-Cold War days).” The latter wing believed it was good for business to maintain connections to both sides and not get overly attached to American foreign policy dictates.

Since the invasion though, that “collaboration wing,” as Pohl calls it, has gotten weaker. “As of February, the capitalist class has collectively said, the government will determine where we go—it’s the primacy of politics.” Advocating business ties with Russia has simply become untenable, so the search is on for new partners in other places.

This old split in the ruling class had actually played a role in preserving peace, but with the state having declared it intends to be totally free of economic activity with Russia by 2023, Pohl and the German Communists worry what could come next.

“It’s always been said that countries which trade together don’t go to war, but by 2024 there will be no trade with Russia,” Pohl says. “What then?”

That’s why the DKP and UZ have made peace the central focus of the UZ-Pressefest this year. The German Communists know it’s an uphill fight right now to stop the war—both the war in Ukraine and the war on German workers’ living standards—but they’re giving it all they have to mobilize peace sentiment.

There is little time to spare, however. Winter is coming and it’s coming fast.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... is-winter/

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Game of nuclear chicken in Zaporozhye

The IAEA’s priority is supposedly nuclear safety, but its priority in Ukraine appears to be to fulfil the selfish political demands of Ukraine and its NATO allies

August 29, 2022 by Prabir Purkayastha

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The Zaporozhye (also spelt Zaporizhzhia) Nuclear Power Plant has become a focal point in the Ukraine war, as any major nuclear incident risks radioactivity release over a vast area. In such an accident, not only Ukraine but large parts of Europe could face radioactive contamination and much higher cancer rates and other diseases. Russia has claimed the Ukrainian side shelled the Zaporozhye plant in July and August and, on August 23, submitted photographic and other documentary evidence to the UN Security Council. Ukraine contends Russia has been shelling the plant even though it is under Russia’s occupation.

The Zaporozhye plant in the town of Enerhodar is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with six 1,000 MW capacity units. They are Pressurized Water Reactors of Soviet vintage: the oldest unit was commissioned 37 years and the newest 26 years ago. Before the war, they used to supply 20% of Ukraine’s electricity. And even after Russia captured Zaporozhye in March, they have continued supplying to the Ukrainian grid.

Before we look at the risks of a major nuclear incident on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima, let us take a quick look at the Ukrainian claims regarding the Russian shelling of the plant and the positioning of heavy artillery and other equipment within. It defies logic why the Russians themselves would shell a plant which, by all accounts, is under their control. All the evidence so far supports Russia’s claim that Ukraine shelled the plant and the transmission lines. And if, as Ukraine claims, Russia has positioned heavy military equipment within the plant, it should be a simple matter for Ukraine or its NATO allies to make the evidence public in the age of satellite imagery. That they have not speaks volumes.

Understandably, the Ukrainian side would make such propaganda claims. What is surprising is major news organizations—Reuters, AP, The New York Times, and The Washington Post — have all echoed Kiev’s line that Russia shelled a plant under its control or used it as a shield without even a simple fact or plausibility check. In all such reports, Kiev’s statements are faithfully carried as gospel truth. Big western media appears to be part of the Orwellian Ministry of Truth in the information war over Ukraine.

So what are the risks of a major nuclear incident in the Zaporozhye NPP? The six reactor buildings have robust containment domes and are well protected against artillery shelling and even rocket strikes. It would require bunker busters or equivalent explosives to breach reactor containment. Any accident would lead to a shutdown. However, the risk in a running nuclear plant is that it requires continuous cooling even if it has been shut down. Cooling pumps require auxiliary power. If the reactors are shut down, that auxiliary power normally comes from the grid. In an emergency, diesel generating (DG) sets can provide such auxiliary power, but only as a temporary stopgap measure.

Without cooling pumps, residual radioactivity in the nuclear core will cause continuous heating and rising temperature. If cooling cannot be restored, the core temperature will rise enough to cause a core meltdown and large-scale release of radioactivity. A core meltdown is classified as a Level 7 accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Only Chernobyl and Fukushima have been classified as Level 7 incidents. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant was only 30 minutes away from a Level 7 full core meltdown.

Why is cooling the reactor core in a nuclear plant so important? The core is where heat-releasing controlled atomic fission takes place. This heat creates the steam that drives turbo-generators to produce electricity. The fission—breaking up—of uranium fuel to other highly radioactive materials continues to produce heat even after a reactor is shut down. As some of these materials have short half-lives, a shut reactor slowly cools, but cooling systems must keep running. This process makes auxiliary power for the cooling pumps necessary.

During the earthquake-tsunami that hit Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi plant lost all auxiliary power due to a grid failure. Three reactors overheated, leading to a core meltdown. The consequence was not only the release of radioactivity into the atmosphere but a huge amount of radioactive water, which is known to have discharged into the Pacific Ocean with unknown consequences for marine life. Since marine products enter our food chain, the implications of the Fukushima disaster will continue for a long time.

Though Chernobyl had a much more significant immediate impact, it was a man-made disaster. The reactor was being tested under extreme low power conditions bypassing all protections. It was the hubris of the engineers running the plant, which is unlikely to be repeated. In the Three Mile Island accident, the auxiliary cooling water pumps were manually switched off as the operating staff completely misunderstood the conditions within the reactor core. A new shift of workers diagnosed the actual event, averting what would have been another Level 7 incident narrowly.

Since auxiliary equipment is not within the reactor containment structures, it is vulnerable to shelling and bombing of the facilities. One shelling incident in Zaporozhye damaged the auxiliary equipment, though not the ones that would affect the reactor cooling systems. If the auxiliary power system fails, reactors lose their cooling system, leading to a core meltdown. DG sets can provide backup power for some time but not indefinitely support cooling systems.

The other risk to the plant comes from the cooling water ponds, which store spent fuel rods immersed in water. The spent rods have residual radioactivity and need to be stored in cooling water for an extended period for radioactive decay to occur and carry away the heat. Any shelling that hits the cooling ponds can lead to a significant release of radioactivity.

Why would Ukraine risk such an event, as it would also become a country badly affected by a Fukushima or a Chernobyl level accident? It appears the trigger for this course of action was the possibility that Russia would connect the Zaporozhye plant to the Russian grid and disconnect from the Ukraine one. The shelling of Zaporozhye started at almost the same time as such a possibility was discussed. Escalating the risk to the plant, leading to an international outcry and now an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection, is one way to maintain the status quo and, therefore, the supply of electricity from the plant to Ukraine.

Here is the irony of the Ukraine war. While Ukraine and its NATO allies have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia, Ukraine was getting natural gas supplies from Russia and electricity from the Zaporozhye plant. With Ukraine’s industrial consumption plummeting alongside the loss of 20% of its territory, its electricity consumption has also been reduced. Consequently, it sold about 100 MW of electricity to the European Union (EU). With the price of electricity recently shooting up in the EU, if Russia disconnects Zaporozhye from the Ukraine grid, Ukraine will lose both; electricity and money. Therefore we have the Zelensky regime playing the game of nuclear chicken—who will back off first from a possible disaster—with the Zaporozhye plant.

The problem for Russia is that internationalizing the shelling of the Zaporozhye plant risks the IAEA and the UN playing a role in the plant. UN Secretary-General António Guterres appears more the voice of the West than the head of the UN. Similarly, the IAEA is heavily influenced by the West, as we saw earlier during the Iraq war and its role in Iran. Though Russia has been asking for an IAEA inspection of the Zaporozhye plant for quite some time, IAEA has argued that the inspection has to take place only through Kiev-controlled territory, and the plant and its surrounding area should be demilitarized. If the task of the IAEA is nuclear safety, that should be its priority over what are clearly political demands emanating from Kiev and its NATO allies.

While the politics being played in the UN Security Council and IAEA can be understood in terms of the narrow interests of the players, should not the demand for the safety of a nuclear plant override such considerations? Should not EU countries, who would also be hit by a Chernobyl or a Fukushima level disaster, think about the interest of their people as well? Or is weakening Russia more important than the safety of its people?

The problem in the world today is that every country seems to see foreign policy in terms of its narrow self-interest. We lack the moral compass that the Non-Aligned Movement with leaders like Nehru, Nasser, Nkrumah and Sukarno brought to the world. That is what we badly miss today: a voice of reason to speak up for humanity.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/29/ ... aporozhye/
"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 Aug 30, 2022 11:28 pm

IAEA Inspection at Zaporozhye NPP To Start on August 31st

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"We must protect the safety of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said. Aug. 29, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@EspiritV1

Published 29 August 2022 (12 hours 10 minutes ago)

IAEA experts will visit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant over four days, from August 31 to September 3.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will assess the situation at the plant, which Russia denounces is targeted by Ukrainian forces' shelling.

The Wall Street Journal, quoting an internal Ukrainian government document, reported on Monday that "the inspection will begin Wednesday and last until Saturday."

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said via Twitter that "the day has come; the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporozhye (ISAMZ) is on its way. We must protect the safety of the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and Europe."

The Director General said that the expert group would be engaged in damage assessment at the site, inspection of security systems, and discussions with Russian and Ukrainian personnel.


According to reports, the IAEA mission will be composed of 14 experts, none representing the U.S. or Britain, being "unfairly biased" regarding their support for the Ukrainian government, as Russia has said.

Kiev's continued shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, located in the Ukrainian city of Energodar, has been denounced by Russia on several occasions. The plant has been in Russian control since early March but remains operated by local personnel.

The Russian side has warned of the risk of radiation leakage at the site due to the shelling, which Kiev denies, claiming that Russia is responsible and is stationing military hardware at the facility.


Local authorities condemned Kiev for shelling the plant on Sunday, which resulted in nine people being injured and three residential houses being hit by artillery fire. This was considered an act meant to disrupt the IAEA team's visit.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/IAE ... -0015.html

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Ukraine - A 'Counteroffensive' That Was Destined To Fail

Yesterday Ukraine launched some kind of offensive in the general Kherson region north of the Dnieper.

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News of the success is murky. This morning Dima of the Military Summary Channel made a special report (vid) which listed the claims of both sides. His map drawings showed at least five directions of attacks.

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The Ukraine side claimed to have taken a handful of small villages near the former frontline. The Russian conceded the Ukraine had taken three or so but said that two of them were recovered over night.

Also this morning the Defense Ministry of Russia listed losses of the Ukrainian side. (Link goes to the Russian language report on the Rybar Telegram channel):

As a result of the defeat of the Ukrainian offensive carried out on the personal orders of Zelensky in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog and other directions, the enemy suffered large-scale losses.
▪️The effective actions of the Russian group of troops destroyed 48 tanks, 46 infantry fighting vehicles, 37 other armored fighting vehicles, 8 pickup trucks with heavy machine guns and more than 1200 Ukrainian military personnel in a day.


It is a bit early to speak of defeat as the Ukrainian attacks continue. The total strength of the Ukrainian side is probably two divisions worth which means some 30.000+ soldiers.

The losses of 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers are therefore not yet significant. The fighting at the Donetsk front cost several hundred Ukrainian lives each day. But the relative high losses of tanks, IFVs and armored vehicles are very notable. That equipment was enough for at least three to five full battalions.

The losses can be explained by the flat open steppe in the area. There are very few wooded or build up areas that would allow tanks to hide. It is ideal for the defending side as long range anti-tank missiles can pick off the tanks before they even know where the fire is coming from.

The Ukraine does not have many armored vehicles left and has even difficulties to get more of them from the 'west'. The countries which still had Soviet equipment have already given most of it to the Ukraine.

The Ukraine has also brought reserves from Odessa to Kryvyi Rih (Russian: Krivoy Rog) to protect it from an eventual Russian attack should the offensive fail.

That will most likely be the case. I expect everything to be back to its previous position in a day or two. We may then see a Russian attempt to break through the thinned out Ukrainian lines in this or that other direction.

In yesterday's background briefing by the Pentagon the military doubt about this offensive was palpable:

Q: Hi. Thanks for this.
I'm wondering if -- [omitted], I know you can't give us any apparent details on this counteroffensive. You said there's been an uptick in fighting. Can you give us a sense how big of an uptick and is this fighting from both sides? Give us any sense of that you can.
...
SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: Okay, Lita, thank you.

So over the weekend, we saw a larger number of artillery fires primarily coming from the Ukrainians. And so, you know, I say "larger" I wouldn't -- I wouldn't exaggerate that but it's an increased amount of artillery that we've seen coming from the Ukrainians.

And then they have -- as you all know, for the past couple of weeks, they have been making some small advances in and around the Kherson pocket for a while. So I don't want to mislead you here and tell you that I don't think the offensive is underway. I -- I would just -- I'd refer you to the Ukrainians right now because we have seen some offensive action in that area for the past couple weeks.

And I'll pass it over to [omitted].
...
Q: Yeah, for the senior military official, so you say you really can't give us any particulars on this offensive. You see an uptick in fighting. You say go to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians are saying this is a significant counteroffensive. So clearly, you're not willing to go that far, correct?

SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: Tom, I’m just saying, I think the Ukrainians have a better way of telling you what they're doing than we do. I mean, even in the best case, you know, I'm getting my reporting from the Ukrainians. So --

Q: Well, are they telling you that it's a significant counteroffensive? Because that's kind of what they're saying publicly. Are you getting the same thing? And if -- if that's the case, why can't you tell us it's a -- a counteroffensive?

SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: Well, I just don't -- I mean, listen, are they on the offensive? I think they are. Is this a counteroffensive? I don't know. And the reason I tell you that is because, as I said, over the past couple of weeks, we've seen them making some offensive moves in and around the Kherson pocket.

So listen, I'm -- you know, like you, I would love to have perfect information here. I think we'll get some more information over the course of the next 24 to 36 hours.

Q: Yeah, but again, it's frustrating for us because they're saying it's a big counteroffensive and what we hear -- see -- hear from you guys is, like, an uptick in fighting. Those two don't match, you see?

SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: No, I'm with you, Tom.

Q: Yeah.


To me this sounds like the military official is not at all convinced that this a serious offensive that makes sense.

That is likely because it does not make sense and is just another waste of lives.

It is Zelinski's attempt to prove to the 'west' and the local public that Ukraine can be successful and should receive continued support.

Four days ago the New York Times said that Zelenski was "under pressure" to launch the counteroffensive:

As the bloody artillery battle in Ukraine’s east settles into a stalemate, the war appears now to be a waiting game for a long-promised Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The timing for any move to break the deadlock has emerged as a pivotal strategic decision for Ukraine’s government.
...
The initial target of any counterattack is widely assumed to be Russian positions on the western bank of the Dnipro River. Move too soon, though, and the Ukrainian army may prove unready and insufficiently armed to ensure victory, military analysts say. Wait too long, and political backing in Europe may waver as energy prices soar.

Political pressure is mounting for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to make a move even as it remains unclear whether his military has amassed the necessary weaponry and manpower.

“The very difficult state of our economy, the constant risks of air and missile attacks and the general fatigue of the population from the difficulties of war will work against Ukraine” over time, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former minister of defense, wrote in the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. He said the military should be prepared to advance, rather than defend.

“It makes no sense to drag out the war for years and compete to see who will run out of resources first,” he wrote.


On the same day another NYT piece also dug into the issue:

The timing for any such attack has emerged as a pivotal decision for Ukraine’s government. Both sides are preparing for a protracted war, but Ukraine has greater incentive to try to avoid it with potentially risky maneuvers as early as this fall — before the rainy season turns the countryside into impassable bogs, or energy shortages and soaring costs undermine European support.
“An offensive is risky,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at C.N.A., a research institute in Arlington, Va., assessing Ukraine’s options.

“If it fails, the outcome could affect external support,’’ he said. “On the other hand, Kyiv likely sees this as a window of opportunity, beyond which lies the uncertainty of a protracted war against a Russian army that has had time to entrench.”
...
But several military analysts say there is a disconnect between Ukrainian civilian leaders, pressing for a major victory, and military leaders who want to ensure they have sufficient troops and combat power before conducting a major offensive.
...
“There’s a desire to show international partners that their support will enable Ukraine to win, not just hold on,” said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, who just returned from Ukraine. “And there is an expectation from the Ukrainian people they’ll be able to liberate their territory.”

But he cautioned, “a military offensive needs to be based on conditions on the battlefield,” not in the political arena.


In my view the offensive was launched at the wrong time and with too few troops along too many axes.

Two month ago the Ukrainians had already assembled a decent force in the Kherson area. It then started to loudly talk about the upcoming offensive. Instead it should have attacked immediately along one or two axes to make at least some gain.

After the loud talk the Russians reinforced their side in the area. At the same time they launched an offensive in the Donetsk region. The Ukrainians had to move some of the units prepared for the Kherson offensive to the Donetsk region to prevent a deeper Russian penetration into that frontline. Other units, waiting for the order to attack in the Kherson region, were mauled by Russian long range artillery strikes.

When its forces were assembled the Ukrainian military should have attacked immediately. The long wait made the situation more difficult. To break the reinforced Russian lines now would have taken more troops than were available.

I am sure that the Ukrainian military knew that this offensive would fail.

For political reasons Zelenski ordered them to launch it anyway. There are now another 1,000+ Ukrainian and Russian lives lost for nothing other then some sensational headlines and political optics.

Posted by b on August 30, 2022 at 14:15 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/u ... .html#more

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The shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant
August 30, 17:53

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Visual infographics about the shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP and shelled objects. So far, the most dangerous thing that happened was the arrival at the building for the storage of nuclear fuel. The radiation background is still normal, but the shelling continued today. So far, no direct flights have been made to the reactor blocks. The IAEA mission is to arrive at the ZNPP in the coming days.

It is also worth noting that iodine tablets and anti-rad suits began to be imported to Ukraine back in mid-spring.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7831459.html

Save light - help the Wehrmacht
August 30, 16:42

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Proven European recipes. Poster from the time of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, urging residents to save electricity to help the Wehrmacht. After 80 years, the Czechs are again called upon to save electricity in order to help the ukrovermacht.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7831259.html

Google Translator

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

Fighting in the Kherson direction. 08/30/20202
August 30, 22:53

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Fighting in the Kherson direction. 08/30/20202

1. The most intense fighting continues in the area of ​​Vysokopolye, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to take Olgovka and, advancing from Potemkino, take control of the supply of our group in Vysokopolye under fire control. The enemy suffers heavy losses in manpower and equipment, but continues to attack. There are also losses on our side.

2. Serious battles are also going on on the Ingulets River, where the enemy advanced yesterday on the village of Sukhoi Stavok, from where he was driven out. The enemy could not develop success today in the direction of Berislav. The fighting took on a positional nature due to overwhelming artillery fire. Nevertheless, the enemy did not give up hope at the expense of reserves to resume the advance.

3. Intense positional battles continue in the Posad-Pokrovsky area, but without significant progress. In the Alexandrovka area, the enemy also achieved nothing significant.

4. During the shelling of Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson, Berislav, Tavriysk continued. Again there were strikes in the area of ​​​​the Antonovsky bridge and the crossing.

The operational crisis that has arisen has not yet been fully resolved; the enemy still continues to try to advance, despite the losses incurred.

It is also worth considering the possibility of an early transition of the enemy to the offensive in other directions - Izyum, Kharkov or Zaporozhye.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/61852 - zinc

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A video with various equipment destroyed during the fighting is here https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7831883.html (at least 8 tanks, several infantry fighting vehicles, trucks, etc. have already been recorded .p.) The online broadcast also continues on the channel https://t.me/boris_rozhin- who are interested, subscribe.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7832183.html

Google Translator

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

From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Slavyansko-Barvenkovo ​​direction
by the end of August 30, 2022

While the main attention of the grouping of the RF Armed Forces is focused on concentrating attention on the Slavyansk sector of the front , individual Russian units are holding back the enemy’s offensive from Barvenkovo ​​and successfully counterattacking.

▪️Brazhkovka is under tight fire control from the side of Hill 204.7, occupied by the enemy. The Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred armored vehicles and ATGM crews there, which work on the positions of the RF Armed Forces.

In fact, the settlement is controlled by the RF Armed Forces, but since the units are in the direct fire zone, the entire Brazhkovka has stopped in the combat zone.

▪️The situation near Suligovka is much better : units of the RF Armed Forces managed to destroy the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the forest located to the south and reach the outskirts of Dibrovnoye . But hills 230.4 and 231.3 are still under the control of the enemy, which is why it is still difficult to continue the counteroffensive on Dibrovnoye.

▪️The heights south of Dolgenkiy are also under the Armed Forces of Ukraine, so the southern outskirts of the settlement are under enemy fire control.

▪️In Kopanki , the situation is stable: the RF Armed Forces control the dominant heights and inflict fire damage on Dmitrovka and Vernopol .

Image

***

Сolonelcassad

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The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Snigirevsky sector
by the end of August 30, 2022

Under the Blagodatny (Komsomolsky) front had stabilized. Contrary to the reports that have appeared on Russian channels, there is no talk of any assault on Pervomaisky yet. Russian troops are methodically destroying individual enemy equipment and suppressing firing points with artillery and mortar fire.

There were attempts to advance south of Kiselevka - several armored vehicles were destroyed, as well as Polish T-72s.

***

forwarded from
Readovka
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing a counteroffensive near Kharkov, intending to start artillery preparation this night - attempts to attack in the Kherson direction could be designed to divert attention.

The Ukrainian army is preparing to counterattack in the Izyum direction. According to a source from Readovka, at about 2 am today, the AFU militants intend to begin artillery preparation near Kharkov, equipment and manpower have already been drawn up for this purpose.

Daniil Bezsonov also confirms this information - in his Telegram channel, he suggested that the recent failed counter-offensive in the Kherson direction could be an attempt to divert attention: “Perhaps yesterday the Ukrainian command sacrificed many hundreds of its military in the Kherson region in order to distract from other directions.”

***

Сolonelcassad

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🇬🇧🇺🇦Battle for Kherson: the situation in the Olginsky sector

as of 22.00 August 30, 2022 For the

second day in the Krivoy Rog direction , fierce battles continue in Olgino and Vysokopolie : advanced units of the 331st regiment and 45th brigade of the RF Armed Forces are holding back the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under heavy artillery fire.

The enemy continues to transfer armored vehicles from the north - T-72 tanks delivered from Poland are used.

At the moment, the Olginsky section has the most fierce fighting on the entire Kherson front, but Russian units do not allow the Armed Forces to move south.

***

forwarded from
Readovka explains
The case of Kherson is an example of false propaganda and a successful information-psychological operation, or once again that we need to start learning how to quickly fight in the information field

. Undoubtedly, Ukraine has been preparing for this war for a long time, many methods and approaches were developed back in 2015, and perhaps even earlier. Today, in many Western media there is information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the very beginning of the NMD use the "Operational concept of resistance", which was developed by the United States and allies in the North Atlantic Alliance back in 2013, and allows you to counteract superior enemy forces.This concept provides for an unconventional approach to warfare and total defense, in which both military personnel and the civilian population take part. As for the civilian population, we are talking not only about the use of mobilized territorial defense, but also about the promotion of important information and psychological narratives. And here in Ukraine everything is going well.

The pumping of panic in Kherson, Kakhovka, Nova Kakhovka and a number of other liberated settlements did not begin yesterday, but a few months before the "counteroffensive" itself. We have already writtenthat this operation carries not so much military tasks as psychological ones. There is no doubt that the crackdown on the topic of breaking through the Russian defenses, massive artillery and rocket attacks, as well as the activation of the DRG, which began yesterday in the Ukrainian telegram channels, which took place simultaneously, are links of the same chain, coordinated from one “decision-making center”. Yes, the lie was total - ukroSMI unanimously declared about the evacuation from Kherson, about the predetermined future of the entire region, about the "historical moment" of the NWO.

Later, when it became clear that the offensive had stalled, no one was even going to refute anything. This is an information-psychological operation, and Kyiv succeeded in it.Dominance in the operational information field really caused panic among the Russians and a feeling of “overcoming” among the Ukrainians. Although in fact there were no Ukrainian tanks near Kherson and Kakhovka.

The enemy must not be underestimated; modern warfare cannot be viewed solely from the standpoint of military tactics. The enemy is weaker than us in terms of weapons, but the enemy has good teachers and good manuals. Therefore, the question is: where is our answer, where are the photos of corpses in the Kherson region, where is that psychological war? Russia still does not have an offensive initiative in the information space, we still play on defense. It shouldn't be like that.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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"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 » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:30 pm

First day of offensive
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 08/31/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

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On Monday, after several weeks of increased military activity on the southern front, Ukraine began its long-awaited offensive to recapture southern agricultural land lost since the start of the Russian intervention on February 24. In its first hours, the offensive has not made big headlines, although it is premature to treat the action as a propaganda maneuver, a desperate attack seeking to convince its partners to maintain long-term economic and military support for Ukraine as it has been done from the Russian point of view, using the high number of casualties or the alleged transfer of troops currently in Odessa to the Nikolaev front to replace fallen soldiers.

There is no guarantee that the Ukrainian offensive will be successful, but neither should a collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces be expected, which in these six months have managed, thanks to the billions of dollars invested by their partners, to strengthen themselves in terms of heavy artillery and recover part of what was lost, including part of its aviation. Right now, Ukraine awaits the delivery of 14 MiG-29 fighters from Slovakia, one more example of the use that Eastern European countries are making of the war in Ukraine, in which they have seen an opportunity to get rid of Russian-made material. or Soviet, which will have to be replaced by western weapons, perhaps more modern, but more expensive and, above all, ideologically in line with its foreign policy.

At the moment, the information is scarce and it is foreseeable that, barring major advances, it will continue to be so. Since the beginning of the Russian intervention, Ukraine has sought to limit as much as possible any information that deviates from the official discourse. The Western press has also complied with kyiv's demand to make the information front as important an aspect as the military front. To reinforce this trend, this very week, the Ukrainian Parliament has approved a law according to which it will be even easier to close media outlets without the need for any judicial decision.

Without real data on the number of casualties of one and the other army, the type of war between two sufficiently well-armed armies in an open field suggests that they will be high. And while Ukraine is vying for the prize of capturing Kherson and doing so by besieging Russian troops there - hence the attempt to tear down the Antonovsky Bridge - the fighting is currently taking place in small towns along the front. At the moment, the successes of Ukraine, which, confusing the front line with the entire territory, claims that the fighting is taking place in practically the entire Kherson region, are limited to one direction.

This is how Rybar picked it up yesterday :

The Battle for Kherson: The Situation in the Andreevka Area (August 30, 2022).

Throughout the night and morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have continued to transfer equipment from the Bereznegovaty area to Andreevka by means of a pontoon. Despite artillery and aerial bombardment, the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to concentrate two blows on Lozovoe and Sukhoi Stavok.

Sukhoi Stavok is a town with a length of 800 meters in the middle of the steppe, located in the zone of destruction by Russian artillery. A concentration of forces in this area is illogical from the point of view of the front: trying to advance from there implies a risk of serious losses for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The night before, Ukrainian formations were already withdrawing into the woods along the Ingulets River after inflicting damage against Sukhoi Stavok. In the morning the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried again to introduce equipment into the village, which has practically ceased to exist.

The advance from Lozovoe and along the Andreevka-Belogorka highway to the east seems more logical: the Armed Forces of Ukraine have repeatedly tried to establish pontoons to cross from Veliki Artakovo and Belogorka, and the expansion of the bridgehead on the southern bank will allow control a section up to six kilometers wide.

The open steppe begins to the south, but the wooded shores near Veliki Artakovo and Belogorka will allow more vehicles to be concentrated and artillery to be transferred. And then the expansion of control near Sukhoi Stavok will make sense.


The offensive has just begun and may simply be the preparation of larger actions. A Ukrainian advance may put kyiv, not only in a better military situation, but also in a more comfortable political position. A failed attempt, on the other hand, would leave Ukraine undermined in its credibility on the front lines and in a weak position in the face of possible negotiations.

The strategies of both armies and their ability to move reinforcements and maneuver in this terrain will determine the outcome of the Ukrainian offensive toward Kherson. It is possible that the Ukrainian troops will be able to advance towards Kherson, but the risk of being surrounded by the Russian troops in a terrain conducive to artillery is no less. For the time being, heavy shelling continues on towns such as Novaya Kajovka and Energodar, which suffered little damage from the Russian advance, but are in for a tough time as a target of Ukrainian artillery. And while Ukraine is trying to get closer to Kherson, in the President's Office they are already dreaming of attacking Crimea. Yesterday, alleging that Ukraine's priority is to save the civilian population - eight years of bombing contradicts him -,

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/08/31/25396/#more-25396

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Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the attack on Kherson
August 31, 13:04

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The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the "offensive on Kherson" in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions:

The enemy suffered losses and was thrown back from Olginka, Ternovye Prudy and Arkhangelsk.

A battalion of the 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was defeated in the area of ​​​​the settlement of Sukhoi Stavok. Currently, the destruction of its remains is being completed.

To release the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 12 tanks delivered to the Kyiv regime by Poland were transported across the Ingulets River.

Some of the tanks were destroyed by the powerful fire impact of the Russian troops. Several tanks in the course of a disorderly withdrawal were blown up in their minefield. Only five Ukrainian tanks were able to break out back into the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

For two days of unsuccessful attacks on the Nikolaevo-Krivoy Rog and other directions, Ukrainian troops lost four combat aircraft: two Su-25s, one Su-24 and one MiG-29. Three Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were shot down in the air.

Also, Russian troops destroyed 63 Ukrainian tanks, 59 infantry fighting vehicles, 48 ​​other armored fighting vehicles, 14 pickup trucks with heavy machine guns and more than 1,700 Ukrainian servicemen.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/61910 - zinc

Regarding the fixation of destroyed equipment.

Yesterday's videos from just two directions (without videos from the Ingulets area) counted at least 9 destroyed tanks, 6 infantry fighting vehicles and about a dozen different wheeled vehicles. In Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog, he continues to invite people to donate blood for the numerous wounded.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7833585.html

"Gazprom" screwed
August 31, 12:19 p.m

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"Gazprom" today at night stopped the pumping of gas through the "Nord Stream" pipeline.
The official reason is preventive work. The work will last until 4 am on September 3.
Gazprom also stopped gas supplies to France for Engie (due to the lack of payment for July supplies), Gazprom today reduced gas supplies to Italy from 27 million to 20 million cubic meters.
Autumn and winter in Europe will be hot. Now the price of gas is spinning around the mark of $3,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. In addition, there are quite apocalyptic forecasts of $4,000-5,000 per 1,000 cubic meters closer to winter.

The Japanese looked at all this and caved in, accepting the Russian conditions for the Sakhalin-2 project. In the spring, they said that they were unacceptable, but over the summer they managed to change their minds and now, with the permission of the Japanese government, Japanese companies will participate in the project as part of the changes that the Mishustin government has directively implemented.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7833199.html

Information for residents and military personnel of Ukraine
August 31, 11:18

Information for residents and military personnel of Ukraine:

If you are a civilian, you can send us, on guarantees of complete anonymity, information about the location (as detailed as possible) and the movement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, volunteer battalions and Troops, as well as other information!

If you are a serviceman of Ukraine and want to lay down your arms, you can contact us and we will provide you with a peaceful transition to a safe place, and after the end of hostilities, without criminal prosecution, we will transfer you home to your relatives and friends.

Contact us anonymously - @RSOTM_Z16_BOT

(If you are in the territory controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, after the end of the dialogue, about to go outside, delete the correspondence)

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7832915.html

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THE "FINANCIAL WAR" OF RUSSIA AND CHINA AGAINST THE WEST

Alastair Crooke

30 Aug 2022 , 4:12 pm .

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In the US magazine National Interest (a conservative-leaning publication), and, in an uncharacteristic burst of candor, Ramon Marks has an article titled: "No Matter Who Wins in Ukraine, America Has Already Lost."

There, Marks observes that "regardless of who wins the Ukrainian war, the United States will be the strategic loser. Russia will build closer relationships with China and other countries on the Eurasian continent, including India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states." He will irrevocably cut himself off from Washington and European democracies Just as President Richard Nixon and Hemry Kissinger played the 'China card' to isolate the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will play their cards in a attempt to contain American global leadership.

Well, aside from the obligatory "it doesn't matter who wins" nod to the Western narrative - suggesting it's still an open issue - the gist of the National Interest article is spot on, if it completely misunderstands the context.

Russia and China are certainly committed to pushing for a change in America's "rules-based order." Not to substitute one hegemony for another, but rather to create the pressure - a kind of war - that forces an existential transformation in the Western zeitgeist . A pressure that gives the West no choice but to end its expansionist radio in other societies, forcing submission to its "rules" (also known as neo-colonialism).

Yes, Russia and China now play their geostrategic "cards". And in a sense, they are well-known "cards." These are the principles of self-determination and respect for sovereignty that emerged from the 1955 Bandung Conference, which consolidated the Non-Aligned Movement at that time. They reflected the then-conference sponsors' dissatisfaction with Western reluctance to listen and instead impose their singularity of views on Asian states.

So, just as the United States fully executed its military-backed dominance of the dollar in the years following the implosion of the Soviet Union to corral much of the world into its rules-based sphere, today Russia and China are offering the Global South, Africa and Asia a liberation from Western "rules". They are encouraging the "rest of the world" to claim their autonomy and independence, à la Bandung.

Russia, partnered with China, is building these diffuse political relationships on control of global fossil fuel supplies and much of the world's food and raw materials. To further increase Russian influence over the energy suppliers on which Western belligerents depend, Russia is embroidering a gas "OPEC" with Iran and Qatar, and has also made welcome proposals to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join in taking greater control of the fundamental products of energy.

In addition, these big producers are teaming up with big buyers to wrest the precious metals and commodity markets out of the hands of London and the United States, with the idea of ​​ending Western manipulation of commodity prices through commodity markets. derived papers.

The argument presented by Russian officials to other states is highly attractive and simple: The West has turned its back on fossil fuels and plans to abandon them entirely, in a decade or so. They chose this path under intense US pressure, a path that, in the case of Europe, will impose misery on its peoples for years to come.


However, unpleasant as it may be for some, the fact is that global economic growth still requires fossil fuel production. Without further investment and exploration, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient supply in the medium term to meet likely demand. What is not available are quick means of increasing the physical supply of energy.

Russia's message to its partners is that you don't have to join these masochistic "sacrificial policies." You can have oil and natural gas at a discount compared to what Europe has to pay. The " Golden Billion " (translator's note: equivalent to "1%" as a class subject) have enjoyed the benefits of modernity, and now who would you give up everything, and expose your electorates to extreme suffering as well.

Russia is just saying, "It doesn't have to be like this." Yes, climate is a consideration, but fossil fuels are experiencing acute underinvestment for ideological reasons, not running out per se .

The issue here is that the initial starting point for Bandung was that the West just didn't want to "listen", since it commands and imposes. Western green ideology, however, simply cannot be binding on the rest of the world, against their will. This argument represents the path for Russia and China to bring much of the world to their side.

Russia - tightening the screw on energy to deliver its argument - is delivering a blunt warning to the European Union: either the Western European political class can save its skin by going back to cheap Russian gas, or else it can stay aligned to Washington on Ukraine. The latter option, however, would mean having to plunge his constituents into misery. And risk their rulers facing the "unpleasantness" of a "lamppost" uprising (translator's note: referring to "street justice" at the beginning of the French Revolution). But the European Union cannot choose both.

What matters primarily is the nature of the European metamorphosis. Is it tactics or is it really a "Damascene conversion" (translator's note: the biblical conversion of Saint Paul)? Will we find, after the Russian energy shortage, a European Union chastened enough to accept a non-ideological negotiation of the security and civilizational aspirations of others, as well as an informed exchange on the means to protect the planet from further depredation? ?

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/l ... -occidente

Google Translator

While the geo-political considerations are obvious and I've been seeing hints of this position for a while now the issue of climate change still looms greater than the producer and poor consumer countries can deal with on the Western model of so-called 'green capitalism' without plunging their populace into utter poverty. Political reality will always be paramount, 'green capitalism' is a deadly lie, capitalism itself, as the driver of economic activity remains the issue.

World historical justice demands that we of the 'Golden Billion' give back to the Global South the value we have appropriated in order that those people may enjoy the benefits which we take for granted. To the greatest degree possible the economic value foregone by leaving hydro-carbons in the ground must be compensated. This will never happen while the capitalists are in charge of most of the world economy.

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IAEA mission leaves for Zaporizhia nuclear plant

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The IAEA chief commented that the task of the mission is to assess the real situation in the nuclear complex. | Photo: @davidmryder
Published 31 August 2022

The head of the IAEA announced that the agency intends to establish a permanent representation at the Zaporizhia plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission left the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

"We are finally moving after six months of (...) efforts. The IAEA is heading towards the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant," its director Rafael Grossi told the before leaving for the nuclear plant.

Grossi indicated that the agency's technicians are prepared and expect to spend several days at the Zaporizhia plant.


The IAEA chief commented that the task of the mission is to assess the real situation in the nuclear complex to help stabilize the situation in southern Ukraine.

Grossi announced that the nuclear agency intends to establish a permanent representation at the Zaporizhia plant.


The IAEA mission arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday with the intention of leaving as soon as possible, as soon as they had the necessary security guarantees, to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.


Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking and bombing the surroundings of the plant, causing international concern about a possible nuclear accident.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has been under the control of Russian forces since March 4, deploying military equipment to maintain the security of the energy complex.

The Russian government considered the IAEA mission necessary and called on the international community to put pressure on Ukraine to stop endangering the plant.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/mision-o ... -0005.html

Google Translator

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‘Bitter Street’ in Lugansk: A Battle Line Drawn with Nazi Elements after 2014
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 30, 2022
John Parker

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From left: Alexey Albu of Borotba; John Parker of Socialist Unity Party; and Evgeniy Miroshnichenko, member of the Youth Parliament, State Duma of Russia. SLL photo

From May 1 to May 12, I traveled to both Russia and the Lugansk People’s Republic, an independent republic in the Donbass region, formerly part of eastern Ukraine. The purpose of this fact-finding mission initiated by the Socialist Unity Party and Struggle-La-Lucha.org was to report the suppressed information challenging the narrative of NATO and its member states, led by the U.S., in this proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

My visit to Lugansk was made possible with the assistance of Borotba (Struggle), a socialist political organization in Ukraine and Donbass that we have worked with for many years. Alexey Albu, one of the leaders of Borotba, also provided translation for me during interviews. This is the third part of my report.

On May 8, two days after we visited the Rubizhne shelter, we made our way from Lugansk city to the villages of Sokilnyky and Krymske. Both had recently been taken over by the joint forces of the Lugansk People’s Militia (LPM) and the Russian military.

After the 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup in Ukraine that brought to power a pro-Washington, anti-Moscow regime partnering with fascist forces, the majority Russian-speaking people of the Donbass region decided they didn’t want any part of this backsliding of history.

Dramatic evidence of the new coup government’s fascist leanings came in its support for the neo-Nazis who burned alive activists at Odessa’s House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014. To this day, none of the perpetrators have been charged with any crime. Given that incident, the people of the Donbass region declared themselves the independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). They voted by 89% in Donetsk and 96% in Lugansk for that change.

Instead of honoring the wishes of the people of Donbass, Kiev labeled them terrorists and sent armed forces with heavy artillery and aircraft against civilians, threatening to wipe out the population. The Lugansk People’s Militia was organized to defend the area.

When the Minsk II cease-fire agreements took effect in 2015, the opposing sides’ positions were drawn. Sokilnyky was controlled by the Lugansk People’s Republic. Krymske was occupied and controlled by the Ukrainian military.

If the cease-fire stipulations under the Minsk II agreements were adhered to by the Ukrainian military, it would have protected this community. Instead, the agreement was used by Ukraine to create a one-sided shooting range against civilians in Sokilnyky. Today no one lives there and the homes and buildings have been destroyed.

The road that runs between Sokilnyky and Krymske is called Vulytsya Horkoho, named for the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky. Google also translates it as “Bitter Street.” The name is fitting since less than a quarter-mile north runs the Siverskyi Donets River – the border between two conflicting sides in a war.

When you travel along this road towards Sokilnyky, you see idle and broken-down Ukrainian tanks that were used against the villagers after 2014, when no military force was there to protect those communities.

Ukraine continued war after Minsk II

122-mm shells from the Ukrainian government’s arsenal rained down on villagers from the north of the river’s edge and west of Sokilnyky, aimed at anyone driving along this road or just relaxing at home. These shells are capable of stopping tanks, penetrating bunkers and taking down aircraft. And as we could see along the way, many homes were blown to bits or barely left standing.

The 2015 Minsk II agreements were negotiated by Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, and the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, allowing for some self-determination of the Donbass regions and the right to be protected by their own military forces – the Lugansk People’s Militia and the Donetsk People’s Militia.

By 2017, however, most residents on this road east of Krymske who survived left the area since it was too dangerous.

Although the Minsk agreements forbade attacks within this area, our guide told us that after 2015 the Lugansk militia forces began calling this street the “Road of Life,” where LPR forces had to travel fast to keep from being shot at. “For seven years Nazis violated the Minsk agreements … They attacked peaceful people who lived in this village during those Minsk violations,” explained our LPM guide, who led us to our next location further west towards Krymske.

We saw further evidence of houses resembling Swiss cheese rather than safe spaces for families. We stopped on the edge of Zynamyanka village, where a monument commemorating fallen World War II soldiers was located. We had to follow the steps of the person in front since the area was filled with unexploded shells dropped by the Ukrainian forces.

We reached an administrative building that was now more cinder block pieces than structure. Two wires strewn across our path warned us not to go any further since that area was not partially cleared of unexploded shells or mines.

Against the advice of our guide, a very brave journalist from the news service Izvestia, continued walking and laying a path for us. Why would he take such a risk? Because, he said, he felt it was important for us to see up close the monument with the names of those from this and nearby villages of both Ukrainian and Russian Soviet soldiers killed fighting the Nazi threat during World War II – so we could appreciate the respect these residents had for their relatives who fought fascists. And to appreciate their suffering in being targeted by those who adhere to that same fascist ideology.

My comrades insisted they walk in front of me, following the soldier from the LPM. Then it hit me hard. From our friends in Borotba to the guides from the Lugansk People’s Militia and brave journalists dedicated to telling the truth – they were all here assisting me, putting their bodies on the line to keep me safe, because they believed the message I would relay back to the U.S. was that important.

I truly wish the U.S. anti-war movement that has so cynically and arrogantly dismissed any facts or testimony coming from the people in Lugansk and Donetsk, who refuse to acknowledge their experiences or even existence, could feel just one-tenth of what I felt in that moment.

When we reached the monument, carefully, the words with the hundreds of names of buried soldiers read: “Your Heroism is Immortal and Your Glory is Eternal.”

[Video walking to the Monument in Zynam’yanka]

Sister towns separated by war

The once Ukrainian-held territory in and around Krymske, just west of us, included areas within eyeshot of the LPR-held Sokilnyky village. In 2014 almost 2,000 people lived in Krymske, and 1,000 lived in Sokilnyky. They lie about five minutes from each other by car.

In fact, the communities were very close. One of the Izvestia reporters with us wrote: “If a guy from Krymske married a girl from Sokilnyky, the wedding was played in two villages at once.” But after the battles in 2014 and by 2015, the two communities remained separated with blocks of concrete and barbed wire.

After passing the town of Sokilnyky, we drove about a quarter mile to where the Ukrainian military installed bunkers and barracks to target that village, using these places to launch missiles and those 122 mm-shells against the LPR-held territories, even in the years when civilians were still there.

The south side of this “Bitter Street” had been swept for mines but the north side was not, so to remain relatively safe we stayed on the south side. On the ground was strewn Kalashnikov 5.45 caliber bullets and casings leading into an eight-foot dugout to tunnels of dirt and darkness protected by sandbags from retaliatory fire.

The Ukrainian forces were routed after the February operation by the Russians and the LPM, so undoubtedly gunfire was exchanged. But even if there was activity targeting this compound in response to shellings, it lies over a quarter-mile from 99% of the homes in the Krymske village.

In other words, the civilian population living in Krymske village was only victimized by the Azov, Aidar or Right Sector fascist regiments leading the Ukrainian military occupation there. This is according to the residents we spoke to, who also verified that those leading these soldiers were wearing Nazi regiment colors and fascist symbols.

Just about 100 feet down the road from the bunker, taking us into the eastern edge of Krymske, we observed on the side of the road a leftover decoy that had been used to frighten the Lugansk militia forces, mimicking a Swedish surface-to-air missile. The threat would have been believable since those real missiles and other military aid totaling $102 million was promised to Ukraine from Sweden on June 2 – this on top of the other anti-armor weaponry already delivered.

Nazi symbols

Due to the actual weapons present at that moment, the most common phrase I heard observing these sites was again, “Don’t step there” – not only because of the unexploded shells on this side of the river but also because the Ukrainian military would “sow” the area with mines that couldn’t be seen in the grass.

We then drove a few feet further to a complex that was part of a tuberculosis clinic. The Ukrainian forces retrofitted this clinic for war by evicting the patients and healthcare staff. In one of the buildings, the Ukrainian soldiers felt comfortable enough to scrawl in large letters the word representing a fascist soccer team in Ukraine, the ULTRAS — a team, we were told by one of the journalists with us, that is owned by an oligarch who funds Nazi regiments.

Something that seemd out of place, given the graffiti praising Nazi symbols and organizations, was a letter shaped as a heart with the colors of the Ukrainian flag from a child thanking these Nazi-led Ukrainian forces for keeping them safe. That is not surprising, since the Azov Battalion set up children’s “educational” facilities. According to a Time article from January 7, 2021, the battalion even has an entire building loaned to them by the Zelensky government in Kiev that serves such a purpose.

In addition to general misinformation passed on in their libraries, this facility raises funds by selling key chains, t-shirts and other items adorned with swastikas and other Nazi symbols. Again, this building is on loan from the Ukrainian government, supporting what goes on there.

In another building here, 122-mm shells were stacked on top of each other. Their presence in this room seemed to be a testament to the threat against humanity symbolically displayed over half of one of the walls with drawings of a swastika and a Black Sun or Sonnenrad.

[video of tuberculosis hospital complex] https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1bygfenpqi4n ... l.mp4?dl=0

It should be noted that this Azov identifier is the same symbol used by the white supremacist shooter who recently targeted Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York. He was inspired by a white supremacist in New Zealand who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers in two mosques there. That New Zealand killer said he was in contact with the Azov Battalion and planned to go to Ukraine for military training.

As shocking as this is, it shouldn’t be too surprising that young people are falling into the hands of these unchecked fascist movements. In the 2021 report “Like, Share, Recruit: How a White-Supremacist Militia Uses Facebook to Radicalize and Train New Members,” Time explains how Azov’s use of Facebook’s algorithm drives white supremacists and disaffected youth toward them, allowing Azov exponential visibility growth.

Just a few steps away, another building turned military bunker contained lookout holes punched through the walls, with coordinates written in pen giving targeting coordinates for the LPM positions and civilians when they lived there. On another wall the words “No One But Us” were written in Ukrainian in blue and yellow.

Military-industrial profits

We were accompanied by more than one camera crew with journalists representing various media from Ukraine and Russia. During our inspection of this site, one of the journalists from a Russian news agency found a container that once held explosive materials. This object, the journalist said, came from either the U.S. or a Western European country.

Of course, this is not surprising given that U.S. military aid to Ukraine, as reported in the May 20 New York Times, amounts to more money than given in any kind of aid to any country in the last decade. “It is roughly two times the amount given in 2011 to Afghanistan, the largest U.S. foreign aid recipient until now,” reported the Times.

The U.S. had already surpassed the entire defense budget of Russia back in May. Perhaps the reason for this unprecedented funding, in addition to world domination, also has to do with profits. Business Insider reported May 23: “One of the largest defense contractors in the nation donated to nearly 150 members of Congress as they debated Ukraine military aid.”

On May 3, President Joe Biden went to Lockheed Martin’s Pike County Operations facility in Troy, Alabama, and did a photo op at the Javelin missile production facility. And the top member of Congress in charge of the military budget, Democrat Adam Smith from Washington state, is also the top recipient of money from the weapons makers.

In its 2010 Citizens United decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations can spend unlimited amounts on elections. When the selfish ambitions of the bought-and-paid-for politicians coincide with the goals of the ruling class, the sky isn’t even the limit. The death and fear created are of no consequence to them.

Speaking of fear, while exploring this hospital complex I heard a constant buzzing, sounding like a flying bee with a megaphone. When I asked what that sound was, I was told it was from a drone overhead. This caused me some concern, knowing that in April the U.S. had been training Ukrainian soldiers in the use of a very advanced drone called the Switchblade Drone 600.

By that month, two of the lethal aid packages for Ukraine of over $1 billion included those drones, capable of flying 24 miles. That distance was well within the area between us and the current Ukrainian positions. In fact, I could see with my naked eyes the plume of smoke from recent targets hit by either the Ukrainian or Russian and Lugansk forces. And these drones carry warheads that can take out tanks.

With the recent memory of Ukrainian forces bombing an apartment building near the shelter where we were conducting interviews in Rubizhne, I felt a bit uneasy about that noise overhead and was therefore happy when we later returned to the cars to continue on our way.

As we continued to Krymske, the sight of almost all of the homes intact was a startling comparison to Sokilnyky. Although a relatively small percentage of those homes are damaged, according to our LPM guide, it was due to fighting that occurred in 2014, when they were also being shelled by the Ukrainian military.

Even if those homes destroyed in 2014 were mistakenly said to come from the more recent hostilities, the comparison of the two villages makes it clear that neither the LPM forces during the Minsk Agreements to the present time, nor the Russian military that came in February, carried out any bombing campaigns against Krymske.

[comparison video of Krymske vs Sokilnyky] https://www.dropbox.com/s/dhxc1qrv84k6v ... l.mp4?dl=0

‘Everything Zelensky says is a lie’

When we arrived in Krymske there were a few children running around and playing — finally.

A stark difference from the situation at the Rubizhne shelter, where kids could not play for any significant length of time due to their proximity to the front lines and therefore within reach of the Ukrainian delivery of shells.

Now, the only deliveries being made are that of food and other humanitarian aid coming from the city of Lugansk. It is received at the former village council building.

With the exception of one person, all the residents I interviewed were very glad about the presence of Russian soldiers and the Lugansk People’s Militia and the absence of the Ukrainian military.

Local resident Irina said: “In 2014, the Nazi Aidar and Right Sector battalions came to us. They entered houses and fired over our heads.”

One person did complain about the military presence. He was upset with the sentencing of his son by the Lugansk People’s Militia. His son was accused of collaborating with the Ukrainian troops. In spite of that, he still desired the protection of the military forces here now.

I was able to catch up to one of those children running around the overgrown playground, whose grass had not been cut during the Ukrainian occupation.

Eleven-year-old Ivan told me his family left in 2014 when the Ukrainian military began attacking civilians here. “The windows in our house shattered, but I stayed asleep and my mom had to wake me up. Then we left.” As he spoke I saw him looking at a dog nearby. When I told him about my dogs and asked him if he had any pets, he sadly said his dog had to be left behind.

On this day, however, he seemed happy. He said he was glad to be back since this is where his grandparents live as well. I asked him what he studies in school and he said math and science, but now school is only open two days per week.

After talking about his favorite exercise and sports – basketball and football (soccer) — I moved on to more serious topics. I told him how the newspapers and TV news in the U.S. describe the Russians as hurting the people of Ukraine and that the Ukrainian government and its military are protecting people. “What do you think?” I asked.

He told me he strongly disagreed. “It is completely untrue that Russia attacks peaceful people. Russia protects civilians and their interests. Everything Zelensky says is a lie because when he says that this is a Russian occupation it is completely untrue, it is completely a lie, Russia protects civilians.”

I figured that was enough war talk for a child and I’d give him a break and go back to my previous challenge to race him to the edge of the building. But instead of wanting to lighten the conversation or go play like most children his age in the U.S., he wanted to give some advice to the Ukrainian military and Zelensky: “Now the Ukrainian forces hide in Donetsk, but it will be better if they give up, because the peace will come sooner and we can repair our cities.”

After thanking him for helping me get the message to people in the U.S., he said, “Yes, I told you because I understand that my speech can make a little influence on people in the world and maybe peace will come more quickly here.”

Although they may run around in a playground when war is present children are forced to ponder things they should not have to. But when war comes knocking at their door – or shattering their windows – they have no choice.

[Video of 11-yr-old Ivan] https://www.dropbox.com/s/k4u7ain4geyz7qw/Ivan.mp4?dl=0

Laughter and solidarity

I then approached a few elderly women sitting on a bench. I asked about the situation here under Ukrainian military occupation. They all described the military as being led by the Aidar Battalion, which they could tell by the colors of their patches and Nazi symbols they wore.

They said that, although not all of the soldiers were Nazis, their leadership was. “They would make them get down on their knees and hit and humiliate them,” said one of the women about the treatment of rank-and-file soldiers who weren’t Nazis by their superior officers. They all assumed this was designed to indoctrinate them.

When I asked one woman what it was like during the occupation, her eyes quickly darted down and her head gestured “no.” This made me wonder how horrible an experience she may have had, given the documented war crimes of the Aidar Battalion during this conflict, especially against women. So out of compassion for her I dared not ask again. If they humiliated their own troops, what might they have done to these civilians?

When I asked the women what they thought about people in the U.S. who send money to the Ukrainian government in the belief that they are protecting them from the Russians, one exclaimed: “Duratskiy!” A few of the definitions for that Russian word are “foolish,” “fatuous” and “idiotic.”

When Alexey told me it meant “stupid” and I repeated it in Russian, they all started laughing – first shyly, then out loud when they saw I joined them. I was glad our shared laughter communicated better than words my solidarity with their struggles here today.

[video of Krymske residents] https://www.dropbox.com/s/vl3nd6qni4s8i ... h.mp4?dl=0

The last interview in Krymske was with a member of the Communist Party. He explained the situation in 2014, when the people here demanded their governor reject the coup government in Kiev. But, he said, the governor sided with the coup and left.

After we talked, he walked me to an area where two monuments commemorated all of the people from the village who were killed fighting the Nazis during World War II and another honoring the soldiers who were not from that village, but died there fighting the German fascist military. This individual said he was very thankful that the Ukrainian occupiers did not destroy these two monuments as they had done in other parts of the Lugansk region.

[video of WWII memorial in Krymske] https://www.dropbox.com/s/bel4jr9j9xso8 ... t.mp4?dl=0

This visit to Krymske was very inspiring. From the determination and wit of the women on the bench, to the 11-year-old willing to take time out from the playground for important matters, to the passion of the communist who was so proud of the monuments with names of his own family members inscribed on one of them — and all of this community’s unceasing commitment to fight fascism if it rises here once again.

It is also clear that here the military that is despised is the Ukrainian one. When we first arrived, we noticed people walking around as if life was normal – although it is not. But now, for the remaining residents in Krymske — no longer threatened by the Ukrainian soldiers – the cessation of the worst horrors of war and occupation allows them to take a breath.

Fire in the sky

The day before we visited Krymske, Alexey Albu and Evgeniy Miroshnichenko, a member of the Youth Parliament under the State Duma of Russia, invited me on a tour of Lugansk, the capital city of the LPR. We observed the monuments and also met with officials from the Lugansk city administration. We were, however, momentarily interrupted by the sight of smoke in the sky, coming from either a drone or rocket that had been intercepted by a Russian missile.

As we walked further I saw a playground and happier thoughts took over.

Playgrounds are wonderful. They are a place where children go to socialize and spend their energy with such excitement and joy. However, given the proximity of shellings or the very recent liberation of areas once occupied by the Ukrainian military, the priorities of food and shelter forced a lack of maintenance in those areas.

However, there in the city of Lugansk, which had been mostly free of attack for some time, I saw a beautiful playground full of children on the swings and slides and varied apparatus designed for the sole purpose of making joyful noises.

… But what I had just seen threatening the skies above this well-attended and most precious sanctuary was a killer of children — thankfully destroyed, this time. What would have happened to this playground had the Ukrainian military, now armed with even more sophisticated weaponry thanks to the Biden Administration and every other complicit politician, been successful?

The new reality we face as activists and members of organizations promoting social justice and peace is that the propaganda of the ruling class has become so capable, so well-funded, so fluid in its use of social media and Hollywood, that most, including many in the movement for social justice, are not even aware of its effects in molding our own opinions and distorting our sense of reality.

This three-part series began solely as an attempt to expose the fact that the war in Ukraine was manufactured to further the expansion of U.S.-led NATO, targeting Russia and China. But perhaps the more important story is how the State Department and its right hand – the corporate media – are today able to so effectively use false information manufactured in such a consistent and frequent manner and build on those past prejudices against Russian people.

The political left movement in the U.S. and Europe has a big problem that comes from a cultural disease developed especially by U.S. capitalism’s history of racism. Not only is there class bias, but the added dehumanization with all its arrogant trappings intrinsic to the system of racism carries over to anyone deemed as “the other.”

In the U.S., the other is usually anyone who is non-white and is therefore not taken as seriously, not as believable, not as legitimate and reliable a source of information, and definitely not due as much empathy. This is carried over even to other white people deemed as the other. And we are told by the U.S. government who the latest other is – sometimes it’s the Iraqis and their leaders, or it’s the Syrians and their leadership, or the Libyans and their leadership. In spite of the fact that information coming from the U.S. corporate media during a U.S. war drive is consistently false – from the Lusitania incident in 1915 or the Gulf of Tonkin lie pushing the U.S. into war with Vietnam or the lies pushing war in Iraq and Libya – we are supposed to accept it as gospel and reject all information coming from the official or unofficial sources from the latest target of U.S. imperialism.

This is why the sources of information coming directly from white supremacist neo-Nazi military organizations in Ukraine is more trusted than those in the Donbass region – because the people of Donbass, in Lugansk and Donetsk, are the other.

My friends from Borotba, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the United Communist Party – the other; the 82-year-old woman from the shelter in Rubizne, who was crying over the bombing of her home by Ukrainian tanks and the loss of all her belongings; and the women in Krymskoye who identified the Right Sector and Aidar Batallion as their occupiers and torturers; the entire political and religious leadership in Lugansk; the Lugansk People’s Militia members – all the other.

And even to much of the “left” in the U.S. and Western Europe, who refused to even acknowledge their existence, they are deserving of neither an ear nor a heart for empathy.

Is the history of the Soviet Union or Russia before this current conflict filled with the intentional targeting of civilians in any degree close to that of the U.S. military and NATO?

Did the Soviet Union yesterday, or Russia today, participate in European and U.S. colonialism or neocolonialism, or have a worldwide troop deployment and military bases anywhere near that of the U.S. or NATO?

Some will say that Russia is not the Soviet Union and now it’s capitalist. Well, so are Finland and Sweden. But because years of Cold War propaganda did not target the integrity of the people of Finland and Sweden, folks see them in a different light – even though those governments said nothing about the NATO expansion for the past 20 years that caused this crisis and are now enabling and actively expanding the most belligerent military alliance in history at this critical and dangerous moment in time.

Accusations that are today thrown against Russia, if thrown against their people or soldiers, would not be so easily believed, even though the people of Sweden and Finland did not play the deciding role in defeating fascism in World War II that the people of Russia heroically played.

Hopefully, this information countering the lies of the ruling class will help in refocusing our attention on the reality that the U.S. and its imperialist allies are driving us not towards fighting runaway inflation that threatens to impoverish us all, and not towards solutions stopping life-threatening climate change, but are instead driving us towards World War III. And that’s a very bad thing.

So let’s refocus, quickly.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... fter-2014/

Ukraine: Somewhere Between Afghanization and Syrianization
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 30, 2022
Pepe Escobar

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Ukraine is finished as a nation – neither side will rest in this war. The only question is whether it will be an Afghan or Syrian style finale.

One year after the astounding US humiliation in Kabul – and on the verge of another serious comeuppance in Donbass – there is reason to believe Moscow is wary of Washington seeking vengeance: in the form of the ‘Afghanization’ of Ukraine.

With no end in sight to western weapons and finance flowing into Kiev, it must be recognized that the Ukrainian battle is likely to disintegrate into yet another endless war. Like the Afghan jihad in the 1980s which employed US-armed and funded guerrillas to drag Russia into its depths, Ukraine’s backers will employ those war-tested methods to run a protracted battle that can spill into bordering Russian lands.

Yet this US attempt at crypto-Afghanization will at best accelerate the completion of what Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu describes as the “tasks” of its Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. For Moscow right now, that road leads all the way to Odessa.

It didn’t have to be this way. Until the recent assassination of Darya Dugina at Moscow’s gates, the battlefield in Ukraine was in fact under a ‘Syrianization’ process.

Like the foreign proxy war in Syria this past decade, frontlines around significant Ukrainian cities had roughly stabilized. Losing on the larger battlefields, Kiev had increasingly moved to employ terrorist tactics. Neither side could completely master the immense war theater at hand. So the Russian military opted to keep minimal forces in battle – contrary to the strategy it employed in 1980s Afghanistan.

Let’s remind ourselves of a few Syrian facts: Palmyra was liberated in March 2016, then lost and retaken in 2017. Aleppo was liberated only in December 2016. Deir Ezzor in September 2017. A slice of northern Hama in December and January 2018. The outskirts of Damascus in the Spring of 2018. Idlib – and significantly, over 25 percent of Syrian territory – are still not liberated. That tells a lot about rhythm in a war theater.

The Russian military never made a conscious decision to interrupt the multi-channel flow of western weapons to Kiev. Methodically destroying those weapons once they’re in Ukrainian territory – with plenty of success – is another matter. The same applies to smashing mercenary networks.

Moscow is well aware that any negotiation with those pulling the strings in Washington – and dictating all terms to puppets in Brussels and Kiev – is futile. The fight in Donbass and beyond is a do or die affair.

So the battle will go on, destroying what’s left of Ukraine, just as it destroyed much of Syria. The difference is that economically, much more than in Syria, what’s left of Ukraine will plunge into a black void. Only territory under Russian control will be rebuilt, and that includes, significantly, the bulk of Ukraine’s industrial infrastructure.

What’s left – rump Ukraine – has already been plundered anyway, as Monsanto, Cargill and Dupont have already bagged 17 million hectares of prime, fertile arable land – over half of what Ukraine still possesses. That translates de facto as BlackRock, Blackstone and Vanguard, top agro-business shareholders, owning whatever lands that really matter in non-sovereign Ukraine.

Going forward, by next year the Russians will be applying themselves to cutting off Kiev from NATO weapons supplies. As that unfolds, the Anglo-Americans will eventually move whatever puppet regime remains to Lviv. And Kiev terrorism – conducted by Bandera worshippers – will continue to be the new normal in the capital.

The Kazakh double game

By now it’s abundantly clear this is not a mere war of territorial conquest. It’s certainly part of a War of Economic Corridors – as the US spares no effort to sabotage and smash the multiple connectivity channels of Eurasia’s integration projects, be they Chinese-led (Belt and Road Initiative, BRI) or Russian-led (Eurasian Economic Union, EAEU).

Just like the proxy war in Syria remade large swathes of West Asia (witness, for instance, Erdogan about to meet Assad), the fight in Ukraine, in a microcosm, is a war for the reconfiguration of the current world order, where Europe is a mere self-inflicted victim in a minor subplot. The Big Picture is the emergence of multipolarity.

The proxy war in Syria lasted a decade, and it’s not over yet. The same may happen to the proxy war in Ukraine. As it stands, Russia has taken an area that is roughly equivalent to Hungary and Slovakia combined. That’s still far from “task” fulfillment – and it’s bound to go on until Russia has taken all the land right up to the Dnieper as well as Odessa, connecting it to the breakaway Republic of Transnistria.

It’s enlightening to see how important Eurasian actors are reacting to such geopolitical turbulence. And that brings us to the cases of Kazakhstan and Turkey.

The Telegram channel Rybar (with over 640k followers) and hacker group Beregini revealed in an investigation that Kazakhstan was selling weapons to Ukraine, which translates as de facto treason against their own Russian allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Consider too that Kazakhstan is also part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the EAEU, the two hubs of the Eurasian-led multipolar order.

As a consequence of the scandal, Kazakhstan was forced to officially announce the suspension of all weapons exports until the end of 2023.

It began with hackers unveiling how Technoexport – a Kazakh company – was selling armed personnel carriers, anti-tank systems and munitions to Kiev via Jordanian intermediaries, under the orders of the United Kingdom. The deal itself was supervised by the British military attaché in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital.

Nur-Sultan predictably tried to dismiss the allegations, arguing that Technoexport had not asked for export licenses. That was essentially false: the Rybar team discovered that Technoexport instead used Blue Water Supplies, a Jordanian firm, for those. And the story gets even juicier. All the contract documents ended up being found in the computers of Ukrainian intel.

Moreover, the hackers found out about another deal involving Kazspetsexport, via a Bulgarian buyer, for the sale of Kazakh Su-27s, airplane turbines and Mi-24 helicopters. These would have been delivered to the US, but their final destination was Ukraine.

The icing on this Central Asian cake is that Kazakhstan also sells significant amounts of Russian – not Kazakh – oil to Kiev.

So it seems that Nur-Sultan, perhaps unofficially, somehow contributes to the ‘Afghanization’ in the war in Ukraine. No diplomatic leaks confirm it, of course, but bets can be made Putin had a few things to say about that to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in their recent – cordial – meeting.

The Sultan’s balancing act

Turkey is a way more complex case. Ankara is not a member of the SCO, the CSTO or the EAEU. It is still hedging its bets, calculating on which terms it will join the high-speed rail of Eurasian integration. And yet, via several schemes, Ankara allows Moscow to evade the avalanche of western sanctions and embargoes.

Turkish businesses – literally all of them with close connections to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) – are making a killing, and relishing their new role as crossroads warehouse between Russia and the west. It’s an open boast in Istanbul that what Russia cannot buy from Germany or France they buy “from us.” And in fact several EU companies are in on it.

Ankara’s balancing act is as sweet as a good baklava. It gathers economic support from a very important partner right in the middle of the endless, very serious Turkish economic debacle. They agree on nearly everything: Russian gas, S-400 missile systems, the building of the Russian nuclear power plant, tourism – Istanbul is crammed with Russians – Turkish fruits and vegetables.

Ankara-Moscow employ sound textbook geopolitics. They play it openly, in full transparence. That does not mean they are allies. It’s just pragmatic business between states. For instance, an economic response may alleviate a geopolitical problem, and vice-versa.

Obviously the collective west has completely forgotten how that normal state-to-state behavior works. It’s pathetic. Turkey gets “denounced” by the west as traitorous – as much as China.

Of course Erdogan also needs to play to the galleries, so every once in a while he says that Crimea should be retaken by Kiev. After all, his companies also do business with Ukraine – Bayraktar drones and otherwise.

And then there’s proselytizing: Crimea remains theoretically ripe for Turkish influence, where Ankara may exploit the notions of pan-Islamism and mostly pan-Turkism, capitalizing on the historical relations between the peninsula and the Ottoman Empire.

Is Moscow worried? Not really. As for those Bayraktar TB2s sold to Kiev, they will continue to be relentlessly reduced to ashes. Nothing personal. Just business.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... anization/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Thu Sep 01, 2022 11:43 am

activity on all fronts
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/01/2022

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For several days, all eyes have been on the southern front, both on the Ukrainian offensive, which seeks to approach the city of Kherson and try to besiege the Russian troops there, as well as on the situation in Energodar and especially in the central Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is located in that city. While continuing to denounce the nuclear terrorismRussian, the Ukrainian army continues to bombard the area where the plant is located, where the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency has already arrived, which intends to establish itself permanently to guarantee security. Despite its presence, Ukraine, which continues to blame Russia for its own bombing, is unlikely to stop the attacks. The increase in military activity shows a high-tension strategy seeking to exploit vulnerable points for Russian troops, especially the shortage of infantry, to achieve local successes on which to later build a broader offensive.

This is the case of the Andreevka area, Sujoi Stavok, a town that the Ukrainian troops managed to capture in the first hours of the offensive and along which they have advanced a considerable distance into Russian territory, which, together with the attempts to advance on David Brod, have created a dangerous situation in case of further developments. However, the situation is also uncertain for the Ukrainian troops, who have advanced straight into a territory surrounded by Russian troops, so the risk of being surrounded is also high. As reflected yesterdayAs Rybarone of the best-informed Russian sources on the situation at the front, the advances in the previous 24 hours had been considerable, not necessarily because it is a great distance, but because it indicates the consolidation of positions and the inability of the Russian forces to push back the Ukrainian units. In the afternoon, Rybar reported a Russian counterattack north of Sukhoi Stavok, thus attempting to isolate the Ukrainian troops and prevent the supply of material to those units trying to advance.

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Ukrainian advances in 24 hours and direction of the Russian counterattack in the area.

Despite the interest caused by the offensive in Kherson, which represents the first advances, for now timid, of Ukraine since the Russian withdrawal from the territories of kyiv and Chernigov, other areas of the front also deserve attention. The situation in Donbass is especially important, where the front is stalled and where, due to the Ukrainian blockade of the Seversky Donest canal, a critical situation is developing in an area as populous as Donetsk.

Original Article: DonRF

In the course of the third phase of the special military operation to protect Donbass (that is the official name), the following objectives have been achieved so far:

The town of Peski has been liberated.
A number of villages of no strategic importance have been captured.
The fire blockade of the Donetsk urban agglomeration has not been lifted, nor has the water blockade been lifted.
In this context, Ukraine continues to attack in the Kherson area and is preparing to attack in Kharkov. I am skeptical about these attacks, except for one reason: they stretch the reinforcements and do not allow to increase the group in the battle for Donbass. In this sense, there are two possible situations: either you are advancing or you are being attacked. If you are attacked, it means that you are not advancing in other areas. And it's not the army's fault. A living monument should be erected to the boys, the staff and even more so to the "volunteers" who were picked up on the street. But there are not many, they do not have good training or equipment because in this eight years the army has been preparing to meet Minsk.

Yesterday it was published that during the day, two civilians have been killed in the territory of the DPR, another 10 have been injured. Today will not be less, nor the day before. It is like that every day. There is running water three times a week for a couple of hours. It is not something that anyone is willing to tolerate.

“The last few months have become a serious test for Donetsk: the enemy, helpless with anger, tries to harm the city, intimidate its residents. Everything is very hard now, but they are not going to break us.”

The cold season is fast approaching. Under fire. without enough water. Winter promises to be cold. The bombing does not stop for a single day. The situation can be described as difficult or even critical. I don't know if there are reservations, if there is a possibility of reversing the situation in the immediate future, but it is necessary to do so. It is simply necessary. Although the liberation of satellite cities of Donetsk causes a lot of trouble. They will be destroyed, like Marinka, and the population is already without basic aspects. But if it happens in winter...

Ignoring that the general flight of the population to avoid freezing to death in the ruins of the cities is not going to work, it is much easier to find reserves and speed up. The enemy really wants that scenario. The enemy needs cities frozen to death, groups of homeless refugees are needed to illustrate their results and completely discredit the opponent, and Russia has no choice: having started a frontal operation in the DPR, it must be completed. Today is the last day of summer. And this is not something that can be silenced. It is the possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/01/25406/#more-25406

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Ukraine - A Frontline Report - Vanishing Foreign Weapons

Some people ask why I read the New York Times and other such outlets of mostly 'western' propaganda. One obvious reason is to "know your enemy", to find out what the propaganda wants us to think. Another one is to find the gems that give a real picture of a situation which often sneak themselves into the coverage, though usually way below the headline.

Today there is a piece about Ukrainian military units which are trading weapons with each other.

A Frontline Shadow Economy: Ukrainian Units Trade Tanks and Artillery

Within the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, Zmei was not just a lowly sergeant. He was the brigade’s point man for a wartime bartering system among Ukrainian forces. Prevalent along the front line, the exchange operates like a kind of shadow economy, soldiers say, in which units acquire weapons or equipment and trade them for supplies they need urgently.
Most of the bartering involves items captured from Russian troops. Ukrainian soldiers refer to them as “trophies.”


Yes, sure, the Ukrainian units catch so many weapons from the Russians that there is a lively trade of those. However, read beyond the first 25 paragraphs of such heroic trade propaganda to get a picture of the real situation and mood at the front lines:

Alex is waiting for his own kind of repairs. He was shot in the right leg during a patrol in May. The bullet shattered his femur.
He and several other Ukrainian soldiers had been on a reconnaissance patrol in the gray zone — the area between Russian and Ukrainian front lines — when he was hit. The mission had carried two objectives, he said: to find Russian positions and to find abandoned equipment.

“We are losing tanks,” Alex said. “If this war goes the distance, sooner or later we’ll be out of Soviet equipment and other Soviet tanks, so we will have to switch to something else.”

Near his subterranean headquarters not far from the front line, Alex’s battalion commander, Bogdan, described the severity of his unit’s situation. The sound of incoming and outgoing artillery echoed in the fields beyond.

“We’re fighting with whatever we captured from the enemy,” Bogdan said, noting that 80 percent of his current supplies was captured Russian equipment.

“It’s no better in other battalions,” he added.

Bogdan’s unit of around 700 troops had arrived to replace Ukrainian forces worn down by casualties and equipment loss. Now, after six months of acting like a “firefighter” by rushing from one frontline hot spot to the next, his troops were facing a similar fate.

“We are losing a lot of men,” Bogdan said. “We can’t cope with their artillery. This, and airstrikes, are big problems.”

Asked about sophisticated, Western-supplied weapons that government officials say will be the big difference-maker, he said that in his brigade, “nobody has foreign equipment,” adding, “We have a great many questions as to where it goes.”


The 'counteroffensive' towards Kherson has cost the Ukrainians lots of equipment. At least some of the fifty lost tanks that can be seen in various videos were Polish T-72 with thermal optics. Other videos showed the wreckage of M-113 armored transport vehicles, apparently from the Netherlands. (Those sixty year old aluminum cans offer very little protection and should have been retired decades ago.)

So at least some of the 'western' delivered equipment actually makes it to the front lines. Its fate there though is already determined.

But where ALL of the 'western' stuff and ALL the money goes is really a great question.

A few weeks ago CBS showed a video report witch provided that only 30% of the 'western' military equipment that flows into Ukraine actually reaches the frontline. The rest is sold off to whoever is willing to pay for it. After the Zelenski regime protested against the report, CBS pulled the video to 'update' it with new information:

CBS tweeted on Monday that it had removed a video promoting the documentary that included a months-old quote saying most aid was not making it to Ukraine's front lines.
It said it was updating the documentary, called "Arming Ukraine," with "new information" about the delivery of military aid to Ukraine.

Among the material removed was a quote the founder of pro-Ukraine nonprofit Blue-Yellow, Jonas Ohman, who said in late April that only around 30% of aid was reaching the front lines in Ukraine.


CBS said that "Since that time, Ohman says delivery has improved." It also noted that the US had sent an official — Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon — to Kyiv specifically to monitor the use of military aid.

CBS also updated an article that had accompanied the original video report. It now has an editorial note attached to it which says:

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect changes since the CBS Reports documentary "Arming Ukraine" was filmed, and the documentary is also being updated. Jonas Ohman says the delivery has significantly improved since filming with CBS in late April. The government of Ukraine notes that U.S. defense attaché Brigadier General Garrick M. Harmon arrived in Kyiv in August 2022 for arms control and monitoring.

The pulled video summarized reporting and facts gathered over several previous months. The update was published on August 7. The defense attaché arrived in Kiev in early August, just a few days before the 'update' was made. If it is even possible to find out to where weapons are flowing in and from Ukraine, it will take him months to get a glimpse of it. His arrival is thus completely irrelevant for the original report. The edited original now says:

Jonas Ohman is founder and CEO of Blue-Yellow, a Lithuania-based organization that has been meeting with and supplying frontline units with non-lethal military aid in Ukraine since the start of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in 2014. Back in April, he estimated that just "30-40%" of the supplies coming across the border reached its final destination. But he says the situation has significantly improved since then and a much larger quantity now gets where it's supposed to go.

What does it mean if the loss rate of 70-60%, which previously had NOT reaches the final destination, has now significantly decreased? It is now 45% or 50% of all deliveries that are flowing to where they are NOT supposed to end up?

How come that battalion commander Bogdan has seen none of the foreign supplies?

All those thousands of Stingers, Javelins and other man-portable weapons are of huge interest to various nefarious actors. The weapons that vanish in Ukraine to go somewhere will most likely reach places where they can and will be used against 'western' forces or interests.

Those who support the weapon transfers will say that the loss of some share of them does not matter in the big picture. Tell that to those who will die from them.

Posted by b on August 31, 2022 at 9:58 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/u ... .html#more

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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Сolonelcassad
Special operation, 31 August. The main thing from RIA Novosti :

▪️A new attempt by the Zelensky regime to resume offensive operations in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog and other directions has failed, the Russian Defense Ministry said;

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down 57 shells of Ukrainian MLRS HIMARS, Alder and Uragan, as well as seven drones in the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions;

▪️Combat aircraft of the Aerospace Forces hit ten Ukrainian headquarters and 65 artillery units, destroyed three weapons and ammunition depots, as well as a launcher of the Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system;

▪️An IAEA mission of 14 people, including the agency's director general, arrived in Zaporozhye to conduct an inspection at the Zaporozhye NPP;

▪️The Kyiv regime provokes the disruption of the IAEA mission at the ZNPP, during the shelling of the station, a shell hit the building for processing radioactive waste, the Russian Defense Ministry said;

▪️Russia circulated a letter to the UN Security Council with evidence of shelling by Ukrainian troops on August 29 of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

***

forwarded from
Witnesses of Bayraktar
Breakthrough to Kherson. This is where the eyes of all analysts are now directed. We climbed for 2 days near Soledar. Yes, the place is not hype, but it is important for understanding the overall picture on the front.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine recently made a rotation of personnel. Motivated fighters entered the position. If earlier we talked about retention groups consisting of poorly trained reservists. Now they have been replaced by a new set, equipped with NATO weapons. The new shift switched to the tactics of aggressive defense. Small groups are not afraid to come close to our positions and try to take individual points in a hurry.

We walked around familiar places. If earlier they went there during the day, now they move exclusively at night. Armed forces are increasingly using wing-type UAVs. Shooting them down is more difficult, and they fly farther and longer than the Maviks.

The number of attacks on our positions has increased markedly. The lack of shells in this sector of the front of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been overcome, and they can work on a single target from 155mm guns. In addition, I note the counter-battery fight. The new shift brought radars with them, which seriously spoils the nerves of our gunners.

In a word, the approach of Ukrainian fresh forces is felt along the entire front line. Shabby connections are brought to the rear. There they will be understaffed, transferred to NATO equipment and prepared for new attacks. It is important not to oversleep this moment.

Alexander Kharchenko

***

forwarded from
military chronicle
APU is preparing an attack near Kharkov. They want to throw the defense into battle.

Against the backdrop of attempts to “counterattack” in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian army is building up its forces in the Kharkov direction, where it also wants to try to “attack”.

In particular, strengthening occurs in the areas of n. settlements of Chepel and Velikaya Kamyshevakha (15 km from Izyum) and Prishib and Gusarovka (12-14 km from Balakleya).

In total, at least five battalion tactical groups (BTGs) of 500-600 people each are concentrated here. BTGs are represented by units of the 4th Operational Brigade, the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade, the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, and the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The artillery of the group was reinforced with Polish self-propelled guns Krab and American M109, NLAW ATGM crews. The tank part of the "fist" consists of several dozen obsolete Soviet T-72AV tanks, Polish T-72M1 in the export version, as well as more modern PT-91 Twardy - also Polish.

Over the past 24 hours, these positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been fired upon by Russian aircraft at least twice.

The remnants of the national battalion "Kraken" were placed in the rear of the group. According to the testimonies of local residents, the nationalists have already fired at the AFU fighters who left their positions after the attack of the VKS, and forced them to return.

Currently, the group is being reinforced with about ten more battalion territorial defense groups, assembled in three months from recently mobilized ones. Thus, in total, this grouping is unlikely to exceed 8-9 thousand people, which is comparable to the forces that Kyiv threw into the attack in the Kherson direction. At the same time, most of the soldiers are non-professional military.

@milchronicles

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the "Kherson offensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at 22.45 Moscow time on August 31, 2022 , specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z channel If in most areas the battles took on a positional character, then in the Arkhangelsk-Olginka-Vysokopolie area, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to try to break through the front and try to encircle the grouping of the RF Armed Forces in Vysokopolie. The enemy does not take into account heavy losses in people and equipment. At the moment, fighting continues in Arkhangelsk and in the Olginka area. In the area of ​​​​Davydov Brod, the enemy launched several attacks, but they were unsuccessful. Several landing boats and tanks supporting them with fire were destroyed.

In the area of ​​​​the village of Sukhoi Stavok, the enemy was able, despite losses all the way from Andreevka, to accumulate a shock fist and try to rush to Bruskinskoye in order to cut off the road leading to Davydov Brod, but was thrown back.

Now the battles are going for Sukhoi Stavok and Kostroma. The enemy found himself in a situation where he must either attack at any cost or retreat to the Andreevsky bridgehead, since in the area of ​​Sukhoi Stavok and Kostromka he suffers serious losses from Russian artillery fire.

In the Nikolaevsky direction, the enemy had only limited advance in the region of Ternovye Vody. Fighting continued in the area of ​​Blagodatny and Posad-Pokrovsky.

In general, the operational crisis in the Krivoy Rog sector continues to develop, gradually approaching its climax.

@voenkorKotenok

***

Сolonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦The situation in the Nikolaevsko-Krivoy Rog direction
by the end of August 31, 2022

🔻On the third day of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Kherson , the enemy decided to push through the defense of the RF Armed Forces in three sectors at once: in the area of ​​​​Posad-Pokrovsky , Andreevka and Vysokopole . Near Alexandrovka and Blagodatny (Komsomolsky) , the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not have any success, and still do not.

Despite the superiority of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in technology, reconnaissance accuracy, target designation and artillery fire, the hastily assembled reserves on the battlefield showed a complete lack of training and lack of training.

In some areas, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the militia of the territorial defense detachments went into battle at full height, chipped with military chemicals.

▪️On the Posad-Pokrovsky section of the front :
➖By the middle of the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were able to push through the defense of the RF Armed Forces near Zeleny Guy , having developed success from Ternovy Pod . Temporarily, Russian units were thrown back to the northern border of Kiselevka .
➖A few hours later, the RF Armed Forces, due to the released mobile reserve from Aleksandrovka, managed to return to their starting line Blagodatnoye (Petrovskoye) - Zeleny Guy .
➖Ljubomirovka (Red Banner) and Ternovye Pod remain under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Soldier and Peaceful in the gray zone.

▪️On the Snigirevsky sector of the front :
➖The Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack Blagodatnoye (Komsomolskoye) from the north from Partizansky and from the west from Kiselevka . The Armed Forces of Ukraine retreated after the loss of five pieces of equipment and half a company of personnel killed and wounded.
➖In Partizanskoye , an APU ammunition station was blown up.

▪️On the Andreevsky sector of the front :
➖The Armed Forces of Ukraine threw reserves from armored vehicles and personnel into a suicidal spurt across the steppe. It was possible to advance from Sukhoi Stavka to Kostromka and the southwestern outskirts of Bruskinskoe .
➖By evening, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation regained the initiative, secured the Davydov Brod - Bruskinskoye - Novaya Kakhovka highway and clamped down the fire of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Sukhoi Headquarters and Kostromka . The entire corridor from Andreevka is under full fire control of the Russian troops.
➖Also, the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to expand control to the Plotnitsky tract , located east of Lozovaya .

▪️On the Olginsky sector of the front :
➖In the morning, there were reports that Arkhangelsk had come under the control of the enemy. By the middle of the day, the RF Armed Forces launched a counteroffensive, trying to retake the village. There are still fights going on in the village.
➖In Olgino , Russian units are successfully holding the defense. In Vysokopolye , they managed to remove the encirclement and go on the counterattack. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are focused on knocking out reinforcements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

🔻Thus, under the confident control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are Krasnoye Znamya, Ternovye Pody, Andreevka, Lozovoe, Sukhoi Stavok . Controversial control over Arkhangelsk , Olgino , Vysokopolye , and Kostromka .

The continuation of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine rests on the availability of manpower and equipment. And one and the other is still enough. For the time being, the Ukrainian side can afford to fill up the front with the skeletons of battered equipment and the corpses of servicemen stabbed with military chemicals.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have already managed to cope with two waves of offensive. We are waiting for the third wave in the best traditions of NATO training manuals.

Image

***

forwarded from
Special for RT
Expert of the Center for Military-Political Journalism, author of the Telegram channel @boris_rozhin Boris Rozhin

Counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the

Kherson region failed to achieve the desired goals. With minor advances with the occupation of insignificant villages, heavy losses were suffered in people, as well as heavy and light armored vehicles. The result turned out to be disproportionate to the costs, so already yesterday the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine issued an urgent recommendation to journalists, bloggers and experts not to comment on the course of the offensive, therefore, against the backdrop of an abundanceimages of destroyed Ukrainian equipment in the Ukrainian news segment, there was a painful silence.

On the morning of August 31, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continued to attempt offensive operations in the Vysokopole region , hoping to still achieve the encirclement of the Russian group in this settlement, which leads to ongoing attacks in the Potemkin and Olginka areaswhere fierce battles are taking place. In most other sectors, the front has stabilized and only minor tactical advances are observed. This is largely due to the fact that in open areas an important role is played by the deterrent of artillery fire, as well as air support. This explains the significant losses of the enemy in armored vehicles (mainly various Polish modifications of the T-72, as well as BMP-1 from the warehouses of the former Warsaw Pact organization).

The enemy’s most serious advance was from the Andreevsky bridgehead on the Ingulets River , where he was able to take Lozovaya and advance to the village of Sukhoi Stavok, from where it was squeezed out by artillery fire. The enemy is trying to saturate the resulting wedging into our defenses with reserves in order to either try to attack in the direction of Berislav , or try to attack on the flank of our positions at Davydov Brod . Our troops, in turn, are working on this bridgehead in order to push the enemy back to Ingulets and grind what is left of the enemy's shock fist. So far, this is leading to positional battles in the area of ​​​​the village of Sukhoi Stavok.

In general, the Armed Forces of Ukraine expectedly tried to implement one of the variations of the plan of attack on Berislav, focusing on Krivoy Rog and Nikopoldirections. Against the backdrop of talk about an attack on Kherson, the real goal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is the implementation of a less ambitious plan related to cutting off part of the bridgehead of the RF Armed Forces on the right bank of the Dnieper in the direction of Berislav.

This was confirmed back in mid-August by the plan of attack on Berislav, published by the Beregini hacker group, developed by the Primorye OTG headquarters.

It can be stated that at the moment the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not made significant progress towards this goal. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as a whole held back the blow and are now engaged in eliminating the consequences of the operational crisis.

However, there is a well-founded point of view that the entire “attack on Kherson” can serve as an overture to the upcoming activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov and Izyum directions. A number of well-informed sources have indicated in the last week that, under the cover of information hype about the attack on Kherson, the enemy is moving troops to the Kharkov and Izyum directions in order to try to succeed either north of Kharkov, pushing our troops back to the border, or else try to storm Balakleya to west of Izyum.

***

Сolonelcassad

Image

The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 16.00 on August 31, 2022

▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine nevertheless expanded the zone of control at Sukhoi Stavka and, having occupied Kostromka , reached the southwestern outskirts of the village of Bruskinskoye , through which the group is supplied in Davydov Brod .

As a result of attacks on Sukhoi Headquarters and Andreevka , the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost at least thirty units of armored vehicles. The corridor from the pontoon crossing across the steppe is littered with traces of a victorious offensive. But the Armed Forces of Ukraine achieved their goal: having lost personnel and equipment in a suicidal attack, they managed to line the corridor over the corpses.

▪️At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not give up their attempts to move northeast from Lozovoye through the Plotnitskoye tract and go through the coastal forests to Belogorka .


***

Сolonelcassad

Image

The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Olginsky sector
as of 16.00 on August 31, 2022

▪️By the middle of the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were able to push the units of the RF Armed Forces from the northern outskirts of Arkhangelsk to reserve positions. Now both sides are trying to seize the settlement and seize the initiative.

▪️Videos of “Euro-Ichkerians” who participated in the assault on Arkhangelsk from Ivanovka got on the Web. Now, from the side of the Dnepropetrovsk region and Krivoy Rog, a real European international is advancing on the positions of the RF Armed Forces: Europeanized Chechens, together with Legion mercenaries, riding on Polish armored vehicles.

They plug up holes and throw "meat" from the defense against the assault.

▪️The military contingents in Olgino and Vysokopolye have been successfully holding the line for the third day already. Artillery and aviation fire destroys enemy reinforcements being transferred. It is not possible to fully regain control over settlements.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

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

Troopers at the ZNPP
September 1, 10:18

Image

Early in the morning at about 6 am in the area of ​​the ZNPP, the enemy tried to land troops on motor boats in the area of ​​Vodyanoye. Also sunk were two self-propelled barges with landing troops that left Nikopol. Landed up to 60 people who wanted to advance to the station and capture it.
The enemy's attempt was revealed, after which a battle ensued, which prevented the Ukrainian militants from advancing to the ZNPP.
At 10 a.m., it was reported that part of the group had been destroyed (the Kherson Regional State Administration claims almost 40 killed), and the forces of the National Guard and the RF Armed Forces are working on the rest. Attack helicopters were observed over Energodar. The enemy has been shelling Energodar and the ZNPP territory since night.
It is quite obvious that this was an attempt to impudently seize the ZNPP before the visit of the IAEA mission and designate "Ukrainian control" over the station.
And it is quite possible to disrupt the visit if the fighting unfolded directly on the territory of the station.

Official on the topic:

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the attempt of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to seize the ZNPP:

On September 1, the Kiev regime attempted a major provocation to disrupt the arrival of the IAEA working group at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and the meeting place of the IAEA mission with Russian specialists in the area of ​​​​the village of Vasilyevka. 4 shells exploded at a distance of 400 meters from the first power unit of the Zaporozhye NPP.

At 6.20 Moscow time, on the coast of the Kakhovka reservoir, three kilometers northeast of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, 2 sabotage groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, up to 60 people in 7 motor boats, landed. The saboteurs were blocked by the fighters of the Russian Guard guarding the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, and units of the Russian army who approached them to reinforce. Currently, the destruction of the sabotage group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the involvement of army aviation helicopters is underway.

At about 07:00 Moscow time, units of the Russian Armed Forces thwarted an attempt to land a tactical assault force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on two self-propelled barges that left Nikopol a few kilometers from the Zaporizhzhya NPP in the area of ​​​​the village of Vodiane. As a result of the fire damage of the Russian armed forces, two self-propelled barges with tactical landing forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were sunk.

Yesterday, on August 31, the armed forces of Ukraine attacked the territory of the nuclear power plant with three “kamikaze drones”. All unmanned aerial vehicles were neutralized by Russian electronic warfare systems on approach to the station. Two of them fell on the roof of the training center. There are no casualties or destruction.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7835060.html

Google Translator

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

Ukraine Tries To Prevent IAEA Inspection Of The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Over night the Ukrainian military, from positions in Vyshetarasovka, Nikopol and Marganets, again shelled the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the south side of the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

Image

This was fallowed by an early morning attempt by Ukrainian forces to land a sabotage group near the village north east of the ZNPP. Some seven boats, two self-motorized barges and some 60 soldiers were involved in the suicidal mission.

Image

The paramilitary Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) which protects the plant immediately detected the insertion and attacked it. The Russian army send Ka-52 attack helicopters to help destroy the Ukrainian force. The two barges were sunk.

As the little town where the troops landed is outside of power plant there is no danger to the reactors.

An inspector team under IAEA director Rafael Grossi is on its way to the ZNPP.

U.N. nuclear safety officials who are heading to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia power plant are facing intense shelling but will continue to travel to the facility, the team's leader said Thursday.
"There has been increased military activity, including this morning — until very recently, a few minutes ago," Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Thursday morning. But he added defiantly: "Having come so far, we are not stopping. We are moving now," despite the fact "the risks are very very high."


Grossi concluded his press statement by saying: "Wish us luck, we are moving now ... It's very important that the world knows what's happening here."

The IAEA inspectors are expected to cross the frontline between Ukrainian-held land and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and reach the nuclear power, Europe's largest, later on Thursday. The U.N. inspectors will continue to advance, despite the fact intense shelling has been reported by both Ukraine and Russia around Zaporizhzhia, amid fears the risks of a nuclear accident are increasing.[/b]

The Russian Ministry of Defense has said that the planned meeting point with the inspectors had come under fire from Ukrainian artillery.

Meanwhile 'western' media continue to quote the ludicrous Ukrainian claims that the Russia is shelling the power plant which is under its troops control since early March:

On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of shelling the path the IAEA inspectors will take to reach the plant to force the group to pass through Crimea instead. They did not provide evidence for their claims, and Russia did not directly respond to the allegation. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, “Russia is doing everything or even more in order to make the mission … happen, be safe, and accomplish all of its tasks.”
...
“Every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week.
Ukrainian officials remain worried that the Kremlin’s forces will sanitize the plant ahead of the visit and intimidate workers into not telling the truth about Russian behavior, prompting the IAEA to bless the safety protocols at the plant. That would, in effect, legitimize Russia’s occupying presence, the Ukrainians fear.

“The worst-case scenario is when they come and say it’s best that the station is under Russian control [and] in general, nuclear safety protocols are followed,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Washington Post last week.

The nuclear inspectors were scheduled to spend the night at a hotel in Zaporizhzhia before visiting the plant first thing on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the plant said.


The U.S. military disagrees with the Ukrainian claim that Russia is shelling the ZNPP. On Monday a Pentagon background briefing touched the issue:

Q: [..] White House Strategic Communications Coordinator Kirby said earlier today that the U.S. does not have a way of -- of accounting the number of shells -- artillery shells fired around the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine. I was wondering if you could give clarity on exactly what level of visibility the U.S. has on the military activity around the plant and which side is shelling at any given moment?
SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIAL: Yeah, I -- so what I know for sure is that the -- the Russians are firing from around the plant and, you know, I also know that there are rounds that have impacted near the plant. You know, the way that we're tracking the forces around the nuclear power plant -- it's not like there's a -- a constant -- it's hard to explain, I guess. It's not like there are forces in every square inch of the area around the plant. And so we also know that the Russians have fired in the vicinity of the plant.

And I don't want to say that the Ukrainians haven't fired in that vicinity either because I think there's probably a likelihood that they have, but in good -- in a number of cases, it's returning fire of the Russians who are firing from those locations.


... and in a number of other cases they target the power plant.

Posted by b on September 1, 2022 at 10:19 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/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 » Thu Sep 01, 2022 11:05 pm

Jacques Baud: Operation Z
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 1, 2022
Postil Magazine Interviews Jacques Baud

Image

After more than six months of war, it can be said that the Russian army is effective and efficient, and that the quality of its command & control far exceeds what we see in the West. But our perception is influenced by a reporting that is focused on the Ukrainian side, and by distortions of reality. – Jacques Baud

We are pleased to bring you this fresh interview with Jacques Baud, in which we cover what is now happening in the geopolitical struggle that is the Ukraine-Russia war. As always, Mr. Baud brings deep insight and clear analysis to the conversation.


================================================================================

The Postil (TP): You have just published your latest book on the war in Ukraine—Operation Z, published by Max Milo. Please tell us a little about it—what led you to write this book and what do you wish to convey to readers?

Jacques Baud (JB): The aim of this book is to show how the misinformation propagated by our media has contributed to push Ukraine in the wrong direction. I wrote it under the motto “from the way we understand crises derives the way we solve them.”

By hiding many aspects of this conflict, the Western media has presented us with a caricatural and artificial image of the situation, which has resulted in the polarization of minds. This has led to a widespread mindset that makes any attempt to negotiate virtually impossible.


The one-sided and biased representation provided by mainstream media is not intended to help us solve the problem, but to promote hatred of Russia. Thus, the exclusion of disabled athletes, cats, even Russian trees from competitions, the dismissal of conductors, the de-platforming of Russian artists, such as Dostoyevsky, or even the renaming of paintings aims at excluding the Russian population from society! In France, bank accounts of individuals with Russian-sounding names were even blocked. Social networks Facebook and Twitter have systematically blocked the disclosure of Ukrainian crimes under the pretext of “hate speech” but allow the call for violence against Russians.

None of these actions had any effect on the conflict, except to stimulate hatred and violence against the Russians in our countries. This manipulation is so bad that we would rather see Ukrainians die than to seek a diplomatic solution. As Republican Senator Lindsey Graham recently said, it is a matter of letting the Ukrainians fight to the last man.

It is commonly assumed that journalists work according to standards of quality and ethics to inform us in the most honest way possible. These standards are set by the Munich Charter of 1971. While writing my book I found out that no French-speaking mainstream media in Europe respects this charter as far as Russia and China are concerned. In fact, they shamelessly support an immoral policy towards Ukraine, described by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico, as “We provide the weapons, you provide the corpses!”

To highlight this misinformation, I wanted to show that information allowing to provide a realistic picture of the situation was available as early as February, but that our media did not relay it to the public. My goal was to show this contradiction.

In order to avoid becoming a propagandist myself in favor of one side or the other, I have relied exclusively on Western, Ukrainian (from Kiev) and Russian opposition sources. I have not taken any information from the Russian media.

TP: It is commonly said in the West that this war has “proven” that the Russian army is feeble and that its equipment is useless. Are these assertions true?

JB: No. After more than six months of war, it can be said that the Russian army is effective and efficient, and that the quality of its command & control far exceeds what we see in the West. But our perception is influenced by a reporting that is focused on the Ukrainian side, and by distortions of reality.

Firstly, there is the reality on the ground. It should be remembered that what the media call “Russians” is in fact a Russian-speaking coalition, composed of professional Russian fighters and soldiers of the popular militias of Donbass. The operations in the Donbass are mainly carried out by these militias, who fight on “their” terrain, in towns and villages they know and where they have friends and family. They are therefore advancing cautiously for themselves, but also to avoid civilian casualties. Thus, despite the claims of western propaganda, the coalition enjoys a very good popular support in the areas it occupies.

Then, just looking at a map, you can see that the Donbass is a region with a lot of built-up and inhabited areas, which means an advantage for the defender and a reduced speed of progress for the attacker in all circumstances.

Secondly, there is the way our media portray the evolution of the conflict. Ukraine is a huge country and small-scale maps hardly show the differences from one day to another. Moreover, each side has its own perception of the progress of the enemy. If we take the example of the situation on March 25, 2022, we can see that the map of the French daily newspaper Ouest-France (a) shows almost no advance of Russia, as does the Swiss RTS site (b). The map of the Russian website RIAFAN (c) may be propaganda, but if we compare it with the map of the French Military Intelligence Directorate (DRM) (d), we see that the Russian media is probably closer to the truth. All these maps were published on the same day, but the French newspaper and the Swiss state media did not choose to use the DRM map and preferred to use a Ukrainian map. This illustrates that our media work like propaganda outlets.

Image
Figure 1 – Comparison of the maps presented in our media on 25 March 2022. It is this way of presenting the Russian offensive that has led to the assertion that the Russian army is weak. It also shows that the information provided by the Russian media seems closer to reality than that given by Ukraine.

Thirdly, our “experts” have themselves determined the objectives of the Russian offensive. By claiming that Russia wanted to take over Ukraine and its resources, to take over Kiev in two days, etc., our experts have literally invented and attributed to the Russians objectives that Putin never mentioned. In May 2022, Claude Wild, the Swiss ambassador in Kiev, declared on RTS that the Russians had “lost the battle for Kiev.” But in reality, there was never a “battle for Kiev.” It is obviously easy to claim that the Russians did not reach their objectives—if they never tried to reach them!

Fourthly, the West and Ukraine have created a misleading picture of their adversary. In France, Switzerland and Belgium, none of the military experts on television have any knowledge of military operations and how the Russians conduct theirs. Their “expertise” comes from the rumours from the war in Afghanistan or Syria, which are often merely Western propaganda. These experts have literally falsified the presentation of Russian operations.

Thus, the objectives announced as early as February 24 by Russia were the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the threat to the populations of Donbass. These objectives are related to the neutralization of capabilities, not the seizure of land or resources. To put it bluntly, in theory, to achieve their goals the Russians do not need to advance—it would be enough if Ukrainians themselves would come and get killed.

In other words, our politicians and media have pushed Ukraine to defend the terrain like in France during the First World War. They pushed Ukrainian troops to defend every square meter of ground in “last stand” situations. Ironically, the West has only made the Russians’ job easier.

In fact, as with the war on terror, Westerners see the enemy as they would like him to be, not as he is. As Sun Tzu said 2,500 years ago, this is the best recipe for losing a war.

One example is the so-called “hybrid war” that Russia is allegedly waging against the West. In June 2014, as the West tried to explain Russia’s (imaginary) intervention in the Donbass conflict, Russia expert Mark Galeotti “revealed” the existence of a doctrine that would illustrate the Russian concept of hybrid warfare. Known as the “Gerasimov Doctrine,” it has never really been defined by the West as to what it consists of and how it could ensure military success. But it is used to explain how Russia wages war in Donbass without sending troops there and why Ukraine consistently loses its battles against the rebels. In 2018, realizing that he was wrong, Galeotti apologized—courageously and intelligently—in an article titled, “I’m Sorry for Creating the Gerasimov Doctrine” published in Foreign Policy magazine.

Despite this, and without knowing what it meant, our media and politicians continued to pretend that Russia was waging a hybrid war against Ukraine and the West. In other words, we imagined a type of war that does not exist and we prepared Ukraine for it. This is also what explains the challenge for Ukraine to have a coherent strategy to counter Russian operations.

The West does not want to see the situation as it really is. The Russian-speaking coalition has launched its offensive with an overall strength inferior to that of the Ukrainians in a ratio of 1-2:1. To be successful when you are outnumbered, you must create local and temporary superiorities by quickly moving your forces on the battlefield.

This is what the Russians call “operational art” (operativnoe iskoustvo). This notion is poorly understood in the West. The term “operational” used in NATO has two translations in Russian: “operative” (which refers to a command level) and “operational” (which defines a condition). It is the art of maneuvering military formations, much like a chess game, in order to defeat a superior opponent.

For example, the operation around Kiev was not intended to “deceive” the Ukrainians (and the West) about their intentions, but to force the Ukrainian army to keep large forces around the capital and thus “pin them down.” In technical terms, this is what is called a “shaping operation.” Contrary to the analysis of some “experts,” it was not a “deception operation,” which would have been conceived very differently and would have involved much larger forces. The aim was to prevent a reinforcement of the main body of the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass.

The main lesson of this war at this stage confirms what we know since the Second World War: the Russians master the operational art.

TP: Questions about Russia’s military raises the obvious question—how good is Ukraine’s military today? And more importantly, why do we not hear so much about the Ukrainian army?

JB: The Ukrainian servicemen are certainly brave soldiers who perform their duty conscientiously and courageously. But my personal experience shows that in almost every crisis, the problem is at the head. The inability to understand the opponent and his logic and to have a clear picture of the actual situation is the main reason for failures.

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive, we can distinguish two ways of conducting the war. On the Ukrainian side, the war is waged in the political and informational spaces, while on the Russian side the war is waged in the physical and operational space. The two sides are not fighting in the same spaces. This is a situation that I described in 2003 in my book, La guerre asymétrique ou la défaite du vainqueur (Asymmetric War, or the Defeat of the Winner). The trouble is that at the end of the day, the reality of the terrain prevails.

On the Russian side, decisions are made by the military, while on the Ukrainian side, Zelensky is omnipresent and the central element in the conduct of the war. He makes operational decisions, apparently often against the military’s advice. This explains the rising tensions between Zelensky and the military. According to Ukrainian media, Zelensky could dismiss General Valery Zoluzhny by appointing him Minister of Defence.

The Ukrainian army has been extensively trained by American, British and Canadian officers since 2014. The trouble is that for over 20 years, Westerners have been fighting armed groups and scattered adversaries and engaged entire armies against individuals. They fight wars at the tactical level and somehow have lost the ability to fight at the strategic and operative levels. This explains partly why Ukraine is waging its war at this level.

But there is a more conceptual dimension. Zelensky and the West see war as a numerical and technological balance of forces. This is why, since 2014, the Ukrainians have never tried to seduce the rebels and they now think that the solution will come from the weapons supplied by the West. The West provided Ukraine with a few dozen M777 guns and HIMARS and MLRS missile launchers, while Ukraine had several thousand equivalent artillery pieces in February. The Russian concept of “correlation of forces,” takes into account many more factors and is more holistic than the Western approach. That is why the Russians are winning.

To comply with ill-considered policies, our media have constructed a virtual reality that gives Russia the bad role. For those who observe the course of the crisis carefully, we could almost say they presented Russia as a “mirror image” of the situation in Ukraine. Thus, when the talk about Ukrainian losses began, Western communication turned to Russian losses (with figures given by Ukraine).

The so-called “counter-offensives” proclaimed by Ukraine and the West in Kharkov and Kherson in April-May were merely “counter-attacks.” The difference between the two is that counter-offensive is an operational notion, while counter-attack is a tactical notion, which is much more limited in scope. These counterattacks were possible because the density of Russian troops in these sectors was then 1 Battle Group (BTG) per 20 km of front. By comparison, in the Donbass sector, which was the primary focus, the Russian coalition had 1-3 BTG per km. As for the great August offensive on Kherson, which was supposed to take over the south of the country, it seems to have been nothing but a myth to maintain Western support.

Today, we see that the claimed Ukrainian successes were in fact failures. The human and material losses that were attributed to Russia were in fact more in line with those of Ukraine. In mid-June, David Arakhamia, Zelensky’s chief negotiator and close adviser, spoke of 200 to 500 deaths per day, and he mentioned casualties (dead, wounded, captured, deserters) of 1,000 men per day. If we add to this the renewed demands for arms by Zelensky, we can see that the idea of a victory for Ukraine appears quite an illusion.

Because Russia’s economy was thought to be comparable to Italy’s, it was assumed that it would be equally vulnerable. Thus, the West—and the Ukrainians—thought that economic sanctions and political isolation of Russia would quickly cause its collapse, without passing through a military defeat. Indeed, this is what we understand from the interview of Oleksei Arestovich, Zelensky’s advisor and spokesman, in March 2019. This also explains why Zelensky did not sound the alarm in early 2022, as he says in his interview with the Washington Post. I think he knew that Russia would respond to the offensive Ukraine was preparing in the Donbass (which is why the bulk of his troops were in that area) and thought that sanctions would quickly lead to Russia’s collapse and defeat. This is what Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy, had “predicted.” Clearly, the Westerners have made decisions without knowing their opponent.

As Arestovich said, the idea was that the defeat of Russia would be Ukraine’s entry ticket to NATO. So, the Ukrainians were pushed to prepare an offensive in the Donbass in order to make Russia react, and thus obtain an easy defeat through devastating sanctions. This is cynical and shows how much the West—led by the Americans—has misused Ukraine for its own objectives.

The result is that the Ukrainians did not seek Ukraine’s victory, but Russia’s defeat. This is very different and explains the Western narrative from the first days of the Russian offensive, which prophesied this defeat.

But the reality is that the sanctions did not work as expected, and Ukraine found itself dragged into combats that it had provoked, but for which it was not prepared to fight for so long.

This is why, from the outset, the Western narrative presented a mismatch between media reported and the reality on the ground. This had a perverse effect: it encouraged Ukraine to repeat its mistakes and prevented it from improving its conduct of operations. Under the pretext of fighting Vladimir Putin, we pushed Ukraine to sacrifice thousands of human lives unnecessarily.

From the beginning, it was obvious that the Ukrainians were consistently repeating their mistakes (and even the same mistakes as in 2014-2015), and soldiers were dying on the battlefield. For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky called for more and more sanctions, including the most absurd ones, because he was led to believe that they were decisive.

I am not the only one to have noticed these mistakes, and Western countries could certainly have stopped this disaster. But their leaders, excited by the (fanciful) reports of Russian losses and thinking they were paving the way for regime change, added sanctions to sanctions, turning down any possibility of negotiation. As the French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire said, the objective was to provoke the collapse of the Russian economy and make the Russian people suffer. This is a form of state terrorism: the idea is to make the population suffer in order to push it into revolting against its leaders (here, Putin). I am not making this up. This mechanism is detailed by Richard Nephew, head of sanctions at the State Department under Obama and currently Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption, in his book entitled, The Art of Sanctions. Ironically, this is exactly the same logic that the Islamic State invoked to explain its attacks in France in 2015-2016. France probably does not encourage terrorism—but it does practice it.

The mainstream media do not present the war as it is, but as they would like it to be. This is pure wishful thinking. The apparent public support for the Ukrainian authorities, despite huge losses (some mention 70,000-80,000 fatalities), is achieved by banning the opposition, a ruthless hunt for officials who disagree with the government line, and “mirror” propaganda that attributes to the Russians the same failures as the Ukrainians. All this with the conscious support of the West.

TP: What should we make of the explosion at the Saki airbase in the Crimea?

JB: I do not know the details of the current security situation in Crimea. . We know that before February there were cells of volunteer fighters of Praviy Sektor (a neo-Nazi militia) in Crimea, ready to carry out terrorist-type attacks. Have these cells been neutralized? I don’t know; but one can assume so, since there is apparently very little sabotage activity in Crimea. Having said that, let us not forget that Ukrainians and Russians have lived together for many decades and there are certainly pro-Kiev individuals in the areas taken by the Russians. It is therefore realistic to think that there could be sleeper cells in these areas.

More likely it is a campaign conducted by the Ukrainian security service (SBU) in the territories occupied by the Russian-speaking coalition. This is a terrorist campaign targeting pro-Russian Ukrainian personalities and officials. It follows major changes in the leadership of the SBU, in Kiev, and in the regions, including Lvov, Ternopol since July. It is probably in the context of this same campaign that Darya Dugina was assassinated on August 21. The objective of this new campaign could be to convey the illusion that there is an ongoing resistance in the areas taken by the Russians and thus revive Western aid, which is starting to fatigue.

These sabotage activities do not really have an operational impact and seem more related to a psychological operation. It may be that these are actions like the one on Snake Island at the beginning of May, intended to demonstrate to the international public that Ukraine is acting.

What the incidents in Crimea indirectly show is that the popular resistance claimed by the West in February does not exist. It is most likely the action of Ukrainian and Western (probably British) clandestine operatives. Beyond the tactical actions, this shows the inability of the Ukrainians to activate a significant resistance movement in the areas seized by the Russian-speaking coalition.

TP: Zelensky has famously said, “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up.” Is this rhetoric, or is there a plan to attack Crimea? Are there Ukrainian operatives inside Crimea?

JB: First of all, Zelensky changes his opinion very often. In March 2022, he made a proposal to Russia, stating that he was ready to discuss a recognition of Russian sovereignty over the peninsula. It was upon the intervention of the European Union and Boris Johnson on 2 April and on 9 April that he withdrew his proposal, despite Russia’s favorable interest.

It is necessary to recall some historical facts. The cession of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was never formally validated by the parliaments of the USSR, Russia and Ukraine during the communist era. Moreover, the Crimean people agreed to be subject to the authority of Moscow and no longer of Kiev as early as January 1991. In other words, Crimea was independent from Kiev even before Ukraine became independent from Moscow in December 1991.

In July, Aleksei Reznikov, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, spoke loudly of a major counter-offensive on Kherson involving one million men to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. In reality, Ukraine has not managed to gather the troops, armor and air cover needed for this far-fetched offensive. Sabotage actions in Crimea may be a substitute for this “counter-offensive.” They seem to be more of a communication exercise than a real military action. These actions seem to be aimed rather at reassuring Western countries which are questioning the relevance of their unconditional support to Ukraine.

TP: Would you tell us about the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility?

JB: In Energodar, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), has been the target of several attacks by artillery, which Ukrainians and Russians attribute to the opposing side.

What we know is that the Russian coalition forces have occupied the ZNPP site since the beginning of March. The objective at that time was to secure the ZNPP quickly, in order to prevent it from being caught up in the fighting and thus avoid a nuclear incident. The Ukrainian personnel who were in charge of it have remained on site and continue to work under the supervision of the Ukrainian company Energoatom and the Ukrainian nuclear safety agency (SNRIU). There is therefore no fighting around the plant.

It is hard to see why the Russians would shell a nuclear plant that is under their control. This allegation is even more peculiar since the Ukrainians themselves state that there are Russian troops in the premises of the site. According to a French “expert,” the Russians would attack the power plant they control to cut off the electricity flowing to Ukraine. Not only would there be simpler ways to cut off the electricity to Ukraine (a switch, perhaps?), but Russia has not stopped the electricity supply to the Ukrainians since March. Moreover, I remind you that Russia has not stopped the flow of natural gas to Ukraine and has continued to pay Ukraine the transit fees for gas to Europe. It is Zelensky who decided to shut down the Soyuz pipeline in May.

Moreover, it should be remembered that the Russians are in an area where the population is generally favorable to them and it is hard to understand why they would take the risk of a nuclear contamination of the region.

In reality, the Ukrainians have more credible motives than the Russians that may explain such attacks against the ZNPP. , which are not mutually exclusive: an alternative to the big counter-offensive on Kherson, which they are not able to implement, and to prevent the planned referendums in the region. Further, Zelensky’s calls for demilitarizing the area of the power plant and even returning it to Ukraine would be a political and operational success for him. One might even imagine that they seek to deliberately provoke a nuclear incident in order to create a “no man’s land” and thus render the area unusable for the Russians.

By bombing the plant, Ukraine could also be trying to pressure the West to intervene in the conflict, under the pretext that Russia is seeking to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power grid before the fall. This suicidal behavior—as stated by UN Secretary General António Guterres—would be in line with the war waged by Ukraine since 2014.

There is strong evidence that the attacks on Energodar are Ukrainian. The fragments of projectiles fired at the site from the other side of the Dnieper are of Western origin. It seems that they come from British BRIMSTONE missiles, which are precision missiles, whose use is monitored by the British. Apparently, the West is aware of the Ukrainian attacks on the ZNPP. This might explain why Ukraine is not very supportive of an international commission of inquiry and why Western countries are putting unrealistic conditions for sending investigators from the IAEA, an agency that has not shown much integrity so far.

TP: It is reported that Zelensky is freeing criminals to fight in this war? Does this mean that Ukraine’s army is not as strong as commonly assumed?

JB: Zelensky faces the same problem as the authorities that emerged from Euromaidan in 2014. At that time, the military did not want to fight because they did not want to confront their Russian-speaking compatriots. According to a report by the British Home Office, reservists overwhelmingly refuse to attend recruitment sessions . In October-November 2017, 70% of conscripts do not show up for recall . Suicide has become a problem. According to the chief Ukrainian military prosecutor Anatoly Matios, after four years of war in the Donbass, 615 servicemen had committed suicide. Desertions have increased and reached up to 30% of the forces in certain operational areas, often in favor of the rebels.

For this reason, it became necessary to integrate more motivated, highly politicized, ultra-nationalistic and fanatical fighters into the armed forces to fight in the Donbass. Many of them are neo-Nazis. It is to eliminate these fanatical fighters that Vladimir Putin has mentioned the objective of “denazification.”

Today, the problem is slightly different. The Russians have attacked Ukraine and the Ukrainian soldiers are not a priori opposed to fighting them. But they realize that the orders they receive are not consistent with the situation on the battlefield. They understood that the decisions affecting them are not linked to military factors, but to political considerations. Ukrainian units are mutinying en masse and are increasingly refusing to fight. They say they feel abandoned by their commanders and that they are given missions without the necessary resources to execute them.

That’s why it becomes necessary to send men who are ready for anything. Because they are condemned, they can be kept under pressure. This is the same principle as Marshal Konstantin Rokossovki, who was sentenced to death by Stalin, but was released from prison in 1941 to fight against the Germans. His death sentence was lifted only after Stalin’s death in 1956.

In order to overshadow the use of criminals in the armed forces, the Russians are accused of doing the same thing. The Ukrainians and the Westerners consistently use “mirror” propaganda. As in all recent conflicts, Western influence has not led to a moralization of the conflict.

TP: Everyone speaks of how corrupt Putin is? But what about Zelensky? Is he the “heroic saint” that we are all told to admire?

JB: In October 2021, the Pandora Papers showed that Ukraine and Zelensky were the most corrupt in Europe and practiced tax evasion on a large scale. Interestingly, these documents were apparently published with the help of an American intelligence agency, and Vladimir Putin is not mentioned. More precisely, the documents mention individuals ” associated ” with him, who are said to have links with undisclosed assets, which could belong to a woman, who is believed to have had a child with him.

Yet, when our media are reporting on these documents, they routinely put a picture of Vladimir Putin, but not of Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Figure 2 – Although he is not mentioned in the Pandora Papers, Vladimir Putin is consistently associated with them. Whereas Volodymyr Zelensky is never mentioned in our media, even though he is widely implicated.

I am not in a position to assess how corrupt Zelensky is. But there is no doubt that the Ukrainian society and its governance are. I contributed modestly to a NATO “Building Integrity” program in Ukraine and discovered that none of the contributing countries had any illusions about its effectiveness, and all saw the program as a kind of “window dressing” to justify Western support.

It is unlikely that the billions paid by the West to Ukraine will reach the Ukrainian people. A recent CBS News report stated that only 30-40% of the weapons supplied by the West make it to the battlefield. The rest enriches mafias and other corrupt people. Apparently, some high-tech Western weapons have been sold to the Russians, such as the French CAESAR system and presumably the American HIMARS. The CBS News report was censored to avoid undermining Western aid, but the fact remains that the US refused to supply MQ-1C drones to Ukraine for this reason.

Ukraine is a rich country, yet today it is the only country in the former USSR with a lower GDP than it had at the collapse of the Soviet Union. The problem is therefore not Zelensky himself, but the whole system, which is deeply corrupted, and which the West maintains for the sole purpose of fighting Russia.

Zelensky was elected in April 2019 on the program of reaching an agreement with Russia. But nobody let him carry out his program. The Germans and the French deliberately prevented him from implementing the Minsk agreements. The transcript of the telephone conversation of 20 February 2022 between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin shows that France deliberately kept Ukraine away from the solution. Moreover, in Ukraine, far right and neo-Nazi political forces have publicly threatened him with death. Dmitry Yarosh, commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, declared in May 2019 that Zelensky would be hanged if he carried out his program. In other words, Zelensky is trapped between his idea of reaching an agreement with Russia and the demands of the West. Moreover, the West realizes that its strategy of war through sanctions has failed. As the economic and social problems increase, the West will find it harder to back down without losing face. A way out for Britain, the US, the EU, or France would be to remove Zelensky. That is why, with the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, I think Zelensky starts to realize that his life is threatened.

At the end of the day, Zelensky is a poor guy, because his best enemies are those on whom he depends: the Western world.

TP: There are many videos (gruesome ones) on social media of Ukrainian soldiers engaging in serious war crimes? Why is there a “blind spot” in the West for such atrocities?

JB: First of all, we must be clear: in every war, every belligerent commit war crimes. Military personnel who deliberately commit such crimes dishonor their uniform and must be punished.

The problem arises when war crimes are part of a plan or result from orders given by the higher command. This was the case when the Netherlands let its military allow the Srebrenica massacre in 1995; the torture in Afghanistan by Canadian and British troops, not to mention the countless violations of international humanitarian law by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo and elsewhere with the complicity of Poland, Lithuania or Estonia. If these are Western values, then Ukraine is in the right school.

In Ukraine, political crime has become commonplace, with the complicity of the West. Thus, those who are in favor of a negotiation are eliminated. This is the case of Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, assassinated on March 5 by the Ukrainian security service (SBU) because he was considered too favorable to Russia and as a traitor. The same thing happened to Dmitry Demyanenko, an officer of the SBU, who was assassinated on March 10, also because he was too favorable to an agreement with Russia. Remember that this is a country that considers that receiving or giving Russian humanitarian aid is “collaborationism.”

On 16 March 2022, a journalist on TV channel Ukraine 24 referred to the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann and called for the massacre of Russian-speaking children. On 21 March, the military doctor Gennadiy Druzenko declared on the same channel that he had ordered his doctors to castrate Russian prisoners of war. On social networks, these statements quickly became propaganda for the Russians and the two Ukrainians apologized for having said so, but not for the substance. Ukrainian crimes were beginning to be revealed on social networks, and on 27 March Zelensky feared that this would jeopardize Western support. This was followed—rather opportunely—by the Bucha massacre on 3 April, the circumstances of which remain unclear.

Britain, which then had the chairmanship of the UN Security Council, refused three times the Russian request to set up an international commission of enquiry into the crimes of Bucha. Ukrainian socialist MP Ilya Kiva revealed on Telegram that the Bucha tragedy was planned by the British MI6 special services and implemented by the SBU.

The fundamental problem is that the Ukrainians have replaced the “operational art” with brutality. Since 2014, in order to fight the autonomists, the Ukrainian government has never tried to apply strategies based on “hearts & minds,” which the British used in the 1950s-1960s in South-East Asia, which were much less brutal but much more effective and long-lasting. Kiev preferred to conduct an Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in the Donbass and to use the same strategies as the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighting terrorists authorizes all kinds of brutality. It is the lack of a holistic approach to the conflict that led to the failure of the West in Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali.

Counter-Insurgency Operation (COIN) requires a more sophisticated and holistic approach. But NATO is incapable of developing such strategies as I have seen first-hand in Afghanistan. The war in Donbass has been brutal for 8 years and has resulted in the death of 10,000 Ukrainian citizens plus 4,000 Ukrainian military personnel. By comparison, in 30 years, the conflict in Northern Ireland resulted in 3,700 deaths. To justify this brutality, the Ukrainians had to invent the myth of a Russian intervention in Donbass.

The problem is that the philosophy of the new Maidan leaders was to have a racially pure Ukraine. In other words, the unity of the Ukrainian people was not to be achieved through the integration of communities, but through the exclusion of communities of “inferior races.” An idea that would no doubt have pleased the grandfathers of Ursula von der Leyen and Chrystia Freeland! This explains why Ukrainians have little empathy for the country’s Russian, Magyar and Romanian-speaking minorities. This in turn explains why Hungary and Romania do not want their territories to be used for the supply of arms to Ukraine.

This is why shooting at their own citizens to intimidate them is not a problem for the Ukrainians. This explains the spraying of thousands of PFM-1 (“butterfly”) anti-personnel mines, which look like toys, on the Russian-speaking city of Donetsk in July 2022. This type of mine is used by a defender, not an attacker in its main area of operation. Moreover, in this area, the Donbass militias are fighting “at home,” with populations they know personally.

I think that war crimes have been committed on both sides, but that their media coverage has been very different. Our media have reported extensively about crimes (true or false) attributed to Russia. On the other hand, they have been extremely silent about Ukrainian crimes. We do not know the whole truth about the Bucha massacre, but the available evidence supports the hypothesis that Ukraine staged the event to cover up its own crimes. By keeping these crimes quiet, our media have been complicit with them and have created a sense of impunity that has encouraged the Ukrainians to commit further crimes.

TP: Latvia wants the West (America) to designate Russia a “terrorist state.” What do you make of this? Does this mean that the war is actually over, and Russia has won?

JB: The Estonian and Latvian demands are in response to Zelensky’s call to designate Russia as a terrorist state. Interestingly, they come at the same time a Ukrainian terrorist campaign is being unleashed in Crimea, the occupied zone of Ukraine and the rest of Russian territory. It is also interesting that Estonia was apparently complicit in the attack on Darya Dugina in August 2022.

It seems that Ukrainians communicate in a mirror image of the crimes they commit or the problems they have, in order to hide them. For example, in late May 2022, as the Azovstal surrender in Mariupol showed neo-Nazi fighters, they began to allege that there are neo-Nazis in the Russian army. In August 2022, when Kiev was carrying out actions of a terrorist nature against the Energodar power plant in Crimea and on Russian territory, Zelensky called for Russia to be considered a terrorist state.

In fact, Zelensky continues to believe that he can only solve his problem by defeating Russia and that this defeat depends on sanctions against Russia. Declaring Russia a terrorist state would lead to further isolation. That is why he is making this appeal. This shows that the label “terrorist” is more political than operational, and that those who make such proposals do not have a very clear vision of the problem. The problem is that it has implications for international relations. This is why the US State Department is concerned that Zelensky’s request will be implemented by Congress.

TP: One of the sadder outcomes of this Ukraine-Russia conflict is how the West has shown the worst of itself. Where do you think we will go from here? More of the same, or will there be changes that will have to be made in regards to NATO, neutral countries which are no longer neutral, and the way the West seeks to “govern” the world?

JB: This crisis reveals several things. First, that NATO and the European Union are only instruments of US foreign policy. These institutions no longer act in the interests of their members, but in the interests of the US. The sanctions adopted under American pressure are backfiring on Europe, which is the big loser in this whole crisis: it suffers its own sanctions and has to deal with the tensions resulting from its own decisions.

The decisions taken by Western governments reveal a generation of leaders who are young and inexperienced (such as Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin); ignorant, yet thinking they are smart (such as French President Emmanuel Macron); doctrinaire (such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen); and fanatical (such as the leaders of the Baltic States). They all share some of the same weaknesses, not least of which is their inability to manage a complex crisis.

When the head is unable to understand the complexity of a crisis, we respond with guts and dogmatism. This is what we see happening in Europe. The Eastern European countries, especially the Baltic States and Poland, have shown themselves to be loyal servants of American policy. They have also shown immature, confrontational, and short-sighted governance. These are countries that have never integrated Western values, that continue to celebrate the forces of the Third Reich and discriminate against their own Russian-speaking population.

I am not even mentioning the European Union, which has been vehemently opposed to any diplomatic solution and has only added fuel to the fire.

The more you are involved in a conflict, the more you are involved in its outcome. If you win, all is well. But if the conflict is a failure, you will bear the burden. This is what has happened to the United States in recent conflicts and what is happening in Ukraine. The defeat of Ukraine is becoming the defeat of the West.

Another big loser in this conflict is clearly Switzerland. Its neutral status has suddenly lost all credibility. Early August, Switzerland and Ukraine concluded an agreement that would allow the Swiss embassy in Moscow to offer protection to Ukrainian citizens in Russia. However, in order to enter into force, it has to be recognized by Russia. Quite logically, Russia refused and declared that “Switzerland had unfortunately lost its status as a neutral state and could not act as an intermediary or representative.”

This is a very serious development because neutrality is not simply a unilateral declaration. It must be accepted and recognized by all to be effective. Yet Switzerland not only aligned itself with the Western countries but was even more extreme than them. It can be said that in a few weeks, Switzerland has ruined a policy that has been recognized for almost 170 years. This is a problem for Switzerland, but it may also be a problem for other countries. A neutral state can offer a way out of a crisis. Today, Western countries are looking for a way out that would allow them to get closer to Russia in the perspective of an energy crisis without losing face. Turkey has taken on this role, but it is limited, as it is part of NATO.

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Figure 3 – Countries and organizations that applied sanctions to Russia. Although Switzerland is a neutral country, it stands on the first place. According to own sources, this was done under pressure and blackmail from the United States. Nevertheless, this is a severe blow to the very principle of neutrality that will have consequences in other future conflicts.

The West has created an Iron Curtain 2.0 that will affect international relations for years to come. The West’s lack of strategic vision is astonishing. While NATO is aligning itself with US foreign policy and reorienting itself towards China, Western strategy has only strengthened the Moscow-Beijing axis.

TP: What do you think this war ultimately means for Europe, the US and China?

JB: In order to answer this question, we first must answer another question: “Why is this conflict more condemnable and sanctionable than previous conflicts started by the West?”

After the disasters of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Mali, the rest of the world expected the West to help resolve this crisis with common sense. The West responded in exactly the opposite way to these expectations. Not only has no one been able to explain why this conflict was more reprehensible than previous ones, but the difference in treatment between Russia and the United States has shown that more importance is attached to the aggressor than to the victims. Efforts to bring about the collapse of Russia contrast with the total impunity of countries that have lied to the UN Security Council, practiced torture, caused the deaths of over a million people and created 37 million refugees.

This difference in treatment went unnoticed in the West. But the “rest of the world” has understood that we have moved from a “law-based international order” to a “rules-based international order” determined by the West.

On a more material level, the confiscation of Venezuelan gold by the British in 2020, of Afghanistan’s sovereign funds in 2021, and then of Russia’s sovereign funds in 2022 by the US, has raised the mistrust of the West’s allies. This shows that the non-Western world is no longer protected by law and depends on the goodwill of the West.

This conflict is probably the starting point for a new world order. The world is not going to change all at once, but the conflict has raised the attention of the rest of the world. For when we say that the “international community” condemns Russia, we are in fact talking about 18% of the world’s population.

Some actors traditionally close to the West are gradually moving away from it. On 15 July 2022, Joe Biden visited Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) with two objectives: to prevent Saudi Arabia from moving closer to Russia and China, and to ask him to increase its oil production. But four days earlier, MbS made an official request to become a member of the BRICS, and a week later, on 21 July, MbS called Vladimir Putin to confirm that he would stand by the OPEC+ decision. In other words: no oil production increase. It was a slap in the face of the West and of its most powerful representative.

Saudi Arabia has now decided to accept Chinese currency as payment for its oil. This is a major event, which tends to indicate a loss of confidence in the dollar. The consequences are potentially huge. The petrodollar was established by the US in the 1970s to finance its deficit. By forcing other countries to buy dollars, it allows the US to print dollars without being caught in an inflationary loop. Thanks to the petrodollar, the US economy—which is essentially a consumer economy—is supported by the economies of other countries around the world. The demise of the petrodollar could have disastrous consequences for the US economy, as former Republican Senator Ron Paul puts it.

In addition, the sanctions have brought China and Russia, both targeted by the West, closer together. This has accelerated the formation of a Eurasian bloc and strengthened the position of both countries in the world. India, which the US has scorned as a “second-class” partner of the “Quad,” has moved closer to Russia and China, despite disputes with the latter.

Today, China is the main provider of infrastructure in the Third World. In particular, its way of interacting with African countries is more in line with the expectations of these countries. Collaboration with former colonial powers such as France and American imperialist paternalism are no longer welcome. For example, the Central African Republic and Mali have asked France to leave their countries and have turned to Russia.

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, the US proudly announced a $150 million contribution to “strengthen its position in the broader geopolitical competition with China.” But in November 2021, President Xi Jinping offered $1.5 billion to the same countries to fight the pandemic and promote economic recovery. By using its money to wage war, the US has no money left to forge and consolidate alliances.

The West’s loss of influence stems from the fact that it continues to treat the “rest of the world” like “little children” and neglects the usefulness of good diplomacy.

The war in Ukraine is not the trigger for these phenomena, which started a few years ago, but it is most certainly an eye-opener and accelerator.

TP: The western media has been pushing that Putin may be seriously ill. If Putin suddenly dies, would this make any difference at all to the war?

JB: It seems that Vladimir Putin is a unique medical case in the world: he has stomach cancer, leukemia, an unknown but incurable and terminal phase disease, and is reportedly already dead. Yet in July 2022, at the Aspen Security Forum, CIA Director William Burns said that Putin was “too healthy” and that there was “no information to suggest that he is in poor health.” This shows how those who claim to be journalists work!

This is wishful thinking and, on the higher end of the spectrum, it echoes the calls for terrorism and the physical elimination of Vladimir Putin.

The West has personalized Russian politics through Putin, because he is the one who promoted the reconstruction of Russia after the Yeltsin years. Americans like to be champions when there are no competitors and see others as enemies. This is the case with Germany, Europe, Russia and China.

But our “experts” know little about Russian politics. For in reality, Vladimir Putin is more of a “dove” in the Russian political landscape. Given the climate that we have created with Russia, it would not be impossible that his disappearance would lead to the emergence of more aggressive forces. We should not forget that countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland or Georgia have never developed European democratic values. They still have discriminatory policies towards their ethnic Russians that are far from European values, and they behave like immature agents provocateurs. I think that if Putin were to disappear for some reason, the conflicts with these countries would take on a new dimension.

TP: How unified is Russia presently? Has the war created a more serious opposition than what previously existed within Russia?

JB: No, on the contrary. The American and European leaders have a poor understanding of their enemy: the Russian people are very patriotic and cohesive. Western obsession to ” punish ” the Russian people has only brought them closer to their leaders. In fact, by seeking to divide Russian society in an effort to overthrow the government, Western sanctions—including the dumbest ones—have confirmed what the Kremlin has been saying for years: that the West has a profound hatred of Russians. What was once said to be a lie is now confirmed in Russian opinion. The consequence is that the people’s trust in the government has grown stronger.

The approval ratings given by the Levada Centre (considered by the Russian authorities as a “foreign agent”) show that public opinion has tightened around Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. In January 2022, Vladimir Putin’s approval rating was 69% and the government’s was 53%. Today, Putin’s approval rating has been stable at around 83% since March, and the government’s is at 71%. In January, 29% did not approve of Vladimir Putin’s decisions, in July it was only 15%.

According to the Levada Centre, even the Russian operation in Ukraine enjoys a majority of favorable opinions. In March, 81% of Russians were in favor of the operation; this figure dropped to 74%, probably due to the impact of sanctions at the end of March, and then it went back up. In July 2022, the operation had 76% popular support.

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Figure 4 – Not all Russians support the special operation in Ukraine, but three quarters of the population do. Ukrainian war crimes, Western sanctions and the good management of the economy by the Russian authorities explain this support. [Source]

The problem is that our journalists have neither culture nor journalistic discipline and they replace them with their own beliefs. It is a form of conspiracy that aims to create a false reality based on what one believes and not on the facts. For example, few know (or want to know) that Aleksey Navalny said he would not return Crimea to Ukraine. The West’s actions have completely wiped out the opposition, not because of “Putin’s repression,” but because in Russia, resistance to foreign interference and the West’s deep contempt for Russians is a bipartisan cause. Exactly like the hatred of Russians in the West. This is why personalities like Aleksey Navalny, who never had a very high popularity, have completely disappeared from the popular media landscape.

Moreover, even if the sanctions have had a negative impact on the Russian economy, the way the government has handled things since 2014 shows a great mastery of economic mechanisms and a great realism in assessing the situation. There is a rise in prices in Russia, but it is much lower than in Europe, and while Western economies are raising their key interest rates, Russia is lowering its own.

The Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been exemplified as an expression of the opposition in Russia. Her case is interesting because, as usual, we do not say everything.

On 14 March 2022, she provoked international applause by interrupting the Russian First Channel news program with a poster calling for ending the war in Ukraine. She was arrested and fined $280.

In May, the German newspaper Die Welt offered her a job in Germany, but in Berlin, pro-Ukrainian activists demonstrated to get the newspaper to end its collaboration with her. The media outlet Politico even suggested that she might be an agent of the Kremlin!

As a result, in June 2022, she left Germany to live in Odessa, her hometown. But instead of being grateful, the Ukrainians put her on the Mirotvorets blacklist where she is accused of treason, “participation in the Kremlin’s special information and propaganda operations” and “complicity with the invaders.”

The Mirotvorets website is a “hit list” for politicians, journalists or personalities who do not share the opinion of the Ukrainian government. Several of the people on the list have been murdered. In October 2019, the UN requested the closure of the site, but this was refused by the Rada. It should be noted that none of our mainstream media has condemned this practice, which is very far from the values they claim to defend. In other words, our media support these practices that used to be attributed to South American regimes.

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Figure 5 – Darya Dugina marked as “Liquidated.”.

Ovsyannikova then returned to Russia, where she demonstrated against the war, calling Putin a “killer,” and was arrested by the police and placed under house arrest for three months. At this point, our media protested.

It is worth noting that Russian journalist Darya Dugina, the victim of a bomb attack in Moscow on 21 August 2022, was on the Mirotvorets list and her file was marked “liquidated.” Of course, no Western media mentioned that she was targeted by the Mirotvorets website, which is considered to be linked to the SBU, as this would tend to support Russia’s accusations.

German journalist Alina Lipp, whose revelations about Ukrainian and Western crimes in the Donbass are disturbing, has been placed on the website Mirotvorets. Moreover, Alina Lipp was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison by a German court for claiming that Russian troops had “liberated” areas in Ukraine and thus “glorified criminal activities.” As can be seen, the German authorities are functioning like the neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine. Today’s politicians are a credit to their grandparents!

One can conclude that even if there are some people who oppose the war, Russian public opinion is overwhelmingly behind its government. Western sanctions have only strengthened the credibility of the Russian president.

Ultimately, my point is not to take the same approach as our media and replace the hatred of Russia with that of Ukraine. On the contrary, it is to show that the world is not either black or white and that Western countries have taken the situation too far. Those who are compassionate about Ukraine should have pushed our governments to implement the agreed political solutions in 2014 and 2015. They haven’t done anything and are now pushing Ukraine to fight. But we are no longer in 2021. Today, we have to accept the consequences of our non-decisions and help Ukraine to recover. But this must not be done at the expense of its Russian-speaking population, as we have done until now, but with the Russian-speaking people, in an inclusive manner. If I look at the media in France, Switzerland and Belgium, we are still very far from the goal.

TP: Thank you so very much, Mr. Baud, for this most enlightening discussion.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... eration-z/
"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 » Fri Sep 02, 2022 12:16 pm

a failed plan
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/02/2022

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Despite the complications and a delay at a Ukrainian checkpoint in which the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, was forced to negotiate with the military authorities, the international organization's mission arrived at Energodar yesterday. And he did so in the midst of an operation to neutralize what appears to have turned out to be a suicide plot by Ukrainian troops. This is explained, at least, by the Russian sources, who narrate a landing attempt that was unsuccessful. Ukraine, for its part, continues the tradition of denying every failed operation and blaming Russia for wantonly bombing cities under its control.

Original Article: DonRF

I am from Donetsk, which means I know a lot, if not everything there is to know, about the role and influence of international organizations in our conflict. An illustrative example: in 2018, I took my wife to the grave of her father, closer to the line of separation with our then respected friends and associates from kyiv. Luckily, I saw two OSCE observer jeeps speeding quickly in the opposite direction from me and I immediately slowed down. Five minutes later, the mortar was shelling the area. The signal is this: if the international observers run, you have a problem.

When the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency was delayed in Zaporozhie on Wednesday night, there was a lot of tension and the soldiers were tense, but in the morning it was like the song [Tri Tankista]: “On the grass lay the dew, it descended fog, that night, the enemy decided to cross the border in the river”. It is true, there is no taiga and the samurai had nothing to do, but in the morning they attacked Energodar it is said that with helicopters and two barges with 60 troops trained in Britain they rushed across the Dnieper. In general, the plan was smart: with the presence of the IAEA, the number of Russian National Guard troops at the nuclear power plant would be at a minimum and the 60 Ukrainians were to take the bridgehead and 300 more were to come in the second wave and take the empty center. Then,moskalis would have to leave.

It did not work very well: the first group arrived, but the boats sank due to fire and shelling and the hunt for the troops around the city began. They were expelled with aviation, two of them were captured wounded and the rest died. For some reason. But nothing happens, you never know, the 128th Ukrainian Infantry Brigade also went to die for reasons that nobody knows and days of mourning have to be declared. Now, several dozen have fallen, let's say like flies. It is a happy ending, even if it is in English, the language of those who trained them.

And the IAEA? What about the IAEA? At first, he drove slowly, being three hours late, and now he watches the Ukrainian bombardment of Energodar pretending nothing is happening. We have said many times that Ukraine could do cannibalism live on CNN, could carry out public executions, torture prisoners before the cameras, but, in the end: “You have promised the Ukrainian people that we will be with them as long as necessary and I want to keep that promise. . It doesn't matter what my German voters think” (Annalena Baerbock). The West will not offend the one who is fighting its war.

Contrast hope: “We expect objectivity. Although all the other parties involved in some way with this visit and its preparation, with attempts to complicate it, clearly do not want the IAEA mission to present objective conclusions”. For the ninth year in a row, Lavrov continues to brighten the day of those who want to be friends with our partners, both Westerners and Ukrainians. And there will be nothing else until the Russian bird does not directly bite specific people, the same ones who are fans of Feigin and Arestovich:

“Ukraine is also like Russia, but democratic, liberal, free in the business sense. This project is based on a voluminous narrative: for example, the history of free Novgorod, which fell in the fight against the tyrannical horde of Moscow, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the westernized elite of the Russian Empire. For them, today's Russia is the heir to the horde, against which the Slavic and democratic European Ukraine is fighting." The Polish-British idea of ​​Intermarium intersects with this project. Not only Arestovich plays on this field, but people like Ilia Ponomarev, a descendant of high-ranking officers of the Soviet nomenclature, as well as a significant part of the Azov regiment. That's what those partners dream of. In the meantime, the only hope is Russia, trite as it may seem. Her army, her people and those who, despite politics, do her duty. And they don't fail. In Energodar and around Kherson it has gone well.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/02/25415/#more-25415

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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Colonelcassad
Special operation, September 1st. The main thing from RIA Novosti :

▪️The IAEA mission inspected the Zaporizhzhya NPP in Energodar, the head of the delegation of Rosatom and employees of the Zaporizhzhya NPP led the agency's specialists through the territory of the station and showed the areas affected by the shelling of Ukrainian troops

▪️The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said that the agency's mission received key information on the situation at the station with explanations from the personnel and linked the facts obtained, some of the mission's specialists will remain working at ZNPP for a more detailed analysis

▪️On Thursday morning, the Russian Armed Forces destroyed a Ukrainian tactical assault force near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the Defense Ministry reported. An attempt to capture the ZNPP by Ukrainian paratroopers was carried out under the control of British special services, said Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region.

▪️Russia has requested a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on September 6, awaiting speeches by Grossi and UN Secretary General António Guterres

▪️Russian air defense systems shot down eight Ukrainian drones in Kharkiv and Kherson regions and two US-made AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles in a day

▪️Aviation and artillery of the Russian Federation destroyed six Ukrainian headquarters and a platoon of American M777 howitzers in the Andreevka area in a day

▪️During the day, the Kyiv regime continued unsuccessful attempts at offensive operations in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction, as a result, Ukrainian troops lost another 350 people, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

▪️Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, missile forces and artillery inflicted a significant defeat on the advancing units and reserves of Ukrainian troops

▪️Russian Aerospace Forces killed more than 100 nationalists near the village of Chasov Yar in the DPR with a strike of high-precision weapons

***

Forwarded from
Voenkor Kotenok Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin about the "Kherson offensive" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at 22.45 Moscow time on 09/01/2022, especially for the channel Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok :

and stubborn resistance of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In none of the sectors did the enemy manage to achieve anything that would allow him to talk about achieving at least some operational results. Even with the encirclement of Vysokopolye and Davydov Brod, it did not work out, not to mention the capture of Snegirevka or Blagodatny.

2) Nevertheless, there are attempts to transfer additional forces in the direction of the Arkhangelsk-Olginka-Vysokopolie line, as well as to the Andreevsky bridgehead on the Ingulets River, in order, on the one hand, to try to ram the front of the RF Armed Forces in the Vysokopolie region, and on the other, still try to use wedging into the defense zone of the RF Armed Forces near Kostromka and the village of Sukhoi Stavok.

3) The enemy is well aware that if he cannot expand his bridgehead, then he will be gradually forced out of the Kostromka and Sukhoi Stavka area by artillery and aviation.

Therefore, he has not yet abandoned his ambitious plans to squeeze something more out of his offensive attempts than a couple of trinity insignificant villages, for which a disproportionate price was paid in people and equipment that were specially assembled for this offensive for several months.

@voenkorKotenok

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Forwarded from
Two Majors
News from the front

🌃Kharkiv direction

The dense artillery work of the Z group twice disrupted the start of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which reached the deployment lines. Intense strikes by the Iskanders became tangible, incl. afternoon. They forced the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to ask NATO to use a satellite constellation to open the positions of our OTRK

💣During the day, the DRG of the Armed Forces of Ukraine entered the area where the 4th MSR of the 200th brigade of the Northern Fleet was based, during the collision the DRG was forced to retreat, along the entire line of contact, abandoned groups are activated

🧨The 101st Rifle Regiment was subjected to mortar fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. no loss

💊In the Izyum direction, units of the 2nd MSD came under fire, 4 servicemen were injured, 3 pieces of equipment were damaged

🎇

In Gordeevka , Kursk region, an UAV dropped an explosive device, no casualties Yakovenkovo

⚔️In the zone of action 607 TsSN and ODON of the Russian Guard were suppressed: 1 tank, 12 people, 1 unit. OMON and SOBR units detained a gunner of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine, seized MANPADS (presumably Polish "Perun"), RShG, RPG

⚰️The enemy suffered more than 50 manpower losses, however, he activates the transfer of units trained by NATO specialists

🛎Local gauleiters organize evacuation from Chuguev, Kharkiv region until September 3, those who refuse are allowed to sign a written refusal

🎆A warehouse with ammo was destroyed in Baranovka, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are intensively transferring to the Ammo Kennel to ensure an offensive in the Balakliya direction

🪓In order to smooth out the losses of the 14th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, several M777 howitzers are attached to one of its SADN

. on the actions of the 93rd brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

***

Colonelcassad
Regarding the issue of our losses in the course of repulsing the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions. Of course, we also did not do without losses. The Defense Ministry, of course, does not comment on the issue of losses, and speculation on the topic of human losses is effectively suppressed by the law on classifying losses in peacetime.

From what is available in open sources on our losses from September 29 to September 1, we can count 1 Acacia self-propelled guns verified (there are opinions that it was not destroyed, but damaged), 1 truck (destroyed from an UAV), several burned KAMAZ trucks near Berislav , several killed fighters (remained on the territory occupied by the enemy) in the area of ​​​​Lozovaya and Davydov Brod, plus muddy footage from some GP (either Andreevka or Lozovaya). Maybe there was something else in the public domain, but in general, not a lot with the verification of a "successful offensive", although it is obvious that we also had losses in people and equipment more significant than the ukry show, given what forces the enemy used for fire damage our positions and rolling on them with zergrash armored vehicles.

In general, so far, with the verification of our losses, the enemy is rather mediocre, with the obvious realization of the simple fact that he lost many times more. This apparently explains the bashful silence of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and skepticism in the Western press - the game was clearly not worth the candle. From our side, a wave of videos of destroyed equipment, which much more clearly depict the losses of the enemy in the offensive. In this regard, according to the information picture, the enemy completely lost. What can we say, even if such a fierce Russophobe as "Jihadi" Julian Repke posted, among other things, Russian videos of the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson direction and called it "a terrible failure of the attack on Kherson."

In any case, peace be to the ashes of the dead fighters who held back the enemy’s furious offensive in Vysokopole, Olginka, Arkhangelsk, Davydov Brod and other settlements. and did not allow the enemy to realize their operational plans. Glory to the living and dead heroes of the Kherson defensive operation!

***

Forwarded from
Operational reports
⚡️The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the unequivocal planned nature of the organization of a military provocation by the Kyiv regime with the landing of military troops in order to capture the ZNPP.

According to this statement, it was with the completion of the preparatory stage of this operation that the cancellation of R. Grossi's visit to the station on August 31 and his allegedly "unscheduled" meeting with Zelensky were conditioned.

The members of the IAEA, if the sabotage was successful, would become a natural "human shield", a pretext for fixing the new status quo of the station, which came under the control of Ukraine, as well as justifying the requirements for Russia to provide a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant.

In this context, the Ministry of Defense expressed respect for the team of R. Grossi, who arrived in Energodar in spite of everything, as well as misunderstanding due to the silence on this issue by the UN and the so-called Western sponsors of Zelensky, who only confirm by the absence of any reaction their tacit participation in this provocation.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

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The Tolerated Nazi Cult
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 1, 2022
Nicolas Riedl

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Stepan Bandera’s grave, Munich (2022). [Photo: Nicolas Riedl].

In recent years, the word “Nazi” has been completely gutted by its inflationary use like no other. Today, “Nazi” is anyone who is not on the top of the tree of political correctness. Accordingly, it seems bizarre when the grave of a genuine Nazi collaborator, namely Stepan Bandera, becomes a place of pilgrimage in Germany. There is no outcry. On the contrary, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the grave of Stepan Bandera in Munich’s Waldfriedhof has been very crowded. If in previous years one Reich flag among a thousand peace flags was enough to declare an entire demonstration a Nazi mass demonstration, here homage is being paid to a Wehrmacht collaborator—without this being criticized in those circles that otherwise suspect a Nazi behind every tree.

A year before the start of the Ukrainian war, the colors of the Ukrainian flag caught my eye during a walk through Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetery. In the distance I saw a gravestone decorated with blue and yellow flags. My curiosity was aroused and so I approached this grave. In the inscription of the gravestone, I read the name “Stepan Bandera,” which is additionally engraved above it in Cyrillic. The name immediately rang a bell in my memory. I knew roughly about the importance of Bandera, his collaboration with the Nazi regime, the cult around his person in Ukraine, which continues to this day, and that he was murdered in the 1950s in Munich by the Soviet foreign intelligence service KGB.

Nevertheless, I was surprised to suddenly stumble into a piece of dark European history during a walk, when I actually wanted to clear my head of political issues. At that point, in the spring of 2021, Covid was crowding out all other issues, so Ukraine and the conflict there were more on the periphery of media attention.

With the winter of 2021/22 and the start of the Ukrainian war, that changed with breathtaking speed. A veritable Russophobia and Ukraine cult developed. These developments also left their mark on Bandera’s grave. In fact, during my walks, I pass by there again and again and observe how this grave is increasingly turning into a place of pilgrimage. Since March 2022, showy SUVs with Ukrainian license plates can be seen around the cemetery grounds, and where a year ago only a solitary Ukrainian flag hung and rather beautiful flowers planted, the grave is now overflowing with offerings and mementos that visitors lay to their icon. In a way, the selection is very bizarre. On the surfaces of the grave lie Ukrainian hryvnia bills and coins, candy—some even from McDonalds—and labeled (FFP2) masks.

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Bandera’s grave [Photo: Nicolas Riedl].

The question, who in Germany (!) decorates the gravesite of a Nazi collaborator in such a way, was answered—even if not completely—over days when visiting the grave on a Sunday. Almost every minute visitors come to stand devoutly in front of it, to take photos or to lay down more of the “gifts” listed above. But who are these people? Are they some skin-head types unmistakably identifiable as Nazis?

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Offerings at Bandera’s grave. [Photo: Nicolas Riedl]

At one point I pretended to stand at Bandera’s final resting place myself, in memory of him, to get a more accurate picture of the visitors. To my astonishment, each time it was a thoroughly inconspicuous, outwardly completely harmless citizen—parents with their children or young people in tracksuits.

I could not make any sense of this. In this country, anyone who claims to take a warm shower every day is soon considered a Nazi. And yet, in the middle of Munich, without scandal or outcry, the grave of a Nazi collaborator is virtually transformed into a pharaoh’s chamber.

At that moment it even occurred to me whether I was simply misinformed about Bandera. But no—no matter where I looked, whether in older mainstream reports or in alternative media—I could twist and turn the image of Stepan Bandera as I wished—his involvement in Nazi crimes is undisputed and sufficiently proven.

As the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and part of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), he participated in numerous crimes and atrocities against civilians that shocked even SS generals.

Although Bandera was a German prisoner from July 1941 to September 1944—after his plans to declare an independent Ukraine went too far for the Nazi regime—he served his time comparatively comfortably as one of the SS’s so-called special and honorary prisoners. Shortly before the end of the war, parts of the OUN were even reinstated in the Waffen SS. In short, Bandera’s vest is so bloodstained that no change of perspective can wash it clean.

Even after the end of the war, Bandera remained the chairman of the OUN in his Munich exile until he was assassinated in October 1959 by KGB agent Bogdan Staschinski, right on his doorstep with hydrogen cyanide gas.

While reading about Bandera’s death, I got the idea to visit his former residence on Kreittmayrstrasse in Munich’s Maxvorstadt to see if it had also been transformed into a pilgrimage site. Once there, I found that nothing reminded me of Bandera. All around the multi-story building, there are hip cafés and restaurants; there are no flowers on the doorstep; there are no Ukrainian flags anywhere to be seen. The only noticeable thing I took note of was that the facade of the house at number 7—quite as if to mock the anti-communist post-mortem—was the only one in the whole street with a red coat of paint.

No Peace for the Dead at Bandera’s Grave

Even before the Ukraine war, Bandera’s grave kept finding its way into the public eye.

Desecration of the grave in 2014

Shortly after the start of the Maidan coup in 2014—if today’s Ukraine flag-wavers can still remember it?—the gravestone was knocked over and the grave vandalized. The perpetrators were never caught.

Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk visits Bandera’s grave

In 2015, Melnyk laid flowers at Bandera’s grave. Sevim Dağdelen, a member of the Left Party, then asked the German government whether it was aware of this. The federal government answered in the affirmative and condemned the acts of the OUN in its response.

2018 sees the arrival of the “cemetery fact checker”

British blogger Graham Phillips visited the grave in 2018, removed the flag of Ukraine—as well as that of Ukrainian nationalists—and attached a sign to the gravestone reading, “Ukrainian Nazi Stepan Bandera lies buried here.” On the net, he was partly celebrated as a true anti-fascist, others accused him of desecrating the grave.

2021 State security investigates after repeated desecration of grave

A year before the start of the Ukrainian war, the grave was desecrated again when it was doused with red liquid. In the course of this, the State Security Service began an investigation, so far without results.

Parallel World

It really is bizarre. While in this country everything and everyone is pushed into a right-wing corner if they say one wrong word—at the same time in the middle of Germany the grave of a Nazi collaborator is decorated, adorned and visited with devout looks of the visitors. Meanwhile, police patrol by at regular intervals to check for further possible grave desecrations. It is even rumored that a hidden camera is installed in the grave light vending machine directly opposite.

In a sense, Bandera’s tombstone is a monument to double standards, showing us that all destructive forces are fine with the rulers as long as they serve their purposes. While local demonstrators with peaceful intentions are defamed as Nazis—in Ukraine unmistakable Nazis are equipped with heavy weapons.

How much more blood must be senselessly spilled before history is learned?

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... nazi-cult/

2019 RAND Paper Warned US of Failure During Ukraine Conflict
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 1, 2022



As far back as 2019, US Army-commissioned studies examined different means to provoke and antagonize Russia who they acknowledged sought to avoid conflict. However, they also warned that if Russia was pushed too far, it could trigger an escalation that would spiral out of Washington’s control. Today we are watching this conflict unfold. Just how accurate was the study’s predictions?

References: RAND Corporation – Extending Russia (2019): https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_re… Politico – Technology concerns imperil Gray Eagle drone transfer to Ukraine: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08

CBS News – Why military aid in Ukraine may not always get to the front lines: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -conflict/

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In memory of Evgeny Golyshkin
September 2, 12:42

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In Donetsk, our comrade Yevgeny Golyshkin died of wounds.

Zhenya was one of the founders of the Ukrainian youth communist organization Borotba, the most persecuted by the Kyiv authorities, a dreamer, revolutionary, underground worker, soldier.

“... Hundreds of mass protests organized by Yevgeny Golyshkin will forever remain in the history of the left movement of Ukraine, and his armed struggle in the ranks of the Ukrainian Red Army, and then the 9th Marine Regiment of the DPR will go down in the history of the liberation of Donbass ...” - write his comrades from Fight.

In March 2022, during the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, Zhenya was wounded by a sniper's bullet, which entered only 4 cm above the heart. In just 2 weeks, he returned to duty and was seriously shell-shocked near Avdiivka.

He loved life very much and hated war and fascism. His choice was made by him in defense of life. Yesterday he was gone.

The struggle for Zhenya's bright ideals will continue. Venceremos

(c) Oleg Yasinsky

https://t.me/olegyasynsky/418 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7837607.html

Google Translator

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THE US CONTINUES TO SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON RUSSIAN IMPORTS
1 Sep 2022 , 1:17 pm .

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More than 3,600 Russian ships have arrived at US ports since February 24 (Photo: Sputnik)

When the Russian special military operation in Ukraine began, President Joe Biden promised to isolate and "paralyze" the Russian economy. Yet Moscow has been able to maintain its economic strength, thanks in part to exporting more than $1 billion a month worth of wood, metals, food and other goods to the United States.

According to statistics cited by the AP , more than 3,600 Russian ships have called at US ports since February 24. While that's almost half the shipments during the same period compared to last year, it still amounts to more than $6 billion in imports.

"The amount of Russian products entering US ports suggests that Biden is not fulfilling his promise to isolate the economy from Moscow," notes The Libertarian Institute.

While many products arrive due to pre-blockade agreements, others continue to enter the country long after the White House announced "sanctions" on those products, including oil and gas. Paradoxically, other Russian imports, such as fertilizers, came at the request of the Biden administration, which has urged US companies to make up the shortage.

US and European companies have also been found to be importing millions of dollars worth of metal from a Russian company that makes parts for Moscow's fighter jets, revealing another bizarre discrepancy in Biden's sanctions campaign.

Although the blockade was meant to negate Moscow's military might and bring it to the negotiating table, it has had little success so far. With Russian energy exports surpassing prewar levels in recent months and the ruble rallying against the dollar, Russia's economy has fared much better than much of Europe since fighting broke out last winter.

https://misionverdad.com/eeuu-sigue-gas ... ones-rusas

Google Translator

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Myrotvorets should not exist, and its owners are not held accountable for their actions
Originally published: Donbass Insider on August 22, 2022 by Faina Savenkova (more by Donbass Insider) | (Posted Sep 01, 2022)

Journalist Daria Dugina was killed in Russia on Saturday night. I would hardly have known who she was if my friends hadn’t told me that she and her father, Alexander Dugin, were included on the Myrotvorets website, and everyone knew their details. Of course, you don’t have to listen to me, because I’m a child. But for the third year I have been trying to reach out to all world leaders and organizations. All this time I hear jokes that it’s honorable and great to be in the database of this site. But yesterday there was another murder. It’s not for me to figure out who is to blame for this and how it happened. Now I’m just really sorry for Daria’s parents.

But I will say something else: even if we accept the version that the Myrotvorets is fighting the enemies of Ukraine in this way, the main thing remains–they can no longer control the use of information and guarantee that not only nationalists, but also murderers and other criminals will not use the data they post. Tomorrow, someone will not like Roger Waters or Hungarian President Orban, and criminals can fulfill their plans, in which the owners of the Mirotvorets are always happy to help them. I’ve always said that the Myrotvorets are scoundrels and scammers, but now they just kill people with their help. And if such famous people are killed without fear of punishment, then what about me, an ordinary child from Lugansk? About other children whose data is on the site?

You are allowed not to love Russia–this is a personal matter for everyone–but you can not break the laws. You can’t just sentence those you don’t like to death. The Mirotvorets website has not been responsible for what it puts out for a long time. No one knows who will be next. And it doesn’t matter who will kill-Ukrainian nationalists, ISIS or just crazy. I would really like everyone who is on the Mirotvorets to finally start talking and start doing something. It is impossible for such a site to exist, and its owners are not held accountable for their actions.

https://mronline.org/2022/09/01/myrotvo ... r-actions/

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Biden to name Ukraine war general
Originally published: Struggle-La Lucha on August 30, 2022 by Gary Wilson (more by Struggle-La Lucha) | (Posted Sep 01, 2022)

President Joe Biden is planning to declare Ukraine an official U.S. military operation, the Aug. 24 Wall Street Journal reports, making it a separate command with its own general. Should Biden do that, it would put the Ukraine operation on par with the U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The naming of the operation formally recognizes the U.S. effort within the military, akin to how the Pentagon dubbed the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The naming of the training and assistance is significant bureaucratically, as it typically entails long-term, dedicated funding and the possibility of special pay, ribbons and awards for service members participating in the effort.

“The selection of a general, expected to be a two- or three-star, reflects the creation of a command responsible to coordinate the effort, a shift from the largely ad hoc effort to provide training and assistance to the Ukrainians for years,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Biden and Congress are stepping up war spending and expansion, while workers have taken a pay cut of almost 4% this year. This is good old guns-not-butter politics. In the words of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower:

[/i]Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.[/i]

https://mronline.org/2022/09/01/biden-t ... r-general/

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Largest arms transfer in history: Biden escalates U.S. proxy war in Ukraine
August 25, 2022 Gary Wilson

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President Joe Biden speaks during a tour of the Lockheed Martin Pike County Operations facility in Troy, Alabama, where Javelin missiles are manufactured on May 3. Biden has put a record number of missiles in Ukraine.

While announcing a minimal $10,000 student debt relief plan, Biden announced another $3 billion additional military expansion in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, when Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer said the debt relief plan should cancel $50,000 per student borrower, most student borrowers found that to be inadequate.

The $3 billion weapons package is the largest yet for Ukraine, according to Defense One, the Atlantic Media trade publication for the military-industrial complex. It will push total U.S. aid well past the annual budgets of at least eight federal programs, including the entire judicial branch.

Since most of the Pentagon budget and military spending is handled secretly, there have probably been larger weapons packages that were not announced or reported.

The announcement came just five days after a previous statement unveiled a $775 million package of advanced missiles, armored vehicles, drones and artillery. The package includes additional HIMARS, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, and Howitzers.

No mention is made in any of these announcements that the massive U.S. military spending has been one of the factors in the serious and, for some, devastating inflation rise this year.

The U.S. has been escalating its NATO proxy war against Russia, not just with the largest arms buildup in U.S. history but with covert and special forces operations such as the assassination in Moscow of Russian journalist Darya Dugina. The assassination had the earmarks of a special forces operation, like the drone assassination of an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Kabul, Afghanistan, that Biden announced on August 1.

Dugina and her father, Alexander Dugin, have been elevated from the fringes in the U.S. media. Neither are big capitalists with the power that would bring nor in any position of political power; they are an easy target. Dugin is known for his outspoken far-right Russian nationalism, a view that is not popular in Russia and is not espoused by any in the government, including Putin.

The assassination was most likely a test, a show by the imperialists that they could strike in the heart of Moscow.

Russian authorities have identified the killer of Darya Dugina as Natalya Vovk. Vovk is associated with the Azov battalion Nazis of Ukraine. The Azov battalion received training by the U.S. CIA.

Vovk escaped to Estonia, a NATO member state. Any action to seek her extradition puts Russia in a direct conflict against NATO, even more directly than the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine has.

Ammunition in amounts ‘never seen before’

According to Defense One, the $3 billion package Biden announced on August 24 would be the largest single chunk of the total of $13.7 billion the United States has announced since February. Moreover, it will contain ammunition in amounts “we’ve never seen before.”

As noted, the Defense One figures are limited to the officially announced military packages. But Congress approved a $40 billion “Ukraine aid” package in May, which the Washington Post said was 60% military funds. The $13.7 billion figure cited by Defense One is just a fraction of the total U.S. military spending on the Ukraine war.

Still, the $13.7 billion package is more than the annual budget of some federal programs, Defense One admits, such as the National Science Foundation ($9.2 billion) and the Small Business Administration ($1.7 billion), according to Statista. It is larger than the annual budgets of the federal judiciary ($9.7 billion), Congress ($6.6 billion), or the Executive Office of the President ($0.6 billion). It is creeping up on the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency ($15.9 billion), if not NASA ($24.9 billion).

Tracking largest arms transfer in U.S. history

Below is a timeline of all publicly disclosed major weapons shipments or funding packages going back to Feb. 24, compiled by the think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

This list only contains publicly announced information. The Pentagon admitted on August 11 to sending at least one type of missile that had not been previously mentioned in their press releases, so this list is not exhaustive.

August 8

The Pentagon announced that it would send $1 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine via presidential drawdown, including:

HIMARS ammunition (This is an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. These mobile missile launchers can fire a wide range of munitions, including rocket artillery and short-range ballistic missiles.)
Artillery ammunition
Javelin missiles and other anti-armor weapons
August 1

The Pentagon announced an additional $550 million of security aid via presidential drawdown, including:

HIMARS ammunition
Artillery ammunition
July 22

The Pentagon announced that it would send $270 million of military aid to Ukraine, with $175 million authorized via presidential drawdown and $95 million coming via Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds. This included:

Four additional HIMARS
HIMARS ammunition
Four Command Post vehicles (These can be used as a tactical operations center or an armored ambulance, among other things.)
Tank gun ammunition
Phoenix Ghost drones (These are a type of “loitering munition,” or a weapon that can wait in the air for extended periods before attacking a target. The U.S. created this for use in Ukraine.)
July 8

The Pentagon announced an additional $400 million of military assistance via presidential drawdown, including:

Four additional HIMARS
HIMARS ammunition
Artillery ammunition
July 1

The Pentagon announced it would send $820 million of security aid, with $50 million authorized via presidential drawdown and the remaining $770 million coming via USAI funds. This included:

HIMARS ammunition
Two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) (This system launches missiles to defend against various types of aircraft, including drones.)
Artillery ammunition
June 23

The Pentagon announced an additional $450 million in military assistance via presidential drawdown, including:

Four HIMARS
Artillery ammunition
Grenade launchers
Patrol boats
June 15

The Pentagon announced an additional $1 billion in lethal aid, with $350 million authorized via presidential drawdown and $650 million coming from USAI funds. This included:

Howitzers (This is a popular long-range artillery weapon.)
Artillery ammunition
HIMARS ammunition
Two Harpoon coastal defense systems (These launch missiles that fly just above the water’s surface to attack planes and ships.)
June 1

The Pentagon announced an additional $700 million in military assistance via presidential drawdown, including:

HIMARS ammunition
Javelin missiles and other anti-armor weapons
Artillery ammunition
Four Mi-17 helicopters (These can be used for transport or combat.)
May 19

The Pentagon announced $100 million in lethal aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Howitzers
On the same day, Congress passed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, roughly half of which was earmarked for military assistance.
May 6

The Pentagon announced $150 million in military aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Artillery ammunition
April 21

DoD announced $800 million in further aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Howitzers
Artillery ammunition
Phoenix Ghost drones
April 13

The Pentagon announced that it would send an additional $800 million in military assistance via presidential drawdown, including:

Howitzers
Artillery ammunition
Largest arms transfer in history: Biden escalates U.S. proxy war in Ukraine
Switchblade drones (This is another form of loitering munition.)
Javelin missiles and other anti-armor weapons
Armored personnel carriers
11 Mi-17 helicopters
Various types of explosives
April 6

The Pentagon announced an additional $100 million in aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Javelin anti-armor systems
April 1

DoD announced that it would send $300 million in lethal aid using USAI funds, including:

Laser-guided rocket systems
Switchblade drones
Puma surveillance drones
Anti-drone systems
Armored vehicles
March 16

The Pentagon announced it would send $800 million of military aid via presidential drawdown. The exact contents of this package are unclear, but it likely included Mi-17 helicopters, Javelin missiles, and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

March 12

The White House announced that it would send $200 million in lethal aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Javelin missiles
Stinger missiles
March 10

Congress approved $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine, roughly half of which was earmarked for military assistance.

February 25

The White House announced that it would send $350 million in military aid via presidential drawdown, including:

Anti-armor weapons
Small arms

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... n-ukraine/

It would indeed be interesting to see the investment portfolios of members of the administration, Congress, and pols in general. All those weapons transferred from US stocks must be replaced and much promised must be paid for too. The Business of America is the Business of slaughter and waste.

If you think our pols are not so heinous as to direst policies for their personal enrichment you're a snowflake. It is not the sole driven of policy by a long shot, the needs of their masters come first but is the icing on the cake of 'public service'.
"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 Sep 03, 2022 12:06 pm

A view from Donetsk
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/03/2022

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Original Article: Denis Grigoriuk

The overly optimistic omens for Donbass have predictably not come true. The territory of the DPR could not be liberated before the end of the summer of 2022. The summer campaign is moving smoothly towards the autumn phase of the conflict. I doubt that anyone who knew the least about what is happening in Donbass would believe in these predictions. Of course, no one in the DPR believed that the entire territory of the Republic would be liberated before the end of August.

The harsh reality is that Donetsk children heard artillery duels on the first day of school. Only the distant schools to the front have celebrated the party. But you have to understand that even in the rear towns, like Khartzik or Snezhnoe, where the children have already started the school year, they are also potentially in danger. In the summer, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked those towns, something that, of course, can happen again in the autumn. Unfortunately, similar episodes were recorded already in the early phases of the war in 2014. So you have to be prepared for the worst considering who is on the other side of the front.

On September 1, worsening was observed from the Avdeevka and Marinka areas. The Ukrainian Army continues to hit the Petrovsky, Kirovsky and Kievsky districts of the DPR capital. Republic artillerymen have also intensified attacks on fortified areas and firing points of Ukrainian troops. Artillery duels drag on throughout the day, the sounds of arrivals are heard throughout Donetsk, and shelling continues in Gorlovka and Yasinovataya. Also, in Krasny Liman, Ukrainian troops attacked a building of the Emergencies Ministry, killing 13 rescuers and wounding a larger number.

It is too early to talk about progress on the front near Donetsk, Gorlovka or Yasinovataya. The artillery duels continue. Actually, it is the same situation that has persisted throughout the entire summer campaign and I doubt that it will change noticeably in the autumn period. But the public's attention in Donetsk is not on the war, not even in Kherson, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to fight back a few days ago. The focus of attention on September 1 was Energodar and the Zaporozhie NPP. The IAEA mission was due to arrive at the plant that day. According to the agreements, the representatives of the organization had to reach the territory controlled by the Russian troops, where they would carry out their inspection and establish what is happening in the infrastructures. Naturally, at that time, the parties had to adhere to a regime of silence so that the experts could carry out their activities. But there was a provocation.

As is often the case with any deal with the Ukrainian side, things were different. On the morning of September 1, with the cover of the artillery, which hit Energodar, he tried to land in the central area to take the territory. According to the Russian side, the provocation failed. The IAEA delegation arrived in the plant's territory.

What does this situation mean? That nothing has changed. Ukraine continues to see each agreement as an opportunity to put its own plans into action. This was the case with the Minsk agreements, a time when Ukraine rearmed, equipped the fortified areas of Donbass and prepared for a military solution to the Donbass issue. The situation was repeated with the Istanbul agreements. Russia fulfilled its part of the bargain and kyiv organized an informational provocation to demonize the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Was something different to be expected in the case of the Zaporozhye NPP? Absolutely not. One has to be hopelessly optimistic to hope that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not take advantage of the situation to carry out their plans. The landing of troops and the bombardment of Energodar were not accidental. On the contrary. If it had not happened, one would have to wonder what else the Ukrainian generals and their political authorities would do with the information provided by Western military intelligence services.

The West will not accuse Ukraine of anything. No one has made his victim image disappear, so all the blame will fall on Russia. It is clear that the bombing and provocation of Energodar will be attributed to the Russian topas, even though it would make no sense to them. But, on the other side, the population is convinced of the idea of ​​"car bombings", so it will continue to be considered the truth.

The West will continue to defend its puppet even if it does something that not only harms Russia and Donbass, but also Europe in general. It is clear that the IAEA will also not have experts who will say clearly that it was Ukraine that fired on the nuclear power plant, even if they can see with their own eyes the consequences of the artillery attacks. The agenda has not changed and as long as it does not, kyiv will continue to be presented as clean to innocent and the main villain will always be Russia.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/03/25425/#more-25425

Google Translator

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The Ukrainian 'Counteroffensive' Was Destined To Fail - Today It Did So

On August 24 the British prime minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev:

In comments made next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Mariyinsky Palace, Johnson said Ukraine “can and will win this war.”
Johnson's visit was the start signal for the long announced Ukrainian 'counteroffensive' towards Kherson.

In early April Johnson had called on and visited Kiev to stop well developed peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine:

“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” wrote Fiona Hill and Angela Stent. “Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”
The news highlights the impact of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s efforts to stop negotiations, as journalist Branko Marcetic noted on Twitter. The decision to scuttle the deal coincided with Johnson’s April visit to Kyiv, during which he reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off talks with Russia for two key reasons: Putin cannot be negotiated with, and the West isn’t ready for the war to end.


Over the last months Britain has trained several thousands of Ukrainian troops and their officers. Together with Ukrainian special forces Britain's MI-6 secret service planned a special operation for Ukraine to regain control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the south side of the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir. This was designed to coincide with a visit of IAEA inspectors, long held up by Ukraine, to visit the ZNPP.

The Kherson offensive started on August 30 on five axes. It was destined to fail. Three of these attempts to gain ground held by Russian troops failed. One axis was stopped after taking a few small villages of no strategic value. The only 'successful' attack was across the Inhulet river near Andriivka in the direction of the dam and river crossing that closes off the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

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The plan was crazy to begin with. The whole area is flat open steppe. The troops would have had to created a 50 kilometer (30 miles) long corridor through open hostile land. The towns on the way are mostly one or two street agricultural mini-villages with one story homes that offer little protection. The Ukrainian forces have no air defense or air attack capability to cover advancing troops. Its artillery capabilities are a tenth of what the Russian military can provide in the area. It was obvious from the beginning that this was a suicide mission.
Reportedly the Ukrainian military command was against this mission. But the Ukrainian political leadership, the Zelenski regime, ordered it to proceed. It was under political pressure from its foreign supporters to show at least some success.

The attack was launched on August 30. The Ukrainian military created three river crossings over the Inhulet near Andriivka. This already smelled bad. Why didn't the Russian airforce or artillery immediately destroy those crossings?

It was obvious that this was a trap.

In a CNN piece, co-written by the notorious 'intelligence' stenographer Natasha Bertrand, the U.S. military distanced itself from the upcoming catastrophe:

In the buildup to the current Ukrainian counteroffensive, the US urged Kyiv to keep the operation limited in both its objectives and its geography to avoid getting overextended and bogged down on multiple fronts, multiple US and western officials and Ukrainian sources tell CNN.
Those discussions involved engaging in "war-gaming" with Kyiv, the sources said -- analytical exercises that were intended to help the Ukrainian forces understand what force levels they would need to muster to be successful in different scenarios.

The Ukrainians were initially considering a broader counteroffensive, but narrowed their mission to the south, in the Kherson region, in recent weeks, US and Ukrainian officials said.
...
Officials say they believe there is now increased parity between the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. But western officials have been hesitant to label the nascent Ukrainian operation -- which appeared to begin on Monday in the southern province of Kherson -- a true "counteroffensive."

How successful Ukraine is likely to be in regaining lost territory remains an open question, sources familiar with the latest intelligence tell CNN.


For three days the Ukrainian military sent battalion after battalion into the salient. These were good professional troops trained by Britain. They were equipped with modernized Polish T-72 tanks and up-armored Dutch Infantry Fighting Vehicles (YPR-765 IFV). But while these force were able to create a deeper salient it would soon become their grave.

As I wrote on September 1.

The Ukrainian Kherson offensive continues despite extremely heavy losses. The Rybar map shows one of the axes where the Ukrainian army still tries to press forward after having been rooted from Bruskyns'ke.

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The area is flat open steppe with no coverage for troops to hide. The Russian side is by far superior in artillery and has air supremacy. Whoever ordered the Ukrainians to press this suicidal campaign under these circumstance is guilty of murder and should go to prison for the rest of his life.


On September 1, the very day the IAEA delegation was to arrive, the Ukrainian side made a daring attack to seize the ZNPP. But the Russian side had been warned. The two waves of Ukrainian special forces, also trained by Britain, were killed while crossing the reservoir or were running into ambushes as soon as they had landed. They ended up dead. The IAEA inspection proceeded as planned.

Jeffrey Kaye @jeff_kaye - 21:18 UTC · Sep 2, 2022
UN Secretary General's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday:
"We are glad that the Russian Federation did all to keep our inspectors safe"!
I expect mainstream press to not report this.
Link to Interfax report


On the third day of the offensive the bridges across the Inhulet river where still intact. The Russian tactic was obvious. A scheme that it had used previously on the Karkiv front:

Will Schryver @imetatronink - 22:28 UTC · Sep 2, 2022
The truth of the Kherson "offensive" is written on the maps for all to see: AFU attacks; Ru hits 'em hard, then pulls back; AFU advances; Ru hits 'em again, but pulls back more; AFU adds forces to salient; Ru flanks them in force & cuts off their rear; trap closed; turkey shoot.


Late yesterday the Russian air force made its first real showing in this 'counteroffensive' affair. It attacked Ukrainian forces at the front of the salient in the tiny village of Bezimene with some 24 'dumb' 500 kilogram bombs. This ended the existence of the village and of all Ukrainian forces in it.

The Russian airforce then proceeded to destroy all river crossings over the Inhulet.

The Ukrainian forces are trapped:

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They have one choice. Give up, wave white flags or die.

Here is the current Rybar overview of the larger Kherson region. All Ukrainian attempts in this 'counteroffensive' have failed to make any significant progress.

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The number of Ukrainian casualties are huge. Reports from Odessa, Nikolaev and Kryvy Rih speak of thousands of wounded. Many more have died. Hundreds of Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed or captured by Russian troops.

The 128th mountain assault brigade from the Ukrainian Transcarpatia region was involved in the general attack and got destroyed. (Why use 'mountain assault' specialists in the open steppe?) The governor of the region reportedly ordered a day of mourning.

The Russian side has now launched some attacks of its own to gain areas and towns the Ukrainians had held for some time. The Ukrainians are scrambling to mobilize local reserves in Nikolaev to counter these moves.

In 'western' media, complicit with the Zelenski regime, neither the bloody defeat of the 'counteroffensive' in Kherson nor the attempted raid on the ZNPP ever happened.

The only mention of it I found in the New York Times is this:

In a statement, the [Russian defense] ministry claimed that Russian forces had intercepted two groups of Ukrainian commandos, up to 60 troops combined, who crossed the Dnipro River in boats to sabotage or seize the plant.

In total the 'counterattack' on Kherson was a complete failure that predictably ended up destroying Ukraine's main military reserves and a major part of the stock of heavy vehicles it had received from the 'west'.

The ZNPP, which was the main 'public relation' target of the whole affair, is still in Russian hands and now secured by the presence of a permanent IAEA delegation.

bruno bertez @BrunoBertez - 7:27 UTC · 3 Sep 2022
"The IAEA is there to stay for as long as it is needed. We are not leaving.” [IAEA director] Grossi said. “For those who may have intentions on the plant, knowing that international inspectors are there, witnessing and informing immediately what is happening, has an important stabilising effect.”


Heads in Kiev should and will likely roll over this. But that is not enough. Those in London who came up with this lunatic idea should be removed from their positions.

Meanwhile U.S. President Joe Biden has asked for $13.7 billion in additional money for Ukraine.

He wants to fight Russia down to the very last Ukrainian. A fight Russia does not want but is assured to win.

Can Biden be held to account for this?

Posted by b on September 3, 2022 at 10:37 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/t ... .html#more

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Nord Stream suspended for an indefinite period
September 2, 21:11

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Gazprom has announced that Nord Stream has been suspended for an indefinite period. Another malfunction.
In response to attempts by Western Nazi sponsors to set a ceiling on oil prices, Gazprom decided to help set a floor on gas prices.
Earlier, Medvedev announced gas at 5,000 per 1,000 cubic meters closer to winter. And this is still until the Ukrainian gas transportation system was destroyed / turned off.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7838474.html

Google Translator

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US Sends Ukraine $228 Million per Day in Military Aid to Wage Proxy War on Russia

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Ukrainian military exercise "Cossack Will" in 2018. Photo: Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.

By Benjamin Norton – Aug 31, 2022

The Joe Biden administration pledged Ukraine $39.87 billion in military aid between February and August 2022, for an average of $228 million per day, fueling a brutal proxy war causing tens of thousands of deaths.

The Joe Biden administration pledged Ukraine $39.87 billion in military aid in the six months between February and August 2022, for an average of $228 million per day, fueling what even former US government officials admit is a “brutal proxy war” that is causing tens of thousands of deaths.

Researcher Stephen Semler documented the 21 distinct military aid packages that the Joe Biden administration approved for Ukraine in the year between August 2021 and August 2022, at a total of $40.13 billion.

Two of those 21 pledges were approved before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Excluding these two presidential drawdowns from August and December 2021, which are worth $260 million combined, the Biden administration passed $39.87 billion for military aid in Ukraine between February 25, 2022 (the day after the Russian invasion) and August 19, 2022.

This $39.87 billion in pledged military aid divided by the 175 days between February 25, 2022 and August 19, 2022 comes out to an average of approximately $228 million per day.

This spending does not include the billions more that the US government has pledged in economic aid to Ukraine. It likewise excludes the tens of billions of dollars of military aid that European countries have approved for Ukraine.

(Video & Podcast at link.)


Sources

“How much military aid has Biden sent to Ukraine?,” Stephen Semler, Speaking Security

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US military aid Ukraine
“51% of young Americans support tuition-free public college,” CNBC:

A survey from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics found that 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 support eliminating tuition and fees at public colleges and universities for students from families that make up to $125,000, and making community college tuition-free for all income levels for an estimated cost of $47 billion.

“Russia Is Right: The U.S. Is Waging a Proxy War in Ukraine,” Hal Brands, Bloomberg / The Washington Post https://archive.ph/6uAG4

“Austin’s assertion that US wants to ‘weaken’ Russia underlines Biden strategy shift,” CNN https://archive.ph/moGFY

“America’s Hesitation Is Heartbreaking,” Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... to/627052/

“Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say,” New York Times https://archive.ph/kkULs

(Multipolarista)

https://orinocotribune.com/__trashed/

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Ukraine Admits Bombing the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

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The Ukrainian military publicly admitted striking the area of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in an official General Staff briefing on Friday. Previously, Kiev had claimed that Russian forces used the plant as a military base; now it says all troops have relocated due to the visit by IAEA inspectors.

“In the areas of the settlements of Kherson and Energodar, accurate strikes by our troops destroyed three enemy artillery systems, as well as an ammunition depot and up to a company of personnel,” said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the daily briefing.

The military also claimed that, due to the arrival of the IAEA inspection team, the Russian “occupiers removed all military equipment from the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. About 100 units moved to the plant ‘Atom Energomash’ and the rest were dispersed in the nearest settlements.”

Energodar and the Zaporozhye facility have been under Russian control since early March, and functioned without problems until drone and artillery attacks began in July. Kiev has argued that the shelling was a false-flag operation by Moscow to make Ukraine look bad, but also that Russia was using the plant as a base for heavy artillery and equipment.

Moscow has consistently denied the accusations, saying that only lightly armed guards were deployed at the facility to ensure its security. On Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Ukrainian claims that Moscow was using the facility to attack Ukrainian positions “with long-range artillery systems” were “blatant lies.”

“I state with confidence that we do not have heavy weapons at the territory of the nuclear power stations and in adjacent neighborhoods,” Shoigu said at a meeting in Moscow, adding that he hoped the IAEA inspectors would testify to this as well.

Shoigu also said there have been 29 attacks against the Zaporozhye facility since July 18, involving 120 artillery projectiles and 16 kamikaze drones.

The IAEA mission arrived at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Thursday, led by agency chief Rafael Grossi personally. Grossi said the IAEA planned to have a “continued presence” on the site. As the IAEA team was en route, a group of Ukrainian commandos used boats to land in Energodar and attempted to storm the power plant. Their goal, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, was to use the IAEA inspectors as “human shields.” However, Russian troops destroyed both the initial strike group and its reinforcements.

RT

UN Thanks Russia for Keeping the Nuclear Team Safe

The UN is appreciates Russia’s efforts to safeguard the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team that came to inspect the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, on Thursday.

That’s according to the secretary-general’s chief spokesman, who was speaking after the Russian Defense Ministry said it was “bewildered” at the lack of reaction to an alleged Ukrainian attempt to seize the facility by force.

“We are glad that the Russian Federation did what it needed to do to keep our inspectors safe,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters at a briefing in New York, when asked about Moscow’s comments. (https://t.me/asbmil/4632)

“As with any UN mission, it is the responsibility of those who control a certain area to keep the UN staff safe,” he added, also thanking the “security people” and “drivers” for the “tremendous job” of getting the IAEA team safely in and out of the Zaporozhye NPP.

The mission, led by IAEA director Rafael Grossi, was delayed at a Ukrainian checkpoint on Thursday morning. It eventually made its way to Russian-controlled Energodar and toured the facility for several hours, before heading back to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Right before their visit, however, Ukrainian artillery targeted the city of Energodar and the Zaporozhye NPP itself, while a group of commandos crossed the Kakhovka Reservoir by boat and attempted to storm the facility, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Both the initial assault group and the reinforcements that followed were wiped out by the National Guard and combat helicopters, the Russian military said. Their goal, according to Moscow, was to seize the Russian-held power plant and use the IAEA staff as “human shields” to maintain control over the facility.

Energodar and the Zaporozhye NPP have been under Russian control since early March. In August, the nuclear site was targeted by regular artillery and drone attacks, which Moscow and Kiev blamed on each other. Ukrainian officials also claimed that the Russian military was using the plant as a military base, stationing heavy weapons there. Moscow denied the accusations, saying that it only had lightly armed guards defending the facility.

Moscow has called for an IAEA visit to Zaporozhye, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, since June – but Ukraine’s insistence that the mission must travel through Kiev to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty contributed to delaying the mission until this week.

RT

Physical integrity of Zaporozhye nuclear plant ‘violated several times’

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi has confirmed that damage had been done to the Russian-held Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine, but refrained from naming the guilty party.

“It’s obvious that… the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times. By chance or by deliberation, we don’t have the elements to assess that, but this is the reality that we have to recognize,” Grossi told reporters after returning to Ukrainian-controlled territory on Friday.

“I worried, I worry and I will continue to worry about the plant until we have a situation that’s more stable, that’s more predictable,” he added.

Grossi, who headed the team of IAEA experts that arrived at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on Thursday, said that he “saw a lot” during the visit, personally inspecting some of the “key areas” at the facility, including emergency systems, diesel generators and control rooms.

The atomic agency was “not going anywhere” from the plant now, he assured reporters, reiterating that the UN nuclear watchdog plans to establish a permanent presence at the facility.

The official also said that some experts from his team will remain at the station until Sunday or Monday to “dig deeper” and collect more data for the report.

Russia said that Ukraine has shelled the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and sent commandos to storm it on Thursday in a failed attempt to use the UN inspectors as “human shields.”

Grossi acknowledged that the security situation at the plant was “difficult” during his visit. “There were moments where fire was obvious – heavy machine gun, artillery, mortars,” he said, adding that on two or three occasions things got “very concerning” for the UN team.

Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since March, but has continued to be operated by the Ukrainian staff. The IAEA chief has praised the “incredible degree of professionalism” of those employees, saying that he saw them “calm and moving.”

Moscow accused Kiev forces of repeatedly targeting the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in August. It warned that those attacks could trigger a disaster that would eclipse the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, with radioactive material potentially reaching Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, Belarus, and even Germany.

Ukraine has claimed that Russian forces have turned the power plant into a military base and that they’ve been shelling the facility themselves to pin the blame on Kiev.

Russia has repeatedly denied those accusations and urged that international inspectors visit the site so that they could assess the situation for themselves.

RT

Ukraine planned to use IAEA team as ‘human shields’

Kiev forces wanted to seize the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in a daring military raid and use the personnel of the UN nuclear watchdog as “human shields” to maintain control over the facility, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Thursday.

The botched raid came shortly before a team of experts with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – including the organization’s head, Rafael Grossi – arrived at the plant for an inspection. According to the Russian military, multiple Ukrainian “saboteur groups” crossed the Kakhovka Reservoir in speedboats and barges near the plant early in the morning, but were intercepted and destroyed by Russian troops and National Guard forces.

“Obviously, if the operation of the Kiev regime to seize the station was a success, the head of the IAEA, [Rafael] Grossi, and the experts of the mission would become a ‘human shield’ for Ukrainian saboteurs to prevent any attempts to destroy them by the Russian armed forces,” the Russian MoD said in a statement.

The operation aimed at capturing the nuclear power plant appears to have been “planned in advance by Zelensky’s regime,” the Russian military suggested. Moreover, the delay in Grossi’s visit to the installation, originally planned for August 31, stemmed from the Ukrainians’ need for more time to get ready for that “military provocation,” it alleged.

The ultimate goal of the operation was seizing control of the plant, while the presence of the IAEA team would have allowed the “saboteurs” to not only take cover from any potential Russian actions, but also to cement the new “status quo,” the military said. The success of the operation would have likely been reinforced by a “new wave of loud statements from Washington and European capitals, calling upon Russia to establish a ‘demilitarized zone’ around the nuclear plant, with IAEA observers guarded by Ukrainian troops,” it asserted.

“In this regard, we fully understand the complete silence of all Western sponsors of the Zelensky regime, which de-facto confirms their tacit participation in the preparation of today’s provocation at the Zaporozhye plant,” the military concluded.



https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... wer-plant/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:39 pm

experts in the center
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/04/2022

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Original Article: Komsomolskaya Pravda

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation had prepared a bus of international journalists to travel to the "liberated territories", to the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. But it immediately became clear that the main destination of the trip was the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. It is under the control of Russian troops, but the staff remains primarily Ukrainian. In recent weeks, Ukrainian troops have bombarded the plant with cannon fire and multiple rocket launchers. They have also attacked it with drones.

However, kyiv has blamed the bombing of the plant - don't be surprised - on Russia. Supposedly, she is the one who bombs the plant that she guards. And which not only supplies electricity to Ukraine, but also to the Kherson and Zaporozhye territories. It's stupid? It is. But the West cannot admit that Ukraine is lying and that it exposes Europe to the danger of a nuclear incident. If it did, it would appear that the West is supporting a terrorist state to which it is supplying long-range weapons with which to attack the plant.

So an international IAEA mission led by its director, Rafael Grossi, was sent to Zaporozhie. The international journalists' bus [across the Dnieper, Ukraine had organized a similar press tour- Ed ] was going to meet Grossi. As a KP correspondent , I was riding the foreign press bus. But it was not so easy to get to the center. It took us two days to reach Energodar, the city of nuclear scientists, which was 200 kilometers away. From the beginning, everything went wrong because the Ukrainian topas had bombed the hotel where the press was to be installed. It seems that the presence of journalists, including foreign ones, was not included in the plans of kyiv. We were going to be able to see everything that the director of the IAEA did.

Grossi was due to arrive at Energodar the following day and it would have been very convenient to wait for him right there at the plant. But it could not be. It was necessary to spend the night in the rear, in Berdyansk. And go out in the middle of the night so you can see the international officer.

The second time we left for Energodar we went through terrible dirt roads. The Russian command informed us that the Ukraine had tried to land saboteurs near the plant. And there turned out to be a battle along the road that we should have been on. The bus with the foreign journalists miraculously avoided being caught in a crossfire. But that's just occupational hazards in the frontline territories.

At all major intersections in the direction of the plant there were checkpoints of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with equipment and machine guns at the ready. There are no signs of high-intensity battle here like in Mariupol and Volnovakha. Instead, there are propaganda posters saying that "we are the same people."

The Russian military were also at the gates of the plant. People in uniform work at the checkpoint checking the documentation of everyone who passes. From the huge reactor hangs the Russian tricolor.

The Ukrainian nuclear scientists, who are still working at the plant, were not very happy to see the guests. None of the employees, nor the director, spoke to journalists or the IAEA director. He could be seen moving around the plant, but they adamantly refused to speak to the press, although it seems they spoke to Grossi away from the cameras.

We were shown the results of the bombing. The first missile had hit near the checkpoint. A good crater could be seen in the eastern part, near the main technical fuel container. The nearby water pumps in the direction of the first reactor (there are six of them) were cut off. The main damages have already been repaired, but there are still water leaks. The windows of the adjacent buildings have been blown out. From the way the shell hit the ground, it's clear it came from the northwest. This is territory controlled by kyiv. As he surveyed the damage, the IAEA director himself appeared on the horizon.

“There are no Russian military here. It is evident that the projectile was aimed at the workers”, assured a Rosatom official to Rafael Grossi.

“Can we know where the projectile came from?” asked the director of the international agency. He was shown that he must be from Nikopol or Manganets, towns on the other side of the Kakhovsky reservation, under Ukrainian control.

The IAEA director addressed the white tanks. At the top of one of them there is a good hole.

“There are 240-ton turbines here. It is scary to think about what could happen if they catch fire,” said the Rosatom representative.

Complaining that journalists interfered with his work, Grossi, surrounded by his entourage, disappeared between the reactor buildings. And we continue to study the remains of the bombing without him. All the while, shelling could be heard in the distance. As they explained to me, it was about the arrivals of shells and the work of our air defenses. An experienced ear can tell if it is something that has exploded in the city or if it has been shot down out of the air by an anti-aircraft missile. But I'm not used to cannon fire, so I had to trust what they told me.

Near the sixth power unit, a gray metal projectile with semicircular stabilizers protruded from the ground. “A cluster projectile, possibly from Uragan. Here's the cluster munition. And this is just the tail of the projectile, which just falls to the ground,” a Russian security guard explained to me. It's not just that the reactor is nearby, but fifty meters away is the nuclear fuel depot in a cement sarcophagus. “There is a sarcophagus inside. If it had fallen into the real depot, the radioactive contamination would have already started here,” he continued.

Kamikaze drones have also acted here. I saw one on the ground: small wings, a small motor and 50 grams of explosives. This plastic bird exploded on the roof of one of the plant's buildings. There was a second drone, but it was able to be shot down. But Grossi did not notice the drones. He avoided making statements to the press and only announced his gratitude to the Russian military for organizing security for his visit. He had seen everything he needed to see. And he promised to leave a permanent IAEA mission at the plant.

At that time, he was handed an open letter from the residents of Energodar with a request to stop the shelling. Grossi picked it up without comment. He tried not to say anything and left. The director of the international organization is expected to present a report on the situation in Energodar to the United Nations. Who knows if he will tell the truth or not. If he came to control the plant, we, the press, had to control him. We saw the same thing that Grossi saw. Maybe that's why he complained, as if we were bothering him.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/04/25432/#more-25432

Google Translator

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

From Cassad's telegram account:

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
The brothers began to estimate the losses of the ukrovermacht in the Kherson "offensive", noting that there was no clarity.

There are no exact figures yet, and this is so, if only because: 1) the operation is still ongoing, and the ukry are trying to shove in some places, getting a sopatka (at least a platoon per light day of losses); 2) We use both MLRS, TOS, and FAB-500 in the enemy’s battle formations. And this, you understand, is ammunition of a volumetric explosion and a caliber of such that, as in a playful will attributed to Taras Shevchenko: “Then take the brushes, give them to the dogs to cook.”

And if no joke, then the joyful howling in the networks of dill was noticeably less (they were forbidden to discuss the army, well, well). But already after the first day of the "offensive" in Kyiv, it was hinted that in just one day the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine exceeded the number of those killed in the Ilovaisk cauldron-2014.

And near Ilovaisk, with the calculation of the losses of ukrov, the ukrov themselves are also not all openwork: in the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves they underestimated to 300-odd, figures of 420-450 flashed on the network, in the military prosecutor's office of Ukraine they estimated the number of killed and missing at more than 500 ( plus the same number of wounded), and the Verkhovna Rada published the figure of its own investigation of 1000 - "200".

So judge for yourself - the ukrovermacht climbs for the sixth day (began on the night of August 29), and if every day is like the Ilovaisk cauldron, then mourning ribbons will be hung out not only in Transcarpathia.

With the cocaine clown, Ukrainians are taking new steps into hell.

***

Colonelcassad
Special operation, 3 September. Main RIA Novosti :

▪️For the second time in a week, Ukrainian military and foreign mercenaries tried to land troops on motor boats and boats near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, where IAEA experts are located, the attempt was thwarted, 47 militants were killed

▪️The capacity of two power units operating at the Zaporizhzhya NPP has been halved due to Ukrainian shelling, energy is not supplied to the territory controlled by Ukraine due to the interrupted Dnieper power line

▪️Russian aviation, missile troops and artillery destroyed six ammunition depots, a fuel storage facility, and a HIMARS launcher

▪️The Russian Armed Forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter with American HARM anti-radar missiles in the Dnipropetrovsk region, two Su-25 attack aircraft in the Kherson region

▪️Ukraine suffers losses in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction, the Russian military destroyed 23 tanks, 27 infantry fighting vehicles and more than 230 Ukrainian military personnel there in a day

▪️The border village of Tetkino, Kursk region, was shelled from Ukraine, there were no casualties, Governor Starovoit said

▪️According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Kyiv asked the manufacturer "Bayraktarov" to equip the drones with a device for spraying chemicals - if they are installed on drones with a flight range of 300 km, there will be a threat of the use of biological weapons in Russia

***

Colonelcassad

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The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 20.00 on September 3 of the year

During the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to completely occupy the village of Blagodatovka , taking advantage of the crossing, induced by the RF Armed Forces the day before, and unblocking the troops surrounded on the southern bank of the Ingulets.

▪️The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine concentrated all available reserves and forces to expand the bridgehead on the Andreevsky sector of the front: near Posad-Pokrovsky, near Vysokopole, and near Snigirevka, the enemy’s activity is limited to rare shelling and the activity of small groups.

▪️On the route Bereznegovatoe village - Bereznegovatoe station - Ternovka - Blagodatovka - Andreevka , the transfer of equipment and personnel to the southern coast continues. German "Leopards" were seen, as well as something similar to the Finnish ZSU ItPsv 90 (Marksman).

▪️Most likely, at least one pontoon crossing was partially restored in the Andreevka area : until the middle of the day, trucks with crushed stone and soil ran there, which poured an earthen embankment.

▪️The amount of equipment transferred to the south coast has decreased: eyewitnesses report that the flow is starting to dry up. People are brought in civilian trucks and regular buses, after crossing the Ingulets they disperse in groups along the forest plantations along the coast.

▪️Equipment and personnel are being transferred to Sukhoi Stavka : this is the last known place of concentration of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they were thrown back from Bezymenny and Karlomarksovsky yesterday, Kostromka is in the gray zone.

▪️Artillery, army and tactical aviation continue to work on reinforcements being transferred across the bare steppe. There are not enough objective control personnel: despite the objectively huge losses of the Ukrainian side, due to the lack of communication, photos and videos practically do not get into the Network.

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
English roots of Ukrainian terror. Simmons - cotton and murder Zelensky's war of terror is overseen by the British. According to MI6, there is nothing to be afraid of - the Russian Federation does not set the task of destroying Ze and Co. They say that the ability of Kyiv's special services to carry out terrorist attacks "almost at the walls of the Kremlin" caused panic in Moscow. The British Ambassador persistently points out the involvement of Britain in the attacks carried out by employees and agents of the GUR and SBU. The British are preparing terrorists for attacks in the territories liberated by the Russian Federation. Intelligence and SAS in Ukraine have deployed centers in the interests of terrorist structures. The residency in the Russian Federation, Belarus and other countries is involved.

The special services of Kyiv are under the strict control and management of British advisers. Simmons is coordinating the "work" in Ukraine. In 2005-2008 she headed the Home Office South Africa section of the UK, then as Deputy Director for Special Projects of the Humanitarian Emergency Response Programme. She has worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2013 as the director of the joint funds division of the National Security Secretariat. From there she was appointed ambassador to Ukraine.

She is not a diplomat, the connection with the special services is obvious. Embassy of London in Kyiv - intelligence center. The US Embassy in Kyiv can accommodate a semi-brigade of light infantry, has a morgue, and underground hangars. Floor in the main building of the SBU in Kyiv behind the CIA and the FBI. Ukrainians are not allowed to enter. The FBI officially conducts operational-search activities on the territory of Ukraine, without informing Kyiv about it.

The Americans are also involved in organizing a terrorist war. The murder of Dugina is a joint project of the British / American intelligence services. Zelensky is a "layer", which mixes the direct management of the Anglo-Saxon structures and units of ukroterrorists. @voenkorKotenok

***

Colonelcassad
Bloomberg complains that despite the systemic blocking of RT in the US and Europe, RT is very popular in the rest of the world and is growing its audience, in particular the Spanish-speaking audience.
Another illustration of the thesis that the "World Community" is not the United States and its satellites, reflecting the fundamental changes in the current world order. In a competitive environment, Western media cannot defeat RT, so they can only fight using methods of totalitarian censorship, which is limited by the territory of Western control, which is shrinking every year.

***
Colonelcassad

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The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 12.00 on September 4 of the year

Over the past evening and night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had run out of equipment reserves pulled up to Bereznegovatoe : by the end of the day, separate groups of infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were crossing the southern coast on foot.

Throughout the night, the Russian Aerospace Forces, rocket troops and artillery inflicted fire damage on the positions of the Ternovka-Lozovoe-Kostromka triangle .

Dry Stavok has been turned into one large cemetery. Kostroma is being cleaned this morning. If the Armed Forces of Ukraine still have some reserves, and the command did not abandon plans for a suicidal assault on the southern bridgehead, then this will become clear by the end of the day.

Otherwise, the Andreevsky bridgehead of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will completely cease to exist in the near future.

***

Google Translator

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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Thousands Demand the Resignation of the Government in Prague

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Demonstration on Prague's Wenceslas Square. Sept. 03, 2022. | Photo: Twitter: @oriolsabata

Published 3 September 2022 (7 hours 1 minutes ago)

70 000 people took part in the demonstration on Prague's Wenceslas Square against the government and the current situation.


In Prague, 70,000 people took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the sharp rise in energy prices and to demand a neutral position on the war in Ukraine.

The organisers said after the end of the demonstration that if the government does not resign by 25 September, they will announce pressure actions and will plan for another protest on 28 September.

"We demand the establishment of a temporary government of experts and the calling of early elections. If the government does not resign by 25 September, we will declare the right to resistance under the Constitution of the Czech Republic at a nationwide demonstration and announce coercive actions. We are already in talks with trade unions, businessmen, farmers, mayors, transport operators and other organisations to declare a strike," the organisers warned.


The gathering on Wenceslas Square is going on peacefully and we haven't had to solve any serious problems so far. We estimate the number of participants at 2:30 p.m. to be around 70,000.

Police estimate that about 70,000 people gathered on Wenceslas Square for the more than three-hour demonstration against the government.

According to Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS), the event was called by forces that claim to have a pro-Russian orientation, are close to extremists and are against the interests of the Czech Republic.

However, the protest are so far peaceful and without any serious problems.


Among the speakers at Saturday's event were former Agrarian Chamber President Zdeněk Jandejsek and energy expert Vladimír Štěpán.

Other speakers included SPD MP Jiří Kobza, Trikolora chair Zuzana Majerová, Communist presidential candidate Josef Skála, economist and dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Economics in Prague Miroslav Ševčík, and lawyer Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová.

According to the organisers, the Czech Republic should declare neutrality, "free itself from direct political subservience to the EU, the WHO or the UN", secure cheap gas supplies from Russia and "free Czech industry from dependence on foreign companies".

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

G7 Aims to Cap Russian Oil Prices

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Russia has warned that it will not supply its oil to those supporting the G7 price cap plan. Sep. 2, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@LucyGatsby

Published 2 September 2022

The Group of Seven announced its intention to ban the transportation of Russian oil at a price above an agreed price cap.


Although the Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers did not specify the cap's level on Friday, they said, "We commit to work urgently on the finalization and implementation of this measure."

According to a joint statement from the group consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., the price ceiling measure is intended to reduce Russia's revenues and, at the same time prevent the closure of Russian crude oil on the international market.

For the measure to be effective, the group intends to establish a broad coalition to urge countries seeking to import Russian oil and oil products to comply with an agreed price cap.

The ministers said their objective is to "align implementation with the timing of related measures within the E.U.'s sixth sanctions package."


Russia, for its part, has opposed such a plan, saying that only countries not endorsing the price ceiling will get its oil.

In this sense, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said "to those companies or countries that impose restrictions, we will not supply our oil and oil products, because we will not work on non-market conditions."

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/G7- ... -0012.html

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EUROPE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GAS AND RECESSION
3 Sep 2022 , 12:32 pm .

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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (L) and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, Belgium on May 17, 2022 (Photo: Olivier Matthys / POOL)

The European Union (EU) is currently trapped in its own rabbit hole, since it acts as a blocker of the supply and commercialization of Russian gas in European territory, the same energy resource on which they are extremely dependent.

Just showing these data reveals the self-flagellation of the EU:

The European group relies on net imports to supply 84% of its domestic gas consumption.
Some 38% of EU gas imports come from Russia.
Preventing Russia from supplying gas because of European "sanctions" will drag the eurozone into recession.
At the end of this week, the G7 countries agreed to impose the much-heralded price cap on Russian oil on the eve of winter. Of course, this idea comes from the US side: it is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who said in June that the " most powerful tool " they have is to limit the price of Russian oil ( price cap ) in order to to supposedly reduce inflation. Even leaving the G7 meeting, UK Foreign Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that the decision had been made in Washington with Secretary Yellen.

An excerpt from the G7 Declaration explains that they would publish the prices without giving more details:

"The initial price cap will be set at a level based on a variety of technical input and will be decided by the full coalition prior to implementation in each jurisdiction. The price cap will be publicly communicated in a clear and transparent manner. The effectiveness and impact of the price cap will be closely monitored and the price level will be revised as necessary.

So many attacks on OPEC+, branding that organization as if it were a cartel, makes this new measure draw between the lines that the G7 seeks to operate as a cartel in order to set prices at convenience in this complex scenario, where none of those countries have sufficient energy resources to struggle in these dynamics compared to Russia.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak responded that if states or companies impose price restrictions, Russia will simply not supply oil and oil products. Novak also commented that such a move could completely destroy the world oil market.

It should be noted that, in the face of the rounds of coercive measures against Russia, oil revenues have been maintained because Moscow found new markets in Asia and they have a strong gas and oil platform that has allowed them to dodge Western bullets.

In fact, Novak's projections for year-end production are around 525m tonnes, maintaining last year's band of 524m tonnes.

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Russian oil production in millions of barrels (Photo: File)

On the other hand, in the midst of the race to seek new alternatives to the supply of Russian gas, days ago the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz received the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, to discuss the possible reactivation of the construction of the Mid-Catalonia gas pipeline (MidCat), whose gas network would run through the Iberian Peninsula connecting Spain and France.

The project of this resurrected gas pipeline was designed to redirect the Algerian gas stored in Spain to France and, from that last point, redistribute the gas to other European countries, such as Germany. Its construction had been paralyzed due to costs.

However, the French government is not convinced to participate in this project because the numbers do not add up: first, completing the construction would take a long time; second, the cost of construction would be very high; and, not least, is that it could only supply between 2-2.5% of European gas consumption.

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The unfinished Mid-Catalonia gas pipeline (MidCat), whose gas network would run through the Iberian Peninsula connecting Spain and France (Photo: Enagas)

In addition to all this framework, the European Statistical Office registered inflation at 9% for the month of August, due to the increase in energy and food prices.

Likewise, the international credit rating agency Fitch Ratings published a report , "The gas crisis to push the eurozone into recession", indicating that a recession in the eurozone is likely to occur as a result of the deepening of the gas crisis. . This outcome would happen in the remainder of the second half of this year, with Germany and Italy experiencing annual declines in their GDP by 2023.

This agency visualizes that the economic impact of this crisis could disappear in 2024 because the structures of energy production and supply would supposedly be adjusted. To achieve this, a large capital must be available in order to invest in oil-gas parks, ports, trade routes, etc.

So, the price cap measure would only work if other states, such as India or China, become involved in that G7 network or cartel, because they are major players in the purchase of these commodities .

In addition, the sanction threat to big players on the international board who ignore the price cap would remain just that: a threat, since the current conditions do not lend themselves to "sanction" a wide range of countries. The collapse in the general collapse of supply chains would, in this case, be imminent.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/eu ... a-recesion

Google Translator

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Jon Stewart and the Pentagon Honor Ukrainian Nazi at Disney World
SEPTEMBER 3, 2022

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US comedian Jon Stewart (left), Ukrainian neo-nazi Ihor Halushka (center), and a person in cartoon costume (right) at the US Department of Defense Warrior Games 2022 in Disney World, Florida, USA. Photo composition: The Grayzone.

By Alexander Rubinstein – Aug 31, 2022

Defense Department-sponsored “Warrior Games” featured liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarding a member of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at Disney World. The Pentagon refused to tell The Grayzone whether US taxpayers funded the foreign competitors’ travel.

This August, during the Department of Defense’s annual Warrior Games at Disney World in Orlando, Florida this August 19-28, liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarded a Ukrainian military veteran named Ihor Halushka the “Heart of the Team” award for “inspiring his team” with his “personal example.”

Halushka happens to have been a member of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been armed by the US and integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. The award-winning ultra-nationalist wore a sleeve over his left arm as he accepted the prize, presumably to cover up his tattoo of the Nazi Sonnenrad, or Black Sun.

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Ihor Halushka’s Sonnenrad Black Sun tattoo is visible on his left elbow.

The pair are part of a team of forty Ukrainian veterans participating in the Warrior Games. They were joined at the ceremony for this year’s competition by Darius Rucker, the former vocalist for the glorified bar band Hootie & the Blowfish, and liberal comedian Jon Stewart.

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Jon Stewart delivers opening remarks at the DoD Warrior Games.

During the closing ceremony, Stewart awarded the Azov Battalion’s Halushka with the “Heart of the Team” award. The announcer proclaimed that Ihor “inspires his team with his personal example and his unique sense of humor. Sgt. First Class Ihor Halushka embodies the spirit and determination that is the heart of Team Ukraine.”

Stewart triumphantly bellowed “Ihor!” as the Nazi was presented with his trophy.

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Jon Stewart awards Ihor Halushka with the “Heart of the Team” award.

Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of this year, mainstream outlets from the Daily Beast to Vox to Foreign Policy, and even the US government propaganda outlet Voice of America, have each acknowledged the Azov Battalion’s embrace of Nazism. Right Sector group has been similarly identified as a fascist organization. Since the invasion, however, Western corporate media has downplayed the presence of Nazis in the Ukrainian armed forces as groups like Azov have taken on prominent front-line roles.

Reached by phone, Warrior Games communication director Travis Claytor would not tell The Grayzone who covered the travel expenses of Team Ukraine and other foreign competitors. Claytor merely stated that the Department of Defense is “not responsible” for their costs. However, he noted that “the relationship with each team is different.” Ukraine and Canada are the only foreign teams participating in this year’s competition.

While promising this reporter a more complete response by email, Claytor has so far failed to deliver.

A video on the DoD Warrior Games YouTube channel entitled “Family Night at Magic Kingdom” shows some members of Team Ukraine enjoying a night out at the world-famous theme park.

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Team Ukraine at the Magic Kingdom. Photo: Fisher House.

This year’s Warrior Games are taking place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. Competitions include shooting, wheelchair rugby, cycling, powerlifting, indoor rowing, wheelchair basketball, field, golf, track, swimming, sitting volleyball and archery.

This is the first year Team Ukraine has participated in the Warrior Games. Its athletes came away with at least 18 gold medals.

Ukraine’s team is composed of the same veteran-athletes that participated in the Invictus Games, a similar competition of wounded veterans founded by Prince Harry after the English royal attended the Warrior Games. Ukraine’s Invictus Games team and Warrior Games team are both led by Oksana Gorbach, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Veterans Affairs.

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More members of the Ukrainian team at the DoD Warrior Games. Photo: Fisher House.

“The organizational team of the Warrior Games in Ukraine includes the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, the Center for Strategic Communications StratCom Ukraine, the NGO Invictus Ukraine Games, the Strongman Federation of Ukraine, the Come Back Alive,” the Ministry of Veterans Affairs website states. StratCom Ukraine, like the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, is a governmental body, while the others appear to be Ukrainian NGOs.

As the Grayzone reported, the head of Ukraine’s veterans affairs agency attended a 2019 neo-Nazi black metal concert featuring several antisemitic metal bands, and promoted the event on Facebook.

According to a deleted article from 2017 on an Azov Battalion website, at least three members of the notorious ultranationalist fighting force have participated in the Invictus Games. Because Azov identified the competitors by their call signs, and therefore did not disclose their real names, it is not possible to determine whether they also competed in the 2022 Warrior Games.

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Ihor Halushka circa 2014. The Azov Battalion’s patch is visible on his left arm.

While the team page on the Invictus Games website merely states that Ihor Halushka was a member of Ukraine’s National Guard, an expanded bio on the website makes it clear he was a member of Azov.

An unlisted YouTube video by the Invictus Games on YouTube offers a close-up of Halushka working out, with Nazi Black Sun symbol tattooed on his left elbow clearly visible. Halushka opted to cover the fascist symbol during photo ops at the Warrior Games.

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Ihor Haluskha rocks an Azov Battalion t-shirt as he accepts a gold medal at the Department of Defense’s 2022 Warrior Games.

Halushka has never been shy about his ties to the Azov Battalion. During the Invictus Games this April, he whipped out an Azov flag as he accepted a gold medal, which was hosted in The Hague—where war criminals are normally tried, not awarded. Likewise, in Orlando, Haluskha wore an Azov Battalion t-shirt as he accepted a gold medal for indoor rowing. He was honored days later as the “heart” of his team.

“Symbol of Ukrainian bravery” was member of fascist Right Sector
Perhaps the most famous Ukrainian Warrior Games participant is Yulia Palevska, who the New York Times has dubbed “a symbol of Ukrainian bravery and self-sacrifice.”

Palevska gained international recognition this March when she handed off footage she had filmed in Mariupol to a journalist with the Associated Press. The video showed Palevska evacuating Azov Battalion soldiers from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol when she was captured by Russian forces. Three months later, she was released.

Palevska’s release by Russia was such a notable event in Ukraine that President Zelensky personally remarked on the development.

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Palevska competes in a swimming competition at the DoD Warrior Games.

The Associated Press downplayed her links to the Azov Battalion, writing “Russia has portrayed Taira as working for the nationalist Azov Battalion… But the AP found no such evidence, and friends and colleagues said she had no links to Azov.”

However, Palevska was a member of another neo-Nazi formation similarly incorporated into the Ukrainian military—a fact not mentioned by mainstream media outlets that vaulted her to war hero status this March.

A 2019 Bloomberg Businessweek report identified Palevska as “a former member of Right Sector.” (“There’s no such thing as ex-Right Sector,” she claimed). After leaving the group “amid infighting,” she organized a team of combat medics named after her World of Warcraft character, “Taira’s Angels.”

Bloomberg’s correspondent met with Palevska in Mariupol, which was then controlled by the Azov Battalion. Palevska’s medic group “runs through about $20,000, half of it from abroad, in cash, fuel, and medical supplies every month,” he reported.

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Photo of Palevska posted by the Warrior Games: Team Ukraine Facebook page.

“Everyone I talk to describes [Palevska], dappled with Buddhist tattoos and sporting dyed blue hair, as motivated purely by patriotism,” he added.

In a photo posted by the official Facebook page for Ukrainian Warrior Games team, Palevska’s tattoo of the ultranationalist slogan “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes” is clearly visible.

Another member of Palevska’s media group was “wearing a T-shirt from the neo-Nazi apparel company Sva Stone and an Iron Cross ring,” according to Bloomberg.

Nazi salutes litter Team Ukraine’s Facebook page

It is difficult to believe that Palevska and Halushka are the only members of Team Ukraine that have belonged to neo-Nazi groups.

A photo posted on the team’s official Facebook page show five team members performing a fascist salute in front of a Warrior Games banner.

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Team Ukraine performs a fascist salute in front of a Department of Defense banner.

In other photos, a member of the team wearing a Warrior Games t-shirt can be seen holding a Right Sector flag; and seven veterans associated with the team bear the flag of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a WWII-era Nazi military formation made up of Ukrainian nationalists.

American taxpayers have already forked $60 billion over to Ukraine since the war broke out in 2014. They are therefore entitled to know whether the Department of Defense paid Team Ukraine’s travel expenses.

Video from the Department of Defense shows the Ukrainian team deboarding on the tarmac at MacDill Air Force Base. Did they even pass through Customs?

The Pentagon’s Warrior Games has refused to answer these questions and stonewalled The Grayzone ever since.

While the presence of neo-Nazis within Ukraine’s fighting forces may come as little surprise to critical observers of NATO’s conflict with Russia, their invitation to Disney World by the Department of Defense is without a doubt one of the weirdest episodes in the Ukraine proxy war.

https://orinocotribune.com/jon-stewart- ... ney-world/

Nazis fete'd at Disney World.....Satire is dead. Irony is dead. Cynicism rules.

Hootie and the Blowfish were not a glorified bar band, they weren't even that good.
"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 Sep 05, 2022 11:40 am

The price of attacking
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/05/2022

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Original Article: Alexey Zotiev

A positional war in which there are no large-scale actions that are going to go down in history causes, sooner or later, fatigue both among the direct participants, the military personnel, and the civilian population, hostage to the successes of the actions of a of the parties to the conflict. It is this psychological fatigue that causes mass defections and surrenders. It is this psychological fatigue that makes the population ask more insistently for peace.

The Ukrainian population is, without a doubt, tired of the war, which is not taking place according to the scenario that has been so actively presented in the official discourse of Kiev [a survey published in The Washington Post shows that, despite the nationalist and victory rhetoric , the desire for peace and the willingness to compromise increases as war touches people- Ed ]. The European population is also war-weary, having lost quality of life for nothing more than the prospect of facing a short-term cold winter. Those who fill Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and money may also be war-weary.

As a rule, psychological fatigue leads to catastrophic defeats at the front or to changes in power and thus to changes in the political course. Surrounded by numerous advisers and consultants, there is no doubt that Volodymyr Zelensky understands the consequences of the current situation. He also knows that only a significant dynamic on the front lines will motivate the troops, guarantee the loyalty of the population and prolong relations with Western partners, who want to see that the money sent to Ukraine works.

As expected, the pre-announced and long-awaited offensive, which has ended with the defeat of some relatively combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Kherson and the destruction of elite special forces near Energodar, was important for kyiv.

According to the results of these operations, prepared for a long time with the participation of foreign specialists, the army had to encourage the population, who had to believe in the power of Ukrainian weapons, Western partners have verified the benefit of their Ukrainian investment and propagandists have had good material for escalating informational and psychological warfare, because glorifying the Ukrainian army, whose successes include executing prisoners of war, is becoming more difficult.

The attempt by the kyiv officials and the Ukrainian Armed Forces command to hide the true level of casualties suffered from the Kherson counter-offensive is like prolonged agony before inevitable death. If until now kyiv had managed to hide from the population, which unlike the military can be kept in a certain ignorance, what was really happening, after the defeat of the 128th Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it is already Impossible to hide casualties.

The Transcarpathian regional administration declared September 2 a day of mourning for the fallen soldiers, and the entire press was filled with obituaries extolling the fallen heroes. Nor was it possible to hide the level of casualties after the result of the special operation to seize the Zaporozhie power plant, which has not contributed to raising the morale of the soldiers and must not have convinced the population of the inevitability of the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Could Zelensky not have been aware of the consequences when the operation began?? Did you really believe that the groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kherson, Kharkov and Energodar area, which have only a heroic retreat to their credit, would be able to turn the military campaign around and inflict a crushing defeat on the units? of the Russian army? It's unlikely. Zelensky can be considered a war criminal, but it is unwise to consider him an idiot. He knew perfectly well how the adventures were going to end, but even so he gave the order that has cost hundreds of lives of soldiers and special forces. It is possible that he did not care about those lives, since the stakes in the game started on the territory of Ukraine are very high. It can be said that the fate of the current regime in Ukraine is being decided right now.

Winter is coming, when it will be difficult to keep promises to both the Ukrainian and European populations. And taking into account the perspectives, the conflict on the territory of Ukraine is no longer seen from the prism of ideology but from that of rationality. Western politicians have to convince their population that the Ukrainian adventure must continue to be financed and Ukrainian politicians need to maintain the loyalty of the local population, part of which is already tired of the war, does not believe in the success of the troops and in silence they think of a plan to travel to Zaporozhie, a territory where Russian passports can be easily obtained [queues at checkpoints to access Russian-controlled territory have been repeated lately- Ed ].

It is understandable that such prospects push Zelensky to rush into decisions that cost lives to a large number of Ukrainian troops. He doesn't care about those people. He needs a little bit of success to prolong the life of this government. To do this, he is willing to ignore acts of mourning, the regularity of which will continue to increase in the territories and regions controlled by kyiv. But the question is when will this regime run out of soldiers to send to their death in search of illusory impossible goals. When will the Ukrainians who are still alive realize that the prolonged adventure has no future and that the role assigned to them by the West is not pleasant?

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/05/el-pr ... more-25440

Google Translator

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Kherson Offensive: Moment of Truth in the Ukraine War
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 4, 2022
M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

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Ukrainian counteroffensive has begun in Kherson Oblast

The fog of war envelops the Ukrainian “counteroffensive” in southern Kherson region where Kiev hopes to regain lost territories. But by the sixth day of operations, the echo chamber in the West has fallen silent. There are no tall claims.

Today’s update of the UK Ministry of Defence prefers to dwell rather on the “morale and discipline” issues in the Russian army, in general, their modest pay-packets and basic amenities like “appropriate uniform”, arms and rations — rather than on Kherson counteroffensive.

There is media blackout in Ukraine. All we know is of military convoys of ambulances rushing through Odessa city streets and hospitals overflowing with wounded servicemen, and eerie public calls for blood donation. Transcapathia region in western Ukraine from where the locally recruited 128th mountain assault brigade was redeployed to the Kherson front declared a day’s mourning in memory of its brave sons who lost lives.

Meanwhile, the latest word from Kiev is that its counteroffensive is a “methodical operation” to degrade the Russian forces in the south rather than make territorial gains. President Volodymyr Zelensky said with some irritation, “I’m not ready to predict when it (rollback of Russian forces) will happen. I don’t have the exact dates, but I have the exact understanding of how we will do it.”

On Thursday (5th day of counteroffensive), Zelensky took a second meeting within the week of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but only to add cryptically, “certain decisions have also been made. I think everyone will be able to see their outcomes.”

The US media vaguely claims that Ukrainian forces are making “tactical gains” and are preparing “for a long and hard-fought battle before winter sets in… Western officials cautioned the counteroffensive won’t sweep the Russian forces out of Ukraine any time soon. However, success in retaking the region of Kherson and gaining control of the western side of the river would be “really significant.” (Politico)

The daily noted, “Such a victory would show Ukraine’s Western allies that they are right to continue sending billions of dollars of weapons and supplies to help counter Russia.”

This last bit is the crux of the matter. The arms supplies from European countries to Ukraine have virtually dried up to a trickle and a similar disturbing trend is discernible with the US supplies too. The Biden Administration is asking Congress to approve another $11.7 billion in aid for Ukraine but that is in anticipation of the likelihood that the 2023 budget may not be passed by the deadline of Oct. 1. The White House Office of Management and Budget announcement on Sept. 2 acknowledges that this is “a short-term continuing resolution to keep the Federal government running.”

The OMB statement says the White House wants this anomaly because funds from previous packages to boost Ukrainian military are running low, with three-quarters distributed or committed, and more will follow in the next month. Importantly, though, of the $11.7 billion requested by the White House, $4.5 billion would go toward replenishing Pentagon’s depleted stockpiles, $4.5 billion to budgetary support for Ukraine’s government, and only $2.7 billion to defence and intelligence aid as such. This new round of aid is intended to last through December.

Zelensky must be a worried man. He needs to convince the donors that such massive multi-billion dollar military aid has been worth it. He should show at the very least, a bloody stalemate on the southern warfront. (Russia is gaining the upper hand in Donass already.)

There is always the danger that Zelensky might overreach. Politico disclosed: “Western governments have warned Kyiv against spreading its forces too thinly in a bid to capture as much territory as possible, since the Ukrainians would have to hold any gains they make. The officials said they expect Ukraine to reassess its military goals if it retakes Kherson. However, the city of Melitopol, also in the south, remains too far away from the Ukrainian positions, while a ground attack against Crimea during this offensive is not plausible.”

Now, all this juxtaposes with the upbeat tone but bare factual information shared in the Russian statements on Kherson front. Today’s Russian reports say that the “counteroffensive” has been virtually muzzled and Ukrainian forces have taken heavy casualties running into several thousands. It seems to be a veritable apocalyptic scenario , too tragic to recount.

The solitary Ukrainian breakthrough remaining as of Saturday night was a bridgehead across the Ingulets river — the so-called Andreevsky bridgehead. There is speculation that Russians may have lured the Ukrainian troops into a “fire trap.” The river crossings have been cut off and Russians are probably encircling the Ukrainian troops trapped on the western side of Ingulets with no supplies or reinforcements reaching them.

The counteroffensive has lost its bite and is now positional battles on one or two sites in the Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog direction. A Russian counterattack has also been mentioned to the effect that the frontline now touches the “administrative boundary” of Mykolaiv region (which is a crucial city en route to Odessa.) Heavy bombardment of Mykolaiv has also been reported. The Russians claim to have destroyed vast quantities of weaponry, too.

Russia’s “domain control” can be put in perspective: the enemy is, on the one hand, caught on the bare steppe and cut down with the overwhelming superiority of Russian artillery and aviation, and, on the other hand, running into well-fortified, entrenched defence lines.

That said, Zelensky cannot give up, as he is desperately in need of a success story. Kiev still hopes to reverse the situation, but how that is achievable remains to be seen.

Against this sombre backdrop, more and more sceptical voices are being heard in the US about the Biden Administration’s policy trajectory. The latest is an opinion piece in Wall Street Journal by Gen. (Retd) Mark Kimmitt, formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the Bush administration. Kimmitt predicts that “a breakthrough is unlikely” and soon, “logistics shortfalls” may force a change in US strategy.

He explains, “NATO will have to deal with dwindling stocks of leading-edge weapon systems. This likely will mean muddling through a longer war, with more casualties. It means more pressure from supporting nations, sustained inflation, less heating gas and falling popular support.”

In principle, the options are: i) “dig deeper into NATO stockpiles being held back for national defences”; ii) “ramp up critical shortfalls” by invoking Defense Production Act and its European equivalents; iii) escalate the conflict by targeting Crimea and Russia itself; and, iv) forcing Zelensky to face the grim reality that “diminishing resupplies” of weaponry actually contains “the message of declining outside support” for the war itself.

The retired general with Republican Party leanings concludes: “Beginning the diplomatic resolution would be distasteful, and perhaps seen as defeatist, but as there is little chance of climbing out of the current morass, it may be better to negotiate now than later… Looking into a future of protracted war, diminishing high-tech systems and mounting casualties, Mr. Zelensky and NATO must face up to tough decisions before those decisions are forced on them.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... raine-war/

Kherson Offensive: What Went Wrong?
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 4, 2022



Ukraine’s “Kherson Offensive” has been downgraded from an actual offensive back into the long-range stand-off fighting that has favored Russia. What went wrong? Between a correlation of forces favoring Russia and poor planning, what was a politically-motivated offensive had been doomed before it was launched.

References:

Newsweek – Ukraine Plans ‘Systemic Grinding’ of Putin’s Army to Take Kherson: Official: https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-plan

Washington Post – Ukrainians line up to donate blood to save ‘soldiers who are fighting for us’: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/

US Army, Fort Benning – Amor Mounted Maneuver Journal (Spring 2017), “Defeating the Battalion Tactical Group: https://www.benning.army.mil/Armor/eA




Update for Russian military operations in Ukraine for September 4, 2022

– Ukrainian “Kherson Offensive” is resulting in massive casualties for Ukraine with negligible territorial gains, some of which have already been reversed;

– Western media continues to spin the ongoing fighting in southern Ukraine attempting to explain why it is not materializing in gains; – Claims that Ukraine is pursuing a “slow grind” strategy in Kherson is an admission that fighting has returned to the pre-”offensive” stand-off;

– Ukraine has clearly committed what is left of its best men and equipment to the fight;

References:

Institute for the Study of War – RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, SEPTEMBER 2: https://www.understandingwar.org/back

Ukrainian General Staff on Facebook – September 3, 2022 Operational Update: https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff

Guardian – Push to retake Kherson is symbol of Ukraine’s cautious confidence: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202

Politico – Ukraine makes early ‘tactical gains’ in long battle to retake Kherson: https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrai

WSJ – Ukraine Sees Many Ways to Hurt Russia in Kherson Offensive: A string of small fights is more likely than a massed attack as Kyiv protects its troops: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-

RFE/RL – Ukraine’s Southern Offensive To Reclaim Territory Will Come In Stages, Says Military Strategist: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-south

NPR – Ukraine’s southern offensive relies on heavy weapons. Soldiers say there aren’t enough: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/02/112062

Reuters – Russia says it foiled Ukrainian attempt to seize nuclear plant: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... ent-wrong/

Journalists Witnessed Ukrainian Saboteurs’ Failed Storming of Zaporozhye NPP
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 4, 2022

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An IAEA mission led by the UN agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, arrived at the Zaporozhye NPP on September 1st to monitor the situation at the plant, which has been controlled by the Russian military since the first month of Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has stated that journalists who arrived in the Ukrainian town of Energodar on September 1st witnessed Ukrainian saboteurs’ failed storming of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP).

The MoD said in a statement on Sunday that while hiding in a bomb shelter, the journalists personally kept an eye on the massive shelling of the territory of the nuclear power plant and residential areas of Energodar by Ukrainian artillery.


According to the statement, at the request of the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), “to cover the work of the IAEA mission at the ZNPP, the Russian side ensured the arrival of more than 60 reporters at the facility, including those from France, the US, China, Denmark, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries.”

The Russian MoD also said that specially-selected and trained “journalists” from Ukraine, the US and the UK were supposed to brief the international community on Kiev taking control of the ZNPP, amid preparations by the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors for an operation to seize the facility in the presence of the IAEA mission.

The Ministry also described an unauthorized attempt to attach cars with Ukrainian and Western journalists to the IAEA motorcade, which was moving to the ZNPP on September 1st, as a provocation by Ukrainian authorities.

“A provocation attempt was made by Kiev contrary to the scenario of the IAEA mission agreed upon by the agency’s Secretariat and the UN Department of Safety and Security. In accordance with the detailed and agreed-upon documents, access to the Russian-controlled territory of the Zaporozhye region was to be carried out strictly on the basis of the lists previously submitted to the Russian MoD by the UN Department of Security and Safety,” the Ministry stressed.

The statement came after the Russian MoD announced the destruction of two sabotage groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which landed three kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant earlier this week.

The ZNPP, located on the left bank of the Dnieper River near Energodar, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in terms of the number of its units and output.


During Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the nuclear plant and surrounding areas fell under the control of Russian forces. According to the Russian MoD, Energodar, nearby villages and the ZNPP remain a target of intensive shelling by Ukrainian forces. Kiev, in turn, blames Moscow for the shelling. The situation around the ZNPP has raised international concerns over a possible nuclear disaster in the area.

On February 24th, Russia launched a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, responding to requests from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... ozhye-npp/

Russia Halts Drone Attack on Zaporizhzhia Plant

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A view of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Sept. 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @lacunalingua_3

Published 4 September 2022

Authorities of Enerhodar City denounced constant Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia facilities and power lines since Saturday morning.


On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that Russian forces thwarted an attempt by the Ukrainian army to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which remains in normal condition, with eight drones.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that approached the nuclear plant were "blocked by Russian electronic warfare equipment," Konashenkov specified, adding that Ukrainian forces also launched homing grenades at the facility.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been under guard by Russian forces since early March. The staff that operates it, however, remain Ukrainian.

Authorities of Enerhodar City, where the Zaporizhia plant is located, denounced constant Ukrainian attacks on the facilities and power lines since Saturday morning. As a result, Zaporizhzhia has decreased its energy production by 50 percent.


Due to the reduction of power at the nuclear plant, the flow of electricity is currently reaching only towards the liberated territories, said Vladimir Rogov, a member of the region's military-civilian administration.

Konashenkov lamented that the Ukrainian forces continue to generate provocations in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia plant despite the presence of a mission from the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA).

He specified that the Ukrainian troops resumed shelling the plant on the night of Sept. 2, when attacks were recorded on the second and third blocks, which generated an interruption in the operation of the Dnieper transmission line that sends power to the Ukrainian territory.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0005.html

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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Colonelcassad
Special operation, 4 September. The main thing from RIA Novosti :

▪️Russian Aerospace Forces eliminated up to 50 foreign mercenaries in the Kurakhovo region in the DPR, the Ministry of Defense reported

▪️The military of the Russian Federation struck the headquarters of the Ukrainian national formation "Kraken" in the Kharkov region, the Defense Ministry said

▪️During the day, Ukrainian troops lost 11 tanks and more than 150 people in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction

▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense reported about Ukrainian and Western journalists who tried to join the IAEA motorcade when traveling to the ZNPP: according to the agency, if the station was captured on September 1, they had to inform the world community about the transition of the station to Kyiv

▪️Representatives of Ukrainian or other media who were supposed to accompany IAEA experts to the ZNPP from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime on September 1 were not on the agreed lists

▪️There were no shellings of Zaporizhzhya NPP and Energodar during the night and Sunday morning, IAEA specialists will continue to work at the station until at least September 5, the regional administration reported

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Colonelcassad
In general, for the evening.

1. The high field during the day was for the most part behind the enemy. In the evening, it seems like ours counterattacked and the battles for the village continue. We are waiting for the results.
2. The code, in spite of the possible applications, has not yet been fully taken by ours. The enemy, despite the failure of the previous counterattacks with the use of armored vehicles, continues to swing with the Wagner PMC in the western part of the village.
3. Ozernoye, as it was yesterday evening in the gray zone, remains in the gray zone tonight. A purely virtual victory of tik-tok troops.
4. At the moment, the Andreevsky bridgehead has not been cut off, although the enemy suffered heavy losses in the area of ​​​​Kostromka and Sukhoi Stavka. It has not yet been possible to completely cut off the supply through Ingulets.
5. The intensification of strikes by the RF Armed Forces in the Kharkiv direction is caused by the ongoing attempts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to switch to offensive operations in th

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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the situation in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions during the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine at 19.35 Moscow time on 09/04/2022 especially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :

1. In the Aleksandrovka area, the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was stopped a couple of days ago. Fights develop in a positional manner.

2. In the Posad-Pokrovsky area, the fighting took on a positional character after the mutual attempts of the parties to advance and counterattack.

3. In the area of ​​Blagodatny, the front is stable, the attempts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to regain control over the village were not successful.

4. In the area of ​​Snegirevka - no significant changes. Today, a child was killed in the village because of the shelling.

5. In the area of ​​​​the Andreevsky bridgehead, the enemy continues to try to expand the bridgehead and hold on, despite the fire defeat of the RF Armed Forces in the area of ​​Sukhoi Stavka and Kostromka. The restoration of at least one destroyed crossing was used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to transfer part of the reserves.

6. In the Vysokopolye region, the enemy was able to achieve tactical success, forcing our forces to withdraw from the village under the threat of encirclement. Fights go to the southern outskirts.
Attacks in the direction of Petrovka by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were not successful.
Street fighting continued in Arkhangelsk.

7. The enemy continued shelling the environs of Kherson, New Kakhovka and bridges across the Dnieper.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered strikes on Nikolaev, as well as in the Krivoy Rog direction.

8. As of September 4, the operational crisis in the Krivoy Rog sector has not yet been resolved. The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to try to achieve something more substantial in order to recoup the already incurred losses in people and equipment.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

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Censored
September 4, 18:31

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As for such a strong reduction in food prices, I think the British are somewhat exaggerating. Plus or minus the same as six months ago (if we take vegetables and fruits and do not specifically count the dumping of Kherson farmers). But in general, the message is obvious - at the stage of conception, the sanctions were supposed to bring down the economy of the Russian Federation and due to the impoverishment of the population, cause social protests and, with a successful combination of circumstances, the overthrow of the regime, which would allow the West to achieve its goals in Ukraine.
But the opposite happened - the standard of living in the Russian Federation is declining, but not as quickly as it was imagined, but in the West the pace of falling living standards is the same as was expected in Russia back in February-March. And directly there is the question of anti-government rallies (like those that take place yesterday and today in the Czech Republic and Germany) and which, according to Western governments, in winter can turn into open riots that will have to be suppressed by troops.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7841928.html

About the situation in Nikolaev 05.09.2022
September 5, 14:00

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About the situation in Nikolaev 05.09.2022

Strange as it may seem, there is no celebration of the victories from the counterattack on Kherson either in city publics or on city websites.
Even Russian telegram channels this time are more critical of the situation on the border of the Kherson and Nikolaev regions. The Nikolaev mass-media while as in a mouth of water typed.
Although in light of the situation with tap water, this metaphor sounds like a hint of urine therapy.
Optimism is not added by the strings of ambulances that rush around the city, placing the wounded.
Despite the fact that Kim announced the return of the population to the city, Nikolaev is empty before our eyes, and there are very few women on the streets.
More than half of the apartments in the entrances of houses are empty, and even those in which they live are inhabited either by pensioners or men left without families.
Many believe that after women are declared liable for military service, in the very next few days, even those men who kept their girlfriends and wives will send them abroad.
The mobilization of women - even the most stoned patriot will shudder from this, more and more people are in the mood to leave.
The information that a decree was issued in Russia on granting pensions to refugees from Ukraine added motivation to leave, at least through Poland to Russia.
The hospitals are overflowing with the wounded - the victims of the "counterattack", and hundreds of the wounded lie in all the wards and arrive every day, there is a terrible shortage of nurses.
But in other areas of activity, total unemployment. Even those who had only recently made their living by repairing broken windows and repairing roofs have lost their jobs.
Nobody has money. If ten days ago the loader was promised 30 hryvnias per hour, now the rates have dropped to 20 hryvnias.
For a full day - 200 rubles in terms of Russian. Hunger has become not abstract, but the most real.
But in the city, they finally began to gradually remove tires that were foolishly applied to intersections back in March.
Then it seemed to the idiots from the defense industry that it would be such a game as on the Maidan - they would raise tires, and the enemy would scatter.
Six months later, these barricades are remembered as debilizm.
They are shelling the city, shelling military units in the suburbs and district centers.
After the attack on the military, located in the industrial area of ​​​​the plant 61 Communards, windows flew out in the museum "Old Fleet Barracks", although the museum building itself was not very damaged. In Nikolaev, as always, the blows fall on the industrial zones and the territory of ports.
And the Ukrainian military fired at Snigirevka, hitting the playground and the school. Children died.
Panic and nervous breakdowns among the population gave way to severe depression among the "patriots" and those who are waiting for Russia.
But there is hope. The example of Mariupol from a horror story becomes a spark of such hope.

(c) Larisa Shesler

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/62466 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7842579.html

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"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 Sep 06, 2022 11:58 am

Objectives of the tension strategy
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/09/2022

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The Ukrainian offensive to try to recover the Kherson region continues, although with the media silence requested by Ukraine to preserve its successes and thus prevent Russian missiles from liberated towns . Journalistic discretion is not limited to the national media, but extends to the international media, openly willing to faithfully follow the line marked by the official kyiv discourse. Actually, the localities liberatedthey are scarce, although in recent days Ukraine has announced the capture of Visokopole. The next few days will tell if kyiv manages to consolidate its presence there and use that area to advance on the Russian troops. The skepticism responds to the development of the Ukrainian offensive last week, when the deepest advance on Russian territory was reversed in several days.

Although Ukraine tries to recover territory - the advances are necessary for propaganda reasons - the real objective of the offensive is not to capture the entire Kherson region, or even its capital, by military means. In recent months it has been evident that Ukraine has acquired, thanks to the military supply of its Western partners, a great capacity for destruction, but the Russian superiority remains palpable even in places that, like Kherson, suffer from a shortage of troops. Ukraine's strategy is to destroy the bridge of the Novaya Kajovka dam, compromising not only the passage but the infrastructure itself (Ukraine has never had any scruples when it comes to destroying or blocking water supply infrastructure, as you already know perfection the population of Donetsk, which currently suffers from a lack of supply, or the one in Crimea, which saw how for years kyiv blocked the passage of water to the North Crimean canal) or the Antonovsky bridge, one of the most repeatedly attacked targets. The last attack has left it out of use again and the difficulties make its use unfeasible.

The Antonovsky Bridge is one of the few accesses to Kherson from the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, which in much of the region currently acts as a line of separation between the two armies. Making the situation unfeasible based on constant bombing and eliminating supply routes is the basis of the Ukrainian strategy to expel Russian troops from the city of Kherson. That strategy of maximum tension is also the same one that Ukraine tries to use in the rest of the front, with different methods and intensity depending on the possibilities. In Crimea, that strategy has been limited to the use of small drones to cause damage to military bases that is more of a success in propaganda than in real military terms. in Donetsk,

In the case of Energodar, the situation is even clearer. Last week's unsuccessful landing attempt was hardly intended to capture the plant or the city and was possibly nothing more than an attempt to destabilize the situation as sabotage groups linked to the SBU and the training provided by Great Britain do every week. Despite the Ukrainian attempt to hinder the visit as much as possible, which, unlike the day-to-day life of the city, had the media attention, the experts and the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Zaporozhie and, crossing the front - Russia proposed their arrival from the Russian side, but the visit was held according to Ukrainian terms - they were able to access the infrastructure, where they observed, not only the security of the plant, but also the damage caused by the bombing in recent weeks. While waiting for the inspectors' report, which should be published in the next few hours, Ukrainian representatives have already questioned the results. On Monday, Mikhailo Podoliak demanded a technical audit, already assuming that the data in the current report will not be satisfactory for Ukraine.

Already far from the danger of the front, the director of the Agency, Antonio Grossi, told the media that the presence of the inspectors meant a difference "between day and night." However, far from calming down, the situation continues to worsen. With the help of its Western partners and sympathetic press, Ukraine has planted the idea of ​​nuclear terrorism in the collective consciousnessFrom Russia. Yesterday afternoon, several Russian media reported new bombings against the plant. Since 2014, kyiv has demonized, deported, or banned Russian journalists or media outlets directly entering DPR and LPR territories, so all information from those territories now necessarily comes from Russian media. Usually characterized in Ukraine and in the West as propaganda outlets, their information is simply ignored by Western news agencies and media, which continue to repeat the press releases or speeches of Volodymyr Zelensky and his advisers. Passive voice or impersonal verbal constructions have become the norm to report bombings against the plant or its surroundings without mentioning the culprit,

Harder than on previous occasions, the bombardment caused damage to the plant - although not a radiation hazard, since the plant, of modern construction, is prepared to withstand that pressure - and a fire that endangered the supply. The fire endangered the electrical supply of the only reactor still in operation. Yesterday, Energoatom, the Ukrainian company that continues to maintain technical control of the plant, affirmed that it was necessary to disconnect the reactor from the electrical supply, with which the plant was isolated from the Ukrainian electrical system. This is not the first time that a similar disconnection has occurred -as on that occasion, Energoatom blamed a Russian bombardment-, although the increase in the frequency of this type of incident is a novelty.

Immersed in a major energy crisis due to the boomerang effect of the sanctions against the Russian energy sector, the European Union continues to support measures to close the market to Russian oil. On this occasion, it is the measure of the G7 countries to impose a price cap on Russian oil, a measure already anticipated and to which Moscow has always promised to respond with retaliation. The stoppage of gas supply to the European Union is the most obvious retaliation -Russia has already announced that it will not resume gas supply through Nord Stream-1 for the time being-, but so is the definitive disconnection of the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhie of the Ukrainian electrical system. An energy that would be necessary for Ukraine before the winter season,

Ukraine's actions, with demonstrative bombings accompanied by accusations of self-bombing, and the role of its foreign partners represent few incentives for Russia to maintain the connection of the plant with the other side of the Dnieper, from where kyiv will continue to attack the area with the clear objective of making the situation untenable. The IAEA visit has not resolved the security problems or the operation of a nuclear power plant under Ukrainian technical control in a territory under Russian military control, so it is likely that the tension will continue or even increase and with it the danger to the civilian population on both sides of the front. It's not just about the risk of losing power, but of the danger of being exposed to a nuclear incident caused by the attempt to create an untenable situation in the widest possible areas of the front. In that game, any objective is acceptable, be it a bridge over the Dnieper or the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/06/objet ... more-25445

Google Translator

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Kherson 'Counteroffensive' - Zelenski Is Going For Broke

After the first Ukrainian attempt to push towards had failed it is now reinforcing that failure. As I describe the move:

The only 'successful' attack was across the Inhulet river near Andriivka in the direction of the dam and river crossing that closes off the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

The troops were cut off and mostly destroyed. On the western side of the salient a Russian unit crossed the Inhulet towards north and attacked the Ukrainians on that side. It soon had to pull back and the Ukrainians used the Russian crossing to reconnect with the cut off units in the salient.

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More Ukrainian reinforcements were pushed into the salient where they have little natural protection from Russian artillery and air force attacks.

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The political leadership of Ukraine is committed to continue this massacre. The Ukrainian Telegram channel 'Resident' reported:

Our source in the OP said that Zelensky holds a meeting every day on the counteroffensive in the South of Ukraine, at the moment the Armed Forces of Ukraine have the opportunity to create a foothold in the Krivoy Rog direction. Zalusky reported on the heavy fighting and losses suffered by the Ukrainian army in the steppes, but the political center of influence insist on continuing the #Battle_for_Kherson operation.
Reserves from the eastern front and Kharkov will be transferred to the Dnepropetrovsk region, in order to achieve the advantage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, no information will be officially published in the media until the seizure of territories.


Earlier another war observer noted:

Ukrainian channel Legitimny reports Helensky is prepared to sacrifice up to 20K dead and 40k wounded in the Kherson offensive, which would be 6% of his army. Current losses are around 2% so he's going for 2nd offensive wave.

I believe that 60,000 men are more than 10% of the Ukrainian army but that is not the point.

'Resident' and 'Legitimny' are seen as authoritative Ukrainian sources. Unfortunately I have no access to the their Telegram channels so I can not verify the quotes. But it seems clear that Zelenski is going for broke.

Zalusky, the military leader of the Ukrainian army, will not be happy with this decision.

The only Ukrainian hope is that the Russian forces on the western side of the Dnieper can be cut off from the other side to then run out of supplies. The bridges across are damaged or destroyed but Russia has enough ferries to keep the supply line open. Large river crossing are part of every bigger Russian military training event. It has the materials and troops experienced with it. That is why I have my doubt that the Ukrainian hope can be realized.

Meanwhile the Russian military plays its usual defensive game. The frontline along the Kherson regions is currently held by lightly armored airmobile units. Whenever a Ukrainian push gets too strong they pull back from the front line, or leave the town under threat, to let the artillery and airforce do its work. They then pull up mobile reinforcements and push back until they are in their old positions. Rinse and repeat.

While this tactic costs the Russian side some losses the much higher ones are on the Ukrainian side.

The former Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar writes:

Russia’s “domain control” can be put in perspective: the enemy is, on the one hand, caught on the bare steppe and cut down with the overwhelming superiority of Russian artillery and aviation, and, on the other hand, encountering well-fortified, entrenched defence lines.
That said, Zelensky cannot give up, as he is desperately in need of a success story. Kiev still hopes to reverse the situation, but how that is achievable remains to be seen.

Against this sombre backdrop, more and more sceptical voices are being heard in the US about the Biden Administration’s policy trajectory. The latest is an opinion piece in Wall Street Journal by Gen. (Retd) Mark Kimmitt, formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the Bush administration. Kimmitt predicts that “a breakthrough is unlikely” and soon, “logistics shortfalls” may force a change in US strategy.
...
In principle, the options are: i) “dig deeper into NATO stockpiles being held back for national defences”; ii) “ramp up critical shortfalls” by invoking Defense Production Act and its European equivalents; iii) escalate the conflict by targeting Crimea and Russia itself; or, iv) forcing Zelensky to face the grim reality that “diminishing resupplies” of weaponry actually contains “the message of declining outside support” for the war itself.

The retired general with Republican Party leanings concludes: “Beginning the diplomatic resolution would be distasteful, and perhaps seen as defeatist, but as there is little chance of climbing out of the current morass, it may be better to negotiate now than later… Looking into a future of protracted war, diminishing high-tech systems and mounting casualties, Mr. Zelensky and NATO must face up to tough decisions before those decisions are forced on them.”


Of those four options the first will be rejected by the professional military. The second is, at least in Europe, currently impossible for lack of cheap energy. Metal smelters and forges in Europe are shutting down. The third option, escalation, is the one the neoconservatives will press for, likely with some success. The fourth option is one Joe Biden and other are yet unwilling to take.

I therefore expect that the U.S. will double down, most likely with some new attacks on Crimea and the Kerch bridges.

Posted by b on September 5, 2022 at 12:12 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/k ... .html#more

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From Cassad's Telegram Account:

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Colonelcassad
Special operation, September 5th. The main thing from RIA Novosti :

▪️Energodar was again shelled by the Ukrainian side - during the night six artillery shells were fired, the radiation situation at the Zaporozhye NPP is normal, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

▪️The Russian military thwarted a new attempt by Kyiv to strike at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant using a drone - as a result of the actions of electronic warfare, it lost control and fell a kilometer from the territory of the plant

▪️The Russian armed forces on Monday destroyed two warehouses in the Mykolaiv region, where more than 1,500 shells for Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers, including HIMARS, were stored.

▪️Russian air defenses shot down four US-made HARM anti-radar missiles, as well as five Ukrainian drones, including one Bayraktar-TB2

▪️The Russian army struck with precision-guided weapons at the points of temporary deployment of the 57th motorized infantry brigade of Ukrainian troops in the Mykolaiv region

▪️Ukrainian troops lost 11 tanks, seven infantry fighting vehicles and more than 220 soldiers in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction

▪️The Russian military killed up to 20 and wounded more than 50 Ukrainian military personnel in the Krasnopolye region in the DPR with concentrated fire strikes

▪️Aerospace forces of the Russian Federation shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter in the Kherson region and killed more than 30 nationalists of the Ukrainian formation "Kraken" in the Kharkiv region with a high-precision strike

▪️Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said at a meeting with the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell that the Ukrainian authorities are interested in the EU mission to train the Ukrainian military

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the situation in the Kherson direction at 22.00 Moscow time on 09/05/2022 especially for the channel Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok :

1. In the Aleksandrovka area - no significant changes. There are medium-intensity positional battles. The parties have not made any significant progress.

2. In the Posad-Pokrovsky area, the enemy tried to resume attacks in the direction of Kherson, but could not achieve significant results, having suffered significant losses.

3. In the Snigirevka area, the front line - without significant changes, as well as in the Blagodatny area. Since the enemy is throwing reserves into other areas, he is unable to resume a full-fledged offensive here.

4. At the Andreevsky bridgehead, the enemy continues to try to gain a foothold and accumulate strength in order to try to ram the defense of the RF Armed Forces in one of the sectors - at least 1 or 2 crossings over the Ingulets have been restored. The enemy suffered significant losses in the Kostroma area. However, new attacks are likely to follow in the coming days.

5. In the Vysokopolye region, the enemy continues to press. In Arkhangelsk - street fighting. There are fights on the southern outskirts of Olginka and near the southern outskirts of Vysokopole, conflicting information is received on the control of the village itself. The enemy advanced near Novoskresensky (east of Vysokopole).
Here, both sides have suffered significant losses in recent days.

6. The enemy continues shelling the Antonovsky Bridge area, the suburbs of Kherson, and the Novaya Kakhovka area. The RF Armed Forces worked in Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog and areas south of Nikopol.

In general, the enemy, despite the losses, continues to try to achieve success in the Vysokopole region and on the Andreevsky bridgehead.

***

Colonelcassad

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The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 20.00 on September 5 of the year

On the coming night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to once again expand the bridgehead on the Andrievsky sector of the front and push the RF Armed Forces out of Belogorka , Kostromka , Bruskinsky and Karlo-Marksovsky with infantry forces .

A pontoon-bridge fleet on KrAZ-255 with river links was transferred across Bereznegovatoe to repair and build new crossings across the Ingulets River. In total, at least 30 units of engineering equipment passed to the northern coast .

To Bereznegovatoe stationcontinue to move infantry in civilian trucks and buses. There is little military equipment: in forest plantations along the banks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 3-5 units are concentrated per 1 km of the front.

Despite the active fire destruction of the entire triangle of Blagodatovka - Andreevka - Lozovoe - Sukhoi Stavok , the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not deviate from the plan for a suicidal rush to Novaya Kakhovka .

***

Colonelcassad
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦The situation in the Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih direction
as of 15.00 on September 5, 2022

By the seventh day since the beginning of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Kherson , the front line had stabilized. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not abandon attempts to transfer reserves and expand the bridgehead for further advancement to Novaya Kakhovka and Kherson , but they still cannot develop success.

🔻From the night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to build up a strike force and transfer equipment to the Posad-Pokrovsky section : reinforcements arrived in Krasnoe Znamya (Lyubomirovka) , Novogrigorovka and Posad-Pokrovskoye . Units of the 28th and 59th brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reinforced the Yavorovskaya 24th brigade.

Russian units of the 7th Airborne Division and 20th Motorized Rifle Division are firing artillery at the reinforcements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, preventing them from going on the offensive and suppressing artillery firing positions.

Units of 33 SMEs conducted a successful raid on enemy positions from Ternovy Pod and captured the commander of a company of the 59th Ombre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a detachment of nationalists from the Right Sector.

🔻On the Snigirevsky sector of the front, everything is relatively calm: the RF Armed Forces periodically suppress the firing positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and thwart sorties. The observation post of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kiselevka was destroyed from the ATGM .

🔻On the Andreevsky sector of the front, the fighting was localized in the narrow "gut" Andreevka - Sukhoi Stavok . Kostroma was taken under the control of the RF Armed Forces, one of the established crossings over the Ingulets was destroyed, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to transfer individual pieces of equipment along a narrow corridor.

Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces operates without interruption, burning enemy equipment and reinforcements. The Andreevsky section has turned into one large cemetery, where the command continues to send people to be slaughtered.

🔻On the Olginsky sector of the front, at night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used Bayraktar TB2 UAVs against the positions of Russian troops in Olgino and Vysokopole . The front line has stabilized, the Ukrainian formations are trying to take the fortified areas of the Russian troops.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

Google Translator

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Gas Pipeline Closed Until Sanctions Against Russia Gone-Peskov

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Western sanctions against Russia have a detrimental effect on the operation of Nord Stream 1. Sep. 5, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@jaccocharite

Published 5 September 2022

"The problems in deliveries arose due to the sanctions that have been imposed on our country and a number of companies by Western countries, including Germany and the UK," a Kremlin spokesman said.


The Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov warned of the negative effect of Western sanctions against Russia in connection with the Ukraine conflict, saying that there will be a continued hindrance to Nord Stream 1 operations in this context.

According to the Russian diplomat, operations on the pipeline require equipment needing "serious maintenance," which the Europeans, bound by contract, "absurdly" refuse to perform, Peskov said.

For his part, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has also brought up the EU's fault for hindering the gas pipeline supply resumption, as "all the conditions of the repair contract, as well as the conditions of equipment shipment, have been completely violated."

Gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 were entirely halted on August 31 by Gazprom, which announced an indefinite suspension due to technical issues. However, operations were initially scheduled to resume two days later.


Gazprom said it was an oil leak in the turbine, found from a joint inspection with the manufacturer Siemens Energy at the Portovaya compressor station.

Canada, which has been hostile to Russia in terms of sanctions, is where this malfunction could be repaired only.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Gas ... -0013.html

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Counterproductive Policies, Not “Russian Propaganda”, Were Responsible for Prague’s Protests
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
Andrew Korybko

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The self-sustaining cycle of socio-economic and political unrest triggered by European leaders complying with the US’ demands to promulgate counterproductive policies is expected to continue for the indefinite future.

A large-scale protest took place in the Czech capital of Prague on Saturday involving an estimated 70,000-100,000 people who came out en masse to peacefully raise maximum awareness of their government’s policies that have drastically worsened their living standards over the past half-year. Instead of acknowledging their legal dissent despite disagreeing with the causes behind their socio-economic suffering, Prime Minister Petr Fiala attempted to discredit the protest by falsely claiming that it “was called by forces that are pro-Russian”, adding that “It is clear that Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns are present on our territory and some people simply listen to them.”

His reaction appears to have been influenced by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s latest remark completely discrediting the entire concept of Western Democracy after she insisted that her government will cling to its illegal anti-Russian sanctions policy despite it being directly responsible for her people’s socio-economic suffering. Like her, Fiala also refuses to change course, let alone recognize that his government’s same policy is responsible for triggering the same reaction from his people as Baerbock’s has already triggered from her own. The identical nature of these neighboring governments’ policies and their responses to the popular discontent that they provoked exposes a large trend.

To elaborate, the European elite were ordered by their American patrons into promulgating counterproductive policies that tanked their economies and provoked political unrest, both consequences of which have absolutely nothing to do with so-called “Russian propaganda” and everything to do with the US’ meddling in their sovereign affairs. Had these politicians retained even a semblance of policymaking independence, then they’d have at least countenanced the benefits inherent in acknowledging their people’s peacefully expressed and legitimate frustrations along with possibly scaling back some of these same counterproductive policies for politically self-serving reasons.

Instead, these same leaders are clinging to the policies that are responsible for destabilizing their countries by none other than their own hand for reasons that are clearly connected to the debts that they owe their American patrons for putting them in power in the first place. It’s one thing to be thrown out of office after the next election, exactly as President Putin predicted in mid-June during the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) could very well happen across the entirety of the EU in the coming future in order to bring about what he described as “a change in elites” (which is a clever play on the US’ policy of regime change), and another entirely to be taken out by the US as revenge.

By “taken out”, what’s being implied here isn’t just that American intelligence could orchestrate the sequence of political events leading to their replacement by a more pliable puppet, but perhaps even advancing the worst-case scenario that could remove the targeted politican for good. It’s with these fears in mind, the credibility of which is unquestionable considering the CIA’s track record over the decades, that politicians like Baerbock and Fiala continue clinging to their counterproductive policies in spite of them having totally destabilized their own countries. Attempting to blame everything on so-called “Russian propaganda” will only provoke their people even more.

The EU’s censorship of publicly financed Russian international media flagships RT and Sputnik means that neither of them (which are just publicly financed and not “state-controlled” unlike the BBC and their other Western analogues) has any realistic chance of influencing Czechs, Germans, or the bloc’s many other people into protesting against their governments even if they tried (which hasn’t happened nor will it). Their citizens know this too, hence why their authorities’ false claims are rightly interpreted as insults to their intelligence and desperate smears to discredit their genuinely grassroots and purely peaceful expression of their constitutionally enshrined political rights, thus provoking more protests.

The self-sustaining cycle of socio-economic and political unrest triggered by European leaders complying with the US’ demands to promulgate counterproductive policies is expected to continue for the indefinite future. The end result is that the EU will continue being destabilized per America’s Machiavellian grand strategy of weaponizing chaos in an attempt to create opportunities that it can consequently exploit in order to indefinitely prolong the decline of its unipolar hegemony. Millions of people will suffer, US influence will surge throughout the bloc, and Europe will never be able to collectively compete with America again.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -protests/

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Russia to build 2 factories for the repair of armored vehicles
September 5, 21:22

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The Russian government has ordered the creation of 2 new plants for the repair of armored vehicles in the country. Quite eloquent recognition that the current capacity is not enough. This is a step towards the future, as factories do not build quickly. One can only complain that some enterprises that in the USSR could repair armored vehicles, after "gaining freedom" turned into shopping centers.
After the start of the SVO, it "suddenly" became clear that the USSR had huge stocks of weapons and equipment in warehouses for a reason ("to spend the people's rubles !!!"), as well as huge repair capacities ("why these unnecessary factories !!!" ), which were not needed in the "country going to the West".

After the start of the NWO and the break with the West, now a lot will have to be built and restored. And not only factories for the repair of armored vehicles. In the same aircraft industry for years of work.
The idea "Why should we do something ourselves, we'll buy it in the West" turned out to be a road to a dead end.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7844110.html

Google Translator

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KILLING IS CHEAPER — THE US ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND WEAPONIZES TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, WHATSAPP, TELEGRAM

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By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with

The US Army’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has been firing several hundred million dollars’ worth of cyber warheads at Russian targets from its headquarters at MacDill Airforce Base in Florida. They have all been duds.

The weapons, the source, and their failure to strike effectively have been exposed in a new report, published on August 24, by the Cyber Policy Center of the Stanford Internet Observatory. The title of the 54-page study is “Unheard Voice: Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations”.

“We believe”, the report concludes, “this activity represents the most extensive case of covert pro-Western IO [influence operations] on social media to be reviewed and analyzed by open-source researchers to date… the data also shows the limitations of using inauthentic tactics to generate engagement and build influence online. The vast majority of posts and tweets we reviewed received no more than a handful of likes or retweets, and only 19% of the covert assets we identified had more than 1,000 followers. The average tweet received 0.49 likes and 0.02 retweets.”

“Tellingly,” according to the Stanford report, “the two most followed assets in the data provided by Twitter were overt accounts that publicly declared a connection to the U.S. military.”

The report comes from a branch of Stanford University, and is funded by the Stanford Law School and the Spogli Institute for Institutional Studies, headed by Michael McFaul (lead image). McFaul, once a US ambassador to Moscow, has been a career advocate of war against Russia. The new report exposes many of McFaul’s allegations to be crude fabrications and propaganda which the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has been paying contractors to fire at Russia for a decade.

Strangely, there is no mention in the report of the US Army, Pentagon, the Special Operations Command, or its principal cyberwar contractor, the Rendon Group.

It is unclear who paid for the new investigation which was co-authored by Graphika. This is a New York consultancy without an office address, staffed by US, French and British intelligence analysts, and financed in part by the US Senate Intelligence Committee and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Graphika advertises its Russia war-making credentials in the mainstream and IT media, as well as on its Twitter account.

Notwithstanding, the new report explicitly targets news faking and other information warfare tactics by the US Army forces aimed primarily at audiences in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.

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Source: https://stacks.stanford.edu/

“Our joint investigation,” according to the Stanford/Graphika paper, “found an interconnected web of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and five other social media platforms that used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia. The platforms’ datasets appear to cover a series of covert campaigns over a period of almost five years… These campaigns consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran. The accounts heavily criticized Russia in particular for the deaths of innocent civilians and other atrocities its soldiers committed in pursuit of the Kremlin’s ‘imperial ambitions’ following its invasion of Ukraine in February this year. To promote this and other narratives, the accounts sometimes shared news articles from U.S. government-funded media outlets, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and links to websites sponsored by the U.S. military.”

The evidence obtained for this investigation has come from Twitter over the period, February 2012 to March 2022. Facebook and the related apps, Whatsapp and Instagram, provided data for the five-year period from 2017 to July 2022. “The Twitter dataset provided to Graphika and SIO [Stanford Internet Observatory] covered 299,566 tweets by 146 accounts between March 2012 and February 2022. These accounts divide into two behaviorally distinct activity sets. The first was linked to an overt U.S. government messaging campaign called the Trans-Regional Web Initiative, which has been extensively documented in academic studies, media reports, and federal contracting records. The second comprises a series of covert campaigns of unclear origin. These covert campaigns were also represented in the Meta dataset of 39 Facebook profiles, 16 pages, two groups, and 26 Instagram accounts active from 2017 to July 2022.”

The analysts’ method: “firstly, we conducted a qualitative review of content samples, metadata, and the profile information associated with each account to determine if an asset should be classified as overt or covert. We conducted additional open-source investigation to determine asset classifications when required. We then built a social media network map of the covert Twitter accounts’ followers. This helped us understand the collective audience these assets built and each asset’s relative influence and community. The resulting network map revealed three major groups reflecting specific regions and nations, including Iran, Arabic-speaking Middle East, and Afghanistan. We used these network groupings as a foundation to review further the covert Twitter and Meta assets and assign labels corresponding to their audience. This included a qualitative review of asset behavior, such as the fake personas they employed online, and a quantitative content analysis of the assets’ most-used hashtags, key terms, and web domains…Finally, we analyzed the assets in each group individually and collectively to identify the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they employed to conduct their campaigns and the narratives they promoted.”

“The Central Asia-focused campaign first created assets on Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, and Odnoklassniki in 2020, before later setting up accounts on Facebook and VK [VKontakte] in 2021. According to domain registration records, a website for the sham media outlet Intergazeta was created in March 2021. Assets still active on Odnoklassniki and VK provide insights into how this cross-platform campaign operated. Fake personas created by the actors were typically linked to one of 10 sham media outlets, which posed as independent news entities covering events in Central Asia. These fake personas posed as individuals living in Europe and Central Asia, were listed as administrators for the sham media outlets, and posted content from the campaign to different social media groups. On Odnoklassniki, for example, the personas regularly posted to groups including Fighters of Kyrgyzstan [БОЙЦЫ КЫРГЫЗСТАНА] and Central Asia News [Новости Central Asia]. On Facebook, a page for the sham media outlet Vostochnaya Pravda claimed to focus on debunking myths and sharing ‘absolute facts’ about Central Asia…. Vostochnaya Pravda and other assets in the campaign typically posted long text blocks about local news events and geopolitics alongside an illustrative picture. Like all posts by the covert Central Asia assets, this content received close to zero engagement…Some of the ‘news’ pages, such as Stengazeta, used engagement-building techniques, including openly calling for interactions from their readers on what they had just read.”

“We witnessed similar behavior from the only active Facebook profile posting original content. Attempts to grow a follower base were evident on Twitter, where the assets repeatedly tweeted at real users, including pro-Ukraine and pro-Russia accounts…We believe the Facebook pages in the group likely acquired followers inauthentically in an attempt to look like real and organic entities, possibly by purchasing fake followers. According to CrowdTangle data, the pages quickly gained up to several thousand followers in their first few weeks. Subsequently, the pages experienced net losses in followers between June and August 2021, possibly as Facebook deleted the accounts of their fake followers…The pages’ likes experienced the same phenomenon.”

“At least one of the group’s personas featured a doctored profile picture using a photo of Puerto Rican actor Valeria Menendez…. We suspect that at least two other fake users in the group used similar techniques, but we could not identify the original photos. Additionally, at least one cross-platform persona used a picture stolen from a dating website.”

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“The sham media outlet Intergazeta repeatedly copied news material with and without credit from reputable [sic] Western and pro-Western sources in Russian, such as Meduza.io and the BBC Russian Service. The sham outlet often made minor changes to the copied texts in a likely effort to pass them off as original content. Intergazeta also produced articles in Russian compiled from sections of different English-language sources. Typically, these sections were literal ‘word-to-word’ translations into Russian, as opposed to more advanced semantic translations, resulting in non-native sounding language. In one case, the outlet posted a Russian-language article about Russian disinformation in China that was almost certainly translated from the English-language version of a Ukrainian article published nine days earlier. Intergazeta was not the only asset to translate content from English sources. Facebook pages in the group sometimes posted Russian translations of press releases from the websites of the U.S. embassies in Central Asia. These posts focused on U.S. financial and material support to Central Asian countries. The posts also copied or translated content from U.S.-funded entities, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the independent Kazakh news outlet informburo.kz.”

“Three of the groups also showed clear signs of automated or highly coordinated posting activity. According to data provided by Twitter and Meta, assets in the Afghanistan and Central Asia groups typically posted at roughly 15-minute or 30-minute intervals in any given hour. Furthermore, accounts in the Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Middle East groups almost exclusively posted in the first second of any given minute.”

“The coordination was especially clear when assets in the group posted about U.S.-related news or used translated content from official American sources, such as U.S. embassies in Central Asia. In one example, the Vostochnaya Pravda Facebook page posted a word-for-word Russian translation of an Englishlanguage news bulletin from the U.S. embassy in Tajikistan… The post included a link to a Radio Liberty article on the topic, an excerpt of which was then shared by multiple other assets in the group. The assets also sourced content from media outlets linked to the U.S. military, particularly Caravanserai (central.asia-news.com). This outlet is one of three that previously operated as Central News Online (centralasiaonline.com), which named the U.S. Central Command as its sponsor and, before 2016, was part of the U.S. government’s Trans-Regional Web Initiative.”

“The Central Asia group focused on a range of topics: U.S. diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the region, Russia’s alleged malign influence, Russian military interventions in the Middle East and Africa, and Chinese ‘imperialism’ and treatment of Muslim minorities. Starting in February this year, assets that previously posted about Russian military activities in the Middle East and Africa pivoted towards the war in Ukraine, presenting the conflict as a threat to people in Central Asia. Assets in the group heavily promoted narratives supportive of the U.S. on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram. These posts primarily focused on U.S. support for Central Asian countries and their people, presenting Washington as a reliable economic partner that would curb the region’s dependence on Russia. Other posts argued that the U.S. was the main guarantor of Central Asia’s sovereignty against Russia, frequently citing the war in Ukraine as evidence of the Kremlin’s ‘imperial’ ambitions. Interestingly, the assets also promoted U.S. humanitarian efforts, mentioning the United States Agency for International Development 94 times on Twitter and 384 times on Facebook in the respective datasets.”

The Stanford report has traced the fake social media on the US war against Iraq, Syria and Iran to the MacDill base in Tampa, Florida, where both the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Central Command (CENTCOM) are headquartered. The military units did a poor job of camouflaging themselves or their locations, according to the Stanford-Graphika group.

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“Accounts in the Middle East group frequently used fake profile pictures to construct online personas. This is a common tactic in online Influence Operations, and we increasingly see actors leverage GAN-generated faces such as those shown in Figure 49. While at first presenting as photorealistic human faces, GAN-generated images are typically easy to identify due to their consistent central eye alignment, blurred backgrounds, and telltale glitches around the teeth, eyes, and ears.”

“Based on an analysis of shared technical infrastructure, domain registration records, and social media activity, we assess with high confidence that almashareq.com is the latest rebranding of al-shorfa.com, while diyaruna.com is the latest rebranding of mawtani.com and mawtani.al-shorfa.com. Prior to 2016, al-shorfa.com and mawtani.com were part of the U.S. government’s Trans-Regional Web Initiative… Additionally, Dariche News frequently quoted CENTCOM officials and discussed U.S. military activities in the region. We counted at least 50 Dariche News articles that mentioned CENTCOM. For example, a September 2021 article discussed how Bahraini leaders pledged to work with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command to adopt new technologies. A December 2021 article quoted a former CENTCOM commander saying that the Iranian government was starving people to build missiles.”

“Our investigation identified clear signs of coordination and inauthentic behavior [including] sharing identical content across platforms, coordinated posting times, using GAN-generated faces, and creating fake profile pictures. One Facebook page in the group also posed as a person living in Iraq. This page shared the same name and picture as a Twitter account that previously claimed to operate on behalf of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). The group chiefly promoted narratives seeking to undermine Iran’s influence in the region but also took aim at Russia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. For example, accounts on Twitter posed as Iraqi activists in order to accuse Iran of threatening Iraq’s water security and flooding the country with crystal meth. Other assets highlighted Houthi-planted landmines killing civilians and promoted allegations that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to a global food crisis.”

“One of the Facebook pages in the group showed links to a Twitter account that has previously claimed to operate on behalf of CENTCOM. Created on Nov. 1, 2021, the page used the Arabic word for ‘discoverer’ [ فشتكم ] as its name and presented itself as an Iraqi man posting predominantly about the misdeeds of the Iranian government and its influence in Iraq. Notably, Discoverer used a profile picture likely generated using artificial intelligence techniques, such as GANs. An Instagram account and a Facebook profile in the Middle East group used the same image as well. An account in the Twitter dataset also used the Arabic word for “discoverer” as its name and the same fake face as the three Meta assets. The Discoverer Twitter account was created in November 2016 and claimed in its bio to be ‘always in the service of Iraqis and Arabs.’”

“However, archived versions of the Discoverer Twitter account show that prior to May 2021, it used a different picture, listed its location as ‘Florida, USA,’ and publicly identified as an ‘account belonging to the U.S. Central Command’ that ‘aims to uncover issues related to regional security and stability.’ At that time, the account promoted similar anti-Iran narratives related to Iraq and Syria but also posted statements presented as coming from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.”

The Trans Regional Web Initiative (TRWI) of SOCOM is revealed in the report as the major US cyber-warfare operation behind the social media faking. But the report itself is silent on this source, and on how much money is currently being spent by the US Army on the operation.

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Source: https://sam.gov/

For a British academic study of these operations to 2015, read this.

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Source: https://www.socom.mil/about

In US media reporting from 2012, the Rendon Group was identified as the lead contractor for the SOCOM disinformation operations at MacDill. “Also advising SOCOM is longtime public affairs and propaganda contractor John Rendon, whose Rendon Group was instrumental in influencing public opinion before the start of the Iraq War. Rendon has two full-time employees working at SOCOM and has visited the command’s headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base 12 times since Feb. 1, said Col. Tim Nye, a SOCOM spokesman.” At that time, it was reported that “In all, Rendon, a marketing expert, has been paid more than $100 million for providing the military with communication advice.”

“In 2013, SOCOM seeks $58.9 million for its information operations, according to the Stimson analysis, while Central Command wants $29.4 million,” USA Today reported a decade ago.

In a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on SOCOM budget authorizations and outlays for 2020-21, the total SOCOM sums were running between $12 billion and $13 billion. So-called information operations are included in these budgets, but not itemized by the CRS. The CRS identifies successor programmes for the TRWI including Trans Regional Military Information Support Operations (MISO) whose objective is to “address the opportunities and risks of global information space.”

In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2019, US Army General Raymond Thomas, then SOCOM commander, reported the expansion of his global information operations which he called “messaging capabilities”. “By April of this year, the Joint MISO WebOps Center (JMWC) will be operating in close coordination with the interagency and alongside combatant command teams to provide global messaging capabilities to a broader portion of the Joint Force and beyond CVEO themes. The JMWC will support the combatant commands with improved messaging and assessment capabilities, shared situational awareness of adversary influence activities, and the capability to coordinate internet-based MISO globally. We remain on track to achieve Initial Operating Capability in a new temporary facility by the end of FY 2019.”

According to April 2022 congressional testimony by SOCOM’s current commander, General Richard Clarke, “In Ukraine, Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified, and premeditated invasion reminds us of continued challenges to the rules-based international order. Since 2014, following Russia’s previous aggression in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, SOF supported multinational training efforts with Ukrainian SOF forces and provided Military Information Support Operations (MISO) assistance to illuminate and counter Russian disinformation. Russia’s destabilizing activities reinforce the importance of USSOCOM’s decades-long commitment to enhancing interoperability with Allied SOF throughout Europe – a critical asset in providing options for the United States and our Allies.”

Clarke acknowledged that the information operations of SOCOM have “more than doubled” since 2019.

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General Richard Clarke, May 2022: “SOCOM may have to go up against an adversary more adept at info-ops. ‘There’s a reluctance sometimes to operate in that space…. As we go forward, we need to look at: what are the authorities we’re going to use? And what capabilities are we going to need as a nation to use in the information environment?’ he said. ‘I still don’t think we have all the tools that we need,’ he added. One of the tools is ‘sentiment analysis,’he said. He referred to a ‘major brand”’ that every day measures how it is faring in public opinion compared to its competitors. ‘Where is our sentiment analysis?’ He asked.”

“USSOCOM has invested heavily,” Clarke said, “to expose and counter adversary propaganda and disinformation to better compete in the cognitive domain. Competitors, like China and Russia, continue to act assertively in the information ‘gray zone’ to manipulate populations worldwide. As DoD’s Joint Proponent for Military Information Support Operations (MISO) and the Coordinating Authority for Internet-based MISO, our command is adapting our psychological operations forces for the evolving information landscape. As part of our ongoing rebalancing efforts, our MISO activities to counter strategic competitors have also more than doubled over the past three years – comprising over 40% of our MISO activities worldwide in FY21. The Joint MISO WebOps Center (JMWC) continues to coordinate our MISO conducted via the internet and actively engage foreign audiences to illuminate and counter hostile propaganda and disinformation online. Since 2021, we have incorporated our first foreign partners and interagency liaisons within the JMWC.”

Precise budget money data are not openly available for the MISO operations. In this Pentagon budget summary for FY 2023, the “baseline” expenditure for MISO is reported to have been $55 million. Last year, the brain box of the entire operation, the “Joint MISO Webops Center” (JMWC) at MacDill was given a personnel, equipment and pay increase:

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Source: https://comptroller.defense.gov -- page 116.

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Source: https://comptroller.defense.gov/ -- page 154.

Additionally, SOCOM’s “cyberspace activities” were appropriated at $9.7 million in FY 2020, $45.9 million in FY 2022, and $39.2 million in the current financial year. The civilian staffing for the MISO operations has reached 6,900, each of whom is budgeted for an annual salary of $139,000. IT contract support services have jumped in value from $400 million in 2021 to $633 million this year. This year the transfer of “centralized MISO voice funding” from the SOCOM budget to the Pentagon, for coordination of the influence operations of each of the Army’s combat commands, has been budgeted for $56.9 million.

In May of this year, the Pentagon’s Inspector General announced it is opening an investigation “to determine whether the U.S. Special Operations Command’s Joint Military Information Support Operations Web Operations Center (JMWC) supports the combatant commander’s requirements to conduct military information support operations (MISO). We will perform this evaluation through interviews with the offices of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict, U.S. Special Operations Command, combatant commands, the Joint Staff, and DoD partners and conduct site visits at select combatant command headquarters and JMWC locations. We may identify additional stakeholders and locations during the evaluation.”

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