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

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

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 20, 2022 11:01 pm

Ukraine SitRep - Lysichansk Cauldron - Sinking Morale - More Provocations

The former CIA and intelligence bigwig Graham Fuller predicts a gloomy outcome of the U.S-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. Gloomy for Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe:

Contrary to Washington’s triumphalist pronouncements, Russia is winning the war, Ukraine has lost the war. Any longer-term damage to Russia is open to debate.
American sanctions against Russia have turned out to be far more devastating to Europe than to Russia. The global economy has slowed and many developing nations face serious food shortages and risk of broad starvation.

There are already deep cracks in the European façade of so-called “NATO unity.” Western Europe will increasingly rue the day that it blindly followed the American Pied Piper to war against Russia. Indeed, this is not a Ukrainian-Russian war but an American-Russian war fought by proxy to the last Ukrainian.

Contrary to optimistic declarations, NATO may in fact ultimately emerge weakened. Western Europeans will think long and hard about the wisdom and deep costs of provoking deeper long term confrontations with Russia or other “competitors”of the US.

Europe will sooner or later return to the purchase of inexpensive Russian energy. Russia lies on the doorstep and a natural economic relationship with Russia will possess overwhelming logic in the end.

Europe already perceives the US as a declining power with an erratic and hypocritical foreign policy “vision” premised upon the desperate need to preserve “American leadership” in the world. America’s willingness to go to war to this end is increasingly dangerous to others.


All the above had already been said on this website in late February and March. But it is good to see that seasoned intelligence people are now coming to similar conclusions.

Two weeks ago I wrote that the Ukrainians will soon reach a breaking point. Today's 'clobber list' by the Russia Ministry of Defense has an additional part about Ukrainian troop loses that supports that take:

Since May 19, during the month, only the 14th Mechanised Brigade of the AFU has lost 2,100 persons who resulted dead and wounded. Due to low moral and psychological conditions, 800 persons destined for replenishing the losses of this unit, refused to go to the operational area and accused officers of incompetence, bribery and cronyism in paying money allowance.

About 100 servicemen of a reconnaissance unit of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade have been relieved of combat duty and transported to Kremenchug for investigation.

A considerable part of the commanders of the 30th Mechanised Brigade of the AFU have abstracted themselves from managing their units and refuse to fulfil combat tasks. All kinds of pretexts are used for simulating illness. The majority of units have already been left without any officers.


A mechanized brigade has about 3,500 soldiers. In one month the Ukrainian 14th lost two third of its people. The replacements are not trained on mechanized equipment (tanks, APCs) that likely no longer exists and can only be used as unprotected infantry. It is no wonder that they reject to be send into a hopeless situation.

The Ukrainian leadership is still sending new units into the Lysichansk cauldron in the east. The Russians do not mind that. Their job is to "demilitarize" Ukraine. To enclose more troops in one swoop makes that easier.

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The distance between the red Russian held area at the the top to the one at the bottom at the most narrow gap is a mere 15 kilometer or some 9 miles. There is only one open road running through it from west to east which is used for pushing resupplies to the Ukrainian troops in Lysichansk.

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Currently fighting is taking place over Mykolaivka at the bottom of this detail map. Five kilometer north of it is the Lysichansk refinery. It will be the next target. The last road to Lysichansk runs directly north of it. When that road comes under direct Russian fire the cauldron will be closed and the boiling will start for those who are in it. For the ~20,000 soldiers in the cauldron it will mean surrender or die.

If that is still possible it will further lower the morale of other Ukrainian troops.

Ananke Group @AnankeGroup - 15:01 UTC · Jun 20, 2022
"We, soldiers of the 8th battalion of the 10th brigade, based near the city of Seversk. We appeal to you, Mr. President, Mr. Zaluzhny, and to the Ukrainian people [...] We demand the immediate rotation of our remaining troops, physically and mentally there are no more forces.
Embedded video https://twitter.com/AnankeGroup/status/ ... 6353859586


Image

It is interesting that the troops also appeal to General Zaluzhny, the top commander of the Armed Forces of Ukrainian (AFU). It is the first time I hear that. The idea to fight in Lysichansk until the end came from Zelensky and his civilian advisors. Zaluzhny has reportedly been against that. He wanted those and other troops to retreat and wage a more mobile campaign. That would have shortened the front line and given a chance to create reserves that can rest and prepare for a later counterattack. There are rumors that Zelensky's advisors are now lobbying to replace Zaluzhny as he has increased his media presence. They probably fear a coup.

The Russian side reported yesterday that it had killed 50 generals and higher officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a missile strike. The group was meeting to plan the further fight in the southern region of Odessa and Kherson. This now seems to have been confirmed:

Management Impact Solutions Consulting, LP - @MiExecSearch - 15:10 UTC · Jun 20, 2022
Russian Armed Forces beat out AFU generals, who were holed up in the rear. The military-civilian administration of Zaporozhye region confirmed results of a missile strike on AFU command post near the village of Shirokaya Dacha, 57 top-level officers were killed.

Last night, probably in response to the strike on the officers, the Ukrainians fired a missile against a gas and oil production platform in the waters near Crimea. The installation was damaged. Russia considers that to be a direct attack on valuable infrastructure within Russian territory and will likely give a strong response.

Yesterday Lithuania announced that it would immediately prohibit Russian goods under EU sanctions to cross from Belarus to the Kaliningrad enclave at the Baltic seas which is Russian territory. That is in breach of several international agreements which guarantee unhindered Russian access to the city. Russia has yet to announce a response to this new provocation.

Posted by b on June 20, 2022 at 16:47 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/u ... .html#more

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine as of 23.10 June 20, 2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1.
Severodonetsk.
Fighting in the industrial area around the Azot plant. The main enemy forces are actually blocked and do not have a full opportunity to retreat. The RF Armed Forces are systematically completing the operational encirclement of the grouping. There are isolated cases of surrender. Hostages are still being held at the plant itself. Completely cleared Metelkino.
2.
Golden.
After the occupation of Chekhirovo and breaking into the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Toshkovka, our troops launched an offensive against Belaya Gora and Mirnaya Dolina.
There are also battles in the direction of Nikolayevka and Rai-Aleksandrovka. The grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Gorsky and Zolote is actually in the operational environment. The only accessible road through Ray-Aleksandrovka is completely shot through.
3.
Soledar.
Heavy fighting for Belogorovka and Berestovoye. The Artemovsk-Lysichansk road is blocked. If the enemy loses Nikolaevka, the issue of moving to the Lisichansk Oil Refinery will be resolved.
4.
Artemovsk.
Fighting in the area of ​​Semigorye and Vershina. There are battles for Klinovoe. The enemy expects to defend himself along the Pokrovskoye-Klinovoye-Zaitsevo line. The development of the offensive from the southeast is holding back the unresolved issue with the Uglegorsk TPP.
5.
Slavyansk.
Fighting in the area of ​​Bogorodichny, Dolina, Krasnopolye, Prishib and Tatyanovka.
6.
Raisins.
Battles at Bolshaya Kamyshevakha and Kurulka. The flank activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had no success. The enemy expects an offensive to the Barvenkovo-Slavyansk highway.
7.
Kharkov.
The enemy has abandoned attempts to recapture Ternovoe and Rubezhnoye and is preparing for the defense of Stary Saltov. Fights are expected for the Great Passages, Tsupovka and Dementyevka.
The offensive announced earlier by the RF Armed Forces has not yet begun.
8.
Avdiivka.
No significant changes. Fights near Kamenka, Novobakhmutovka and New York. There is no progress to Krasnogorovka yet. The counter-battery work of the RF Armed Forces is intensifying. The enemy continues to intensively shell Donetsk, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya and other settlements.
9.
Odessa.
The enemy made an unsuccessful attack on Zmeinny Island, and also attacked the Chernomorneftegaz platforms, destroying one of them.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the day delivered massive strikes in the Odessa region on the military infrastructure. More is expected in the coming days.
10.
Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Krivoy Rog direction.
In the Nikolaev direction, there are no significant changes, the transition to the control of the Russian Armed Forces of the village of Pravdino is noted.
11.
Marinka, Zaporozhye, Vuhledar - no change.

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forwarded from
Readovka
Map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of June 20

Today, early in the morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine resumed shelling of Donetsk , arrivals were recorded in the Leninsky, Kiev, Kuibyshevsky and Budyonnovsky districts of the city. According to unverified information, today's shelling was carried out with shells significantly exceeding 155 mm in power. It is likely that the Ukrainian military attacked with missiles from the American MLRS HIMARS. Well, since we started with arrivals, it is impossible not to note the shelling in Makiivka . In the LPR, Ukrainian militants launched a Tochka-U missile attack on the village of Horoshee and fired on Stakhanov from Hurricanes.

⚔️ The situation on the fronts per day:

▫️On the Kharkov front , units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have deployed an artillery battery, which periodically shells the residential areas of Kharkov . This was done to create fakes according to the "Buchan scenario".

▫️In the Izyumo-Slavyansk direction , fighting continues without mutual advancement. Russian artillery makes a hole in the enemy's echeloned defense.

▫️In the Severodonetsk agglomeration , the Ukrainian military, stationed at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk , began to fly white flags. The situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Severodonetsk direction is the most difficult, the fighting is already going on in the industrial area. There are also battles for Toshkovka . Russian troops went on the offensive along the entire front in the LPR. The grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, defending Gorskoye and Zolote , is in the operational environment. After the capture of Vrubovka and the advance of our troops in Chekhirovo (20 km from Lisichansk ), it was a matter of time.

▫️In the Zaporizhia direction today, the Mining Division of the DPR army was unwinding the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​​​Vogledar . No significant progress was noted.

▫️On the southern flank - the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not stop making attempts to capture and destroy positions on Zmeiny Island . The Ukrainian side carried out missile attacks on the infrastructure of the island, but thanks to the coordinated actions of Russian fighters, it did not have significant success in defeating our equipment, weapons and property. Units of the RF Armed Forces responded with precision-guided strikes at the Shkolny airfield , as well as, according to local residents, at the facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and the vicinity of Ovidiopol . Ukraine responded by striking at the drilling platforms of Chornomorneftegaz.

🛡On our frontier
In the morning, Ukrainian militants were shelling the village of Suzemka in the Bryansk region.

🚀"Calibration" The
Russian military attacked the Artsyz airfield in the Odessa region, destroying the Bayraktar TB2 UAV control station. The strikes were carried out on targets near the city of Druzhkovka near Kramatorsk . Russian air defense systems shot down a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force near the village of Apostolovo, Dnepropetrovsk region.

🌎In the world: Vienna recognized the participation of Austrian mercenaries in the conflict with the Russian Armed Forces on the side of Ukraine. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that some Austrian citizens did sign up as volunteers and went to Ukraine as mercenaries.

👁From the interesting: the Russian Army used the latest missiles "product 305" in Ukraine, the source said.
"Product 305" is a LMUR (Lightweight Multipurpose Guided Missile). It was first shown at the Army-2021 forum. Now the missile is used with the Mi-28NM, but it can also be launched from other helicopters, aircraft and even drones. Rocket strikes are carried out on important objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - for example, warehouses with ammunition and fuel and lubricants

Image

***

forwarded from
Readovka
About 20 civilians left the territory of the Azot chemical plant on their own

- LPR ambassador to the Russian Federation Miroshnik Rodion Miroshnik.

“Today, about two dozen civilians independently went to the second gate of the plant, which is not controlled by militants. Now they are already safe , ”Miroshnik wrote in his Telegram channel.

The diplomat added that the exit of civilians is complicated due to constant shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As Readovka reported, there are up to a thousand civilians on the territory of Azot.

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 20, 2022

▪️In the Kharkiv region , the Armed Forces of Ukraine made another unsuccessful attempt to cross the Seversky Donets and reach Izyum from the west.

▪️In the Donbas , the Allied Forces are advancing in several directions in order to form several “cauldrons” for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

➖In the Severodonetsk direction, the Allied forces are advancing from the south to Mirnaya Dolina, Rai-Aleksandrovka and Nikolaevka to reach the southern outskirts of Lisichansk and finally cut off the supply of the APU grouping in Zolote and Gorsky.
➖On the Soledar direction , the Wagner PMC detachments entered the village of Klinovoye on the highway from Svetlodarsk and are fighting for Pokrovskoye on the outskirts of Bakhmut (Artemovsk).
➖Ukrainian artillery shelled Donetsk again. According to some reports, the APU was the first to use the American MLRS HIMARS for these purposes.
➖In response, the RF Armed Forces attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Avdeevka, Sporny and Krasnogorovka.

▪️In the Zaporizhia direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to pull units to the line of contact. Russian artillery attacked the objects of Ukrainian formations in Yulyevka.

Image

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Odessa direction and in the area of ​​​​Snake Island
as of 22.00 June 20, 2022

▪️After systematic preparation, today at 4 o'clock in the morning the Armed Forces of Ukraine began the fire defeat of Zmeiny Island .

At the first stage, an attempt was made to destroy Russian facilities on Zmein with massive strikes. However, timely measures taken by the Russian command did not allow the Ukrainian forces to achieve their original goal.

Because of this failure, the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to attack the Chornomorneftegaz gas production platform. The strikes were made on drilling rigs and block conductors at the Odessa field , 40 km east of the island. As a result, a fire broke out. The evacuation of the affected personnel of the company began.

▪️Russian Armed Forces responded with precision-guided strikes at Shkolny and Artsyz airfields , and, according to local residents, at APU facilities in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and in the vicinity of Ovdiopol .

🔻 What does this step on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine mean?

Once again, the Ukrainian authorities, under pressure from Western curators, tried to unblock the ports. However, despite the weapons supplied by Western countries, the attempt failed.

This was the reason for the transition to the favorite tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of maximum terror against civilian objects.

However, now, in addition to a deliberate strike on civilians on the platform, this is also a threat of huge damage to the Black Sea ecosystem , in fact, directed not only against Russia, but also the countries of the Black Sea basin.

Ukrainian politics is now built on an irrepressible desire to please suppliers of weapons and military equipment. Desperate and even insane decisions will be made to achieve this goal.

No matter how many losses Ukraine suffers and how many civilians suffer, the goal of the current Ukrainian authorities is the same: to harm Russia by any methods and means . This is what should be taken into account when planning strikes against APU targets.

Image

***

forwarded from
Military correspondent re🅉reservist
The Ukrainian military, located at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, began to hang out white flags. This was stated by an officer of the People's Militia of the Luhansk People's Republic Andriy Marochko.

***

Сolonelcassad
Regarding the threats of the commander of the German Air Force to "strengthen nuclear deterrence" and other flirting with the topic of nuclear war.
NATO is now trying to probe further limits with the escalation of the war against Russia. It is important for them to understand under what circumstances the risks of direct confrontation and nuclear war scenarios increase unacceptably. Where they are sure that the risk of terminal scenarios is minimal, they will escalate, which is clearly seen from the increase in the volume and range of arms supplies, where the issue of supplying air defense systems and aircraft is already on the agenda. Therefore, according to Russia's reaction to provocations with the PMR, Kaliningrad or the supply of certain types of weapons, they are trying to build a model of the reaction of the country's leadership to certain actions in order to predict its reactions to certain actions related to the escalation of the war in Ukraine, because nuclear war in the West, of course, they don’t want to - the United States and NATO are interested in a controlled conventional conflict, where you can manually control its duration and intensity without the risk of nuclear war. Therefore, the probing of Russian "red nuclear lines" will continue.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

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

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 21, 2022 1:41 pm

We'll never trust the West again
June 21, 8:18

Image

“Yes, it will be a protracted crisis, but we will never trust the West again” (c) Peskov

So to speak, the answer to Johnson's recent statements about a long-term conflict.
The conflict will indeed be long, the predicted Syrianization of the conflict with all the ensuing consequences has occurred. Everyone has come to terms with this, voiced it, and is preparing for a long confrontation with might and main.

Regarding statements about "we will never trust," it is rather touching that someone seriously trusted the West. What is called deceived in the best expectations.
Well, and so, Westernism in Russia goes into the margins for many years. However, given its quality, we are unlikely to miss it.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7690365.html

Help for the 7th Brigade of the LPR Army
June 21, 10:00

Image

In order to support the 7th brigade of the LPR army fighting for Severodonetsk.

Help for the 7th Brigade of the LPR Army

One of the main striking forces in Rubizhne was the 7th brigade of the NM LNR. Having washed with blood in the most difficult battles for Rubizhne, she is now leading successful battles for Severodonetsk. And ahead is the assault on Lisichansk.

I participated in the battles in Rubezhnoye and was withdrawn from the front line to organize volunteer work - to raise funds and organize the supply of the necessary equipment to the warring brigade. You are all already aware, thanks to Murza's posts and my stories, what the state supply of warring units looks like. It looks like nothing. In the brigade warehouses there are no clothes or shoes of the right sizes, not to mention armor, communications equipment and drones. When our team received clothing allowances at the brigade warehouse, there were only 45 size berets, although the mass of the people had 41-43. Take what you have! I haven't been able to find a pea jacket in the right size. People are fighting in steel Soviet helmets, without body armor, unloading. And on the front there is nothing at all! The guys who came from the draft board straight to the battalion, bypassing the control company and brigade warehouses,

Why the supply of the necessary was not organized, and in general, why such a situation with all supply positions is a fair question. Of course, I really hope that sooner or later there will be those who will be able to ask the direct culprits. True, I'm not sure that it's not the appointed "scapegoats" who will be punished, but the real perpetrators.

Be that as it may, the life and health of a soldier on the front line depends on a set of inputs: both on personal equipment and on general control, which also requires equipment and equipment: well-built communications (walkie-talkies, base stations, etc.), aerial reconnaissance (copters), competent work of doctors (stretchers, tourniquets, tires, medicines).

Our small team of like-minded people (me, a couple of people in Moscow, guys from the Kuban-poisk and Kuban bridgehead search teams in Krasnodar, two people in Lugansk: Natalya Chernova, the widow of the writer Alexei Ivakin, and a deputy who is being treated for a wound in Bryanka . battalion commander of the tank battalion of the 7th brigade) were able to build cooperation, purchase and deliver the first batch of what is necessary to the tank battalion - overalls and berets in size for personnel, two dozen walkie-talkies.
Photo report on the transfer.

This delivery was paid for by just one caring person.
We are still far from the scope of KCPN - we are just starting, and they have been working for eight years. Meanwhile, the main direction of their efforts is the 4th brigade of the NM of the LPR. In the 7th brigade, such a team, alas, did not work out, and we, albeit belatedly, are trying to fill this gap.

At the moment, there is an order for 15 digital radio stations for tankers, 25 light anti-fragmentation bulletproof vests for tank crews. If funds allow, we will purchase complete sets of the Cowboy UPC - they hold fire against fragments and fire. In addition, we fulfill orders from brigade doctors. We need light stretchers, a batch of tourniquets, splints and bandages for injured limbs, glucometers and blood pressure monitors.
Stretchers and crampons for pulling out the wounded, as well as tourniquets purchased by us, will be delivered at the end of next week by volunteers from the Golden Hands of the Angel organization.https://t.me/+Z38L9BNN6eBiOTNi

Everything else will have to be purchased and delivered to us.
After closing the needs of tankers and doctors, we will switch to motorized rifle battalions.

In general, friends, if there is a desire to help the fighters on the front end survive, do not hold back! Your labor ruble may well save the life or health of a good person you do not know, who has not escaped from mobilization and is doing his duty at the forefront.

Sberbank card: 4276 5500 9314 7760
YuMoney: 4100117858586135
Mail for questions: help.for.7omsbr@gmail.com
It is very difficult now with transfers from abroad. The only way is cryptocurrency. If necessary, write to the mail, we will give addresses for coins convenient for you.

We kindly ask you not to write anything in the comments to the payments. Bankers are nervous people.
Thanks to everyone who has helped and is going to help further.
But ours will not come ... All ours are us. ©

https://leon-spb67.livejournal.com/1473244.html - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7690734.html

Google Translator

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As NATO warlords gather in Madrid: Defend Donetsk from Ukraine terror attacks
June 21, 2022 Melinda Butterfield

Image
Aftermath of Ukrainian shelling of Maisky market in Donetsk, June 13. Three people were killed, including an 11-year-old child. Photo: Donetsk News Agency

U.S. President Joe Biden and other heads of state of the NATO war alliance are preparing to meet in Madrid, Spain, from June 28-30 to plan the next phase of their proxy war against the Donbass republics and the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, their Ukrainian agents are raining terror daily on civilians in towns and villages in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).

The Ukrainian regime is on a rampage, especially attacking civilians in Donetsk, capital of the DPR. Residential areas of the city that have been untouched since the worst days of 2014-2015 are now being targeted daily by NATO-supplied weapons. People in the city report a desperate situation.

“Thank you to NATO for the gifts,” activist and longtime Donetsk resident Katya A. wrote on June 15. “Now there are no safe areas left in the city. Every time you leave your house, it’s Russian roulette. You never know where the next shell will land. You can’t be sure you’ll make it home or not be left disabled.”

Since early June, daily attacks on civilian targets in the capital have steadily intensified. By mid-month, the city was under the heaviest attack since Ukraine’s war on Donbass began in 2014.

Apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and public transit have been hit. Shopping areas have been especially targeted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

On June 13, the Donetsk News Agency (DAN) reported, “Three people have been killed and another four have been wounded in Ukrainian gunmen’s strike at Donetsk’s Budyonnovsky district, the DPR Territorial Defense Headquarters reported.”

The Ukrainian shelling targeted the Maisky market, a major shopping venue in Donetsk visited by thousands of residents daily for essential supplies. The victims included an 11-year-old girl and her mother.

Earlier in the day, four civilians were wounded in the Kievsky district.

Image
Smoke rises over the Donetsk skyline on June 17. Photo: Donetsk News Agency
300 strikes in three hours

“Ukrainian gunmen fired more than 300 heavy artillery projectiles including MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket System] missiles at Donetsk within two hours, the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) reported on Monday.

“‘The DPR capital has never come under such massive strikes in terms of fire amount, density and duration over the whole period of the armed conflict,’ the report said. ‘Nearly 300 MLRS missiles and artillery projectiles were fired in two hours.’

“The heaviest strikes were delivered at the Kuibyshevsky, Kievsky and Voroshilovsky districts in the west, north and center of the city. The enemy shelled them with BM-21 Grad and Uragan multiple rocket launchers and 155mm and 152mm artillery,” DAN reported.

Two days later – on June 15 – President Biden announced $1 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, on top of $54 billion in aid already allocated this year, “a package that includes shipments of additional howitzers, ammunition and coastal defense systems,” according to CNN. NATO has promised to speed up the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.

“The enemy has literally crossed all the lines using prohibited methods of warfare, shooting at Donetsk’s residential and central areas and delivering fire at other DPR towns and settlements, ” DPR head Denis Pushilin said. “In this connection, an understanding has been reached that the allies, in the first place the Russian Federation, will use all necessary additional forces.”

DPR Commissioner for Human Rights Daria Morozova said: “At the moment, any provocations can be expected from Ukrainian militants who are in agony. Therefore, I urge citizens to leave the streets for shelters and take all security measures until the situation improves.

“I assure you, not a single bastard who is at war with the civilian population will escape punishment.”

Maternity hospital hit

Ukraine’s attacks on Donbass civilians have gone mostly unreported in the U.S. corporate media. Donetsk residents scoffed when they learned German media claimed the attacks were somehow caused by Donetsk ally Russia. Germany, like the U.S., has covered up Ukrainian war crimes for the past eight years.

Five medical facilities in Donetsk were hit on June 13, including a maternity hospital. All the patients and staff were evacuated to the basement – with one exception. “A baby was born prematurely and could not be disconnected from the ventilator,” Katya A. reported on her Telegram channel. “The head of department was there [with the infant] the whole time. Both survived, no one was hurt, although the blast blew out all the windows in the intensive care unit.”

Earlier, Western media raised a hue and cry over an alleged Russian attack on a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol before its liberation from Ukrainian neo-Nazis. The claim was refuted by Mariupol residents, including a patient of the hospital who had been portrayed in the West as a “victim of Russia.”

These same media, however, had nothing to say about Ukraine’s attack on pregnant people, new parents and infants in Donetsk.

Eyewitness accounts

A sampling of reports from local activists in Donetsk:

June 13: “Donetsk today: Indiscriminate shelling of residential areas. Eleven-year-old Misha and her mother Oksana are killed. Misha Bondarenko, 5th grader of school No. 135. (Oxana Chelysheva)

June 17: “I no longer count the whistles and screams. It’s surprising that the glass is still intact.

“Zasyadko mine has been sealed in Donetsk due to shelling by Ukrainian troops. Seventy-six miners are trapped underground.

“We hide in the entrance hall with some kids who took a car from their father and now don’t know what to do: drive it home under fire or hide, hoping that nothing will fall on the car. ‘Father will kill us if something happens to the car.’ When a parent’s anger is scarier than a shell.

“Still no electricity or water at home.” (Svetlana Licht, Aurora Women’s Club)

“As experience has shown, relative calmness in war is an illusion. Kievsky district has been under heavy shelling since the very early morning. Missiles arrive in Petrovsky and Kuibyshevsky districts. Also at the city center.

“Donetsk is covered in smoke. There are fires everywhere. They write that firefighters cannot start working because the firing does not stop. Makeevsky Metallurgical Plant came under fire. A civilian has been wounded.

“I remember how in 2014 I naively thought that the war would end by fall. It’s the ninth year of this horror without an end.” (Katya A.)

June 18: “Miners’ Square. You can hear the shells flying in. A grandmother and a middle-aged man had a political dispute nearby. It’s amazing that in such an environment people have the strength to quarrel.” (Svetlana Licht)

“I woke up because of the shelling. There is no electricity and internet. I listen to the shells whistle outside and fall nearby. They write that there are again NATO gifts. And how’s your good morning?

“The Ukrainian army attacked an important military object – a bus with people.

“We live under very harsh shelling. And I feel no anger, indignation or surprise at this situation. I wouldn’t expect anything different from an army of proud and shy Nazis. I just wish it would end sooner.

“I am not surprised by the stupidity and obscurantism of the hangers-on of the failed Ukrainian regime, who in their feeble mind cannot see beyond their noses and tell amazing fables about self-inflicted shelling.

“Yesterday and today they razed my neighborhood to the ground. Again the destruction, the dead and wounded. Ordinary civilians who are only guilty of living in the wrong place.

“It’s quiet now. But I’m sure it will start again tonight.” (Katya A.)

June 19: “My poor neighbors. Early in the morning, we ran into the store, while it was quiet.

No water or electricity at home.” (Svetlana Licht)

June 20: “The center of Donetsk is ‘watered’ daily with heavy NATO weapons. And people are not going to leave, on the contrary, there are more inhabitants in the city than during the first hot phase of the conflict, which until 2022 was considered the most brutal of all.

“And what do we see? Shops are open, people are still planting roses, public utilities are repairing damage, rescuers are putting out fires under shelling, public transport is moving under the whistle of shells. Moreover, even after a shell hit school No. 22 in the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk, teachers continued to go to their workplaces, although the head of the DPR Pushilin recommended remote work in his appeal, but not all heeded this.

“Many will not even believe what I am describing now, but this is the reality for Donbass. Even for Donetsk, which for a long time was already considered a safe place, although the likelihood of such strikes remained throughout the eight years of hostilities. But after a month of daily shelling of the city center, even the hyped ’Donetsk Arbat’ – Pushkin Boulevard – was empty.” (Denis Grigoryuk, journalist)

Stop U.S.-NATO weapons!

During the week of June 13-19, Ukrainian attacks killed at least 12 and wounded 93 residents of Donetsk, Mayor Alexey Kulemzin said.

Daily attacks on Donetsk and the nearby cities of Makeevka and Gorlovka mostly come from the Ukrainian-occupied town of Avdiivka and surrounding villages to the west of the capital. The area is heavily fortified and defended by the most battle-hardened, ideological neo-Nazis in the service of the Ukrainian regime and Western imperialism.

The strategy of allied anti-fascist forces – the People’s Militias of Donetsk and Lugansk and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – has been to steadily liberate surrounding areas, encircling the Adiivka area. Since the point of the Special Operation is to liberate the occupied areas of the DPR and LPR, the allied forces have been advancing with care to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties.

At the same time, as more and more territory is freed from Ukrainian control and the occupation forces retreat, more troops and weaponry are concentrated in Avdiivka for attacks on civilians in and near the capital.

Another reason for serious concern is the infusion of higher-range missiles and artillery from NATO. While 95% of the LPR has now been liberated from Ukrainian troops, attacks on frontline areas like Kirovsk continue. And the new powerful weaponry from the West could allow the Zelensky regime to again target the capital of Lugansk.

Mass protests are planned in Madrid, across Europe and around the world during the NATO Summit. It is urgent for anti-war and anti-fascist forces to expose Ukraine’s ongoing terrorist attacks on Donetsk and demand: No more NATO weapons to Ukraine!

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... r-attacks/

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OSCE Reports Reveal Ukraine Started Shelling The Donbas Nine Days Before Russia's 'Special Military Operation'

The Biden Administration, U.S. political officials, and the corporate media are lying the American public into World War III.

KanekoaTheGreat
Jun 17

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All of my articles on the Ukraine-Russia War — Part I, Part II, and Part III. (see link)

American history is replete with examples of politicians, the corporate media, and the military-industrial complex using lies, false pretenses, and propaganda to sell war to a public that would otherwise be hesitant to send their sons and daughters off to fight on foreign soil.

President Lyndon B. Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to justify American military intervention in Vietnam.

President George H.W. Bush used a fabricated story of Iraqi soldiers ripping babies out of incubators to start the Gulf War.

President George W. Bush lied about “weapons of mass destruction”.

From “Remember the Maine”, to the sinking of the Lusitania, to Syrian gas attacks, the last century is filled with example after example of the United States government lying to its citizens in order to justify new wars.

In all of these examples, the corporate press acted as dutiful stenographers of the military-industrial complex hypnotizing the American people with lies, deception, and propaganda.

If the old adage is true that the first causality of war is the truth then it should follow that the first battle between Russia and Ukraine was also won with lies.

It is important to remember that the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine started in 2014 after the Obama administration and U.S. Congress members installed a new government in Ukraine, in what the head of the “private CIA” firm Stratfor called “the most blatant coup in history.”

In response to the U.S.-backed coup, the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas held a referendum on seceding from Ukraine, in which 96% of Luhansk and 89% of Donetsk voted for the creation of two new self-described independent republics in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow said the vote reflected the "will of the people," but the European Union called the elections "illegal and illegitimate", which quickly turned violent and descended into an all-out conflict between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatist forces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Between 2014 and 2022 the War in Donbas killed an estimated 14,000 people, forcing millions of people to flee the region, and turning the conflict zone into one of the world’s most mine-contaminated areas.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has had observers on-the-ground monitoring the situation in Donbas since the outbreak of open conflict began in 2014.

The OSCE has been the only international civilian observer mission allowed to collect information from both sides of the contact line, and its data, while incomplete, remains the best available.

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Source: OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine

The OSCE observer mission provides maps in daily reports documenting the location of ceasefire violations and explosions along the contact line between the Ukrainian military and the Donbas republics.

These maps clearly show that Ukraine began artillery strikes against the Donbas republics on February 16th, 2022.

In other words, Ukraine began shelling the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk nine days before Russia announced its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

While the western corporate media remained completely silent, explosions documented by the OSCE increased from 76 on February 15th, to 316 on February 16th, to 654 on February 17th, and to 1,413 on February 18th.

When you look carefully at the daily maps of these explosions, it is clear that the vast majority of explosions occurred on the Russian separatist side of the ceasefire line.

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Feb 14: 174 ceasefire violations, 41 explosions

Feb 15: 153 ceasefire violations, 76 explosions

Feb 16: 509 ceasefire violations, 316 explosions

Feb 17: 870 ceasefire violations, 654 explosions

Feb 18: 1,566 ceasefire violations, 1,413 explosions

Feb 19-20: 3,231 ceasefire violations, 2,026 explosions

Feb 21: 1,927 ceasefire violations, 1,481 explosions

Feb 21: Russia recognizes independence of Donetsk and Luhansk

Feb 22: 1,710 ceasefire violations, 1,420 explosions

Feb 24: Russia launches ‘special military operation’

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Jacques Baud, a former NATO intelligence analyst wrote about the OSCE reports, “On 17 February, President Joe Biden announced that Russia would attack Ukraine in the next few days. How did he know this? It is a mystery. But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbas had increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show.”

While the western media spent the last year reporting on Russia’s troop buildup at the Ukrainian border, they failed to inform the public about Ukraine amassing “half of it’s army or 125,000 troops” along the Donbas conflict zone during this same time period.

Ukraine began to reposition its forces along the Donbas as early as March 24, 2021, when Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree for the recapture of the Crimea, and began to deploy his forces to the south of the country.

It is unlikely Zelensky would make such an aggressive decree without first receiving the approval of the United States and NATO.

In April 2021, the Ukrainian government publicly announced that they would seek nuclear weapons if they were not issued membership in NATO.

This further signified that Ukraine intended to cross Vladimir Putin’s line in the sand by either joining NATO or placing nuclear weapons on Russia’s doorstep.

In that same month, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu accused the U.S. and NATO of moving troops to Russia’s borders.

“In Poland and the Baltic states, US forces are being reinforced … the intensity of aerial reconnaissance has been doubled compared to last year, and the intensity of naval reconnaissance has increased by one-and-a-half times,” he said.

The minister accused the US and its allies of carrying out active military activities “with a clear anti-Russian orientation”.

“In the spring of this year, the joint armed forces of NATO began the largest exercise in the last 30 years, Defender Europe 2021,” he said.

While both sides accuse the other side of being the aggressor, the OSCE maps clearly show that the Ukrainian side backed by the United States and NATO forces began shelling the Russian side on February 16th, 2022.

This shelling is corroborated by on-the-ground video journalism from an independent reporter named Patrick Lancaster who has been interviewing civilians in the eastern Ukrainian warzone for the last eight years.

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Source: Crisis Group OSCE Data

On February 17th 2022, Lancaster reported on the increased shelling coming from the Ukrainian side and interviewed residents living along the contact line in the Donetsk region.

On February 19th, Lancaster reported on the Ukrainian military shelling two power plants knocking out electricity for multiple villages in Donetsk.


On February 20th, Lancaster interviewed residents of two homes that were attacked by Ukrainian mortar shells.

On February 21st, Lancaster visited two schools attacked by Ukrainian shells in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk.

Lancaster interviewed a female teacher cleaning broken glass from the shattered windows who said, “It is not the first time, it is the second time this school has faced a horrible attack! How do we teach children after that, tell us? Don’t you dare say that the Donetsk People’s Republic are shelling themselves! It is a nightmare, it is horrible!

She continued, “Ukrainians say that they do not shell civilians — then who shelled here? Here’s a direct hit from the Maryanka district, exactly where they stand. It is visible where it flies from. We do not sleep for 3 nights already. It is horrible, it is a shock, how is it possible? They are shelling their own brothers, sisters, and children!”


On February 23rd, Lancaster reported on Ukrainians targeting journalist with an explosive device at a television media center.

A 23-year-old television producer who worked at the television network explained that the Ukrainian side was targeting journalist or those who “spread the truth about the events in Donbas” because the “information war” had gotten so serious that it now involved “the physical elimination of journalist.”

[youtube]httpb]://youtu.be/aSimLXmcmWw[/youtube]

In summary, the Biden administration and U.S. political officials with the help of the corporate media are once again lying, manipulating, and deceiving the public into another war based on false pretenses.

The OSCE reports and Patrick Lancaster’s on-the-ground reporting clearly show that Ukraine began shelling the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk nine days before Russia announced its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

The same discredited neoconservative and neoliberal establishment that lied about Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya are once again lying about Russia and Ukraine.

A diplomatic solution with Russia might have involved something as simple as demilitarization of Ukraine and a signed treaty promising Ukraine would never join NATO, but the U.S. political establishment wanted this hot proxy war with nuclear-armed Russia so they created it.

Ukraine started shelling the Russian-speaking people of the Donbas on February 16th, 2022, while Joe Biden went on television and told the American people that Russia was about to invade Ukraine.

https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/osce-rep ... ne-started

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LPR divulges Washington’s plans to deploy NATO bases in Donbass republics

NATO bases were to be deployed in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk as well as in "Popasnaya and Mariupol, or along the entire line of engagement

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Washington was planning to involve France and Great Britain in the deployment of NATO military bases along the entire line of engagement back two years ago, a senior official at the Lugansk People’s Republic’s Interior Ministry said on Monday.

NATO bases were to be deployed in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk as well as in "Popasnaya and Mariupol, or along the entire line of engagement," aide to the LPR interior minister Vitaly Kisilev said on Channel One television.

"We had this information about Washington being behind the plans involving the French and the British," he said. Great Britain was supposed to be in charge of Mariupol, while France and Poland would have taken on roles in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, he added.

Kiselev said the military bases and strongholds built to NATO standards showed that the alliance was busy prepping for attacks and mop-up operations in the two Donbass republics, with the Donetsk People’s Republic being a priority target and plans to destroy the LPR "by a couple of strikes".

https://tass.com/world/1468563?utm_sour ... -lucha.org

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Germany Rations Gas Amid Russian Cuts, Mandates Return To Coal For Electricity Production
BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, JUN 20, 2022 - 06:55 AM
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday that the country will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia.

As a member of the environmentalist Green Party, Habeck pushed through legislation in April to raise Germany’s energy target to 80% renewables. He is also an opponent of nuclear energy.

Habeck said that Germany will try to compensate for the move by increasing the burning of coal, a more polluting fossil fuel.

“That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,”

The decision comes just days after Russian gas company Gazprom announced that it was sharply reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, but which Habeck said appeared to be politically motivated.

“It’s obvious that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s strategy is to unsettle us by driving up the price and dividing us,” Habeck said.

“We won’t let that happen.”

Habeck's Press Release on Reducing Natural Gas Consumption. https://www-bmwk-de.translate.goog/Reda ... r_pto=wapp

Gas Reduction in Electricity Sector

“The situation on the gas market has deteriorated in recent days. The missing quantities can still be replaced, and the gas storage tanks are still being filled, albeit at high prices. Security of supply is currently guaranteed. But the situation is serious. We are therefore further strengthening precautions and taking additional measures to reduce gas consumption. This means that gas consumption must continue to fall, so more gas must be stored in storage, otherwise things will get really tight in winter. We will now take the next steps. For months we have been in the process of sharpening tools, creating new ones and removing existing obstacles. We are accelerating the expansion of renewable energies in an unprecedented way, we are pushing through the storage of gas and driving the expansion of LNG terminals and energy efficiency measures. The urgency of these tasks determines our ongoing work. Now we're going to pull out and use another set of tools. We will reduce gas consumption in the electricity sector and in industry and force storage tanks to be filled. Depending on the situation, we will take further measures."

“With the law, we are setting up a gas replacement reserve on demand. And I can already say: We will call off the gas replacement reserve as soon as the law comes into force. That means, to be honest, more coal-fired power plants for a transitional period. That's bitter, but in this situation it's almost necessary to reduce gas consumption. We must and we will do everything we can to store as much gas as possible in summer and autumn. The gas storage tanks must be full in winter. That has top priority," said Habeck.

Rapid Expansion of LNG Infrastructure

Germany has not yet had a port where liquid gas can be landed. However, this is necessary in order to strengthen the gas supply from non-Russian sources and thus become independent of Russian imports. The federal government is therefore pushing ahead with the construction of so-called floating LNG terminals. First, it has secured four special ships, so-called FSRU , on which liquid gas is converted back into gas. Secondly, with on LNG Acceleration Act, it has created the legal prerequisites to accelerate the construction of the necessary connections on land so that two of the four FSRU ships can go into operation in winter and thus LNG can be fed into the German gas supply network. Everyone involved is working hard on this.

As MishTalk's Mike Shedlock notes, those are two of seven points of Habeck's plan.

He notes storage tanks are only 56% full.

Not to worry, that's ahead of a year ago. But a year ago Germany was getting 100% of the gas it wanted from Russia. Now it's only getting 40% of the gas it was getting a year ago.

That means it will take 2.5 times as long to fill up the tanks, thus the need to ration natural gas and use coal.

[ZH: Maybe Trump was right after all]



Transitional to What and When?
Well, don't worry. This is only temporary.

Heaven only knows until when. Meanwhile, Germany is rushing to build floating LNG terminals.

That gas will come from where?

20% of US LNG Capacity Went Offline on June 8
On June 8, an explosion at the Freeport LNG facility in Texas knocked out 20% of US LNG production.

The outage sent US gas futures down 18% from the price a day before the fire. European gas prices shot up by over 60%.

Since then, US prices have fallen nearly 60 cents to $6.71.

[ZH: The chart below compares 'oil barrel equivalent' levels for EU and US NatGas relative to WTI Crude]

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Spotlight on Sanctions

No Parts, No Gas

Global Natural Gas Flow
Yet again, I keep returning to the following picture.


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Global map from Nations Online Project, annotations by Mish

Instead of getting natural gas from hundreds of miles away over existing pipelines we compress natural gas in the US then ship it 4,700 miles away Europe.

Meanwhile, Russia fearing eventual European cutoff is building new pipelines to China.

De-globalization is underway. A key ramification is higher inflation.

For further discussion, please see De-Globalization: New Supply Chains Are Inefficient and Will Drive Up Inflation

We have economic illiterates running the country and running the Fed. The average Joe is getting killed.

Dear President Biden, the above charts speak for themselves. If you want to lower inflation, stop the sanctions.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... production

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L-R) Romanian President Iohannis, Italian PM Draghi, Ukrainian President Zelensky, French President Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 16 June 2022.

West at inflection point in Ukraine war
By M. K. Bhadrakumar (Posted Jun 21, 2022)

Originally published: Indian Punchline on June 19, 2022 (more by Indian Punchline) |

Henry Kissinger predicted some three weeks ago that the Ukraine war was dangerously close to becoming a war against Russia. That was a prescient remark. The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a weekend interview told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that in the alliance’s estimation, the Ukraine war could wage for years.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices,” Stoltenberg said. He added that the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would increase the chance of liberating the Donbass region from Russian control.

The remark signifies a deeper NATO involvement in the war based on the belief not only that Russia can be defeated in Ukraine (“erase Russia”) but the cost shouldn’t matter. The NATO chiefs traditionally take the cue from Washington, and Stoltenberg was speaking just a fortnight before the alliance’s Madrid summit.

Curiously, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in an op-ed for London’s Sunday Times after a surprise visit to Kiev on Friday virtually complemented Stoltenberg’s words, stressing the need to avoid “Ukraine fatigue.” Johnson noted that with Russian forces gaining ground “inch by inch” it was vital for Ukraine’s friends to demonstrate their long-term support, which meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader”.

Johnson outlined “four vital steps to recruit time to Ukraine’s cause.” First, he said, “we must ensure that Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader, and build up its capacity to use our help.” Second, “we must help preserve the viability of the Ukrainian state.”

Third, “We need a long-term effort to develop the alternative overland routes” for Ukraine so that its economy “continues to function.” Fourth, crucially, the Russian blockade of Odessa and other Ukrainian ports must be lifted and “we will keep supplying the weapons needed to protect them.”

Johnson admitted that all this requires “a determined effort … lasting for months and years.” But the imperative to strengthen President Zelensky’s capacity to wage the war is also vital for “protecting our own security as much as Ukraine’s.” Stoltenberg and Johnson spoke up after the EU executive recommended that Ukraine should be officially recognised as a candidate to join the bloc (which is expected to be endorsed at a summit set for June 23-24.)

Meanwhile, Russian forces are steadily marking tactical successes in the region of Donbass and in the stabilisation of the frontline in other sectors. The most intense fighting is ongoing in the Severodonetsk-Lysichansk area and around Slavyansk, but the situation is also tense in the Kharkiv region and in Mykolaiv and Kherson Regions in the south.

The Russian forces are pounding the military infrastructure and equipment gatherings of Ukrainian forces. As per Russian MOD, in the five-day period between June 13-17 alone, according to the Russian version, it appears that 1800 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 291 pieces of military equipment and 69 objects of military infrastructure were destroyed.

A defeat in Donbass will be catastrophic for Zelensky, as the destruction of its best military units deployed there virtually leaves the southern regions as low-hanging fruit for Russian forces. For NATO too, its international standing will be seriously eroded. On Friday, two U.S. war veterans detained on Donetsk frontline were put on display on Russian TV appealing to their families for help. More such visuals can be expected in the coming days.

Johnson wrote alarmingly that the Putin Doctrine arrogates to Russia an eternal right to “take back” any territory ever inhabited by Slavs and this “would permit the conquest of vast expanses of Europe, including Nato allies.” This is hyperbole. To take their eastern and southern territories back, the Ukrainians will indeed have to wage a long war but they also will critically depend on enormous military, financial and economic assistance from Europe. On the other hand, European unity is fragile and there is “fatigue” setting in.

There is no coherent vision about the ultimate NATO objective, either. Ukraine is a black hole unworthy of a Marshall Plan. Unsurprisingly, there is great circumspection on the part of Germany to waste its resources over Ukraine.

Finally, the deepening economic crisis in the West–high inflation and cost of living and growing likelihood of recession–is at the gates like wolves howling in a winter wonderland. The European public no longer becomes sentimental at the sight of Ukrainian refugees. The alibi that Putin is responsible for all this won’t fly.

Fundamentally, the Western economies are facing a systemic crisis. The complacency that the reserve-currency-based U.S. economy is impervious to ballooning debt; that the petrodollar system compels the entire world to purchase dollars to finance their needs; that the flood of cheap Chinese consumer goods and cheap energy from Russia and Gulf States would keep inflation at bay; that interest rate hikes will cure structural inflation; and, above all, that the consequences of taking a trade-war hammer to a complex network system in the world economy can be managed–these notions stand exposed.

When the money printing presses whirred in Europe and America, no one felt uneasy about the structural flaws in the system. In a haze of ideological bluster, the Biden Administration and its junior partner in Brussels didn’t pay any due diligence before sanctioning Russia and its energy and resources. Europe is much worse off than America. Inflation in Europe is well into double digits. A European sovereign debt crisis may already have begun.

The accelerating inflationary crisis threatens the standing of western politicians, as they will encounter real popular anger once inflation eats away at the middle class and high energy prices gut business profits.

How to arrest the unfolding slow burn political debacle for both Europe and the U.S.? The logical way is to force Zelensky to go to the negotiating table and discuss a settlement. The narrative of continuing the attrition against Russian forces for the coming months, to inflict hurt on Russia, does not help European politicians. Mariupol, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have fallen. Donbass might also, soon. What’s the next red line? Odessa?

Paradoxically, the long war in Ukraine could only work to Russia’s advantage. President Putin’s speech at the SPIEF at St. Petersburg on Friday shows how thoroughly Moscow studied the western financial and economic system and identified its structural contradictions. Putin is adept at using the weight and strength of his opponents to his own advantage rather than opposing blow directly to blow. The West’s overextension can ultimately be its undoing.

That’s where the actual inflection point lies today–whether the structural contradictions in the western economies have matured into disorder. Putin sees the West’s future as bleak, hit simultaneously by the blowback from its own imposition of sanctions, and the resultant spike in commodity prices, but lacking agility to deflect the blows due to institutional rigidities.

The big question today is at what point Russia retaliates against the countries who are involved in the gun-running business in Ukraine if they accelerate on that path. The air strikes by Russian jets last Thursday on the militant terror groups harboured in the U.S. garrison at Al-Tanf on the Syrian-Iraqi border may well have carried a message.

https://mronline.org/2022/06/21/west-at ... raine-war/

I think the talk of "years" is propaganda meant to bring Russia to the table before it's operation is completed.

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Non-Aligned Countries Are Now ‘Fence Sitters’ for the Political West
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 20, 2022
Drago Bosnic

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The political West seems to have lost any semblance of understanding geopolitics and diplomacy, while some might argue it has completely lost grasp of logic and reality. The belligerent power pole simply refuses to let go of the notion it has supposedly “won” the (First) Cold War. While this idea might have held some ground during the 1990s and early 2000s, the last decade and especially the start of this one has been anything but victorious for the political West.

The tremendous amount of power and influence of the US and its allies partially benefited numerous new client states, most of which owe their very existence to the political West. In order to create them, the US/NATO bombed and dismantled sovereign nations, such as Serbia/Yugoslavia or Libya, or simply invaded and destroyed countless others, such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

After Libya, the political West has been unable to completely destroy another country and murder millions with impunity, as they had been doing for well over half a millennium now. It has been suffering one humiliating defeat after another in the last nearly 10 years. The failed invasion of Syria, the failed takeover of Crimea and the defeat in Donbass, the botched invasion of Venezuela, the humiliating defeat in Afghanistan and the ongoing defeat in Ukraine are some of the most prominent examples. Naturally, the damage inflicted is still quite severe, but it’s less severe than in Iraq, which was ravaged and burned to the ground multiple times in several decades, or former Yugoslavia and Libya, which have been plunged into (still ongoing) chaos, unlikely to end any time soon.

The vast majority of those who suffered (and continue to suffer) under the jackboot of Western neoliberal “freedom and democracy” are in the Global South, the most exploited part of the world, resulting in most of its population living in abject poverty. The principal reason is none other than the political West, with its parasitical policies, invasions, (neo)colonialism, currency dominance, etc. During the (First) Cold War, Russia was instrumental in the liberation and development of the Global South. The superpower invested incredibly large amounts of money and resources to help these countries. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. However, after 1991, Western (neo)colonial overlords returned in full force. But, this time, it was “different”. The masters were bringing “freedom and democracy”, the new “white man’s burden” and yet another euphemism for colonialism.

While the political West spent decades transferring its “dirty” industries to the Global South and using its world reserve currency dominance to extract natural resources from the world, the US/EU started implementing so-called “green economies” and “sustainable development”. The result was a relatively clean and quite comfortable lifestyle for most of the political West. Although exploitation and (neo)colonialism were giving results, it wasn’t enough, because it never is for greedy corporate oligarchs. The Global South was now “responsible” for all the world troubles, including terrorism, climate change, pollution, etc. Let’s all forget about who created, funded and armed the terrorists, who moved their heavy industry to the Global South and who has been invading, murdering and exploiting everyone else.

However, the people of the Global South haven’t forgotten and never will. They still remember who was actually helping them, and who was the force behind nearly all of their misery. This is precisely why the world, and especially the Global South, refused to follow the clinically Russophobic diktat of the political West. It took time, but the people and their leadership finally started recovering from the trauma of Western aggression and (neo)colonialism, so they simply started looking after their own interests.

Turns out the national interests of the world diverge significantly from those of the political West. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar summed it up perfectly: “Somewhere, Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems. That if it is you, it’s yours, if it is me, it is ours.” The statement quite clearly applies to the whole political West.

Needless to say, the belligerent power pole didn’t take this lightly. The “noncompliant” world (which is around 80% of the global population) soon became known as the “fence sitters“. As if the Global South and the rest of the world owe anything to the political West and are obligated to follow it – an increasingly insignificant portion of the planet, which has no more than 15-18% of the world population, a large portion of which comes from numerous client states under Washington DC (and to a lesser extent, Brussels) control.

If anything, it’s the political West which owes most of its prosperity and comfort to the world, which has been giving its natural resources and labor in exchange for worthless paper the political West keeps printing without check. In other words, nothing. And if anyone was to ever refuse to essentially be robbed by the political West, they’d suddenly become “violators of human rights” or similar worthless phrases, which not even the Western leadership bothers to properly define anymore. Luckily, those days are gone now, as the belligerent power pole is now effectively in a state of unstoppable decline on all levels.
"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 Jun 21, 2022 11:04 pm

Tryzub: The National Revolution Fantasized by Ukranian Nationalists
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 20, 2022
Laurent Brayard

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Among the many ultranationalist organisations with a whiff of the sulphur, there is now Trizub, referring to the Ukrainian nationalist symbol of the Trident. The Ukraine is full of such groups and parties, in what is described in the West as folklore, but its origins lie both in the history of the Ukrainian peoples of the West, that of the Vareg and Scandinavian descent, but also of course in nationalism, Banderism, neo-Nazism and the cult of the heroes who served Hitler’s Germany. All of this fauna is as well rooted in football fan clubs, revisionist or negationist activists surfing on Ukrainian fantasies of the Holodomor, the fact that Ukrainian culture would be the mother of that of…from Russia, or that Ukrainians were the main actors in the defeat of Germany in 1945.In the total impunity of the independent Ukraine, these groups flourished, soon supported by the ‘cousins’ of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada and the USA. In the total impunity of independent Ukraine, these groups flourished, supported very quickly by the “cousins” of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada or the USA. Then, by the arrival in power of corrupt politicians favorable to the development of these myths and legends. Notably with Yushchenko after the Orange Revolution (2004), then Poroshenko after the Maïdan Revolution (winter 2013-2014) and finally Zelensky since 2019. A national centre for Ukrainian memory was even founded, with the mission of spreading this alternative and nationalist truth. This is how a virulent, violent and above all xenophobic nationalism was quickly propagated.

The ideologue and unrestricted admirer of Bandera. The organisation was established two years after independence in 1993. It was founded by Vasil Ivanishin (1944-2007), an ideologist, linguist, writer and university professor. Originally from Lvov, the heart and capital of Ukrainian nationalism, his father was a member of the security services of OUN B, the radical branch of the Ukrainian nationalist organisation led by Bandera. In Soviet Ukraine, however, he kept a low profile, serving three years in the Soviet army, even reaching the rank of first sergeant. After his service, he graduated from the Ivan Franko University as a specialist in Ukrainian language (1972) and became a professor at the university (1973). He himself only became active in the pre-collapse period of the USSR (1980s). At first he was active in the ranks of the Uniate Catholics, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is also attached to the Vatican. The end of the USSR opened up other fields of action for him, first with the foundation of a publishing house (Revival, 1990), allowing him to publish a lot of nationalist propaganda and a rewriting of history. Three years later, he was the founder of Trizoub, so named in honor of Bandera… who was made the ‘life guide’ of this nationalist organisation. In a context of complete collapse of Soviet society, values and the world, Ivanichin found an extremely favorable ground for his nationalist propaganda. After the liberation of Ukraine, he advocated a national revolution based on three pillars: nationalist ideology, Uniate Catholicism and the Ukrainian nation. In the West, he found in the fertile ground of Ukrainians a favorable and growing echo. After Bandera and some other companions of that time, Ivanishin proved to be the main contemporary ideologist, formidable, because he was active only in the immense field of ideas and spirit. His masterpiece, the establishment of a “Programme of implementation of the national idea in the process of state building” (1990-2003), was a milestone and the basis for everything that was to happen in Ukraine from that date onwards. The following year, the Orange Revolution (2004) broke out in Ukraine, which was the first stage of the complete degradation of Ukraine, literally in the grip of one of the most corrupted countries in the world, and a brainstorming around a multifaceted but unhealthy ideology. He did not have time to see the next one, as he died suddenly of a heart attack (2007). He left behind a powerful ideological legacy and a clear framework for action, which later smoothed out the differences and divergences in Ukrainian nationalism.

The enemies of Ukraine were identified as 1) the philosophers of the Enlightenment and humanists, blamed for the emergence of socialism, communism and even national socialism, 2) the fifth column, i.e. an “occupation regime” of the “Moskals”, i.e. the Russians, 3) the parties considered harmful and to be destroyed in Ukraine, such as the communist party, the socialists, the centrists of the left or the right, the liberals and the social democrats (in other words, everyone except the extreme right! ), 4) the “nationalist” organisations which, according to them, actually serve capital, the oligarchs, cosmopolitanism and foreigners (here, Svoboda).

To these designated enemies were added clear principles of what the Ukrainian renaissance should be: 1) alliance with European formations having the same system of thoughts in their country, 2) hostility and violence towards all those who oppose this national revolution, 3) the laws of the Ukrainian state are below the national idea which prevails in everything, 4) the fight for the white race against “the colonisation of Europe by foreign races endangering the Ukrainian and European identity”, 5) the deportation of migrants and the fight against all persons or institutions that want to prevent this, 6) the fight against drug traffickers who are all considered migrants, 7) the defense of Ukrainian women against migrants and for the defense of the race, 8) the defense of Christianity (Uniate Catholicism), and faith in God, according to the idea that He created Ukrainians and the Ukrainian Nation for a divine mission.

If the last principle seems to have been little observed, we discovered in an abandoned Ukrainian HQ in Svetlodarsk, an improvised Uniate chapel and testimonies of local Orthodox having been persecuted during the 8 years of occupation of the city, an indelible mark of the Trizub. As for the others, these were the principles hammered out by the latter and Ivanishin, and those taken up and defended by the Ukrainian ultranationalist movements since then and to this day.

In the rising Ukrainian boiler. His organisation had not limited itself to acting on the intellectual level, even if Ivanishin cautiously confined himself to it (dismissing Nazism and anti-Semitism as never mentioned but underground). As early as the 1990s, the Trizoub had indeed set up a paramilitary militia, preparing to use weapons to put words into action and to carry out this famous nationalist revolution. It was soon in the sights of the authorities. First with the two-year suspended prison sentence of a certain Ivan Soutou, one of the movement’s leaders, for having created an illegal armed militia (1997). The authorities became concerned about this militia, which was soon considered a dangerous paramilitary formation, with an illegal character, and was therefore threatened, as well as the Trizoub. In a subsequent legal battle between nationalist activists and the government, unrest broke out. The nationalists of this militia continued to operate underground. They carried out demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. Arrests were made and activists were sentenced to short prison terms in Lvov (1998). An appeal court upheld the conviction of the activists and then referred the banning of the movement and its militia to a court of law (1999). That year, the Trizoub supported the candidacy of Leonid Kuchma, in order to block what they defined as “the communist threat” (which put an end to the legal proceedings!). This decision was misunderstood by the militants and other nationalist formations, and Kuchma was despised and hated by them. This led to a period of sometimes open conflict in the streets, reminiscent of the opposition between Bandera the extremist and Melnyk the moderate in the 1930s and 1940s. These divisions had always existed in the Ukrainian nationalist movement, culminating in bloody and deadly settlements of accounts. However, with the power of the ideology hammered out by Trizub, the movement proved to be one of the most powerful levers for destabilizing Ukraine once again. For in the meantime, a president elected by ethnic Russians, Yanukovych, had fought against the nationalist ideology of Western Ukraine, notably by having the laws establishing Bandera and Shukhevich as “Heroes of Ukraine” (2010) annulled. The following years were a succession of political scandals, political fermentations and regime inactions, including promised state reforms. By then, the government was lost, and once again in the sights of Washington, determined to repeat the coup of the 2004 revolution. The movement preferentially attacked the Ukrainian communist party, the symbols of the USSR, or anything that could remind us of the latter. As a result, the UCP offices in Zaporozhie were attacked, a statue of Stalin destroyed and the premises completely destroyed (2011). Since the figure of Stalin was indefensible anyway, the arrests of the main leaders of the Trizub movement only added fuel to the fire and created even greater unease in the country. A few weeks later, Trizub militants began preparations to assassinate the Ukrainian president. Two sniper rifles were found in the Carpathian region, near Ivano-Frankovsk, when the president was due to visit. A commando was arrested, of militants from Kharkov, Kirovograd and Dnepropetrovsk, men from outside the region, chosen not to be recognised. Documents were seized as well as a complete arsenal, grenades, Kalashnikovs, shotguns, revolvers, radios and lots of ammunition. They were manu militari sent to prison, but released by the Maidan Revolution as political prisoners (February/March 2014).

The fantasized Ukrainian national revolution that plunged the country into catastrophe. The Trizub was logically at the forefront of the American Maidan revolution (winter 2013-2014). Although less visible and having passed under the radar, these members were indeed very active, populating the “self-defence companies of the Maïdan”, while certain figures of the movement, such as Dimitri Iaroch, were to be propelled to the front of the stage and onto deputy seats in the Rada of Ukraine. The xenophobic and Russophobic character of the organisation caused a reaction from Crimea and Russia. The former ruled, through its parliament and supreme council, and banned Trizub on its territory, as well as the neo-Nazi movements Pravy Sektor and Svoboda. As for Russia, it legislated on the organisation which was banned on the territory of the Federation (17 November 2014). This decision was also taken because the Trizub proclaimed its attachment to and reference for Stepan Bandera, the nationalist leader and collaborator of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945, then an agent of the Americans and the CIA, until he was liquidated by a KGB agent (1959).

In all the widely filmed demonstrations at the time, Trizub and other nationalist and neo-Nazi activists waved many strange flags, the red and black of the UPA, the Ukrainian nationalist army that massacred Poles, Jews, Gypsies and Romanians during the Second World War, but also neo-Nazi and SS symbols, sun wheels and Celtic crosses, not to mention racist slogans of the UPA, Jews, Gypsies and Romanians during the Second World War, but also neo-Nazi and SS symbols, sun wheels and other Celtic crosses, not to mention racist slogans of rare violence, calling for the extermination of Russians and the destruction of Russia. In Ukraine, the movement rallied to the formation of Pravy Sektor (end of 2013), one of the most extremist and violent formations of the nationalists, in order to finally achieve the famous national revolution… The Americans had no intention of doing so, nor did the local oligarchs, they were sent to fight the “hereditary enemy” in the Donbass where they have since been engaged in infamous massacres and repressions in numerous retaliation units, not without casualties and which increase every day.

Murder and violence, the sinister litany of Ukrainian nationalism. Trizub has obviously not disappeared in Ukraine. After providing many soldiers to fight and slaughter in the Donbass, activists were involved in dark stories throughout the country. This was the case with the murder of an activist, Alexander Muzychko (1963-2014) in the town of Rivne. A commando attacked a café, where four Pravy Sektor and Trizub activists were assaulted by gunmen. After a heavy gun battle, Muzychko tried to flee by car and was forced to stop with his car by two other vehicles (12 March 2014). Taken out of the car by his attackers, not without opening fire again, handcuffed with his hands behind his back, he was executed (or shot) twice in the heart. Late in the day the Ukrainian political police, the SBU, announced that the man was wanted for crimes abroad (since 8 March). The man was in fact wanted by both Russia and Britain. In the latter country, as part of one of the Ukrainian nationalist organisations, he had set up a group of killers who would have attacked Russian citizens. This dangerous character was wanted in Russia for war crimes, murders, torture of Russian soldiers, while fighting in the ranks of Chechen Islamists (1990s). He was a member of Pravy Sektor, Trizub and UNA-UNSO, another organisation of nationalist merrymakers, and also a local leader in Rivne for the latter. He became infamous on the Maidan barricades for his violence and provocations, having also entered the premises of the regional administration, armed with a machine pistol and defying the officials. They also engaged in violent persecution at parades and Gay Pride events in Kiev (2012-2014). With rare violence, they called on their website for the attack of cinemas showing films deemed depraved and in opposition to “degenerates, bastards with perverted standards of life”. In 2012, they lashed out and beat up participants in this protest, and later repeated the attack, notably in 2015. Another bloody case was that of Kharkov (12 June 2015), where forty Trizub fanatics stormed the university campus at night. They beat up foreign students and passers-by, beat them severely and sent them to hospital with injuries and murdered two homeless people.

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Ukrainian Trident and the fascist bundles of Vichy France. The insignia and symbolism that we see and glimpse of this Ukraine in the grip of destruction and implosion since this “National Revolution of Rebirth”, are obviously the Ukrainian Trident. But the Trizub has also adopted the sword of Christ…Ukraine will not escape this fate, as the country that raised the sword against the people of Donbass and Eastern Ukraine is being annihilated. As for the Trident, those in France, notably mayors, civil servants or politicians, among others from Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche formation, who have stooped to display Trident flags, let them know that this symbol is the exact counterpart of the fascist bundles of Vichy France, on the flag of the French State… and that the Ukraine which proclaims Bandera and Shukhevich as their ultimate heroes, would be a France where Pierre Laval and Joseph Darnand, collaborators of Nazi Germany, would have their portraits in all the schools of France and Navarre.

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The French government continues to applaud such a regime and sends weapons that kill civilians in the Donbass. The “French” who no longer know who they are, applaud this as they applauded Marshal Pétain on April 28, 1944… In this film the terrorist bombings are… those of the liberating allies, just as today those of the Ukraine are legitimised and those of the liberating Russia of the Donbass are pointed out. I leave it to you to conclude how ashamed we must feel to be led by such men. They have no law, no faith, no morals and no limits. It is men like this who have led Ukraine to its ruin. We French should think carefully about what happens next and where this regime wants to lead us. Afterwards, it will be too late.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... ionalists/

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Finland, Sweden and Türkiye Share Concerns on NATO Admissions

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NATO's Secretary-General discussed Monday Sweden and Finland's membership. Jun. 20, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@FinancialTimes

Published 20 June 2022 (15 hours 15 minutes ago)

On Monday, Finnish, Swedish and Türkish representatives held a meeting with NATO Secretary-General on the bloc's entry applications.

Brussels hosted Monday the session celebrated between Senior officials from Turkey, Finland, and Sweden, and the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg intended to discuss Ankara's security concerns on the North Atlantic Organization's management of entry applications.

According to a statement released on the alliance's website, the parties discussed "the security concerns raised by Türkiye in order to make progress on the NATO membership applications by Finland and Sweden."

The report indicates that Stoltenberg considers the session held at the NATO headquarters a "constructive" meeting. NATO's top official said, "Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO would make the Alliance stronger."

He continued to say that "Türkiye has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address." The statement recalled that discussions would continue in the coming days.


Last May 18, Axel Vernhoff, Swedish Ambassador, and his Finnish counterpart officialized their countries' NATO membership applications, which were handed to Secretary General Stoltenberg.

On the same day, the Türkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country would block both nations' applications unless their stance on "terrorist" organizations is reviewed, such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an accusation disputed by Kurdish organizations.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Fin ... -0018.html

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/21/2022
June 22, 0:36

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/21/2022

1. Severodonetsk.
The enemy is blocked at the Azot plant. There is no assault on Azot, some civilians leave the territory of the enterprise.
There are isolated cases of surrender. The enemy cannot withdraw from Azot, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have no opportunity to fully release Azot.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the army of the LPR are waiting for the group advancing from Vrubovka and Toshkovka to come to Lisichansk. The roads to Lisichansk are under constant fire.

2. Golden.
Today, the operational encirclement of the enemy grouping in Gorskoye and Zolote took shape. Our troops took Mirnaya Dolina, entered Podlesnoye, and also advanced from Ustinovka to Belaya Gora. Enemy resistance sharply weakened, part of the forces retreated to Lisichansk, part to Artemovsk. The only road to Gorskoye through Ray-Alexandrovka is under full fire control of the RF Armed Forces. The operational environment turns into a cauldron.

3. Artemovsk.
The enemy is putting up serious resistance in the area of ​​Pokrovsky and Klinovoe. Today, our troops have already been fighting street battles in Klinovoe. The forward positions of our troops are located 5 km from Artemovsk. But it won't be easy to take it.

4. Soledar.
Heavy fighting for Berestovoye and Belogorovka. Our troops have clung to the villages, but it is still far from complete mopping up, since the enemy has transferred reserves here and is actively working with artillery. In turn, the enemy's attempts to regain control over the Artemovsk-Lysichansk highway were unsuccessful. Moreover, the potential loss of Nikolaevka will further complicate the situation of the Severodonetsk group.

5. Avdiivka.
Intense counter-battery fighting continued. The enemy continued shelling Donetsk and other settlements. The battles near Novobakhmutovka and New York did not bring any major changes.

6. Carbon.
The enemy, after several days of fighting, again tried to attack Pavlovka and started fighting in the area of ​​​​the village and on its outskirts.
There are no significant changes in Marinka and Velikaya Novoselovka, as, indeed, on the Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoseloveka line, where positional battles continue.

7. Slavyansk.
Fighting in the area of ​​Prishib, Dolyna, Krasnopolye and Bogorodichny. It is expected that the fighting will soon move to Sidorovo and further to Mayaky.

8. Raisins.
Battles at Velyka Kamyshevakha and Kurulka. The enemy shells Balakleya and conducts reconnaissance in force, probing the possibility of straining the flanks of the Izyum grouping.

9. Kharkov.
The enemy went on the defensive in most areas, abandoning intensive attempts to regain lost positions near Rubezhnoye, Ternovoye and Verkhny Saltov.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are conducting an artillery offensive and have sharply intensified attacks on Kharkov and Chuguev, as well as on the area of ​​Uda and Zolochev.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are strengthening the defense in the villages on the outskirts of Kharkov in anticipation of the advance of Russian troops.

10. Nikolaev.
The enemy continued to attempt to attack in the Snegirevka area, and also claims to be moving towards Kiselevka in the direction of Kherson and tactical successes in this direction. From our side, this is denied. On the Nikopol direction without changes.

11. Odessa.
The enemy again attempted strikes against Zmeiny Island today. Satellite images show at least 1 hit on some object on the island.
The results of the retaliatory actions of the RF Armed Forces are still unknown.
The attempt on June 20 cost the Armed Forces dearly, but the enemy continues to probe for the possibility of attacking Serpentine despite the losses.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin = zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7692408.html

Mountain and Golden Cauldron
June 21, 19:40

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The Mountain Gold Cauldron is almost ready.

Our troops have taken Peaceful Valley. The information has already been confirmed by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Between the troops advancing from Vrubovka and Mirnaya Dolina, only Paradise-Aleksandrovka remained, through which the last road leading to Gorskoye passes. But this road is already under full fire control of the RF Armed Forces.
Accordingly, the operational environment of the Gorsko-Zoloto group (up to 2,500 soldiers and officers) is rapidly turning into a cauldron.
The enemy also admitted that the RF Armed Forces had already entrenched themselves in Ustinovka and achieved success at Belaya Gora, advancing towards Lisichansk.

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1. From Ustinovka, our troops advanced 2 kilometers to Belaya Gora.
2. Also, our troops entrenched in the Peaceful Valley.
3. In addition, the troops advanced near the railway and entered Podlesnoye.
4. Enemy resistance was minimal. Part of the enemy forces retreated to Lisichansk, part to Artemovsk, where they are preparing for defense.
5. The advanced positions of PMC "Wagner" on the evening of June 21 were already 5 km from Artemovsk.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin - zinc



https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7691637.html

Special military operation in Ukraine: informational aspect
June 21, 21:44

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Special military operation in Ukraine: informational aspect

On February 24, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine. The two strongest armies in Europe - the Ukrainian one, supported intellectually and technically by the North Atlantic Alliance, and the Russian one, based on the developments of the domestic military-industrial complex and rich military-historical experience, oppose each other in four theaters of military operations: land, sea, air and information.

Three months of the conflict showed that in today's digitalized world, the informational aspect of the conflict is of critical importance. With a competent combination of actions in four theaters, a defeat can be turned into a great success and, conversely, the unconditional superiority of the enemy can be passed off as his complete defeat.

Ukraine: psychological warfare

The armed forces of Ukraine outnumber the Russian group involved in the special operation in terms of the number of personnel, but lag behind in terms of equipment and the number of heavy weapons. During the SVO, the Ukrainian army suffered significant damage. The arsenals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for certain items were reduced by 60-70%. Especially great are the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in terms of tanks - up to 75%. Aviation and fleet are completely destroyed. The new fighters are either part of hidden reserves or supplied from abroad.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine manage to restrain the onslaught of the Russian army due to a reliable system of fortifications in the Donbass and the “human shield” tactics proposed by the Pentagon. The Armed Forces of Ukraine turn cities with civilians into fortified forts, which leads to serious destruction - as during the Battle of Mariupol. The military assistance of the West helps Ukraine to keep the front, especially for anti-tank systems and MANPADS. But the “Javelin effect” turned out to be short-lived. Following Mariupol, several strategic points in the Donbas fell. The front of the Armed Forces of Ukraine literally crackled. Therefore, Kyiv became even more insistent in demanding an increase in the supply of heavy weapons.

With such a negative situation on the battlefield, the main tool of the Kyiv authorities was and remains a powerful information impact. Kyiv used all the experience of information manipulations accumulated since the Maidan of 2014 and directed information flows in two main directions: western and eastern.

Western information flow presents Ukraine as a victim of Russia's unjustified and excessive "aggression". Such a media image is intended to help rally Europe and the United States around Ukraine and provide it with financial and military-political support (cases of the Buchinsk and Kramatorsk provocations). Ukrainian officials are actively resorting to Western cancellation culture techniques to influence Western companies hesitant about anti-Russian sanctions. This tactic has had some success.

The Eastern information flow was directed to Russia. According to RT, the Center for Information and Psychological Operations (TsIPSO) located in Brovary received an order to initiate a large-scale information impact on the citizens of the Russian Federation. It involves the dissemination of demoralizing data about the Russian army, the economy, the political elite, as well as materials showing the superiority of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. SMM professionals specializing in Internet traffic management were involved in this campaign. The ultimate goal of the CIPSO operation is to reach 60-70 million people in Russia, disrupt public order and politically destabilize the country.

Two-faced Jan as the main symbol of Ukrainian propaganda

Inside Ukraine, the information policy is built on the basis of a combination of these approaches: on the one hand, the citizens are shown the aggressiveness and inhumanity of the Russian army, and on the other, its complete incompetence. When the Armed Forces of Ukraine retreat, the Ukrainians are informed about the “regrouping”, the letters Z and V are put on the padded Ukrainian equipment, which makes it possible to pass it off as Russian, the loss by the Ukrainian army of entire military bases and warehouses or mass surrender is issued as “minor losses” or “adjustment front."

Based on the situation on the ground, the tactics chosen by the Ukrainian side can be considered reasonable and effective. This fact is noted even by the NATO high command, which promises to study the “Ukrainian experience” in detail. But with all this, one should not overestimate the successes of the psychological war unleashed by Kyiv either. Most of the information coming from Ukraine is absurd and has not been confirmed by anything. The situation on the battlefield is not in favor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The tragedy that occurred in early May on Zmeiny Island finally buried Kyiv's plans to break through the naval blockade of Odessa. The myth about the heroic Mariupol garrison, which had been maintained for two months, was dispelled in a week, when about 2,500 military men (including the Azov regiment banned in the Russian Federation) surrendered with weapons, equipment and full ammunition.

The surrender of Azov, banned in Russia, dealt a strong blow to Kyiv. A psychological breakdown occurred in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Dozens of appeals from the Ukrainian military to the high command with a request to stop sending them "to slaughter" appeared on the network. A conflict has begun between the Office of the President and the General Staff: the military considers the creative team of Zelensky guilty of shedding the Donbass front. Zelensky himself made an attempt to shift the blame to ex-president Poroshenko, for which the “Medvedchuk card” was played. As a result, Peter Alekseevich left Ukraine.

Therefore, it can be stated that the Ukrainian tactics of psychological warfare has a limited range of action, which narrows in the absence of real victories and as military operations stretch over time. In addition, Russia has countered its own information strategy, which, despite its more restrained nature, is proving to be effective.

Russia: Information Fog

In the context of the total superiority of Ukraine and its Western patrons in terms of the number of available media resources and the total blocking of Russian media on Western platforms (YouTube, Twitter, recognized as extremist Facebook), any attempt to interrupt the anti-Russian information flow with one's own is doomed to failure. Therefore, Russia opposed the tactics of information fog to the Ukrainian tactics of psychological warfare.

Instead of increasing the amount of data coming from the conflict zone, Russia has reduced it by several times. Information about the course of the JMD is provided by the Russian side in a dosed manner and based on irrefutable facts. In addition, the Russian Ministry of Defense began to deliver preventive information strikes, warning of Ukraine's upcoming provocations like Bucha and Kramatorsk, which forced the Kyiv authorities to abandon such actions (especially given the rude execution and low interest of the target audience).

The information field was "clouded" by conflicting data coming from Russian politicians, representatives of the establishment and opinion leaders. The theses voiced by them demonstrated that the Kremlin had lost control over the situation and was preparing for an early termination of the NWO. Thus, the Istanbul talks, arranged in such a way that Moscow is ready to accept the humiliating conditions of Kyiv, caused the widest resonance in the world and in Russia.

In reality, nothing like this happened. On the contrary, the second stage of the NMD is recognized by Western experts as more dangerous for Ukraine and successful for the Russian Federation, because, having bled the Armed Forces of Ukraine and completely destroyed the Ukrainian military-industrial complex at the first stage, the Russian army proceeded to the complete destruction of the Donbass grouping, which includes the most combat-ready units. Threats to Kharkov, Nikolaev and Odessa have increased many times over. Dnipro, the economic heart of Ukraine, was also under attack.

Hypnos and Thanatos - one gives peace, the other repose

The West realized that the February-March estimates, which were overly optimistic for it, were premature. The major Western media have increasingly begun to wonder about the ultimate goals of US and EU policy in Ukraine, and will they not lead to an open clash with Russia? Despite the point of view that has taken root in the United States and Europe about the low level of training of the Russian army, The Veterans Today admitted that in three months Russia destroyed 2/3 of all military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including imported ones) and is capable of defeating the NATO bloc even in a conventional war.

Interest in Ukraine in the American media as a whole has declined to the level of the beginning of the NWO (an average of 11% of the peak). Western observers have adopted a more moderate position, on the one hand, not to spread false information, and on the other hand, not to play along with the Kremlin. Gradually, Western society is preparing for possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as a result of which the latter may lose part of the territories. Even the titan of American diplomacy, Henry Kissinger, joined this problem and recognized this version of the treaty as the only guarantee for maintaining peace in Europe.

In general, we can conclude that in the long run, the Russian tactics of information fog turned out to be much more effective than the Kyiv tactics of psychological warfare. The real military and economic losses of Ukraine have a much greater impact on Ukrainian society, since this information is directly correlated with reality. The West, preoccupied only with its own interests, is already close to accepting the new political reality in Europe.

Euro-Atlantic Peace: Cognitive Warfare

For Europe and the US, NWO in Ukraine is a time of great opportunity. In fact, they have achieved a long-standing goal - to involve the two largest Slavic states in the conflict. The Russian NMD serves as the main justification for the continued existence and expansion of the NATO bloc. At the Ukrainian training ground, the members of the North Atlantic Alliance are getting rid of obsolete arsenals so that the American military-industrial complex will receive new contracts. Finally, by declaring Russian energy resources toxic, Washington can more actively redraw the energy map of Europe, which will lead to the final enslavement of the Old World from the New.

Europe sowed discord between Russia and Ukraine, but now it is reaping its fruits

None of this, of course, gets into the public space. From the first hours of the NWO, the information campaign in the countries of Europe and the USA has been structured in such a way as to make Russia the main culprit not only in the situation in Ukraine, but also in all the internal problems of the Euro-Atlantic world. Inflation and high gas prices in the US have been proudly named after the Russian president for several months now.

Western societies, as if on command, switched to a regime of hatred for Russia and everything Russian. A wave of harassment swept through social networks, bans and restrictions were imposed on obtaining visas and the movement of Russians in Europe, the property of Russian immigrants and Russian monuments were subjected to vandalism. Russian culture and sports were cancelled.

Someone will say that it has always been like this, and will be only partly right. “Bad Russians” is indeed a rather old concept, the origins of which date back to the Middle Ages, when Polish travelers described in sophisticated detail the “horrors” of the Moscow kingdom and its mad tsar Ivan IV. But today the methods of launching this discourse have radically changed. Before our eyes, the tactics of cognitive warfare, which has been developed by Western military specialists for the past 10 years, were used against Russia.

Cognitive warfare is an intense impact on a person's consciousness without the use of physical actions in order to change his behavior pattern. In order for the external signal to be perceived, it is necessary to place the subject in a state of constant anxiety. The impact is most effective if the base is destroyed. called "Maslow's pyramid", i.e. a person is deprived of the opportunity to satisfy part of the physiological and security needs. More precisely, he thinks that he is losing.

After deformation of the base, the stability of the entire structure is violated

For the first time, cognitive warfare technologies were applied on a global scale during the COVID19 pandemic. The Western media and social networks that dominate the information field constantly reported on the threats of illness, hunger, job loss and death, which made the population of Europe and the USA more susceptible to information impact. When the Russian NWO began, the toggle switch was switched to the threat of a world war, and public discourse changed instantly. The pandemic was forgotten, all attention was focused on Ukraine.

With the beginning of the sowing season, the global threat has gone down one more step - from existential needs to physiological ones. Western outlets are consistently spreading the idea of ​​world hunger due to the disruption of agricultural activities in Ukraine and the blockade of its ports. The most dire consequences are expected in Africa and South Asia, whose food security is highly dependent on the conjuncture of agricultural markets.

Such gloomy pictures are certainly an exaggeration. The world economy is indeed being rebuilt: supply chains are changing, Asian manufacturing centers are rising, new markets are being formed. But all this is a natural process. The West deliberately uses "apocalyptic" rhetoric to increase the responsibility of the Russian Federation in the eyes of the world community. However, Moscow successfully fends off accusations against itself both in the matter of food (offering alternative supply channels) and everything else.

Although total censorship was introduced against Russia in the West, it was not possible to stop the flow of information from Russia. At the same time, Russia itself protected itself more reliably from the flow of information from the West. By blocking the resources of the recognized extremist company Meta and Twitter, the Russian Federation withdrew some of its citizens from cognitive influence. Domestic media projects VK, Rutube, Yandex services have been developed, and the Russian media corporation RT has become one of the main sources of alternative opinions for political dissidents around the world.

It turned out to be impossible today to lower the "iron curtain" on Russia for the reason that the world has ceased to be unipolar. There is no longer an American-European core dictating its will to the periphery. Today, the voices of Asia, Africa and Latin America are growing louder. The mere fact that the Indian and Chinese media have taken a neutral position in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and are covering the events, presenting the positions of both sides, destroys the entire information strategy of the West.

The concept of cognitive warfare looks attractive in some aspects and even proves effective, but only under the condition of the total domination of a single mainstream point of view. This is actually an "Orwellian" scenario, unrealizable without a powerful force impact. The human psyche is arranged in such a way that he cannot keep focusing on one problem for a long time. Over time, he gets tired of the information imposed on him and looks for alternative sources, which in the conditions of the information society is not a problem.

(c) Ivan Sidorov

https://vpoanalytics.com/2022/06/20/spe ... yj-aspekt/

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7691893.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Nikolaevsko-Krivoy Rog direction at 21.00 June 21, 2022

▪️Fighting continues on the Nikolaevsky sector of the front: in the Stepovaya Valley , the RF Armed Forces destroyed a sabotage and reconnaissance group of the 28th Ombr.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are strengthening the defense near the demarcation line: enemy strongholds are equipped in Chervonaya Dolina, Shirokoye and Partizansky . To support the group , personnel from the 59th brigade arrived in Posad-Pokrovskoye .

▪️According to preliminary data, to the west of Snigirevka, the RF Armed Forces expanded the control zone to Novopetrovka, Burkhanovka and Kuibyshevo .

▪️In the north-east of Nikolaev in the village of Novoaleksandrovka , the installation of the MLRS BM-21 "Grad" of the Ukrainian army is located. A few more installations were transferred to Nikolaev itself.

▪️A group of Polish mercenaries , who recently arrived in Nikolaev, operates in the direction .

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction, the parties continue to conduct artillery duels. The Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked Vysokopolye , Russian troops fired on enemy positions in Zelenodolsk and Shiroky in response .

▪️The Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed two launchers of the S -300 air defense system in the Ochakov area .

Image

***

forwarded from
NoName057(16)
On June 21, our colleagues from the Killnet group called on the Russian hacker community to attack Lithuania's Internet infrastructure. The authorities of this country imposed a ban on the transit of Russian goods, which grossly violated international law.

We did not stand aside and actively joined the attacks of Lithuanian targets.

As a result, Killnet has successfully placed the following sites today:

🔻Police Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania
🔻Large Lithuanian mobile provider Telia
🔻Authorization system of a large Lithuanian payment system LPB

We, for our part, slammed these Lithuanian Internet resources:

🔻Vilnius airport
🔻Kaunas Airport
🔻Palanga airport
🔻Ferry Bookings Company (ferries)

The NoName057(16) team will continue to attack Lithuanian websites and urge all hacker groups in our country to do the same! Together - we are force!

***

forwarded from
Older than Edda
The intensity of fighting in the north of the DPR continues to increase. We are conducting an offensive, clearing enemy fortified areas with cannon and rocket artillery fire. An interesting incident happened today. The forward detachment, using a quadrocopter, discovered a large accumulation of enemy manpower and armored vehicles in the forest belt, after which they delivered a surprisingly accurate blow from the MLRS. The whole package came to the right place. This is exactly how it is necessary to act on the modern battlefield, when the speed of information transfer is incredibly high, the time to make a decision becomes minimal. The technical means of control make it possible to adjust the fire in real time and make the necessary corrections.

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forwarded from
WarDonbass
❗️Russian troops launched cruise missile strikes on an airfield near Odessa in response to a Ukrainian attack on gas production platforms in the Black Sea

- Russian Defense Ministry after 8 am , the BK-1 and Krym-1 gas production platforms

were hit by anti-ship missiles and Bayraktars TB-2 . In response to the sabotage by the Kyiv regime, Onyx cruise missiles at the Shkolny military airfield near Odessa destroyed hangars with Bayraktars-TB2, and on Kubansky Island - 2 artillery platoons of 155-mm M-777 howitzers, Russian aviation also destroyed 2 launchers S-300 installations near Ochakov and Tuzla in the Odessa region.

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forwarded from
Rybar
🇬🇧🇺🇦Report of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine as of 14.00 June 21, 2022

▪️Missile forces and artillery hit: 216 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 28 command posts, 64 artillery units in firing positions, as well as two ammunition depots.

▪️As a result of air strikes, rocket troops and artillery, 570 nationalists, 13 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles and 29 special vehicles were destroyed.

▪️The Russian Air Defense Forces shot down a Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force near the village of MAZANOVKA, Kharkiv region.

▪️Also, 19 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in the air in the areas of the settlements of KRUTAYA BALKA of the Donetsk People's Republic, DYBROVO, KAPITOLOVKA, LIPTSY and ZAVODY of the Kharkiv region.

▪️In addition, five Tochka-U tactical missiles, as well as 30 Uragan MLRS rockets, were intercepted in the areas of the settlements of LOZOVSKY of the Lugansk People's Republic, LOZOVAYA, KREMENETS, ALEKSANDROVKA of the Donetsk People's Republic, DOLGENKOE and TOPOLSKOE of the Kharkiv region.

▪️In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed: 209 aircraft, 132 helicopters, 1,292 unmanned aerial vehicles, 348 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,709 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 580 multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles, 2,065 field artillery pieces and mortars, as well as 3760 units of special military vehicles.

▪️During the special military operation, the enemy continues to suffer significant losses.

▪️In the 57th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, operating in SEVERODONETSK , in one of the battalions only 28 servicemen remained in service, in the other - only the command staff.

▪️Reserves to make up for losses have been exhausted. Territorial defense battalions, arriving from the western regions of Ukraine to reinforce, refuse to advance to the front line.

▪️In the zone of responsibility of the Soledar operational tactical group , servicemen of the 101st Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that they “did not want to take part in hostilities” and independently went to the rear area. Over 600 refuseniks .

▪️The 155-mm M-777 howitzers received from the USA and European countries to Ukraine became a good target for Russian fire weapons.

▪️Over the past day alone, 15 units were destroyed, most of which were in the area of ​​​​the DRUZHKOVKA railway station , without having had time to fire a single shot.

▪️Forced mobilization is being carried out in the settlements adjacent to the combat zone in the Dnepropetrovsk , Kharkiv and Zaporozhye regions. The events are accompanied by the blocking of settlements by the national police. Men of all age groups subject to mobilization are detained.

▪️The Kiev regime spread information about Zelensky's supposedly "secret" trip to Lysychansk , where he came under fire.

▪️At the same time, the grouping of Ukrainian troops in the Lisichansk region is cut off from supplies and is under the fire control of the Russian armed forces.

▪️According to Ukrainian prisoners, units of the 79th air assault brigade were abandoned by their command. The only thing left for the surviving soldiers was to surrender in order to save their lives.

▪️The 57th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is in the same condition , whose commander, after the loss of two-thirds of the personnel, begged the command of the group to report the true state of affairs to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Zelensky personally.

▪️Against the backdrop of military failures, the Kiev regime continues stuffing in the best traditions of Kvartal-95 in order to somehow stop the panic and flight of its military personnel from the Donbass .

***

Сolonelcassad
The " Volunteer " project continues to collect data on Ukrainian war criminals who participated in the punitive operation in Donbas and were involved in the genocide of the Russian population. We bring to your attention the five scumbags whose identities have been established.

1) Igor Ritsko , born in 1978 - GUR officer, participant in sabotage and terrorist acts in the LDNR, under his leadership, civilian infrastructure was undermined.
2) Nikita Makeev , an Azov militant who fled to Ukraine from St. Petersburg, is involved in massacres of civilians.
3) Vladimir Polozhentsev , born in 1951 - SBU agent involved in the murder of Givi and Motorola;
4) Denis Sokur, born in 1992 - commander of the SSO "Azov" in the city of Sumy, a convinced Nazi and a supporter of the cleansing of the Donbass from the Russians;
5) Vitaly Serov , born in 1971 - GUR agent with the call sign "Sarmat", was thrown into the Crimea to organize and carry out terrorist attacks.

These crimes have no extenuating circumstances or statute of limitations. Retribution is imminent, and the work continues.

***

forwarded from
Unofficial Bezsonov "Z"
#exclusive
Another batch of interesting secret documents of the SBU from the Mariupol department. We will talk about the circulation of radioactive substances and sources of ionizing radiation (hereinafter referred to as IRS) in Ukraine. In the cipher telegram No. 154, the regional SBU acknowledges that IRS are illicitly traded from liquidated enterprises and some materials have been lost due to violations of the procedure for handling IRS. This is a threat to the population and the security interests of the state. In this regard, the SBU planned to strengthen control over these elements and enterprises. The only question is why the relevance of this issue arose only in 2022? Is this related to the interest of Zelensky's office in restoring nuclear potential, or at least creating "dirty" bombs, which Zelensky announced on February 19, 2022?

Continuation of the text and documents of the SBU at this link in the Telegraph . https://telegra.ph/SHifrotelegrammy-SBU ... alov-06-17

***

forwarded from
ZERGULIO🇬🇧
One less fascist. American and:

The US State Department confirmed the death of a second American. They became 52-year-old Steven Zabelski. He died on May 15 when he exploded on a mine near Severodonetsk. According to Tristan Nettles, a Marine veteran who was with Zabelski on the night of his death, the deceased belonged to a unit of Western volunteers attached to the Ukrainian army called the Wolverines.

It was a group of English-speaking men: one Pole, one Canadian, two British and eight Americans, all of whom had military experience. They were sent on a mission to clear enemy mines in order to create a safe path for their unit to attack, along with equipment scheduled for the next morning.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

User avatar
blindpig
Posts: 10592
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:44 pm
Location: Turtle Island
Contact:

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

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:56 pm

Interpreting The Associated Press’ Admission That Kiev Is Massively Outgunned
21 JUNE 2022

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Instead of clinging to the discredited information warfare narrative that Kiev's supposedly winning against Russia, the West’s perception managers are now telling the truth about how badly it’s being beat, though with the ulterior motive of generating grassroots support for more arm shipments that couldn’t possibly turn the tide in their proxy's favor but would allow the military-industrial complex to squeeze at least a few billion dollars more out of taxpayers.

The Associated Press contributed to US-led Western Mainstream Media’s (MSM) decisive shift in the “official narrative” on the Ukrainian Conflict by admitting that Kiev is outgunned in its latest piece on the topic that was published on Monday. The outlet quoted that former Soviet Republic’s Ambassador to Spain who earlier this month said that his host country’s 200 tons of military aid “was enough for only about two hours of fighting” while a filmmaker-turned-militant tweeted a video describing the guns sent by America as only being worth “like 15 minutes of a fight.”

Curiously, while accurately reporting that Kiev’s Deputy Minister of Defense for procurement told the world’s top military-industrial complex magazine last week that foreign aid only meets 10-15% of his side’s needs, it omitted mentioning what its land forces command logistics commander also revealed in that same interview. He complained that two of the US-provided M777’s six pieces of equipment are damaged “after every artillery contact” and that “This happens every day” even though the Associated Press cited an unnamed lieutenant who praised this equipment for allegedly “demoralizing the enemy”.

Despite that conspicuous piece of disinformation within their article, the Associated Press nevertheless mostly told the truth about how outgunned Kiev actually is, which is hugely humiliating for the West’s military-industrial complex. Be that as it is, however, it can also be spun to support another round of information warfare pressing those governments to contribute even more billions of dollars’ worth of aid to their proxy. After all, they can claim that the NATO proxy war on Russia through Ukraine is “too big to fail” and that years of support are needed exactly as that bloc’s Secretary General recently wrote.

The problem is that this potentially unlimited financial-military commitment to Kiev is becoming increasingly unpopular as proven by an opinion poll published by the European Council on Foreign Relations last week which showed that more EU citizens favor peace over punishing Russia. The Associated Press’ efforts to support the military-industrial complex’s potentially forthcoming information warfare campaign against the West’s own citizens might therefore not bear the fruit that the outlet expected.

In fact, it could even have the opposite effect of making Kiev come off as ungrateful after quoting those from its side who mockingly referred to the aid that they’ve already received. Not only that, but the facts cited within their piece might also be eye-opening for the average European, who had no idea that Kiev was burning through 200 tons of military aid in just two hours. This statistic, which was shared by its Ambassador to Spain who nobody could credibly describe as a so-called “Russian propagandist”, confirms just how wasteful this entire proxy war has become for those taxpayers who are funding it.

The more that the military-industrial complex recruits their allies in the MSM to churn out information products in support of Kiev receiving even more billions of dollars’ worth of military aid from the West, the more likely it is that this might be met with a hostile reaction from their target audience. Some folks might understandably believe that enough is enough since it’s more important for their taxes to be used to help their own people weather their countries’ self-inflicted economic crisis caused by the EU’s compliance with the US’ anti-Russian sanctions demands.

Even the most brainwashed Americans might be disheartened to hear that the earlier cited filmmaker-turned-militant mocked their country’s literally tens of billions of dollars’ worth of arms shipments as only giving Kiev “like 15 minutes of a fight” more than before. The “official narrative” of the conflict isn’t just decisively shifting but is on the brink of being decisively shattered by none other than the MSM itself in its craze to convince its target audience that they need to sacrifice even more for Kiev than ever before. Quite clearly, their proxy was never winning to begin with despite prior claims to the contrary.

Instead of clinging to that discredited information warfare narrative, the West’s perception managers are now telling the truth about how badly it’s being beat, though with the ulterior motive of generating grassroots support for more arm shipments that couldn’t possibly turn the tide in Kiev’s favor but would allow the military-industrial complex to squeeze at least a few billion dollars more out of taxpayers. As the European Council on Foreign Relations’ latest opinion poll shows, however, people are wising up, realizing that the proxy war is lost, and are no longer interested in definitely supporting it at all costs.

https://oneworld.press/?module=articles ... ew&id=2998

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Ukraine Bans Main Opposition Party, Seizes All Its Assets
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, JUN 21, 2022 - 09:30 AM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Ukrainian authorities have banned the country’s main opposition party and seized all its assets, once again undermining the narrative that President Zelensky is presiding over a beacon of democracy.

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The country’s Ministry of Justice announced the move via Facebook, revealing that the Opposition Platform — For Life had been shut down and its assets, money and property transferred to the state.

The party had previously had its operations suspended in March after it was accused of being complicit with Russia and being “anti-Ukrainian.”

The ban means that Zelensky’s main political opposition has been eliminated. The OPPL was the second largest party in the country and its popularity surpassed that of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party last year.

Its leader Viktor Medvedchuk, who claims he is merely looking out for the interests of the Ukrainian people by seeking better relations with Russia, was placed under house arrest last month.

The announcement said the party was suspected of acting to “undermine the sovereignty” of Ukraine, with authorities have already banned 10 other political opposition parties for the same reason.

Last month, President Zelensky signed a bill into law that gave the green light to ban any party that challenged the government’s policy on the Russian invasion, empowering courts to seize assets without the right to appeal.

While opposition parties are being obliterated, Ukrainians who engage in dissent are also being rounded up and arrested by armed men from the Ukraine Security Service.

As we previously highlighted, Ukraine is also attempting to extradite and imprison citizens who live in other European countries if they criticize Zelensky.

Meanwhile, President Zelensky is still being hailed by western legacy media outlets as a valiant defender of democracy in contrast to the brutal autocratic dictators who control Russia.

What a joke.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... its-assets

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Ukrainian communists pictured alive but face pressure to admit to trumped-up charges

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Alexander and Mikhail Kononovich with their lawyer

TWO jailed Ukrainian communists have been pictured handcuffed but alive as they face charges of attempting to overthrow the government and seize state power.

Alexander and Mikhail Kononovich were detained on March 3 following the Russian invasion, part of a crackdown on left and opposition groups.

Mikhail Kononovich is the leader of the youth wing of the outlawed Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) and both were active in the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), a global organisation of progressive youth groups.

Before their arrest, the brothers had been involved in a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Kiev demanding that Washington stops its military expansionism in Europe via Nato.

The pair were initially accused of being “propagandists” who sought to “destabilise” the internal situation in Ukraine and of spying for both Russia and Belarus.

WFDY immediately issued an urgent appeal for their release and said it feared the brothers would be murdered.

But there was no further information on their safety or whereabouts in the aftermath of their arrest, despite calls for the European Union to intervene.

The brothers are active anti-fascists and had held regular protests in support of Belarus outside the embassy in the Ukrainian capital.

But now lawyers report that they have been threatened with life behind bars for the demonstrations, despite them having been approved by the authorities beforehand.

Supporters suspect they have been beaten and tortured by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and are being pressed to admit to crimes against the state in return for a more lenient sentence.

They are accused of violating article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, in particular “calls for a violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or for the seizure of state power, as well as the dissemination of materials calling for such actions.”

It is believed that they were taken back to the SBU on Sunday for further interrogations and it is reported they were told to accept the charges against them in return for 10 years in prison or face life behind bars should they refuse.

WFDY continues to demand their immediate release from prison and the lifting of the ban on the KPU.

Kiev has however moved to outlaw more leftist and opposition parties, taking steps to make a temporary ban on 11 opposition groups in March permanent.

Ukraine faced criticism after introducing legislation banning the import and promotion of Russian books and music on Sunday.

One of the new laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian nationals, unless they renounce their Russian passport and take Ukrainian citizenship. This will only apply to those who held Russian citizenship after the 1991 collapse of Soviet rule.

Another law will prohibit the playing of music by people who gained Russian citizenship after 1991 on media and on public transport.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article ... up-charges

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Contours of Gorsko-Zolotoy cauldron
June 22, 14:28

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Today our troops took Rai-Aleksandrovka and Loskutovka. All settlements around Gorsky and Zolotoe are controlled by our troops.
Fighting is underway in the direction of Volcheyarovka and Nikolaevka. The remaining enemy forces in Gorsky and Zolotoy went over to all-round defense.
The next boiler for the Ukrainian army is completely ready.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7692944.html

US embassy address changed
June 22, 9:40 am

The official address of the US Embassy in Moscow has changed.
Now it is located at the Square of the Donetsk People's Republic, house number 1.

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The name was chosen by electronic voting.
I personally liked the "Donbass Defenders Square" option more, but it's fine anyway.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7692574.html


Google Translator

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There Is a Consensus on Ukraine’s EU Candidate Status

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EU countries agreed on granting membership candidate status to Ukraine at June 23-24 summit of the bloc. Jun. 21, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@fundscene

Published 21 June 2022 (8 hours 45 minutes ago)

On Tuesday, EU countries agreed to grant Ukraine membership candidate status.

According to the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clement Beaune, this grant will be made at the EU summit on June 23 and 24.

At a press conference held after a European Union Council meeting, Clement Beaune said, "EU countries have reached a broad consensus, even a full political consensus, on granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the EU."

Tuesday's discussions resulted in a complete consensus on the possibility of considering the aspirations for membership of Moldova, Georgia and especially Ukraine, Beaune said.

The European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that the EU should grant Ukraine membership candidate status as a morale booster for the Ukrainians.


In this respect, Metsola added that for an actual entry into the block, "many different steps" must be taken.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/The ... -0024.html

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To my delight, surprise and chagrin I find that Slavyangrad.es(Spanish) is alive and chugging along. And so, time for a little catching up...

place of contrasts
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/22/2022

Original Article: Denis Grigoriuk

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Smoke in the Donbass Arena, the modern soccer field built for the 2008 European Championship and that until now would not have suffered bombing in its surroundings.

In war there is always room for contrasts. Where people kill each other, there will always be life. In the midst of absolute destruction and chaos, it is inevitable to find a child playing in the ruins of what was once his house. Throughout the years of armed conflict in Donbass, Donetsk has been described as a “city of contrasts”. Journalists have admired the courage of the civilian population, who have planted roses in their gardens, cleaned the streets and cooked outdoors under the bombardments. I am not going to hide that it is a phenomenon that has also made me think.

In the first years of the war in Donbass, the answer seemed simple: the special character of the Donbass people. The population in Donetsk, Gorlovka, Luhansk, Debaltsevo, Zaitsevo and other cities are not afraid, it was said. But in this time I have changed my mind. I will try to explain why. For years, I visited the towns on the front line. There I inevitably found old people, young people and even children in the impact zone of the enemy artillery. The little ones were the most surprising: they could play with the remains of exploded shells, guess the caliber of a mine by sound, and not react to the sound of an impact that occurred at a not so far distance. Despite this horror, the population continued to live in places where an ordinary personwould consider unsafe. But there were children here who continued to play despite the sound of the bullets.

Moreover, for example, Vika from Spartak, the girl who was the protagonist of many stories, including mine, returned with her grandmother from St. Petersburg to the bombed-out town of Spartak. They couldn't be far from home and preferred to live in wartime conditions in the basement of a two-story apartment building, cooking in a summer kitchen prepared by Grandpa, sleeping in the basement and studying on the street until the bombing began. . Pure surrealism. I confess that I admire these people, as I repeatedly wrote in my notes.

This trend continued throughout the war. The key here is timing. There are people who have been living in these circumstances for less than a year: here it is already the ninth. Some left and realized that there is no better place to live than home, others were so disappointed in the hospitality of certain citizens that they decided that it was better to live under the bombs than to be considered freeloaders , others could not leave their elders and they shared with them the destiny of life in conditions of war. There are plenty of reasons. But I wouldn't call it bravery. Every person is afraid, every person wants to live and hopes that the next projectile will not be theirs .

Why then do the residents of Donbass behave like this? That have? Is it fatalism or is it something else? Sometimes there are people who don't even flinch when they hear a buzz, is that how bravery is staged? It is not. In some cases, it is a matter of simply not knowing how to react in an extreme situation. It is a mistake to think that, since the population of Donbass has been living in war for eight years, they know perfectly well when a shell is going to hit them or where it was fired from. In part, we can say that the people of Donbass have learned to survive in such conditions. But at the same time, there are a large number of people who trivialize when they hear an approaching buzz.

Hence, it is relatively common to see images of a driver continuing to drive when bombs are falling in their vicinity, although it would be a good idea to stop the vehicle, leave it there and seek shelter away from the explosions. It is extremely dangerous to be in a vehicle during a bombing. Sometimes it is associated with panic, when instead of dropping to the ground and seeking cover, people start running aimlessly in the hope of finding a safe place, without stopping to think about the shrapnel and projectiles that fly. In such a situation, a fraction of a second can determine survival.

It is difficult to speak of bravery or "iron personality", as journalists, myself included, have spoken. I haven't mentioned it in over a year for a reason. Sometimes my lack of reaction to a bombardment is simply due to fatigue. It is impossible to live in fear for so many years. The subconscious adjusts to circumstances in one way or another. Fear crushes you and not only takes away the physical strength necessary to continue with your life, but also the mental one.

That is the reason why you can find the so-called zombies , people with empty eyes who seem to have no hope of anything. For example, I saw many such people in Mariupol at the height of hostilities, when the entire city was a battlefield and the local population was a forced witness to the slaughter. Everything changed at the end of the battle for the city. The population began to recover their senses and they no longer had that look, which had become characteristic of the entire population, including minors.

Without an answer to the key question of "when will it end", another feeling arises: the lack of hope. In the long run, the population resigns itself to its fate, according to which, if not today, it may be tomorrow, but at some point a shell will explode around them. Yes, there is a war around you, but does that mean you have to lie in a coffin and wait for your shell? No, but there is no way to change the situation either.

The situation is as follows: on the one hand, there is no way to do anything to change what is happening and, on the other hand, there may be reasons why it is impossible to leave. In these circumstances, the only thing left is to accept things as they are, without romanticizing them and without an extra enthusiasm. Donbass has lived in this state during the eight years of conflict. No one has been able to answer the question of what would happen from then on. Implementation of the Minsk agreements and incorporation into Ukraine with special status? Abandoning the peace and war plan to the end? Recognition of the RPD/RPL as independent states? There have been no responses. There was too much contradictory information in the media space and a large part of the population simply stopped following him, as he stopped following the data on the bombardments of the front towns. And in thered zone , the population simply tried to survive without thinking about what would happen the next day.

We are now at a time when the center of Donetsk is bombarded by Ukrainian artillery with heavy NATO weapons on a daily basis. The population is not going to leave, on the contrary, there are more residents in the city than during the first hot phase of the conflict. 2022 is being the most violent year of all. What we see? Shops are open, the population continues to plant roses, public workers repair the damage, rescuers put out fires under the shelling, and public transport continues to circulate under the buzz of shells. Moreover, even after a shell hit School Number 22 in the Voroshilovsky district, teachers continued to go to work despite DPR leader Denis Pushilin

That may surprise you. Many still do not believe in what I describe, but it is the reality of Donbass. Even in Donetsk, long considered a safe place even though the possibility of bombing has persisted for eight years. But after a month of shelling the city center, even what was known as Donetsk's Arbat , Pushkin Boulevard, has been left deserted.

what do I want to say with that? That we should not have false hopes. Yes, the population of Donbass has accepted reality as it is, but it has not been because of any special strength of character. In every war there are civilians living in the conflict zone. In his case, it is due to a lack of hope. Those who have the opportunity, leave. The rest have to live in the circumstances marked by the circumstances. There is nothing romantic about it. Exacerbated emotions have also been left behind. All that remains is humility and despair in a situation where no one answers the key questions. The questions have changed, but no one has received concrete answers. Under these conditions, all that remains is to live and see what happens while waiting for everything to reach its logical conclusion.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/22/lugar ... more-24879

Arms and international support
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/21/2022

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Announcing a future victory, after which Ukraine will negotiate with Russia - nobody knows what exactly, if victory is to come on the battlefield - the kyiv authorities continue to plead with their NATO allies for more weapons and more funding to continue long-term war. "It is clear that Putin's path to the negotiating table passes only through defeats on the front," Dmitro Kuleba wrote last week announcing future Russian defeats on a front where kyiv tries to show that there is an imbalance that its partners have the obligation to solve.

However, this story of David against Goliath that Ukraine also tried to use when facing only the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, collides with reality. Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union not only a powerful military industry, but a well-armed army that continues to prove daily that it is not short of ammunition and is willing to use it. It is precisely this intensive use - in many cases against indiscriminate civilian targets - that causes ammunition shortages.

Original Article: Tetyana Montyan https://t.me/montyan2/1581

The American press once again reveals interesting details about the supply of weapons and their use by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Washington Post reports that the Americans have run into some difficulties sending multiple rocket launcher systems to Ukraine and that another eight will be added to the first delivery of four in a couple of weeks. A total of twelve MLRS systems, which according to General Ben Hodges “is nowhere near enough”.

Things are going better when it comes to artillery. A total of 200 M777 howitzers have been sent to Ukraine from NATO countries. The Ukrainian Armed Forces use them so intensively that several dozen howitzers have already had to be sent to repair the guns, damaged by overheating. To make clear what the Kiev regime is doing to attack Donetsk and other cities in the southeast, The Washington Post cites impressive statistics. The United States and its NATO allies have supplied 250,000 shells for its 200 howitzers. That is the figure that the Ukrainian Army consumes per month.

According to The Washington Post and Pentagon sources , the Ukrainian Armed Forces are bombing so intensively using American howitzers that US defense factories have begun working three shifts to produce the required number of shells. It is somewhat strange, of course, that US industry has to churn out shells for only 200 howitzers.

It must be remembered that, as of February 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had about 3,000 howitzers that it had inherited from the Soviet Union. Imagine how many shells the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have fired from so many cannons. The military authorities have made it clear that, in this war, personnel casualties and equipment losses have been inflicted precisely by artillery and not by missiles, bombs or small arms.

According to The Washington Post sources , the Ukrainian Army is about to run out of shells for Soviet howitzers and the United States is trying to restart production in Romania and Bulgaria. If difficulties arose with the resumption of shell production, thousands of Soviet artillery pieces in the service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will soon fall silent. And it would be time to do something against the delivery of weapons from NATO countries.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/21/24873/#more-24873

The Minsk stage
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/20/2022
Original Article: DonRF

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According to the latest maps, briefly: Vrubovka is ours. The Zolotoe bag is turning into a cauldron. In the cellars of Azot there are up to 2,500 soldiers. Mariupol 2.0 begins. In principle, progress is very slow due to lack of staff, but it exists. So it's time to think about the future.

Ukraine. Between now and autumn, it will lose Donbass and maybe another part of the Kharkov region. Here the parties are short on strength, attempts to attack take heavy casualties, and the move of the 113th Brigade to Slavyansk has weakened the Kharkov grouping. They are attacking in the south, but slowly and with little success. So, militarily, they have lost this campaign, and the casualties in personnel ensure that a full-scale attack in this direction is impossible. Even if his counteroffensive is effective, it will not lead to global success. At best, if things go very well, they will reach the outskirts of Kherson.

In that case, Ukraine's strategy is clearly defined: to prolong the war at any cost, in the hope that there will be a destabilization in the Russian Federation and massive shipments of weapons from NATO. They won't think about a deal until winter approaches, when rising food prices (there won't be a classic famine, supermarkets will be full, but everything will be very expensive) and energy shortages will force them to do so. However, the choice of the People's Republics according to the borders of the regions and the recognition of the loss of Crimea is as far as they will go. Politically, the regime has survived, which is a victory for them up to a point.

Russia. The cross-border conflict ignoring the artillery and sabotage attacks [in the Russian regions] will continue. Moscow's targets are at most current acquisitions and at least Donbass and Crimea. In that case, Ukraine would be seen as a neutral and hostile country, like Georgia, but with guaranteed security. That is the cause of the conflict, the rest are just words. By fall, there will be an increase in shortages of manufactured goods. It's not that there won't be them in supermarkets, but their prices will increase. The possibility that the operation escalates to a classic war is low and everything possible is being done so that this does not happen. Everything will depend on the opponent's ability to reach an agreement.

West. There is no monolith here, the countries of Old Europe agree on a Minsk-3 right now; the other side agrees, but on different terms while the UK and US do not mind that the war drags on as long as possible to weaken Russia as much as possible and force it to accept an “oil and gas for manufactured goods” scheme . In other words, to force Moscow to sell cheap energy and for Russia to receive, through the gray areas of sanctions, a minimum of goods.

Being realistic and with the experience of these eight years, I believe that around October-November a mega betrayal awaits us on both sides of the front. That Minsk-3 can be something like this:

1.Ceasefire according to the existing line of contact. Both sides will breach it.
2.Return home from Kherson, Kharkov and Zaporozhye after the implementation of certain points. It will be sabotaged.
3.Recognition of the DPR/RPL and Crimea. kyiv will avoid it based on procedural confusion.
4.No access of kyiv to the EU and NATO. Ukraine will only receive candidate status and donkey ears in the case of NATO. It is clear that the candidacy will not lead to anything else.
5.Withdrawal of sanctions. The West will default under the pretext that the agreements have not been fulfilled.
6.The rest of the talk about linguistic and cultural rights will not be implemented either.

The winter will be difficult economically, which will lead more personnel to join the armed forces of the different sides as a way to guarantee food. And that will mean a new escalation, like Debaltsevo. Although minor, because the enemy will want to win it to justify the catastrophe of the economy.

Of course, this is not the only variant. There is also the variant of continuing combat operations to the end with periodic relaxation with summer agreements and the Russian Federation moving from a special operation scenario to war. But, for the moment, this scenario is the most likely and politicians do not try to hide it. There is no emotional component in it, it is not necessary, everything is clear.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/20/el-es ... more-24867

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

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 22, 2022 11:26 pm

The Neocon's Dream - Decolonize Russia, Re-colonize China

On March 26 U.S. President Joe Biden called for regime change in Russia:

Speaking in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, President Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."

The White House immediately rushed to talk back that call for regime change and a day later Biden himself denied that he was calling for regime change:

President Joe Biden told reporters on Sunday he was not calling for a regime change in Russia when he said a day earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” a surprising comment the White House quickly tried to walk back Saturday.
When a reporter asked if he was calling for Putin’s removal from office, Biden replied “no” as he walked out of church Sunday afternoon, according to Bloomberg pool reporter Courtney Rozen.


However, other parts of the U.S. government makes unmistakeably clear that its aims in Russia go even much than regime change. Tomorrow the US Government's Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) will hold a briefing on the "Moral and Strategic Imperative" that makes it necessary to "Decolonize Russia".

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As Nicolo Saldo points out:

What is notable about this panel is the shift from “spreading freedom and democracy” to the need to “decolonize” Russia.
The neo-conservatives are back using a new narrative to push their old agenda.


Russian officials will love such talk:

Today’s panel is a further step forward in that it tells ordinary Russians that even regime change and democracy is not good enough for them. They require the partition of their country into smaller (more easily controlled) polities, so that they can be free. Needless to say, this is a propaganda coup for Putin and the Kremlin as it allows them to paint the conflict in Ukraine as an existential fight.

The Kremlin has no need to 'paint' the conflict as an existential fight. The Russians know that it is such a fight.

Biden's haplessness continues to tank the Democrats chances to keep house majority.

In a meager attempt to tackle the high fuel price he will today call on Congress to suspend the tax on fuel for three month. It is just a gimmick which would have little effect at the pump and has no chance to pass Congress:

GOP lawmakers have been hammering Biden and Democrats on the campaign trail over inflation and fuel prices. They argue that such measures are political theater that will do little to make long-term dents in oil prices. The best way to reduce oil prices, they say, is to loosen regulations and increase U.S. oil production.
...
California had the highest average gas price of any state at $6.398 per gallon. The gas tax suspension would reduce the cost of a gallon of diesel fuel by 24 cents.


The real reason for high fuel prices is Biden's misguided foreign policy. Three of the biggest oil producers on the globe, Venezuela, Iran and Russia, are under U.S. sanctions that limit their oil exports:

The sanctions have made it more difficult for Russia to sell its oil. Biden has also banned the import of Russian oil, and last month Europe announced it was imposing a partial embargo on it.
As of 2020, Russia was the world’s third-largest producer of petroleum, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.


As the New York Times correctly headlines:

Western Move to Choke Russia’s Oil Exports Boomerangs, for Now

That move will continue to boomerang. Russia sells it oil to China and India where it gets refined. The resulting gasoline and diesel is then exported to the U.S.. That is good for India and China as they buy the oil with a rebate and sell the end products with a substantial margin. It is a 'win' 'win' 'win' for Russia, India and China with the sole loser being the 'west'. Whatever NYT hope of sanction success is expressed in its 'for now' addition to the headline is not going to change that.

Meanwhile Russia is announcing the next target of its campaign to counter 'western' misbehavior - the reserve status of the U.S. dollar and the Euro:

MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on currencies of BRICS member-states is under consideration, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday in the welcome address to BRICS Business Forum participants.
"The matter of creating the international reserve currency based on the basket of currencies of our countries is under review," the Russian leader said.


BRICS currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Together those countries represent 3.2 billion people and a third of the world's purchase power GDP. The new international reserve currency would therefore have a much larger backing than the U.S. dollar or the Euro.

The U.S. is moving too but in the wrong direction.

Some in the Biden administration are pushing to lower Trump era tariffs on Chinese goods. M.K.Bhadrakumar interprets that as an attempt of a new détente with China. I doubt that lowering the tariffs would have much effect on prices in the U.S. as a new law that became applicable yesterday will raise prices of goods from China even more. The U.S. is slowly waking up to the consequences of such stupidity:

The Biden administration has said it intends to fully enforce the law, which could lead the U.S. authorities to detain or turn away a significant number of imported products. Such a scenario is likely to cause headaches for companies and sow further supply chain disruptions. It could also fuel inflation, which is already running at a four-decade high, if companies are forced to seek out more expensive alternatives or consumers start to compete for scarce products.
Failure to fully enforce the law is likely to prompt an outcry from Congress, which is in charge of oversight.

“The public is not prepared for what’s going to happen,” said Alan Bersin, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection who is now the executive chairman at Altana AI. “The impact of this on the global economy, and on the U.S. economy, is measured in the many billions of dollars, not in the millions of dollars.”


As Bhadrakumar acidly comments:

When Russia attacked Ukraine and the West imposed sanctions against Moscow, Washington threatened China that any move on its part to help Russia circumvent the sanctions would trigger severe punishment. Now the wheel has come full circle and the US needs China’s helping hand to salvage its economy. This is Thucydides Trap turned upside down — an emerging power rescuing an entrenched great power, whose extravagance pauperised it.
I doubt that. Tariffs or no tariffs China will not help the U.S. in anything. It knows that the U.S-Russian proxy war is about much more than Ukraine.

The current U.S. aim may well be to decolonize Russia, but its real geopolitical aim is a re-colonization of China.

Posted by b on June 22, 2022 at 16:55 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/t ... .html#more

Well, not so much stupidity as capitalist necessity and ineptness. Given the Prime Directive of maintaining empire and economic predominance all of US capital's options are bad, but ironically the Biden regime seems unable to pick the 'lesser evil'.

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Fights for Gostomel. Participant's story
June 22, 16:30

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A participant in the battles for Gostomel tells about the operation.

Landing in Gostomel

On the evening of February 23, Alexey, as usual, wished his wife Tatyana good night. SMS flew to Moscow from the Mozyr airfield (Belarus). Aleksey had been here with his fellow paratroopers for almost two weeks, and planned to return home one of these days - his wife was about to give birth. But it turned out differently. Tatyana received the first news from her husband only on March 29. "Good morning, darling" - shone on the phone screen. There was nothing more precious than these words for her then.

On March 29, after a month of fierce fighting, Russian troops were withdrawn from the Antonov airfield in Gostomel (Ukraine).

Assault

Under the Mozyr airfield, part of the forces of the Russian army was concentrated, participating in a special military operation in the Kiev direction.

“We were told there would be exercises. Four or five days and back. Exercises are exercises, this is not the first time we have been working with Belarusians. We were getting ready. They received arms and ammunition. Trained. Washed in a field bath. Nothing special happened,” says Alexey.
In the early morning of February 24, Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special military operation to protect Donbass. Alexey and his landing group watched his appeal to the nation from the phone in an army tent. And just a few hours after this speech, the Russian troops landed at the Antonov military airfield, 25 kilometers from Kyiv, having fully established control over the strategic facility.

— The assault team left at dawn. We said goodbye to the guys ... Well, how did we say goodbye? We wished each other a speedy meeting. And sat down on KamAZ trucks. The guys flew in helicopters (more than 200 Russian helicopters were involved in the operation, approx.) to capture the airfield. We advanced to them for reinforcements,” says Alexey.

The reinforcement group was supposed to arrive at the airfield on the evening of the 24th. But it didn't go according to plan. There was only one way to the airport. Two-strip. And a huge amount of military equipment has accumulated on it: KamAZ trucks, armored personnel carriers, armored vehicles "Tigers" ... somewhere there were already lined Ukrainian tanks.

“Due to constant shelling from the Ukrainian army and traffic jams, we got to our four days. The guys were waiting for us. They flew there with small backpacks - with dry rations for a day, and B / C (ammunition) of 600 rounds for each. Grenade launchers, grenades, yes a bottle of water. They reported that they were constantly under fire. What went on the offensive. They held the airfield. Although the forces were unequal - the enemy was several times superior in number. From seven in the morning until midnight, everything flew to the airfield from the enemy - Grads, self-propelled guns, mortars worked. Our guys were already tired, but charged. They needed our support, and we could not help them in any way. And that made it hard,” says Alexei.

When the reinforcement group arrived in Gostomel, the picture was gloomy. There was a lot of destroyed Ukrainian equipment. She stood charred and crumpled. With personnel inside...

- The Ukrainians did not take their dead. They lay there for four days. Then our guys went out, dug a hole - a mass grave, and removed the bodies.

- Did they have the opportunity to take their dead and wounded?

- Of course. If they got in touch with us, they would be given such an opportunity. This is the rule of war.

We have arrived at the airfield. They left for positions. I went to get things for the group - grenade launchers, batteries for radio stations, something else. Walk 150 meters from one building to another. There is an asphalt path made of aircraft plates, and along the roadsides - undergrowth. I was already halfway there. Relaxed. And suddenly I hear ... the whistling sound of flying mines! The shelling began. He's there at six in the evening, always on schedule. But I didn't know that yet. A shell exploded nearby. I am to the tree. Embraced him like a baby. I turn my head, and fifteen meters from me there is another gap. I was covered in earth. Fortunately, he was in a bulletproof vest, in a helmet - he was not injured. But then for the first time I realized that I could stay near this tree. Then I thought about the children, whom I did not have time to see, - Alexey continues.

The shelling went on for five minutes, maybe ten, but they seemed like an eternity. When everything stopped, Alexei rushed back in quick dashes. He ran: there is ringing in the ears, and emptiness in the eyes. The guys began to calm down, gave a smoke. He says that it was then that he lit a cigarette for the first time, and before that - never.

Mortars, artillery, Grads were fired at the airfield. And they also shot with phosphorus. White phosphorus is a very dangerous thing. It's almost impossible to extinguish it. The burning white powder literally burns the air, making it toxic.

Aleksey says that over time, you begin to determine by the sound of a shot whether it is Grad or a mortar, and depending on this, you already count how many seconds it will arrive.

- The worst thing is the Grads. All in all, it's scary. But when they bombard them day after day for a month, you get used to it. The main thing is not to stick out and quickly run across.

They fired constantly, like clockwork. But we fired more. And our aviation is just gods. When they arrived, you could safely go out for a smoke. Relax for a moment, he smiles.

— Did you manage to sleep well? And how do you deal with fatigue?

- Slept well. When you know that your brother is sitting on the “chip” (at the post), why not? Sometimes they slept in armor and a helmet. No other way. A stray fragment can fly in, and the building is a brick in two layers and a concrete slab overhead ... And the team helped fight fatigue. The comrade will pat, hug, say that everything will be fine - and already calmer, and strength has increased.

“Being there, we really defended the country from this Nazi horror. Somehow they went "on a mission." I'm going through the forest. A platoon of artillerymen, sixteen people, is coming towards us. They resisted. But after our first accurate shots, they dropped their weapons and raised their hands. Of these sixteen people, ten are ordinary young guys, conscripts, they are 18-19 years old. And those who are older are all covered in Nazi tattoos, shaved baldly, with hatred in their eyes. They have a swastika on their bulletproof vests, and on large-caliber weapons too. Swine attitude even to their own. Real neo-nazis. We delivered them to our group. They talked to the young guys, examined them, and let them go home. They gave them civilian clothes and said, "Go away from here and don't come back." And these were sent to Russia.

How did they behave?

- They had a fear that the Russian "occupiers" would cut and kill them, as they do. But we are military people. And according to the charter, the attitude towards the military enemy is not to cripple, not to beat, only interrogation.

- Any military action is pain and grief. What are you hurting for?

For fallen comrades. I didn't have six. Often I dream. Sometimes, we talk with them in a dream, we remember different moments. With one, we played sports together all winter, with the other in 2018 we spent the entire business trip in Syria side by side. The boy was loaded. They are missing a lot.

- What gives you support in life?

- Family and real, strong friendship. This is the main support in life.

He wants to instill these principles in his children. He has three of them: the elder Ivan and twins Arseny and Matvey. “Everything is in me,” the head of the family laughs.

https://kikonline.ru/2022/06/22/uchastn ... gostomele/ - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7693093.html

Oh brave new world
June 22, 22:28

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Oh brave new world

This is the world of the new Cold War with the wars of the main actors on the territory of third countries.
It is an anti-globalized, fragmented world of political-military blocs
. It is a world of a thinning middle class and an explosive rise in inequality.
This is the world of the crisis of neoliberal centrism and the growth of left and right radicalism
. This is the world of systemic state terrorism masquerading as non-state
. This is the world of permanent state cyber warfare masquerading as non-state
. This is the world of a race of conventional, robotic, hypersonic and nuclear missile weapons with a general increase in the number of charges and delivery vehicles.
This is the world of the militarization of outer space and the growing role of outer space in the global confrontation.
This is a world where treaties mean almost nothing, and the borders of states change, because they are not guaranteed by anything but force.
This is a world of total surveillance and indirect state control.
This is a world of total control of the digital environment, censorship and fragmentation of the Internet.
This is a world of profanation of helpless interstate institutions, starting with the UN.
This is a world of increasing value of non-renewable resources and a crisis in the service economy.

It looks bleak, but we've all bought a ticket on this train, which it's too late to jump off. In fact, the brave new world will come only when we go through the ensuing troubled times of the transformation of the world order.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7693843.html

Peace plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine
June 22, 23:41

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The National Interest has published outlines of a hypothetical plan to end the war between the US and Russia in Ukraine. Based on already known proposals voiced by Italy.

Peace plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine

Ukraine will amend its Constitution and officially declare its full neutrality. Its independence, neutrality, national sovereignty and territorial integrity will be guaranteed by the permanent members of the UN Security Council and tied to Kyiv's compliance with the terms of this peace agreement. In return, Russia will recognize the legitimacy of the current government of Ukraine and renounce any intention to replace the current Ukrainian leadership.

Ukraine recognizes the reunification of Russia with Crimea, which took place in 2014, and will renounce any intention to return the peninsula by force or other means.
Russia will withdraw all its forces to positions before the start of active hostilities, including from Kharkiv, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, with the exception of Donbass, where a new line of contact between Russia and Ukraine will be established.

By September 2022, a nationwide referendum should be held throughout Donbass, including Lugansk and Donetsk regions, in which citizens will be asked whether they want to be independent or return to Ukrainian control. The referendum will be organized by the authorities of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions on both sides of the conflict, under the supervision of the UN or other neutral international observers. All residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, including refugees, should be able to vote in the referendum, and they should be encouraged to take this step. The votes of Lugansk and Donetsk regions must be counted together. In the event that the majority of their citizens vote to remain part of Ukraine,

Donbass will be finally demilitarized; both all Russian and all Ukrainian troops will leave it. The Constitution of Ukraine should be amended to guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking population. In the event that Donbass votes for independence, all Ukrainian troops will have to leave the region. Russian troops will be able to stay there only at the invitation of local authorities. Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, Ukraine will agree to make Russian one of its official languages.
Russia will support Ukraine's application to join the European Union.

Ukraine will permanently freeze all its ties with NATO, which includes giving up military instructors, exchanges and joint exercises, and all arms transfers except for small arms. In addition, Ukraine will prohibit the deployment of NATO troops or bases on its territory.

Ukraine will reduce the size of its ground forces to no more than 150,000 active duty troops and a maximum of 100,000 reservists.

Ukraine will agree to eliminate all of its "strike systems" under Russian supervision. (By these systems, Russia will probably mean fighters, fighter-bombers, bombers, attack aircraft, combat helicopters and drones, artillery and mortars with a caliber of more than 155 mm, MLRS and most types of missiles). Ukraine will be prohibited from developing or acquiring any of these types of weapons, as well as weapons of mass destruction. Ukraine must also close all of its US-funded biolabs within six months of signing this agreement and allow Russian inspectors into these facilities.

All prisoners of war, refugees and any civilians held captive will be returned to their respective countries, and their treatment will be governed by the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

Neither side will pay any reparations; no international war crimes tribunals will be organized. Any tribunals in this regard should be held by the countries of origin of the offending military personnel.

The US and the EU will agree to provide major economic assistance for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

After the signing of this agreement, full-fledged diplomatic relations between Russia and Ukraine, as well as between Russia and all NATO countries, are subject to restoration.

Upon the implementation of this peace agreement by both parties, all economic sanctions imposed on Russia since the start of the conflict will be lifted immediately, while any frozen public and private Russian financial and economic assets will be returned to their owners. If Russia complies with the terms of the agreement, both sides will normalize trade relations within 12 months from the date of signing this document.

The US and NATO must provide written assurances that NATO will permanently renounce expansion to the east or along Russia's borders. In exchange for these guarantees, Russia will agree to the entry of Sweden into NATO, as well as any other European country that does not border Russia and wishes to join the alliance.

Russia and NATO will agree to start negotiations to include Russia in Europe's security architecture, extend the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and work on an agreement on conventional forces in Europe (CFE). This document should lead to a reduction in the military presence in Europe of both Western and Russian troops.

If Donbass votes for independence, Ukraine will permanently lose approximately 6.5% of its territory. However, most of the coastal territories that Ukraine will receive as a result of the peace agreement will compensate Kyiv for this loss. Given that Kyiv can hardly hope to return these lands by force, he could gain a lot from such an agreement. These negotiations will also save the lives of thousands if not tens of thousands of Ukrainians and save Ukrainian cities from further destruction.

https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2022-06-22 ... HA-i-Kieva - zinc

PS. This is already too little, given the load on the operation. All this could be appropriate in March at the most. Peace under such conditions seems extremely unlikely.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7694231.html

Google Translator

What a great cartoon, but I think Cerberus is gonna be pissed.

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

From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 22, 2022

▪️In the Kharkiv region , the RF Armed Forces continue to impede the attempts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to cross the Seversky Donets and reach the flank of the group in Izyum .

➖Artillery strikes were carried out on Ukrainian positions in Chepel, Protopopovka and Petrovsky.
➖The Ukrainian DRG carried out a sortie to the border and attacked an armored personnel carrier on the territory of the Belgorod region. Four Russian border guards were killed.

▪️In the Donbass , the allied forces completed the encirclement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces grouping in Gorsky - Zolotoye and reached the southern outskirts of Lisichansk .

➖Parts of the RF Armed Forces occupied Podlesnoye and Loskutovka , closing the ring around the APU grouping in Zolote and Gorsky from the east. From the west, the 6 Cossack regiment of the LPR, advancing from the direction of Vrubovka , joined them , which knocked out Ukrainian units from the dominant height in Rai-Aleksandrovka.
➖The allied forces completed the cleansing of Ustinovka and reached the outskirts of Belaya Gora. On the southern outskirts of Zolote , the suburban village of Katerinovka was taken .
➖Taking advantage of the disorderly retreat of units of the 24th Ombre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, units of the RF Armed Forces reached the outskirts of Volcheyarovka . Its capture will make it possible to establish fire control over the Seversk - Lysichansk highway and actually encircle the AFU grouping in the Lisichansko-Severodonetsk agglomeration.
➖Ukrainian artillery continues to shell Donetsk, Makiivka and neighboring settlements.
➖Heavy fighting is going on in the vicinity of Pavlovka and Yegorovka near Ugledar.

▪️In the Zaporizhia direction , the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing attempts to counteroffensive in the direction of Vasilyevka . Foreign mercenaries arrived in Kamenskoye to reinforce the existing grouping .

Image

***

forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are drawing these maps: Gorskoe and Zolote, they say, are already ours, because. The APU withdrew from them. The Russians, they say, were again defeated, although they moved forward.

In fact, Zolote and Gorskoe are still under the Armed Forces of Ukraine - which the Ukrainian society, it turns out, has thrown and betrayed - as usual. How many Ukronazi fighters there will be known later.

***

Сolonelcassad
Evening messages from Ukraine.

1. Russia is preparing to capture Kyiv.
2. Russia went on the offensive near Kharkov.
3. Ukrainian troops entered Kherson.

None of this is happening at the moment.
There are no signs of preparations for an attack on Kyiv.
Systematic artillery suppression of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is underway in the Kharkiv direction.
In the Kherson direction, the plus / minus front is where it was.

All this looks like a forced hysteria to keep society in a hysterically mobilized state, which fluctuates from the level of relaxation in the rear to the growing panic at the front.
Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to intimidate the rear so that it does not relax, and on the other hand, it is necessary to compose victories in order to support the falling morale in connection with the defeats at the front.

***

Сolonelcassad
The French publicist Régis de Castelnau (a descendant of the famous French general during the First World War) stated on his Twitter that Russian troops captured 2 155-mm French Caesar self-propelled guns in good condition as trophies in Ukraine and allegedly transported them to Uralvagonzavod for studying. De Castelnau did not provide any proofs or sources of this information.
In general, the information is interesting, but in need of verification.

***

Сolonelcassad
Short.

1. The LPR army announces the operational encirclement of the AFU grouping in Lisichansk.
2. Ukrainian sources report that part of the group from Zolote and Gorskoe retreated yesterday from the closing cauldron.
3. The enemy retreated from Davydov Ford after rocket and artillery strikes.
4. There was an arrival at the port of Skadovsk. The results are not yet known.
5. Ukraine says it will continue to attempt attacks on Snake Island.
6. New attacks near Kharkov, in the Dnepropetrovsk region and near Nikolaev.

***

forwarded from
Rybar
🇬🇧🇺🇦Almost a week ago, we published data on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Salt microdistrict in Nikolaev. It was hoped that a public showdown would force the Ukrainian units to roll up and leave the residential area.

Alas, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided otherwise. Therefore, fire damage was inflicted on the indicated objects this morning . The information was confirmed by local residents, as well as photographs of smoke from a fire in the microdistrict.

The situation clearly demonstrates: it is time for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to stop hiding behind the inhabitants of Nikolaev. This will definitely not save them from pinpoint strikes on military positions.

***

forwarded from
Readovka
Map of military operations and the situation on the fronts on the evening of June 22, 2022

Exactly 81 years ago, Nazi Germany carried out a treacherous attack on the Brest Fortress in the BSSR. As in 1941, our fighters today selflessly protect and liberate the civilian population in a special military operation in Ukraine. Definitely, this stage of modern history will be noted in the history books and there will be only one result - the liberation of the fraternal Ukrainian people from nationalist formations.

⚔️ The situation on the fronts per day:

▫️On the Kharkov front in Chuguev, Zolochev, Stary and Upper Saltov , the RF Armed Forces inflicted a fire defeat on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There was no progress on either side.

▫️In the Izyumo-Slavyansk direction, the Ukrainian army continues to regularly throw DRGs through the Seversky Donets in order to divert Russian forces from the advance on Slovyansk . The RF Armed Forces carried out strikes against the fortified areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chepel, Protopopovka and Petrovsky .

▫️In the Severodonetsk-Lisichansk agglomeration, the group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​Gorsky and Zolote was surrounded. According to various estimates, up to three thousand militants can be in the "boiler" . The combined forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the NM of the LPR occupied the village of Ray-Aleksandrovka , through which the last communication of the Gorsko-Zoloto group with Lisichansk passed . In addition, the village of Loskutovka was also liberated, all the surrounding towns and villages surrounding the Gorsko-Zolotoy fortified area were taken under control . The Ukrainian side has already sketched this area as being controlled by the Russian Federation.

▫️An AN-TPQ artillery reconnaissance station made in the USA was destroyed on the Donetsk front near the settlement of Nikolskoye . This was announced today by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

▫️On Zaporizhzhya , the enemy is building up pressure south of Ugledar . The village of Pavlovka remains with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There is a tense situation on the line between Nikolskoye and Novodonetskoye .

▫️On the southern flank , there were no significant changes. The RF Armed Forces again struck Ukrainian targets in Zelenodolsk and Apostolovo . Also, the enemy retreated from Davydov Brod after rocket and artillery strikes. In Odessa , Ukrainian fighters continue to equip strongholds, while Kiev says it will continue to attempt attacks on Zmeinny Island . A Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down near Barmashevo .

🛡On our border : four border guards from the Khunzakh border detachment died in an armored personnel carrier in the Belgorod region while patrolling the border. The UAF fighters killed them from an ambush with the help of American weapons - Javelin anti-tank systems. Eternal memory guys...

🚀Upon arrival . In the morning, a Ukrainian drone crashed into the Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery in the Rostov region - a fire started at the enterprise. Another incident with drone attacks on infrastructure in Russia, as expected, caused an extensive discussion about the capabilities of the domestic air defense system, the need to combat UAVs and prevent similar incidents in the future. Readovka explains how to avoid such attacks today . Also, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled a village in Rivnopol in the liberated Volnovakha region.

⚠️Terrorist attack. Today, Ukrainian saboteurs attempted to assassinate the head of the Chernobaevskaya VGA . The attackers planted a bomb next to the road where Yury Turulev was passing.

🎯Calibration. As a result of the arrival of Russian missiles at military targets in Nikolaev , a fuel and lubricants warehouse caught fire. Rocket strikes were also carried out on strategic targets in the Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

🌎In the world: Lithuania, blocking the railway transportation of Russian goods to the Kaliningrad region, is acting solely for military and political reasons. The Baltics believe that if it is part of the European Union (and is under the invisible cover of NATO), then this will stop Russia from taking key steps that are fundamentally important for it to ensure the security of its territories.

👁From the interesting: Rules for wearing army bulletproof vests, which every soldier and military commander at the front should know. The most important thing is the height of the “landing” of the armor plates. The plate should be adjusted so that it completely covers the region of the heart and the upper point of the plate passes along the lower cut of the jugular cavity (the dimple under the Adam's apple).

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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 » Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:23 pm

‘Ukraine Fatigue’ Intensifies as Sanctions Boomerang Ravages Western Economies
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 22, 2022
Drago Bosnic

On February 24, the political West sounded decidedly self-confident as it expected Russia was heading back to the disastrous 1990s, with the country’s social and economic prospects seemingly in tatters. Russian forex reserves were stolen, banks cut off from SWIFT, Western airspace banned, while anything remotely connected to Russia and its magnificent civilizational contributions was effectively “canceled“. According to Western media, it seemed Russia was done. After all, wasn’t the “whole world” now unequivocally against it? Well, maybe in the minds of Western leadership, as they have a very specific idea of what “the world” is. The actual world doesn’t have “the privilege” of being a member of this “elite club”.

In time, however, the political West started losing its misplaced self-confidence. As the Kiev regime kept suffering defeats, and despite a massive media campaign to portray it as winning, people became less enthusiastic. This worsened after sanctions started affecting the West more than Russia itself. Western leadership tried spinning the narrative, claiming sanctions supposedly had no boomerang effect, but that “Russia’s unprovoked, brutal invasion” was the reason behind everyone’s troubles. In a recent LA Times column, Doyle McManus described his experience after visiting Europe. The columnist was in Italy to see how sanctions affected life in Europe:

“It wasn’t hard to find the effects. You’re unhappy about $5 a gallon for gas? Try $8. ‘It’s painful filling the tank,’ my friend Roberto Pesciani, a retired teacher, moaned. Utility bills? The cost of natural gas is four times higher in Italy than in the US. ‘Heating prices are up. Grocery prices are up. Everything’s going up,’ Pesciani said.

The worries go beyond inflation. Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, warned recently that Russia’s blockade on Ukraine’s grain exports could spark a global bread war, producing famine in Africa and a new wave of migrants heading for Europe. ‘The problem with sanctions on Russia is that they will only work if they hurt us too,’ Pesciani observed.”

Naturally, the false narrative of Russia blocking Ukrainian ports needs to be kept alive at all costs. There’s just one “tiny” problem – it doesn’t exist. Usually, Western leadership takes an issue and intentionally blows it out of proportion to keep “useful” political narratives alive. However, this is an outright, unadulterated lie. Just one of many coming from the political West. What is definitely true is the coming food crisis and the resulting chaos, but Europeans have only themselves to blame. They’ve effectively cut themselves off from Russian commodities by imposing embargoes, even sanctioning third parties, but at the same time, complaining about shortages and trying to shift the blame on Russia. Naturally, it’s failing. But the political West keeps pushing, even blaming the world just for trying to acquire food and other essentials from Russia.

McManus then continues explaining the problems EU faces:

“The economic pain is creating political problems for European governments – Ukraine fatigue. ‘It’s here already,’ Nathalie Tocci, director of Italy’s Institute of International Affairs, told me. ‘The pain is far higher in Russia, of course, but our pain tolerance is lower. So the question is which curve is steeper — Russia’s ability to wage war or our ability to endure economic pain.’ Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting he’ll win that contest. The West’s economic sanctions ‘had no chance of success from the very beginning,’ he said. ‘We are a strong people and can cope with any challenge.'”

Although the notion of “pain being far higher in Russia” is questionable at best, Russia can indeed endure far more. McManus also mentioned the recent 10-country ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations) poll, showing Europeans were quite pessimistic about Ukraine and added:

“…Macron, Scholz and Draghi took an overnight train to Kyiv last week to show their support for Zelensky. Only a few weeks ago, all three sounded wobbly on the war. Macron made a very public effort to entice Putin into talks and said the West should avoid trying to ‘humiliate’ Russia. Scholz and Draghi made more discreet attempts to see if the Russian leader might consider negotiations. Putin rebuffed all three. At one point he even refused to take a telephone call from Macron.

‘Ukraine must be able to win,’ Macron declared. ‘Ukraine is part of the European family,’ Scholz said. ‘The Ukrainian people are defending the values of democracy,’ Draghi said.

The three didn’t deliver what Zelensky wanted most: quick delivery of new weapons. But they did endorse Ukraine’s application for membership in the EU — a welcome statement in Kyiv even if it was almost entirely symbolic. The Russian president responded by immediately cutting the flow of natural gas to the West, a reminder that he can inflict economic pain on his neighbors whenever he likes.”

The last sentence is quite indicative of the way Western mass media (ab)use facts. Canada is currently withholding turbines necessary for the “Nord Stream” to operate. And yet, this is somehow “Putin’s fault”. McManus then focuses on the US, asking the final and key question:

Even in the US inflation has eroded public support for the war. In April, an Associated Press poll found that a majority of American voters thought the US should impose tough sanctions against Russia, even if it means U.S. economic pain. By May, the majority had shifted; 51% said the top priority should be limiting damage to the U.S. economy.

As Gideon Rachman of Financial Times noted last month, the war in Ukraine is being fought on three fronts — and the West is involved in all three. ‘The first front is the battlefield itself,’ he wrote. ‘The second front is economic. The third front is the battle of wills.’ The greatest challenge on that third front may come this fall — when the demand for heating fuel increases. The stakes will be high. Can Western leaders rally their people to endure economic sacrifice for the sake of Ukraine — or is that a contest only Putin can win?”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... economies/

Southern Ukraine is the Priority in NATO’s Planning
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 22, 2022
M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

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The desolate Snake Island in the Black Sea off Odessa has become a major theatre of contestation between Russia and NATO

On the night of February 24, when Russian forces crossed the western and northern borders of Ukraine, the world’s attention was riveted on the fate of Kiev. Hardly anyone paid attention to the far south in the Black Sea, some 140 kms from Odessa, when Russian Navy attacked that night and captured the entire Ukrainian garrison on Snake Island, an obscure small clump of rock with little obvious value, just 46 acres of rock and grass.

But yet another massive attempt by Ukrainian forces on June 20 early morning to land troops on Snake Island signals that the Russian occupation remains under stiff challenge still. The Russians say they spotted a Global Hawk RQ-4 strategic reconnaissance UAV of the US Air Force at high altitudes near Snake Island, apparently feeding coordinates to the Ukrainian combat positions.

The MOD in Moscow issued a lengthy account (in English) on Snake Island during the daily briefing on Tuesday by Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the chief spokesman. The statement said:

*“On June 20, at about 05.00 AM, the Kiev regime attempted to capture Snake Island.”
*“The plan of the operation composed by the Kiev regime was supposed to launch massive air and artillery attacks at Snake Island, to disembark troops and capture it.”
*“The air attack involved more than 15 Ukrainian attack and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) adjusted by two Bayraktar-TB2 UAVs.”
*“Russian means detected a Global Hawk RQ-4 strategic reconnaissance UAV of the U.S. Air Force at high altitudes near Snake Island.”
*“Ukrainian UAVs were supported in air by S-300 air defense systems from their combat positions near Tuzla and Ochakov (in Odessa Region).”
*“Missile and artillery attacks at Snake Island were launched by Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missiles, Uragan multiple rocket launchers and M777 155-mm howitzers from their combat positions to the west from Odessa and in Kubansky island.”
*“Russian air defence means (Pantsir air defense missile and cannon system and Tor air defense missile system) have destroyed all the destruction means of the enemy launched at Snake Island.”
*“The destroyed targets were: 13 UAVs, 4 Tochka-U missiles and 21 projectiles of Uragan multiple rocket launcher.”
*“No Ukrainian destruction means have reached their targets in Snake Island.”
*“The unsuccessful fire attack forced the enemy to abandon the landing to Snake Island.”

Control over Snake Island is of strategic importance. Located near the southern coast of Odessa, it is a necessary springboard for the expected Russian operation on that port city in a conceivable future. By the same token, the removal of the Russian control of Snake Island becomes important for Kiev.

If the Ukrainian military regains control of the island, it can not only ensure the safety of the air and sea near Odessa, but can also be used for the supply of military equipment by NATO by sea. Although the Snake Island is only a fraction of a square kilometre in size, its importance for control of the sea lanes in western Black Sea is not in doubt.

If Russians set up their long-range air-defence systems they will control the sea, land and air in the north-west part of the Black Sea and in the south of Ukraine. It would also give Russian troops the chance to break into Transnistria, Moldova’s breakaway territory under Russian control that lies next-door to Ukraine and not far from Odesa. The US is working feverishly to do “another Ukraine” against Russia in Moldavia which has a president and top officials with dual American citizenship who seek EU and NATO membership.

Snake Island is only 45km away from the coast of Romania, which is a member of NATO, where the alliance has deployed an estimated land force of upto 4,000 troops currently drawn from the US, Germany, France, UK, Poland, etc. Snake Island lies close to the mouth of the River Danube, which delineates Romania’s border with Ukraine. Military analysts have pointed out that Russian troops on Snake Island could be in a position to control traffic into the Danube delta, the gateway to south-eastern Europe. Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta is not far south.

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Clearly, the involvement of the US and UK in the planning and conduct of Ukraine’s repeated attempts to regain control of the Snake Island shows that they have given the Snake Island a vital and almost mythical status in the war. Any Russian deployment of S-400 missile system in Snake Island would of course endanger NATO’s southern flank.

Suffice to say, the NATO’s permanent presence in the Black Sea and future expansion toward the Caucasus and the Caspian and Central Asian regions will remain problematic so long as Russia is in control of Snake island.

Snake Island epitomises the hopelessness of the Ukraine war. Russia cannot end its operation even after a successful completion of the Battle of Donbass. Kiev is unlikely to sue for peace. Kiev is seriously preparing for a counteroffensive once the heavy weapons arriving from the US are deployed.

Kharkiv is only 40 kms from the Russian border and Ukrainian forces are in no mood to give up there. In the south, Kiev vows to retake Zoporozhizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions which the Russians plan to integrate. The Ukrainian forces are well ensconced in Odessa. Clearly, the NATO is preparing for a big fight for Odessa. The ongoing battle for Snake Island is symptomatic of that.

The two US weapon systems that could be game-changers in an island fight are Harpoon anti-ship missiles and High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). While Harpoons could help the Ukrainians cut off the Snake Island from seaborne resupply, HIMARS could allow them to bombard the island at will.

The Black Sea Fleet remains in control of the Black Sea and Russians apparently managed to ship a Tor air-defence system to Snake Island. But that may change once the US supply of truck-mounted launchers for Harpoon anti-ship missiles reach Ukraine. The Harpoon has a range of 150 kms or more. HIMARS can fire M30 rockets out to a distance of over 70 kms —more than enough to reach Snake Island.

To be sure, a long war lies ahead and it cannot really end without the collapse of the Ukrainian state and abject surrender. Most certainly, Ukrainians will renew their assault on Snake Island. It is evident that unlike eastern region, southern Ukraine is the priority in NATO’s planning.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... -planning/

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

Zugzwang*

Alastair Crooke

June 20, 2022

Europe’s future looks bleak. It is now pressed by its own imposition of sanctions, and the resultant spike in commodity prices. The EU is lumbering around in a daze.

Western self-destruction – a puzzle defying any unique causal explanation – continues. The examples where policy is pursued in apparent indifference to anything resembling rigorous reflection, has become so extreme as to provoke a former British military chief (and former head of NATO forces in Afghanistan), Lord Richards, to huff that the relationship between strategy and any synchronisation of ends has become hopelessly broken in the West.

The West pursues a “let’s see how it goes” ‘strategy’, or in other words, no real strategy at all, Richards contends. Many would say that a cult of unrelenting, untethered, positive spin, has asphyxiated mainstream critical faculties. How is it that the West, awash with ‘think-tanks’, invariably gets it so wrong? Why is it that facile memes and illusions, posing as geo-politics, get little or no challenge? Compliance to official and mainstream narratives is all. It is baffling to observe this becoming routine, without apparent cognizance of the risks which this entails.

The key epicentre to today’s spiking geo-political instability is the state of the western economy: So complacent have the authorities been – that inflation would never ruffle the waters of the reserve-currency-based U.S. economy – that cyclical recession was assumed to have been ‘eradicated’; it would never sully the consumer (electoral) sphere again, thanks to a money printing ‘vaccine’; and anyway, ballooning debt ‘does not matter’.

This facile view assumed that ‘reserve status’ in, and of, itself eradicated inflation – whereas to the outside world, it was always the petrodollar system compelling the entire world to purchase dollars to finance their needs; it was the flood of cheap Chinese consumer goods; and it was the cheap energy sources made available to western industry by Russia and Gulf States, that kept inflation at bay.

Western government spending ‘shot the moon’ in the wake of 2008 crisis, and simply exploded during Covid lockdowns, and then – in an episode of impaired geo-strategic vision – those cheap energy and other vital resources underpinning economic productivity were heedlessly sanctioned, and even threatened with a ban.

Rose-tinted wearers of Energy Transition spectacles simply refused to acknowledge that an EROI (energy return on energy invested – to extract that given energy) of greater than a multiple of 7 is required for modern society to function.

We now observe the consequences: Rampant inflation, and the West scrambling around the world looking for cheap alternatives that won’t ‘break the bank’. Alas, they are scant. What is the geo-political implication? In a word, extreme systemic fragility. This has already wholly upended U.S. domestic politics. Yet, neither interest rate hikes, nor demand destruction (by crashing asset values) will cure structural inflation. Western economists remain obsessed with monetary effects on demand, at the expense of acknowledging the consequences of taking a trade-war hammer to a complex network system.

The social pain will be immense. Already many Americans are having to buy their food on near maxed-out credit cards, and this will only worsen. Yet the dilemma is deeper. The ‘Anglo’ economic model of Adam Smith and Maynard Keynes – the system of debt-fuelled consumption, over-layered with a hyper-financialised superstructure – has gutted the real economies. Consumption trumps making and supplying things. Structurally, less and less well-paid employment becomes available, as the real economy makes less, displaced by an ephemeral bubble of marketing.

But, what to do with the 20% of the population no longer economically necessary in this attenuated economy?

Was this structural flaw not eminently foreseeable? It should have been; the 2008 financial crisis, which almost crashed the system, was a wake-up call. Short-sightedness again prevailed; the money printing presses whirred.

And Europe, thanks to its joyously-embraced, but self-destructive, sanctioning of Russian energy and resources, is creating a similar (or worse) inflationary disaster. It is now only too evident that the EU did not do any due diligence before sanctioning Russia. Potential blowback simply was waved aside in a haze of Net Zero and ideological bluster. Similarly, Europe threw itself into the military conflict in Ukraine, again without a care to define its strategic aims or the means to an end – carried along on a Panglossian wave of enthusiasm for the Ukrainian ‘cause’.

Inflation here in Europe is well into double digits. Yet, without a blush, Lagarde of the ECB states: “We have inflation under control”. We will still grow in 2022, and growth will accelerate in 2023 and 2024. Strategy? Synchronised ends? Hers were just talking points severed from all reality.

This ECB event however, has a major geo-political significance. With the Fed raising interest rates in the U.S., the ECB is being exposed as having no credible tools to deal with the spiralling up, and away of European sovereign debt rates, from any semblance of convergence. A European sovereign debt crisis has begun; worse, some sovereign debt likely will become bid-less and pariah.

Just to be clear, the accelerating inflationary crisis in Europe undermines the political positions of nearly every major politician across the euro-zone, as they will encounter real popular anger; as inflation eats away at the middle class; and high energy prices gut business profits.

There is still more to this ECB impotence – a deeper significance: The Fed is raising interest rates – well-aware that it lags ‘far behind the curve’ – to have significant impact on inflation (during the Volcker era, Fed Funds rate touched 20%).

The Fed hikes beg the question whether the former has other aims in mind, beyond U.S. inflation: Would Powell be unhappy to see the ECB and the Eurozone sinking in crisis? Possibly not. The (offshore European) Eurodollar market antics and ECB rate policies effectively have been tying Powell’s hands.

Now the Fed is acting independently – and in the American interest firstly – and the ECB is in trouble. It will have to follow suit and raise rates. The Fed is owned by the big NY commercial banks. These latter know that the Davos-Brussels ‘set’ aims to move, when it can, to a single European Central Bank digital currency – a move that would represent a development threatening the very business model of the U.S. Big Banks. (Perhaps it is no coincidence therefore, that digital currencies are widely collapsing at the same moment).

Michael Every of Robobank writes: “Were the U.S. to lose the power of the dollar as global collateral – to commodities as collateral – then its’ [the American] economy and markets will soon follow [with power similarly draining away]”.

“Maybe that logic doesn’t hold, but a hawkish Fed today suggests it does”. Powell saying in March that ‘it is possible to have more than one reserve currency’ is surely a nod towards this trend, with Russia’s linking of the rouble to a goldgram, and energy to the rouble.

The U.S. Big Banks therefore, with Powell as spokesman, are doxing ‘Davos’, and letting Lagarde swing in the wind. They are putting American financial interests first. This is a huge shift away from the era of the Plaza Accords.

The point? The point is that the EU Euro-zone was – at German insistence – constructed as an appendage of the dollar. Now the Fed is focussed on halting the slide towards commodities as global collateral. And Europe, with its ‘Davos-ian’ predilections, is being thrown under the bus. The leveraged dollars in the Eurodollar system are ‘heading home’.

Is there a future for the Euro-zone, given its known incapacity for reform?

Notably, all these tectonic shifts, derive at their core, from the Ukraine saga – and the West’s embrace of full-spectrum financial war on Russia. Thus, the epicentre of western financial fragility converges with the Ukraine conflict epicentre, now unfolding as a slow burn political debacle for both Europe and the U.S. With inflationary fires in their economies already lit, the latter could not have chosen a worse moment to experiment with boycotting everything Russian.

The geo-political significance of the convergence of the financial with the military lies with the progressive ‘walk-back’ of western (supposedly strategic) aims.

First, it was to impose a humiliating military defeat on Putin. Then, to militarily weaken Russia, such that it could never again repeat its ‘special operation’ elsewhere in Europe. Then, it became limiting Russian military success to the Donbas, then to Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, too. Then, simply it became a narrative of continuing the attrition against Russian forces for the coming months, to inflict hurt on Russia.

Recently, it has been that the Ukrainian forces must continue the fight in order to have some say in any peace ‘deal’, and perhaps to ‘save’ Odessa, too. Today, it is said that only Kiev can make the painful decision on what sovereign loss of territory they can ‘stomach’ – for peace’s sake.

It is ‘Game over’ really. It is all blame-game now. Russia will impose its own terms on Ukraine through placing military facts on the ground.

The strategic importance of this has yet to sink-in fully: It was, of course, the western leaders who made a big play of claiming that, absent the painful humiliation and military defeat of Putin, the liberal rules-based order was finished.

Of course, to demonstrate to the world that the West has not entirely lost its spunk, Team Biden continues to poke China in the eye over Taiwan. At the recent Shangri-la security conference, Zelensky (no doubt speaking to a western prompt) insisted that Asian countries would ‘lose’, were they to wait upon the crisis unfolding, to act on Taiwan’s behalf. To ‘win’, the international community must “act in a pre-emptive way – not the one that comes after the war has started”, Zelensky said.

The Chinese understandably were furious and a testy meeting between Secretary Austin and General Wei ensued. But what exactly is the strategic aim in provoking China so relentlessly – what are the wider tactics implicit in this strategy?

Then, there is Iran. After eight rounds of negotiations, it seems that the U.S. quietly is walking away from a JCPOA deal, a move that suggests that U.S. is ready to come to terms with Iran as a ‘threshold nuclear state’ – a prospect deemed not so strikingly threatening or immediate, as to warrant the expenditure of U.S. capital, or the diversion of the White House’s limited attention ‘bandwidth’ from more pressing issues.

But then everything quickly changed: The IAEA censured Iran, with the latter then disconnecting 27 IAEA surveillance cameras in riposte. Israel has re-launched its campaign of assassinating Iranian scientists, and recently has crossed red lines in its bombing of Damascus airport. Israel plainly is pushing hard for the West to force Iran into a corner.

But – “We’re drifting”, former U.S. envoy Aaron David Miller has said; “Hoping that Iran won’t push the nuclear envelope; Israel won’t do something really big; and Iran and its proxies don’t kill a lot of Americans in Iraq or elsewhere”. Again, Miller says it, but it might have been Lord Richards’ “That’s no strategy”.

Yet, the Ukraine war does have strategic import for the U.S. and Israel – even if Millar does not yet see it. For, if the new Ukraine ‘doctrine’ is that Kiev should make painful concessions of territory for peace, then what is appropriate for the Ukrainian goose, must be so for the Israeli ‘gander’.

Of course, the strategic ripples emanating out from the Ukraine epicentre spread far wider – to the Global South, to the Indian subcontinent, and beyond.

Yet is this analysis, so far, not myopic, not deficient too? Is there not a missing piece to the strategic puzzle? Running throughout the foregoing has been the theme of western governmental disdain to engage in due diligence, combined with a complex cultural fixation with the cohesion and utter singularity of its discourse – the latter not permitting any ‘otherness’ to penetrate its’ key narratives.

Is the same true of Russia and China? No, it is not.

So, we turn to Russia’s strategic objectives: The redefinition of the global security architecture, and the push-back of NATO behind the lines of 1997. But what might be its means to this ambitious end?

Well, let’s turn the telescope round-about, and look through from the other end. The West clearly has been inflicted with severe myopia in respect to its own internal contradictions and flaws, preferring to focus only on those of others.

We know however, that both China and Russia have studied the western financial and economic system and identified its structural contradictions. They have said so. They have lain them out clearly (from the 19th century onwards). An analogy is often made to judo in respect to President Putin’s ability to use an opponents’ own greater physical strength against him, so as to topple him.

Is it not likely that Russia and China similarly have perceived the West’s undoubted economic muscles, but also have perceived the likelihood that they might over-extend their supposed superior strength; and that that overextension might be the means to ‘throw him’? Maybe it was just a matter of waiting for these economic contradictions to mature into disorder?

Europe’s future looks bleak. It is now pressed by its own imposition of sanctions, and the resultant spike in commodity prices. The EU furthermore is muscle-bound by its own institutional rigidities that are so grave that its large frame can neither move forward or backwards. It is lumbering around in a daze.

How can Europe save itself? Strategically break with Washington, and do a deal with Russia? Or else find itself ‘thrown’ by its own sanctions’ ‘muscularity’? Give it time. Eventually it will become understood as the solution.

*A chess term, where a player must move, but every possible move only worsens his situation

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/ ... /zugzwang/

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

Neocon think-tanks are driving Biden’s Ukraine policy
The Biden administration remains wedded to a failed policy of spurning negotiations in favor of arming Ukraine to the teeth
By JAMES CARDEN
JUNE 22, 2022

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Airman 1st Class Olabode Igandan, of the 436th Aerial Port Squadron passenger services, prepares ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on January 21, 2022. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / US Air Force / Mauricio Campino

In Joe Biden’s Washington, it is the self-described national-security “expert community” that is at the wheel and driving the administration’s Ukraine policy.

A little-remarked-upon open letter that appeared in the Washington tabloid The Hill on June 1 put a public face on what had been until that point a discreet, though highly successful, effort on the part of Washington think-tanks – many of which, like the disgraced Brookings Institution, are funded by foreign governments – to direct the White House policy on Ukraine.

The letter says, in part:


“The United States and Europe must avoid the urge to encourage Kiev to negotiate a ceasefire that falls short of Ukraine’s goals and could consign millions of Ukrainians to Russian control.”

The signatories of the open letter are urging the Biden administration to stay the course and to continue to arm Ukraine, so that when the time comes, it will be able to negotiate from a position of strength.

Among the more prominent signatories of the letter are neoconservative ideologues of long standing, including John Hopkins SAIS professor Eliot A Cohen; Eric S Edelman, also of Johns Hopkins SAIS; Paula Dobriansky of the foreign-funded Atlantic Council; failed congressional candidate and executive director of the McCain Institute Evelyn N Farkas; John Herbst, also of the foreign-funded Atlantic Council; former aide to John McCain David J Kramer; and, of course, former ambassador and MSNBC fixture Michael McFaul.

Russian gains and severe, perhaps insurmountable, Ukrainian losses have not seemed to have been enough to shift the prevailing calculus in Washington, which remains: Fund Ukraine to the tune of more than $40 billion and hope for the best.

Meantime, the administration and its proxies in the US government-controlled media and think-tank world have been carrying out a relentless and well-coordinated messaging campaign.

For proof, look no further than the latest David Ignatius column in The Washington Post.


Ignatius, a longtime and indefatigably loyal messenger pigeon for Langley, informed readers on June 14 that “Russian military advances in eastern Ukraine this month have raised growing concern in the West that the balance of the war is tipping in Moscow’s favor. But Biden administration officials think these fears are overblown, and that Ukrainian defenses remain solid in this ugly war of attrition.”

Also on June 14, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told The New York Times, “We are not going to tell the Ukrainians how to negotiate, what to negotiate and when to negotiate.… They are going to set the terms for themselves.”

Three days later, June 17, The Washington Post’s Missy Ryan, who did so much to prepare the ground for an endless American intervention in Syria, reported: “The United States and its allies are making preparations for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine, officials said, as the Biden administration attempts to deny Russia victory by surging military aid to Kiev while scrambling to ease the war’s destabilizing effects on world hunger and the global economy.”

The report noted that Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO who now heads the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said the US is faced with “a stark choice: either continue to help Ukraine sustain a potentially bloody status quo, with the devastating global consequences that entails; or halt support and permit Moscow to prevail.”

“That would mean feeding Ukraine to the wolves,” said Daalder, according to the Post report.


Surrendering American agency to Volodymyr Zelensky – which is what Kahl and Daalder and the rest are in essence proposing in the matter of a war that threatens to engulf both NATO and the US – is the height of irresponsibility.

Yet the Biden administration remains recklessly wedded to a failed policy of spurning negotiations in favor of arming Ukraine to the teeth.

The question American citizens of good conscience must now ask is: Why?

https://asiatimes.com/2022/06/neocon-th ... ne-policy/

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Russia Confirms Türkiye’s Azov Concord Departed Mariupol Port

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Russian Defense Minister announced the departure of the Türkish Azov Concord cargo from the port of Mariupol. Jun. 22, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@TVPWorld_com

Published 22 June 2022 (10 hours 19 minutes ago)

The Russian news outlet reported Tuesday that the Azov Concord has become the first ship to leave the port of Mariupol.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Minister announced that the Azov Concord had left the port of Mariupol. The Russian Navy and DPR authorities ensured the safe exit of the Türkish cargo ship.

"On June 21, Russian Navy, in cooperation with DPR port authorities, ensured the first safe exit of a Türkish cargo ship, the Azov Concord, via the operational naval humanitarian corridor from the ship of Mariupol," confirmed Mikhail Mizintsev, Russian National Defense Control Center head Colonel General.

According to reports, the Azov Concord has become the first ship to depart the port of Mariupol, heading to Novorossiysk. Ivan Babenkov, the vessel's captain, said that the ship's damage caused by the Ukrainian military was repaired, and a new crew had been recruited.

The Russian DM said that on Wednesday, Russian and Türkish representatives held a meeting in Moscow to discuss the safe exit of Türkish cargo ships, the export of grain from Ukraine's ports, and the approaches to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea. Both parties highlighted the importance of the bilateral cooperation that made it possible for the Azov Concord to depart the Ukrainian port of Mariupol.


The Turkish Ministry of Defense reported in a statement that" The meeting in Moscow brought results. Only hours later, the Turkish charge ("Azov Concord"), which had been waiting for days, was able to leave the Ukrainian port," said the ministry.

The reports indicated that there are still five ships remaining at the port of Mariupol: the Tsarevna (Bulgaria), the Azburg (the Dominican Republic), the Smarta (Liberia), and the Blue Star (Panama), and the Lady Augusta (Jamaica).

The Ukrainian ports of Kherson, Nikolayev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhny kept a total of 70 foreign ships from 16 states.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Rus ... -0018.html

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Russia: US Mercenaries Captured in Ukraine Must Be Tried
JUNE 22, 2022

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Alexander J. Drueke (left) and Andy Tai Huynh (right), two US mercenaries captured in Ukraine. Photo: HispanTV.

Russia has confirmed that the two captured US mercenaries will be punished for their crimes committed during the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said on Sunday, June 19, in an interview with US television network MSNBC, that Russia considers that “they [the detained US mercenaries] should be held accountable for the crimes they have committed and those crimes should be investigated. They have been detained in the right place to ensure that the investigation of their crimes is carried out.”

According to Peskov, the captured mercenaries are “soldiers of fortune” who have participated in illegal acts in the Russia-Ukraine border areas, such as shooting and bombing Russian soldiers. Therefore, these mercenaries have to be held accountable for their crimes.

Peskov added that the two US mercenaries, formerly soldiers in the US armed forces, are not part of the Ukrainian Army, and for this reason the Geneva Convention does not apply to them. When asked if the two soldiers are prisoners of war, he stated, “I would not go into detail explaining the legal aspects of captivity… One thing is clear, they have committed crimes.”

As reported by media, Alexander J. Drueke, who was previously a member in the US Army, and Andy Tai Huynh, who was in the Marine Corps, were fighting near Kharkov, Ukraine, until last week, since when have they been missing.

Moreover, on Wednesday, June 15, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, made a warning to “soldiers of fortune” who are fighting on the side of Ukrainian neo-Nazis or who intend to join them, that they may face the death penalty if captured. There is no death penalty in Russian law, however.

Although Ukraine has not provided exact figures on the number of mercenaries fighting on their side, Moscow says that there are nearly 7,000 foreign fighters from more than 60 countries, mainly from Poland, the United States, Canada and Romania, in the Ukrainian forces.



(HispanTV)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

https://orinocotribune.com/russia-us-me ... -be-tried/


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Most African Countries Support Russia
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 22, 2022
Lucas Leiroz

Apparently, Volodymir Zelensky’s popularity in Ukraine is very low. The Ukrainian leader called for a virtual diplomatic meeting with African heads of state, but the event failed completely. Almost all African leaders declined to participate, hampering Zelensky’s plans to make the meeting a pro-Kiev propaganda stage. Meanwhile, the Russian government’s popularity is growing in Africa, where citizens take the streets in support for the special military operation in Ukraine and ask for Russian help in combating terrorism.

On June 20, the Ukrainian president met with representatives of the African Union in order to discuss matters concerning the current conflict situation in Eastern Europe and the role of Africa on the world arena. Of the fifty-five heads of state invited to the meeting, only four attended. The other countries sent only diplomats or ministers, with the heads of state and government not willing to attend, even with the meeting being virtual.

The heads of state who attended the meeting were Macky Sall of Senegal, Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, Mohammed el-Menfi, President of the Libyan Council, and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo. It is important to note that Sall is the current president of the African Union, which is why his presence was essential for the event to take place. Therefore, his attendance does not necessarily mean an expression of his real desire – even more considering his recent conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the effort to increase Russia-Africa cooperation.

The virtual meeting was operated in secret, behind closed doors. According to official sources, Zelensky reiterated the Ukrainian position on the conflict, calling the Russian operation an unjustified “aggression”. He also commented on the current food crisis affecting Africa as a result of the conflict’s impact on the grain market. According to Zelensky, the African continent is Russia’s “hostage” because food shortages would be the result of such “aggression” and would only end when Russia decided to retreat.

Commenting on the event, Macky Sall took the most neutral and impartial stance possible, demonstrating that the Africa Union did not adhere to Zelensky’s appeals, but was concerned only with African states’ interests and the proper functioning of international law.

“Africa remains committed to respecting the rules of international law, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the freedom of trade”, he said in a publication in his Twitter account.

It is interesting to note how Zelensky’s attempt to convince African leaders to adhere to the Kiev-Western narrative absolutely failed. Not only did most African heads of state refuse to listen to the Ukrainian leader, but there was no adherence to the pro-Kiev speech on the part of those who attended the conference. For the African Union, the meeting was just a diplomatic formality, with no real gains or changes in position – which reveals that Zelensky’s plans did not work as expected.

This failure, however, was predictable for any realistic analyst. For African leaders, it is really hard to believe the fallacious narrative that Ukraine is a simple “victim” of an “unjustified aggression”. African countries are used to centuries of Western interventionism and violence and the peoples of this continent react to this with strong distrust of everything that Western nations support. As Zelensky is the ally of the US and Europe, he will likely be viewed with suspicion by countries that suffer so much from Western colonialist mentality and praxis.

In addition, there are other factors that need to be mentioned. Zelensky’s arguments that the food crisis is caused exclusively by Russia are no longer able to convince public opinion and state authorities. It is evident that, more than the conflict itself, the crisis has been caused by the sanctions against Russia, which motivates emerging countries to be enthusiastic about the end of these sanctions. Also, there are many reports that Kiev is exporting grain to the US and Europe in exchange for weapons, which is unacceptable.

Furthermore, there has recently been a strong wave of popular support for the operation in Ukraine from citizens of several African countries, especially in the regions most affected by terrorism. After the abandonment that Africa has suffered from the West in terms of security policies and defense cooperation, seeking Russian support has become the greatest hope for the members of the African Union, which is why recently there have been popular demonstrations in support of all Moscow’s actions, alongside requests for help to solve Africa’s internal problems.

In fact, in international relations, nothing matters more than cooperation. Zelensky will not be able to garner African support if he does not show interest or conditions to cooperate with Africa. Kiev currently has nothing to offer African countries, as it is economically broken and militarily virtually neutralized. On the other hand, Russia shows itself as a pillar for African food security and as a hope against terrorism in the continent. It is absolutely expected that in this context the African Union will decline its ties with Kiev and seek to approach the side that offers the best opportunities for cooperation.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... rt-russia/
"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 Jun 23, 2022 11:10 pm

Two Big Errors About Russia - By Helmholtz Smith
by Helmholtz Smith

American and Western policy towards Russia is founded on two serious errors. (A considerable understatement, of course – the past thirty years show that conventional Western ideas of Russia are almost completely wrong.)

But these two are endlessly repeated and, no matter how many times they are proven wrong, they remain the foundational assumptions of the West's attempts to change or control Russia.

First is the idea that the Russian economy is feeble, unbalanced and dependent on income from the West. The second is that Putin is the chief of a band of thieves who, who if made to feel pain, will get rid of him. Sanctions will collapse the first and bring the pain to cause the second. (Another delusion is that once Putin goes, everything will be to the West's liking – but I did say there was a multitude of misconceptions.)

First let's consider Russia's economy. Op-eds that say that the Russian economy is the size of Texas or Belgium or Luxembourg or whatever simply translate rubles into dollars and gallop to their preassigned conclusion. They never ask how big the space program of the country Russia is compared to is, or how many nuclear submarines it makes, or new subway stations, airports or bridges it opens, or whether that country makes all kinds of airplanes and trucks, or how much food it grows and exports or anything else that actually measures a real economy.

As soon as they did, of course, they would see that the Russian economy is much bigger than the puerile ruble-dollar comparison suggests. And, a slightly closer look would reveal that Russia's economy is almost self-sufficient. But the West carries on confident that Russia is a "gas station with nuclear weapons" and its feeble economy can be easily collapsed. RAND based a whole strategy on "Russia’s greatest vulnerability... is its economy, which is comparatively small and highly dependent on energy exports

They persist in the face of all experience to the contrary. The EU cut food exports to Russia to, I suppose, bring people out into the streets protesting the disappearance of exotic cheese (remember Masha Gessen's heartbreak about my little cheese?) Russia responded intelligently and is now self-sufficient in food and Europe has lost that market. Biden was going to reduce the ruble to rubble but Moscow effortlessly countered him and the ruble is now tied to energy – one of the strongest foundations a currency can have.

And still the sanctions pile on. But it's educational – now we know a lot more about what potash is used for and where it comes from. And neon – who knew that was important? Rare earths! Beer bottles! Moscow is only just now starting to counter-sanction and the world is discovering that Russia is a major producer of a lot of important things and if you sanction them, you will find yourself running short of lots of things you'd never heard of. (You'd think anyone who owned an atlas would be able to figure out that a country as large as Russia must be a big producer of most resources).

Biden can blame Putin all he likes, but sanctioning energy and potash is a certain way to drive up prices all round. Biden used to think that Russia had "nuclear weapons and oil wells and nothing else". Maybe the people running Russia are better at thinking things out and seeing reality than we thought they were. (Yet another mistaken Western assumption – what is there in the last twenty years that suggests we're smarter than they are?)

The idea that Russia is a big criminal conspiracy and Putin is the Boss of Bosses is the foundation of the personal sanctions strategy. So-and-so is deemed "close to Putin", whatever that means, and he's prevented from going to Paris to buy cheese and his yacht is stolen confiscated. Angry, he sits down with the other capos and decides it's time the Boss was found face down in a bowl of kasha and blood. The think tankers tell us that Putin is the Chief Thief holding onto power by spreading the loot around, fake elections and making critics disappear. (By the way, wasn't he supposed to have tried to kill Navalny, where's the oped savant explaining why he's still alive?)

All elections in Russia are fake, all opinion polls are fake, all media is controlled by the Kremlin, the underbosses are hurting so why is Putin still there? It surely couldn't be that he is the very popular and respected elected head of state – to suggest that would be to call into question three decades of US and EU think tankery. Therefore he must be just one more sanction away from being whacked out. And so more names – all "close to Putin" – are added to more lists. But nothing changes.

These two errors run on and on. Russia is now the most sanctioned country ever and Western politicians still think another round of "tough sanctions" will do the job. But the more sanctions it survives, the more sanction-proof Russia becomes.

Wars are irruptions of brutal reality into fantasy and the Ukraine war is laying bare the empty complacency at the root of the West's view of Russia. It's going to be a cold hungry winter in Europe and in parts of America. Can't blame Putin forever.

But the depressing truth is that minds are rarely changed, you have to change the man. How much longer will the West's leaders outlast their repeated failures?

Posted by b on June 23, 2022 at 14:06 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/t ... l#comments

Well, Russia is run by a gang of thieves, but then, so is the US. The difference simply a matter of development and local considerations, but they all belong in the hoosegow.

And while the Russian economy isn't nearly as weak as the West would have it neither is it nearly self-sufficient, the pain of sanctions is spread thru Russian society but hardly to the degree desired by the idiots in Washington.

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/23/2022
June 23, 23:21

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/23/2022

1. Severodonetsk.
It is reported that negotiations are underway on the possible surrender of those surrounded at the Azot plant. Some more hostages left the territory of the plant. The supply of the encircled is carried out only in boats across the river.

2. Lisichansk.
Our troops are fighting for Belaya Gora and in the Volcheyarovka area. The Seversk-Lysichansk road is under fire control of the RF Armed Forces.
The Lisichansk-Severodonetsk group was in an operational environment. Today's attempts by part of the group to retreat to Seversk ended in heavy losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On this sector of the front, panic among the enemy personnel is growing.

3. Golden.
The liquidation of the Gorsko-Golden Cauldron continues.
There is a cleansing going on in Gorskoye, part of Zolote is already occupied by our troops.
Katerynivka was liberated.
According to various estimates, there are from 1,000 to 2,000 enemy soldiers and officers in the cauldron.

4. Artemovsk.
Fighting in Klinovoe. There is no promotion on Pokrovsky yet.
Semigorye and Kodema are still held by the enemy.

5. Soledar.
The battles for Berestovoye and Belogorovka continued. The enemy is still holding Nikolayevka.

6. Slavyansk.
Battles for Krasnopole and the Valley. So far there is no serious progress towards Sidorovo.

7. Carbon.
The enemy continued attacks in the area of ​​Pavlovka and Yegorovka. Intense fighting continued throughout the evening.
Positional battles continued in Maryinka and Novomikhailovka.

8. Kharkov.
Russian troops again entered Tsupovka, and also continued to fight for Upper Saltov.
The enemy on almost the entire line of the Kharkov front went on the defensive.

9. Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions. Kiselevka - for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Davydov Brod is in the gray zone.
Both sides are actively using artillery and missile forces.

10. Zaporozhye, Odessa, Avdiivka - no change.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin - broadcast of hostilities in Ukraine as usual in Telegram (if you are interested, subscribe)

PS. It is also worth noting the statement of Lavrov, who clarified that in any negotiations, Russia will proceed from the situation "on the ground", and those territories that are already under the control of the Russian Federation are unlikely to want to return to Ukraine. A transparent hint that Zaporozhye and Kherson region are already lost for Ukraine.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7696346.html

Artemka
June 23, 20:58

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In March, I was walking around a big city with some very dangerous guys. The guys worked in the gray zone and sometimes went into enemy territory. We drove into one nameless forest and posted observers. It had been snowing for several days, and our track was clearly visible in the clearing. Imagine our surprise when an hour later we saw the figure of a man moving in our direction. There were no other roads here, so there was no doubt that he was following in our footsteps.

The guys spread out, made weapons and waited. The silhouette was getting closer, and our nerves were straining more and more. The man walked another 50 meters and fell to his knees ( https://t.me/bayraktar1070/25). When you find yourself under the trunks of strong men, then it is better to follow orders. The soldiers pulled his jacket over his head and took him into the forest.

We expected to see a hardened saboteur, but before us appeared a village peasant with a screwdriver and keys in his pocket. There was nothing else with him. No papers, no telephone...these are usually called village fools. Plump with an appropriate facial expression. It turned out that the uninvited guest's name was Artyom, and out of curiosity he wanted to look at the "grads" that stand in the forest ...

The legend was completely unconvincing, the absence of a telephone was even more embarrassing. At least the old push-button necessarily lies in the pocket of the poorest villager. In such cases, there are only three options: the first is to shoot and bury (then try to find who did it), the second is to hand over to counterintelligence officers, but for this you need to send the car to the base and the third is to wait for the task to end and let the poor fellow go to all four sides. By the time he reaches the village, we will be deep in the rear, and he will not be able to harm us.

The commander decided not to touch the poor fellow, especially since he agreed to live with us for two days in the forest. All this time he sat blindfolded. I had a long talk with our guest and I felt sorry for this poor fellow. Artemka turned out to be the owner of eight geese that need to be taken care of. It was problematic to do this in March, because there had been no electricity in the village for twenty days. The prisoner did not work out with women, and therefore he has no children. There was only a mother who was very worried about him, but no one would go looking for him, because he did not tell anyone about his trip. But at the same time, doubts grew more and more every hour. He was too confident. His voice did not tremble, and he answered all questions smoothly.

We spent two days together, and when the guys completed all their tasks, they simply put Artyomka on the road and told him to go to the village without turning around. We ourselves jumped into the cars and drove off in the other direction.

I later recalled this incident for a long time and was proud that our fighters act very humanely. Times were tough and it was really hard to keep humanity.

So I would be one hundred percent sure that the soldiers did the right thing if I didn’t find out that around this area the next group drove into the forest in the same way, and after some time a Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle drove out and shot the boys’ cars. So then think about how to act correctly in such situations ...

Alexander Kharchenko

https://t.me/bayraktar1070 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7695981.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
1. Good day June 24 - did 2 big things except the boiler, which finally "cooked". They blocked the Lisichansk-Seversk road, there is an operational encirclement of Lisichansk. Now they are squeezing out Zolotoe and Gorskoye, strangling it. I think they will "boil" in the next day or two. If operational luck is on our side, then the Lisichansky cauldron will also be “welded”.
2. I hope that Lisichansky will be cooked before mid-July, at least before the first autumn rains they will finish with Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. With rain there will be impassable mud.
3. Even if they run away (withdraw) forces from the boilers, this is a plus for us. Every fleeing soldier is a person who has experienced panic and remembers it for a long time. There are people who, after a panic, get operational anger with an attempt to return. And many (no less) will say: “I don’t need it, I jumped out once and don’t want it anymore.” They looked at this hell and become "500". Retreating units always act in a demoralized manner, even if they retreat in an organized manner, which I doubt, because too quickly they jumped out of the Golden. Even if they retreat in orderly columns, the key word is “retreat”. Retreating troops have a bad effect on the morale of both the population and commanders.
4. If Lisichansk is now pouring in, and we come to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, from this ledge we can not force the capture of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk and rest, and start a large encirclement of Avdiivka and Ugledar with the left lobe through Bakhmut with access to Zaporozhye. There are steppes and settlements. not too much. Left petal go south. They are waiting for us to storm Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, while we go to the rear of the Avdeevskaya and Ugledarskaya groups.
5.
a) Take Slavyansk and Kramatorsk into the cauldron. Just block. In the boiler, maybe it won’t work, because. there is a strong group. But block and get under it. Not abruptly by storm.
b) Now we need to watch how the "boiling" goes. If the Ukrainians run and you can’t jump on the fortifications on their shoulders, then you don’t need to storm them - you need to get up under the fortifications and develop an offensive and encirclement, finish with the enemy at the Svetlodarskaya CHPP, where they sit and scurry across the lake in Svetlodarsk.
c) Take the Lavra - it is finally not taken. They blew up the bridge, both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and many civilians are sitting in the Lavra, so they bypassed it and did not storm it. They will talk there. There are few of them, uncritical history.
Svyatogorsk itself is stretched over the hills, landing, such as a country town, boarding houses next to each other, the paths are a complex terrain. You just need to clean up and stand under Slavyansk-Kramatorsk. Completely clear the rear of small groups of retreating people who are roaming the basements.
6. I repeat - I would go with the left lobe to surround Avdiivka: we need to finish the shelling of the long-suffering Donetsk. The Slavyansko-Kramatorsk agglomeration is important, but, in my opinion, it would be more correct to finish with Avdiivka, Maryinka, Peski, take Ugledar, level the line, remove the threat of breakthroughs, the threat to Donetsk, and besiege Slavyansk without storming.
7. Near Kherson from 6 am on 23.06. our artillery flew in that direction, flew all day. As long as the Armed Forces of Ukraine have attempts, they pump up the group there. The threat persists.

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine by the end of June 23, 2022

▪️On the territory of the Kharkiv region , the RF Armed Forces are recapturing previously abandoned positions.
➖In the north of the region, the Russian army has finally entrenched itself in Tsupovka and is fighting on the outskirts of Prudyanka.
➖In the Izyum direction, the RF Armed Forces repelled attempts by Ukrainian forces to cross the Seversky Donets, after which the Armed Forces of Ukraine retreated to the Chepel-Protopopovka-Petrivske line.
➖The Russian army holds a bridgehead on the western bank of the Donets in the Nortsovsky forest northwest of Izyum.

▪️The units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, having broken through the enemy’s defenses, completed the encirclement of the APU grouping in Gorsky-Zolotoye .
➖Allied troops are cleaning the boiler. A large part of Zolote is occupied, as well as Katerinovka, Novoivanovka and the area of ​​the Karbonit mine in Gorskoe.
➖In Gorsky , Zolotoy and the suburbs, encircled units of the 24th brigade, 57th brigade and 10th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are surrendering en masse.

▪️Developing the offensive, the allied forces reached the southern outskirts of Lisichansk .
➖The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, pursuing the retreating units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, by the end of the day occupied the village of Volcheyarovka , established fire control over the Lisichansk-Seversk highway and reached the outskirts of Lisichansk from the west. Parts of the Ukrainian army in Lisichansk and Severodonetsk are in operational encirclement.
➖Fierce fighting unfolded in the industrial zones on the southern outskirts of Lisichansk , where units of the 24th brigade, 80th airborne brigade and 110th brigade of the defense forces hold positions at the gelatin plant and the rubber products plant.
➖Panic is spreading in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine defending the city . Separate parts of the enemy under the fire of artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are fleeing the city.

▪️The RF Armed Forces are developing an offensive in the Soledar direction
➖Day-long battles for Nikolaevka are coming to an end . The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the NM of the LPR are cleaning up the village.
➖South-west of Popasnaya near the settlement Kodema and Semigorye of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with territorial defense units exchanged fire with each other due to the loss of all their commanders in battle.
➖In battles with PMC Wagner, breaking through to Bakhmut from the south, in the area of ​​the settlement. The Klinovoye and Pokrovskoye divisions of the 30th Ombre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost more than half of the personnel killed and wounded.

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces conduct a counteroffensive on the positions of the NM DPR in the area of ​​Vuhledar
➖According to unconfirmed information, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, advancing in several directions with the forces of the battalion tactical group, recaptured the village of Pavlovka after many days of fighting.
➖NM DPR entrenched in the settlement. Shevchenko , Yegorovka and, with the support of artillery and aviation of the RF Armed Forces, were able to stop the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this direction
➖The Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the forces of at least one company, attacked the positions of the NM of the DPR in Novomayorskoye and managed to gain a foothold on the outskirts of the village. The fighting continues.

▪️In the Zaporozhye direction, the RF Armed Forces continued to strike at enemy positions in Orekhovo and the vicinity of Gulyaipol .

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted an offensive in the Potemkino area , however, having fallen under the barrage of the Russian army, they retreated.

Image

***

forwarded from
Readovka
The map of military operations and the situation on the fronts on

the evening of June 23 , 2022 . It is reported that soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are surrendering en masse due to a hopeless situation. Allied forces carried out a cleansing operation in the city of Gorskoe . In the evening, a message came that Gorske and Zolote had completely come under the control of the Luhansk People's Republic. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine today confirmed the capture by the enemyParadise-Aleksandrovka and Loskutovka .

⚔️ The situation on the fronts for the past day:

▫️In the Izyumo-Slavyansk direction, battles are being fought for Krasnopolye and the Valley . There was no active promotion during the day.

▫️On the Severodonetsk-Lysichansk sector of the front, the People's Militia of the LPR took control of the only road from Seversk to Lisichansk under fire control . The Ukrainian grouping of 5-7 thousand Ukrainian militants in Lisichansk is now cut off from supplies. APU fighters from the Aidar battalion at the Severodonetsk Azot plant are ready to surrender , subject to a ceasefire and guarantees of civilian safety.

▫️On the Donetsk front , Kodema and Semigorye are still controlled by the enemy. At the moment, the battles are going on in Klinovoe .

▫️In the Zaporizhia direction, fighting continues near Ugledar . Since morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been attacking in the direction of Yegorovka with a reinforced company . The enemy column was detected in a timely manner with the help of the UAV of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR, after which a fire defeat was inflicted on the target. The infantry of the enemy dispersed through the forests and thickets, a battle is being fought.

▫️On the southern flank - an operational pause. Serpentine was again tried to attack the VFU, but again to no avail. Burning oil spill in the drilling area.

🚀According to the “arrivals” in the city of Rubizhnoye in the LPR, after shelling by Ukrainian artillery , an elevator for 30 thousand tons of grain was destroyed . A man was wounded in the Kievsky district of Donetsk . Also wound on the street. Artyom was received by a woman in 1937. In the Kuibyshev region, there is a village Gornyak who died as a result of the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine . Ukrainian formations attacked Stakhanov in the LPR with a Tochka-U missile - a man died there.

🎯Calibration. Three mobile control points for unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed in the areas of the settlements of Zhovtnevaya, Kiselevka, Barmashovo of the Nikolaev region. Operational-tactical and army aviation destroyed manpower and military equipment in 96 districts and a field radar post in the Konstantinovka region of the Kharkov region in a day. The missile strike of the Russian Aerospace Forces was carried out in the area of ​​the villages of Atinskoye and Starye Vyrki north of Belopolye , as well as Starikovo near Glukhov in the Sumy region. The Russian Ministry of Defense on a summary over the past day reported the downing of a Ukrainian UAV in the Novaya Zburyevka areaKherson region, and on inflicting rocket and artillery strikes on UAV control stations in the areas of the villages of Kiselevka and Barmashovo (Belozerka) in the village of Pervomaisk .

🌎In the world: The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell , said that the European Union does not intend to impose a blockade of Kaliningrad , and sanctions directives restricting transit to the Russian exclave will be revised.

👁From the interesting: The Volga armored train took up combat duty on the Izyum Front - a new special staff was made by our railway troops already during the special operation in Ukraine.

***

forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Summary of hostilities on June 23, 2022 from Vladislav Coal

Briefly: fire control of the Seversk-Lysichansk highway, fighting on the southern approaches to Lisichansk, cleaning the boiler in Zolotoy-Gorsky, the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Yegorovka near Ugledar

🎯Kharkov direction - in the north of Kharkov, the advance of Russian troops near Prudyanka and Upper Saltov. In the Chuguev area - no changes. Between Balakleya and Izyum, according to Rybar, the Seversky Donets was crossed and the village of Nortsovka was liberated.

🎯PAVLOGRAD ARCH:

🏹The northern flank of the arc (from Izyum to Zolotoy) - in the region of Izyum and Slavyansk - unchanged. In Severodonetsk , battles for the industrial zone continue, there are battles for Sirotino.

🏹Central Front (from Zolote to Marinka) - the boiler is being cleaned up in Zolotoy-Gorsky . The resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is limited, there is no exact information about the number of encircled people. Mines and administrative buildings were taken under control. To the north, there is an assault on Belaya Gora and the industrial zone on the southern outskirts of Lisichansk . To the west advancement in Volcheyarovka (unconfirmed information about its control), Nikolaevka was liberated. At the moment, the Russians are moving towards the Lisichansk Oil Refinery and Verkhnekamenka. The control of the southern part of the latter is reported, which means that physical control has been obtained over a section of the Lisichansk-Artemovsk highway. In the direction of Artemovsk , fighting continues in Kalinovo, in the direction of Svetlodarsk- fighting on the outskirts of Kodem and Semigorye. In the area of ​​Avdiivka and Marinka - also without changes.

🏹The southern flank of the arc (from the Dnieper River to Marinka) - the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to develop an offensive on Yegorovka, the morning assault was thwarted by artillery fire.

🎯Kherson-Nikolaev direction - the front line is unchanged.

***

forwarded from
FRONT Notes
Lavrov said that it would not be a question of returning the territories occupied by the Russian army if negotiations with Ukraine are resumed

In an interview with Belarusian TV, Sergei Lavrov said that when Kiev wants to resume negotiations with Russia, Moscow will proceed from the situation "on the ground" and take into account "the unwillingness of a number of liberated regions to return under the control of the Kiev authorities."

“When they deign to turn to us with a proposal to resume the diplomatic process, which, as I understand it, the Europeans are urgently asking them, but the Anglo-Saxons do not allow this, we will look at the situation on the ground,” Lavrov said.

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 » Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:33 pm

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Is the West finally realizing that Russia will win the war in Ukraine?
Originally published: People's Party of Oregon on June 1, 2022 by Mark Rolofson (more by People's Party of Oregon) (Posted Jun 23, 2022)

This article is the fourth in a series of articles I have written covering the US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. While this civil war in Ukraine actually began 8 years ago in 2014, the Western media narrative has portrayed this conflict as an unprovoked invasion by Russia that began on February 24, 2022. The 8 year civil war in the Donbass Region is a direct result of the US backed coup and color revolution known as the Maidan Revolution, that ousted the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych and installed an ultra-nationalist, anti-Russian, Nazi government.

The coup government was rejected by the majority ethnic Russian population in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, who had supported Yanukovych. The result was protests throughout eastern Ukraine and Odessa in the south. The Russian speaking population understood that they would experience harsh persecution under the new, anti-Russian government. On May 2, 2014 in Odessa, protesters took refuge in the Odessa Trade Union Hall trying to escape the attacks of Neo-Nazi vigilantes, who then set the building on fire. Forty-eight protesters were either burned alive or died jumping out of the building. No one was ever prosecuted for the Odessa Massacre.

Crimea voted to secede and was annexed into Russia. Donetsk and Lugansk became breakaway provinces thus leaving Ukraine, but were soon invaded by Ukrainian Nazis who refused to give up the region. Western media rarely acknowledged the huge civilian death toll in eastern Ukraine.

Minsk 1 (September 5, 2014) and Minsk 2 (February 12, 2015) Peace Agreements contained a ceasefire and were ratified by the United Nations with Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France as signers. The agreement called for the breakaway provinces to be reabsorbed into Ukraine, but receive regional autonomy which essentially meant the right to use the Russian language. The 2014 coup government outlawed the use of the Russian language in media and schools. For the agreement to be finalized it required that the leaders of the Ukrainian government had to negotiate the terms with the leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk. Negotiations never happened, nor was the ceasefire even honored by Nazi paramilitaries. On February 13, 2015, Minsk 2 was immediately rejected by the Right Sector leader, Dimitri Yarosh, who vowed to keep fighting. The rocket shellings of the Donbass by Nazis continued for almost 8 years resulting in 14,000 mostly civilian deaths.

The United States had endorsed the Minsk Agreements and Obama was reluctant to supply Ukraine with weapons. This changed under Trump who was convinced to sell arms to Ukraine to prove he wasn’t Putin’s puppet. Zelensky was elected in 2019 by 73% of Ukrainians because he ran as the peace candidate, stating that he would implement Minsk 2. US media hardly acknowledged this fact, and focused on Trump’s phone call to Zelensky regarding investigating Hunter Biden and Burisma, after he temporarily withheld a weapons shipment to Ukraine. Zelensky received death threats, over his goal to implement the Minsk agreement, in an interview with the Right Sector (a Nazi Party) leader, Dimitri Yarosh, who said “He will hang on some tree on Khreshchatyk – if he betrays Ukraine and those people who died in the Revolution and the War.” Zelensky was powerless to achieve the goal of peace without strong backing from the United States, which instead was more interested in arming and training a proxy force to fight Russia.

The Biden Administration took things to new level in 2021 by sending more weapons and giving special forces training to Ukrainian Nazi paramilitaries. In April 2021, Zelensky said he was not going to honor the Minsk 2 Agreement and was planning to retake the breakaway regions and Crimea by force. The US created this war by preparing Ukrainian forces for the invasion.

OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) reports show ceasefire violations, the majority by Ukrainian forces, increased from 57 on February 14, 2022 to 1,927 on February 21, 2022. It was an invasion by Ukraine on Donetsk and Lugansk that caused Russia to intervene on February 24, 2022. Putin described it as a “peacekeeping mission.” Certainly the people and soldiers of the DPR and LPR were glad the Russians finally intervened. Over 150,000 Ukrainian troops were lined up west of the line of contact, about to fight 31,000 mostly volunteer soldiers of the DPR and LPR. It would have been a genocide had Russia not intervened. Russia had multiple reasons to finally intervene, including protecting Crimea and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, which would have led to nuclear missile bases on its borders.

As we know, this is not the story we’ve been told in the Western Press. We have been told that Vladimir Putin is a madman, who may want to conquer Europe if he succeeds in Ukraine. There has been little or no historical context given to the conflict, including Ukraine’s Nazi past going back to the 1930s with Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, who was the head of the OUN-B (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – Section B) and is now considered a national hero in Ukraine. The US government calls Ukraine a democracy, but nothing could be further from the truth with opposition media banned and socialist political parties outlawed. Ukraine is a US vassal state and a NATO proxy force. Its people are cannon fodder for the US to fight a war against Russia. The goal is to weaken Russia or preferably cause regime change in Moscow, so the US can wage war against China, the main threat to US Hegemony.

US and UK corporate media outlets have been the cheerleaders for US-NATO wars throughout their history. That said, the war in Ukraine marks a blatant increase in war propaganda filled with major distortions and outright lies. Those journalists and commentators that question or expose the lies of the pro-Ukraine, anti-Russian narrative are called Russian assets or Putin apologists, while some get banned from YouTube, Twitter or Twitch. The amount of censorship around this conflict is unprecedented.

Since 2016, the New York TImes, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC have bombarded the American public with articles about alleged Russian election interference, Russian hacking, Russia paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers and more. All of these stories have a common theme: Blame Russia without any real evidence, then either ignore or slander those critics and analysts who successfully debunk their Russiagate propaganda. No one in the US media establishment is even held accountable for being wrong and spreading misinformation. For example: Rather than for Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, etc. to admit that they got it wrong on the Trump-Russia collusion after the exhaustive two year Mueller Investigation found none, they instead double down and move on to the next “blame Russia” story. The war in Ukraine takes the propaganda of CIA and State Department talking points heralded by the New York Times to a new level of disinformation.

The goal of Western media has been to manufacture consent for the US proxy war by depicting Ukraine as a victim of Russian aggression that desperately needs our weapons to defend itself. While there is much outrage in America toward Putin and some people are flying yellow and blue Ukrainian flags to support Ukraine, the war has not united the American public behind a common enemy. The traditional media gatekeepers can no longer control the flow of information and many people have turned them off in favor of alternative, independent media outlets.

The Western media narrative has been to highlight any small victory by Ukrainian Armed Forces, accuse Russia of war crimes in Bucha while proof exists that it was a false flag caused by Ukraine, present the Russian special military operation as sloppy and having suffered heavy troop losses (over 25,000) when the real number is probably much lower. The fact is that Russia did not declare war on Ukraine and Russian troops were sent to demilitarize and De-Nazify Ukraine, with orders to avoid harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. This strategy has been far different from the “Shock and Awe” strategy of US-NATO invasions that move at greater speed with much more “collateral damage.” Western media places all the blame on Russian troops for the carnage, but interviews of civilians by independent journalists tells a much different story with Ukrainian forces being consistently blamed for destroying homes and buildings, murdering civilians or using them as human shields.

Did Russia underestimate how fiercely the Ukrainians would fight? Perhaps so. Did they make mistakes and lose soldiers and generals? Absolutely. Are they losing on the battlefield? Absolutely not and this is becoming more apparent to Western media that hasn’t wanted to outright admit it. It has downplayed the fact that Russia has taken much territory including Mariupol, Kherson and now 95% of Lugansk has been liberated from Ukrainian control. Western media outlets, such as Bloomberg News, are finally acknowledging the Russian victories in this region of the Donbass and that Ukrainian troops are now at risk of encirclement by Russian forces.

While Western media loved highlighting the sinking of the Moldova, Russia’s flagship, it doesn’t want to mention that Ukraine lost 5 helicopters and a ship trying to rescue their soldiers inside the Azovstal Steel Plant. US media has ignored the destruction of Ukrainian weapons depots by Russia. Kiev was winning the information war, but losing on the battlefield. Now that is beginning to change as Ukraine’s losses are too overwhelming to be ignored, even by the anti-Russian Western press.

Perhaps the most outrageous Western media lie is that Putin’s goal of DeNazification distorts history when in fact Ukraine has a huge Nazi problem that is well documented, including numerous Neo-Nazi battalions, such as Azov, Trident, Centuria, RIght Sector and Adair. The western media reports that the infamous Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion has reformed and now only 10% to 20% of its recruits are Nazis. The flag of the Azov Battalion contains two Nazi symbols – the Black Sun with a Wolfsangel in front of it. An Azov spokesman even claims their Nazi symbols have a different meaning in their country. The latest news is that the Azov Battalion just changed its insignia, on their flag and arm patches, to the golden trident symbol that is Ukraine’s national emblem. Ukraine had a Nazi image problem that has been partially removed by having a Jewish puppet president. The fact that the media can spread disinformation like this should invoke public anger, but there will be no bad ratings coming from Newsguard or consequences for spreading disinformation from the DHS Disinformation Governance Board since these media outlets are faithful stenographers for the state.

What is worthy of praise is the pushback by independent journalists and media outlets against the lies reported daily in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, the BBC, NPR, etc. The well researched information coming from independent media and journalists, such as The Grayzone, Consortium News, The World Socialist Website, The Dive with Jackson Hinkle, Scott Ritter, Regis Tremblay shines a bright light on what the establishment media is distorting and ignoring. War reporters, Patrick Lancaster (USA), Eva K. Bartlett (Canada), Alejandro Kirk (HispanTV – Latin America) have exposed the Western media lies that Russia is responsible for the carnage and that civilians support Ukraine’s military. All Ukrainian civilians interviewed blame Ukraine for the deaths, injuries and destruction. Russians often bring in food and humanitarian aid.

Boldly speaking the truth and exposing lies comes at a cost. Jackson Hinkle had his YouTube channel demonetized and is permanently banned from Twitch for spreading what the platform defines as ” Russian disinformation.” Scott Ritter had his Twitter account permanently suspended for exposing the flaws of Ukraine’s accusations that Russian troops were responsible for war crimes in Bucha. Censoring adversarial media is becoming prevalent, but there are too many voices including peace organizations like the United Anti-War Coalition and the US Peace Council to silence the truth.

The Grayzone, whose detailed thorough reporting and video interviews are unsurpassed, have been attacked by Newsguard (a national security state aligned organization giving grades for accurate reporting) and Nina Jankowincz, who was chosen to head the DHS Disinformation Governance Board which is the equivalent of the “Ministry Of Truth” in George Orwell’s novel 1984.

Nina Jankowincz resigned before the DGB was functioning, claiming that she received death threats along with a disinformation smear campaign against the DGB. For now, the DGB has been paused by DHS but it plans to have former DHS director, Michael Chertoff run the board. Chertoff is infamous for enabling federal surveillance, unlawful detention and torture. Chertoff profited from airport x-ray full-body scanners through his consulting firm, the Chertoff Group, that represents OSI Systems, one of two companies licensed to sell the scanners to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Controlling the narrative in Ukraine is just one issue amongst many, where conflicting information exposes government propaganda, thus disrupting a carefully planned narrative.

In the Donbass Region, Ukrainian forces continue to shell civilian homes and cities without a military target in the area. 10,000 people in Mariupol celebrated Victory Day this year, a Russian celebration of its World War II victory against Nazi Germany. Mariupol residents have been unable to celebrate Victory Day since 2014, when the city became the home and base for terrorist operations of the Azov Battalion. On May 20, 2022, the city of Mariupol was finally liberated with the surrender of 2,439 Azov Battalion, Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries holed up in the Azovstal Steel Plant.

Noticing the manner in which the surrender was reported by most US media exposes its inability to do honest reporting by failing to call it a surrender, but referring to it as an evacuation of wounded fighters and troops who were out of food, ammo and in dire need of medical attention. CNN goes as far as calling it a successful combat mission because it prevented 20,000 Russian troops from leaving Mariupol and heading to other regions thus failing to capture Zaporizhzhia. Videos of the Azovstal surrender shows hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to Russian troops, who treat their captives humanely with respect, while patting them down for hidden weapons and checking their arms and chests for Nazi tattoes. These Ukrainian soldiers were finally ordered by the supreme command center in Kiev to surrender, but this was a very embarrassing fact for Ukraine and NATO countries to announce publicly. The United States government just approved another $40 billion military aid package for Ukraine as it continues to lose territory daily in the Donbass Region. More Ukrainian troops are surrendering, many of whom were drafted to fight in a war in the breakaway regions that are of little or no importance to them personally. The Russians have declared victory in Severodonetsk, which only took a few days. Ukrainian forces are quickly collapsing and about to lose the entire Donbass and have lost most of Kharkov.

Bloomberg Cites Russian Victories and New York Times Call for Negotiations

Bloomberg News is looking more like RT or Tass (Russian media) since it’s actually reporting on Russian victories and Ukraine’s defeat in the Donbass and Mariupol. Most Western media outlets are downplaying the facts that Ukraine is losing, but Bloomberg has broken ranks. On the second day of the four day surrender of Ukrainian forces in the Azovstal Steel Plant, Bloomberg reported Mariupol Latest: Russia Says Nearly 1,000 Ukraine Troops Surrender at Azovstal. While citing the Russian claim of a surrender, Bloomberg News is not willing to completely claim the defeat as fact, but it’s closer to the truth than what CNN or NPR have reported.

The May 27, 2022 Bloomberg article Russian Wins in Eastern Ukraine Spark Debate Over Course of War says “Russia’s capture of a series of towns including Popasna means its forces hold 95% of the Luhansk region that makes up the northern half of the Donbas area. On Friday, Ukraine’s military command said Russian troops were pushing on from Popasna toward the town of Bakhmut, 32 kilometers (20 miles) west, seeking to isolate Ukrainian forces in a pocket of government-held territory around Severodonetsk.” It goes on to mention that thousands of Ukrainian troops are at risk of encirclement by Russian forces. Ukraine is losing so badly it can no longer be denied. The article continues to say “A sense that the tide of the war could be turning in favor of the likely narrowed goals of President Vladimir Putin comes as some, including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, call for Ukraine to consider trading territory for a cease-fire.”

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State under President Nixon, advised Ukraine to cede territory to make peace with Russia. The 98 year old Kissinger, who was responsible for crafting detente with the Soviet Union, said “negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante. Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.”

He stressed that failing to restart negotiations with Russia and continuing to alienate the Kremlin would have detrimental long-term consequences for the stability of Europe.

Kissinger was immediately blasted by President Zelensky, who said that Kissinger was living in 1938 and not 2022. Zelensky tried to compare making peace with Russia to making peace with Nazi Germany. Zelensky’s adviser Alexey Arestovich had harsh words, filled with obscenities, for Kissinger or any westerner urging Kiev to cede part of their country’s territory to Russia to make peace. “Go fuck yourselves with such proposals, you dumb fucks, to trade Ukrainian territory a little bit! Are you fucking crazy? Our children are dying, soldiers are stopping shells with their own bodies, and they are telling us how to sacrifice our territories. This will never happen.”

KIssinger has a dark war criminal past, but he understands the balance of world powers. He has now out-Lefted every Democrat in the US Congress, who recklessly voted to send another $40 billion of military aid to Ukraine and risk an escalation of this dangerous conflict. The tides have shifted and there is growing awareness that regardless of American and European weapon shipments, Ukraine is quickly losing the war. At what cost does victory against Russia come, especially considering the impacts sanctions are having on Europe and global food shortages?

On May 19, 2022, the New York TImes editorial board wrote an opinion piece titled The War In Ukraine Is Getting Complicated, and America Isn’t Ready that comes to the conclusion that negotiating a peace deal with Russia is in the best interest for Ukraine, even if it must give up some of its territory, and also for America, as a greater conflict has very dangerous potential. The editorial mentions that Avril Haines, director of national intelligence warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the next few months of the war could be very volatile. According to Haines, the War may take “a more unpredictable and potentially escalatory trajectory,” with a greater possibility of Russia threatening to use nuclear weapons.

The editorial continues by stating “These are extraordinary costs and serious dangers, and yet there are many questions that President Biden has yet to answer for the American public with regard to the continued involvement of the United States in this conflict.” The New York TImes is guilty of promoting every US war, but also has a history of rejecting those conflicts once they are a lost cause. The editorial is not a retraction of the lies that the TImes has spread regarding the Ukraine war, but a realization that the United States, Ukraine and Europe may have bitten off far more than they can possibly chew and rather than choke to death, it’s better to stop now.

The TImes can be accused of wanting to have its cake and eat it too. It goes on to say “the United States must lead its NATO allies in demonstrating to Vladimir Putin that the Atlantic alliance is willing and able to resist his revanchist ambitions. That goal cannot shift, but in the end, it is still not in America’s best interest to plunge into an all-out war with Russia, even if a negotiated peace may require Ukraine to make some hard decisions. And the U.S. aims and strategy in this war have become harder to discern, as the parameters of the mission appear to have changed.” These sentences of editorial can also be viewed as an attempt to break it gently to their liberal readers (who have been brainwashed into flying yellow and blue flags and lusting for war against Putin) that it’s best to avoid nuclear annihilation.

Belligerent statements from President Biden that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that “we want to see Russia weakened to the degree it can’t do the kinds of things it has done in invading Ukraine” are acknowledged by the editorial as “rousing proclamations of support, but they do not bring negotiations any closer.” Statements made by numerous US officials demonstrate that the US is at war with Russia. Changing course for the Biden Administration will be difficult, with so much money and weapons invested into the conflict. It is still easier to pull out now since US lives have not been lost and US troops are not involved.

The liberal New York TImes is a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and clearly is afraid of how badly the Democratic Party will be taken to the woodshed in the November midterm elections. Biden’s poll numbers are as low as 36%. No Democrat voted against the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, but 57 House and 11 Senate Republicans did vote against it. The New York TImes acknowledges there is shrinking public support for the war, especially due to the impact sanctions are having on out of control inflation and global food shortages.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that Ukraine will take back all the territory it has lost, but that seems very unlikely to happen. Zelensky is not in control. He answers to those ultra-nationalist that surround him and officials in the Biden Administration. New shipments of arms are proving not be enough for Ukraine to defeat Russia. There is shrinking enthusiasm among Ukrainian troops to die fighting for Ukraine to hold onto to a region where the people do not want to be part of Ukraine. Russia may be close to achieving its goals in Ukraine. Once there is a defeat of Ukrainian forces in the Donbass Region, will Ukraine begin to fall apart as a country? Will this lead to a gargantuan refugee crisis? The United States may have opened up Pandora’s Box and closing that box may prove to be extremely difficult. It is time for regime change in Washington, not Moscow.

https://mronline.org/2022/06/23/is-the- ... n-ukraine/

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Lavrov: US and UK Do Not Allow Ukraine to Resume Peace Talks

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Ukraine controlled by US and UK – Russia. The stalling of the peace talks is a result of the wish of London and Washington to drag out the Ukraine conflict, Lavrov claimed. | Photo: Twitter @RT_com

Published 24 June 2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assures that the United States and the United Kingdom do not allow Ukraine to sit down for peace talks with Russia.


The Russian Foreign Minister said during an interview that while European countries urge Kiev to resume peace dialogues with Moscow, "the Anglo-Saxons" - referring to the United States and the United Kingdom - prevent it from doing so. So, he expressed skepticism about a possible return of Ukraine to peace negotiations.

"Currently, I do not see any possibility for Ukraine to propose [negotiations], we are not going to propose anything. We proposed everything a long time ago. The ball is on their court. I don't see any possibility that [the Ukrainians] will be allowed to return to negotiations," Lavrov said Thursday in an interview with the Belarusian National State Radio and Television Company.

The Russian FM said, however, that whenever Ukraine decided to return to negotiations, Russia would study the situation "on the ground", specifying that it would take into account the refusal of some regions of the Slavic country, liberated by Russian forces, to return to the control of a pro-Nazi government.


Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine at the end of February, the Ukrainian and Russian delegations have held several rounds of talks. The parties reached an agreement in talks held on March 29 in Turkey. However, Putin announced last Tuesday that Kiev went back on its agreement, so the peace process has entered a dead end.

The Russian authorities have assured since the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine that it does not seek the occupation of Ukrainian territory, but the “demilitarization” and "denazification" of the country and to prevent the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the United States, from turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian base.

They have also stressed that they will only stop their operations if Kiev accepts their main conditions, including recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, demilitarization of the Ukrainian state, Ukraine's neutral status and renunciation of the desire to join NATO.

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

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Germany activates second level of alert for gas emergency

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The first level of the plan, which consists of three phases, was activated on March 30 to establish a crisis team in the Ministry of Economy and intensify monitoring of the gas supply situation. | Photo: PL
Published June 23, 2022

According to the authorities, it is necessary to intensify the use of coal-fired power plants as an alternative source of energy for electricity production.

The Federal Government of Germany activated this Thursday the second level of the national gas emergency plan, moving to the alert phase, due to the reduction of gas supply from Russia.

In this sense, the new phase of the plan guides market agents to cushion gas service interruptions with short-term measures and boost supplies from alternative sources.

According to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, the European nation is facing a gas crisis, even though supplies are guaranteed to date.


Earlier, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom warned that it is forced to reduce the flow of gas through the Nord Stream pipeline, one of the main routes of supply of Russian gas to Europe.

Likewise, the head of the Economy portfolio specified the need for consumers to reduce gas consumption in residences, both in summer and winter.

He also added that energy companies are not allowed during this period to increase gas prices for consumers, which is necessary and can only be carried out in the event of a considerable reduction in the total amount of gas imported into the country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/alemania ... -0032.html

Google Translator

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The Bloody Peacemakers
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 23, 2022
Evan Reif

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Anton Gerashenko (left) and Arsen Avakov (right) Image: Stalker Zone

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
-Matthew 5:9


After the Maidan coup, the Maidan regime has embarked on a bloody war against dissent in Ukraine. Even moderate critics of the regime and its policies have found themselves harassed in court, beaten, and even killed. More radical opponents are tortured or assassinated, often in broad daylight and with extreme brutality.

This struggle is carried out by a patchwork of NGOs, government agencies, police, gangsters and mercenaries, all mixed together as an effective instrument of state sponsored terror.

There are two men who may be the central figures in this story. Thanks to Anton Gerashenko, Arsen Avakov and their bloody “peacemakers”, the Ukranian government has a deadly weapon to silence dissent by any means necessary.

From Managers to Mafia

“My dear, Anton Gerashchenko does not come to me as often as you think. It’s so big that sometimes like a beautiful balloon flies so far away – you can’t catch it. But I try, just as he tries to hear my arguments. On most issues, our points of view coincide, but his emotional reactions for me, for example, remain incomprehensible.”-Arsen Avakov, on Anton Gerashenko

As the Soviet Union collapsed, a particular type of person found prosperity in the chaos. The highly educated and well-connected managerial class who had been groomed to run the Soviet state apparatus found themselves with no state left to run.

With the question of who owned what still up in the air, these were the people perfectly positioned to steal everything that wasn’t bolted down. As the state crumbled, there were few police left to either protect or stop them. Left to their own devices, the ex-Nomenklatura raised armies of thugs to both protect and expand their holdings as the Soviet Union descended into virtual anarchy.

There were many of these people all throughout the old union. Among them are Anton Gerashenko and Arsen Avakov, two inseparable figures in Ukranian politics, who have risen from the Kharkov underworld to become some of the government’s most effective enforcers.

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Arsen Avakov (right) with Andriy Biletsky (center)

For Arsen Avakov, it all happened quite quickly. At first a scientist and engineer, as the union collapsed, he founded the investment bank “JSC Investor” in 1990. In 1992, he followed up with a commercial bank, “Basis” and set about his first act of robbery.

The scheme was quite simple. As was seen in most of the eastern bloc, Ukranian citizens had been given free privatization vouchers from the government. These vouchers allowed them to buy shares in newly privatized state enterprises at a very low set price, thereby distributing the value of the former Soviet economy to it’s people.

There was a problem, of course, which is that the Soviet people had no money to invest. As unprofitable factories were shut down and their equipment sent west, unemployment skyrocketed. Those who kept their jobs often had difficulty actually getting paid. The lucky ones were paid “in kind”, given products from the factory to sell on the black market. Many, however, were simply not paid at all.

The employees of the Akhtuba factory in Volgograd have not been paid for 12 months. For a year, since the plant has had no cash, they have been paid “in kind” from the company’s stocks. Formerly specialized in precision instruments for the Soviet navy, the Akhtuba factory is no longer the jewel of the defense industry: since the end of the Cold War it has converted to the sex industry and for a year its employees have had to satisfy themselves for all remuneration with a panoply of very, very specialized gadgets. This absurd situation is not making anyone laugh in Volgograd. “The workers feel insulted,” states a union delegate, Tamara Lozhintseva, to a correspondent of the daily Moscow Times who, having come to interview her, depicts the Akhtuba workers’ feeling of revolt, the same revolt that is smouldering everywhere in the country. In the neighboring Armina factory, the women workers have been paid for three years in brassieres and shoes that they resell in the streets. The workers of Moskvich, the auto plant near Moscow, are paid in spare parts, those of the Ivanova textile plants in bedsheets, and those of the Gus-Khrustlaniy porcelain factory, near Vladimir, in crystal and ceramic vases…

–International confederation of Free Trade Unions1, 1997


300% inflation meant that savings accounts evaporated overnight and made payments of benefits and pensions essentially worthless. Life expectancy plummeted to 57 in men, as mass hospital shutdowns and medicine shortages combined with colossal increases in suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction. By 1995, the World Bank estimated that about half of the Russian people were in severe poverty, and the situation was worse in the Union Republics.

Giving them the chance to buy something they could not afford was therefore very little help to the immiserated Soviet people. Waiting in the wings were men like Arsen Avakov.

Avakov, and so many others like him, offered cash for these vouchers. Buying at only a fraction of their value, many desperate Soviet people accepted a pittance for the otherwise worthless paper. Avakov would then use the vouchers to buy the stock himself. The scale of this operation was such that Avakov ended up with a controlling share in many large, lucrative ventures. It was in this manner that he was able to build an empire, getting his hands on millions in Soviet industry for pennies on the dollar as the people starved.

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Privatization in Russia - WikipediaProtests against Voucher Privatization in Russia

Shortly thereafter in 1993, Avakov’s business partner was killed in broad daylight, shot twice in the head at close range with a pistol. Despite having a wife and children, his share of the business was mysteriously left to Avakov in the will. Avakov was a prime suspect, but no charges were ever filed and the killer remains at large. Avakov became one of the wealthiest men in Ukraine in the aftermath.

Avakov would continue on in the same manner, growing more corrupt and brazen as time went on. He mostly escaped criminal charges until 2012, when he was placed on Interpol’s red list for severe corruption and suspected murder.

Avakov fled to Italy, who refused to extradite, until his election to the Rada2 the same year granted him immunity from prosecution. Soon after, he returned to Ukraine. Charges were dropped after the Maidan coup, but Avakov never forgot this insult from the Yanukovych government.

Anton Gerashenko was an economist by training. He entered politics at a young age, contesting his first election at age 19, and worked at several banks while he continued his political career. He was eventually elected in 2000 to the Kharkov city council. His training and experience gave him a natural talent for money laundering, greatly assisting Avakov’s struggles to stay out of jail. Gerashenko and Avakov eventually became inseparable, both personally and politically.

The two men met in 2004, when their careers as gangsters and politicians intersected in Kharkov. At first working as Orange Revolution activists, the two proved some of the most capable organizers in Viktor Yuschenko’s campaign, and as a reward Avakov was named administrator of the majority-Russian region after Yuschenko’s victory. Avakov brought his new friend Gerashenko with him as an economic advisor.

The two had a dire need for muscle to enforce their rule and so turned to “Patriot of Ukraine.” This was a local group of soccer hooligans turned neo-Nazi gangsters run by Andrei Biletsky, the future founder of Azov. Avakov was very familiar with them, having used this gang as his enforcers to take control of the Kharkov underworld.

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Patriot of Ukraine militants at the Maidan

Biletsky is not your average gangster. Much like Avakov and Gerashenko, he is highly educated and was a university professor prior to his emergence as a terrorist. It was likely his intelligence combined with natural cunning which allowed Biletsky to mold a group of common thugs into the disciplined and effective band of terrorists we know today. Now that it was under the wing of the state, “Patriot of Ukraine” grew quickly in both size and sophistication.

With their Nazi muscle, Gerashenko and Avakov ruled like warlords, lining their pockets as they enforced a bloody order in the region.

As bodies and cash piled up in Kharkov, Avakov rose quickly inside the party, becoming influential in his own right and eventually aligning himself with Prime Minister and gangster Yulia Tymoshenko in her struggles for power against Yuschenko.

Eventually, Avakov’s corruption became so severe that he was impeached by a vote of 108 out of the 116 Kharkov regional deputies. Avakov ignored this and continued to rule, confident that his Nazi soldiers could protect his position.

Sadly, he was correct. He remained in power until the 2010 election of Yanukovych led to his resignation, and the threat of charges forced him to flee the country for a time.

Among the growing nationalist forces in Ukraine, Avakov’s efficient work and complete lack of scruples drew notice, and after the Maidan, he was named interior minister of the new government. Gerashenko, of course, came with him as an advisor.

This time, however, they faced a far more daunting task. They faced it the same way they always had, combining brains and brawn to pacify the region.

What Arsen Borisovich Avakov did does not fit in my head. God is his judge. How could you frame a huge number of your employees and not solve their problems?! Still, his cunning and greed for money, alas, exceeds the level of nobility and sense of responsibility.

The same is Kotvitsky Igor Alexandrovich. “I solved my questions, and the rest of the people are biomass.”- the suicide note of Alexander Motylevskiy, an employee of Avakov


After the Maidan coup overthrew the democratically elected Yanukovych government in 2014, the new regime found itself in a precarious situation.

Widespread dissent from the east was threatening the stability of the new regime, as militias emerged to protect the citizens of Donbas from the hammers, garottes and Molotov cocktails of the Maidan killers. Maidan forces who had previously cut a bloody swathe through Ukraine were finally stopped by the militia forces, who grew increasingly sophisticated by the day.

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SOFREP reporting from Ukraine: The commander of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic killed | SOFREP“Givi” (Left) and “Motorola” (Right), two legendary Donbas militia commanders

This proved a serious problem for the new Kiev regime, and no small effort was made to crush the militias.

Avakov first began by transferring former police bases, equipment and weapons to neo-Nazi and CIA affiliated Right Sector militants. While this bolstered their capabilities, it was nowhere near enough to crush dissent in the east.

The next step was to mobilize the army, but the rank-and-file soldiers revolted. Rather than kill their friends, relatives and neighbors, around 70%3 of the Ukranian army deserted or defected and either abandoned their equipment or gave it to the newly formed militias.

Now facing the very real possibility of counter-revolution and defeat, Avakov showed why he was chosen for the position, going back to his bag of tricks from Kharkov to deputize the Nazi thugs who were on the vanguard of the Maidan coup. These so called “Special Tasks Patrol” police were founded on the 15th of April, 2014.

His old friend Belitsky was among them, but the Azov founder could not provide nearly enough manpower. Therefore, Avakov cast a wider net, opening the door to other groups in the now vast Ukranian Nazi underground.

One of the groups involved was the Congress of Ukranian Nationalists (KUN) who are the direct descendants of Holocaust perpetrator Yaroslav Stetsko’s branch of the OUN4. After the war, the CIA rescued Stetsko and he remained their agent until his death in 1986. He led a sort of terrorist international, training and funding some of the most vile figures of the second half of the 20th century. His wife, Slava, took over after his death, and founded KUN in 1992.

Another would be the UNA-UNSO which was founded by Yuri Shukhevych son of infamous mass murderer Roman Shukhevych, who, along with his men, once killed 8000 Polish civilians in a single day, burning many of them alive in their churches.

In all, over 30 units were formed. Initially named after the cities from where they were raised, as time went on many of the units developed their own character and traditions.

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Botsun being awarded citizenship by ex-president Poroshenko

He was also a founding member of Azov and is still serving as a special forces commander today. Despite his past, his “Kraken” unit remains heavily featured in pro-Ukranian propaganda.

Later, he would be joined by Daniel al-Takbir (formerly Daniel Lyashuk), a Neo-nazi terrorist with a story so bizarre it reads like a bad movie script.

At first, Daniel fought alongside Azov in the ATO6. He cultivated a reputation both for his flair and his extreme brutality. These made him a darling of the outfit’s propaganda arm. He posed for shirtless Instagram photoshoots by day while torturing by night.

Without tortures, life would not be a life. Nothing raises your vitality as when you’re holding someone’s life- Daniel al-Takbir

Eventually, he converted to Islam. He changed his last name to al-Takbir, travelled to Syria and joined ISIS. He fit right in with Daesh and when he came back, he was eager to show what he had learned. Under the new callsign Mujahid, he raped and pillaged the Donbas and it’s people with such brutality that it shocked even the STPs.

In 2016, he was arrested, tried and convicted of crimes as horrendous as raping children to death while fighting in Donbas. He was released this year by the Zelensky regime as part of a general amnesty for war criminals after the Russian invasion.

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ImageLyashuk/Al-Takbir

al-Takbir’s unit, “Tornado”, was founded under the aegis of a larger battalion, ironically called Myrotvorets, or “Peacemaker.” After his arrest, the Tornado unit was “disbanded” by simply merging Tornado’s soldiers into it’s parent unit.

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The emblem of the battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Peacemaker" .pngLogo of STP Myrotvorets

Apparently, it is in men like Botsun and Mujahid that we see Arsen Avakov’s idea of a Peacemaker.

Gerashenko’s Brains

Now it is important to call a spade a spade: a right-wing dictatorial regime has been established in Ukraine, which physically deals with its opponents and people of opposition views, killing them or throwing them in prison, attempts to deny this are cowardice, meanness, or both in the same bottle. As well as attempts to remain silent.-Andriy Manchuk, editor-in-chief of Liva.ua

While Avakov’s “peacemakers” cut their way through the Donbas, Gerashenko, now a deputy in the Rada, had peacemakers of his own. In 2015 he founded NGO Myrotvorets7, a private intelligence organization and an online repository of information on dissidents targeted for elimination, including names, addresses, photos and private documents.

Gerashenko’s peacemakers do most of their hacking with keyboards instead of axes and knives, but they are no less deadly. The site proudly posts “LIQUIDATED” in red letters over the photos of those killed.

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Enemies of Ukraine: Myrotvorets Project unveiled names of 251 "'DPR' spetsnaz fighters" « News | Mobile version | Censor.NETThe logo of NGO Myrotvorets

While Gerashenko has danced around the topic of Myrotvorets ownership, both he and the SBU openly collaborate with the site and routinely praise it, rendering the subject mostly meaningless. The collaboration goes so deep that Ukranian police use Myrotvorets lists at checkpoints, which means that anyone listed on the site will find themselves the target of serious harassment at best.

Anyone inside the Ukrainian who tries to stop Peacemaker will face the wrath of Gerashenko, with the implied threat of “liquidation” at the hands of his Nazi death squads. Even the president seems powerless to stop them, with Zelensky claiming he was unable to shut down the site, citing “free speech” concerns even as the Nazis target his wife. Those same free speech concerns did not stop him from shutting down pro-opposition media outlets.

This work is extremely important for the national security of Ukraine, and anyone who does not understand this or tries to interfere with this work is either a puppet in someone else’s hands, or is working against the interests of national security. I think we are seeing the first option with regard to the Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovskaya for the time being. In whose interests it acts — everyone can draw their own conclusions,” –Anton Gerashenko, in response to a proposed bill to shut down Peacemaker

Many of the targets listed are Russian soldiers or L/DPR militias, but civilians often find themselves in the crosshairs of the Peacemakers for even the slightest lapses.

One such example would be the journalist, Oles Buzina. Mere days after being listed on the site, he was shot and killed in Kiev. Oles was a popular figure in Ukraine, a prolific print journalist who made frequent appearances on Ukranian TV, until the extreme censorship imposed by the Maidan regime drove him into unemployment.

He was a critic of both the Maidan regime and the Yanukovych government, repeatedly arguing for peace and dialogue between the government and separatists. Buzina publicly campaigned against both the rise of neo-Nazism and the rehabilitation of the Nazi collaborators and Holocaust perpetrators in the OUN in Ukraine. He was also a key witness in a trial against Maidan activists accused of murder.

This was enough for the “Peacemakers” to mark him for death.

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Олесь Бузина.jpgOles Buzina

As Buzhina stood at the entrance of a fellow journalist’s home, masked men opened fire from a blue Ford Focus. Buzhina was hit, and by the time police and ambulances arrived, he was already dead.

Two men were arrested for the murder, Andrey Medvedko and Denis Polischuk, both members of the Special Tasks Patrol Police.

Medvedko was a long-time nationalist, serving as a commandant in the Maidan coup before joining the Azov battalion to fight in the ATO. After a failed run for Kiev city council, he rejoined the STP, this time joining Kyiv-2 and later the infamous C14 unit, resigning only 10 days before his arrest.

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Medvedko posing with the flag of STP Kyiv-2

C14 is a brazenly neo-Nazi unit, even by the low standards of the STPs. They are particularly known their extremely violent attacks on Romani communities with sledgehammers. C14 has been condemned by the British Parliament, the US Holocaust Museum, US intelligence cutouts such as Bellingcat and Radio Free Europe, and many others for its racism and brutality. The unit is still operational today.

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Polischuk

His comrade Polischuk was a member of the UNA-UNSO, the descendants of Nazi collaborators, who I described above.

The killing sparked outrage, with the US, UK, EU, United Nations, the Committee to Protect Journalists and many more all condemning the killing and Peacemaker, demanding an investigation and the immediate closure of Myrotvorets.

The site remains open and active to this day.

Investigating them can be tricky, as their “Purgatory” section listing the names of targets only contains a small selection at once. When the list is updated, which often happens multiple times a week, only the newest targets are shown as clickable links.

The URL’s remain, however, and you can still search for targets by name and region. If you already know who to search for, the information is quick at hand. If you are simply guessing, it is frustratingly difficult to find anything. This, of course, is absolutely by design. It is much easier to “liquidate” a person who does not know they are being hunted.

This process can move very quickly. While researching this article, I bookmarked some profiles of people Peacemaker has targeted recently, all of whom have now vanished from the main index.



Yuliya Baranovskaya and Islam Saideev appear to be guilty of little more than reporting from the Donbas region. Inna Zinkovskaya is an employee of the DPR’s department of Agriculture, and Larisa Sinelnikova is a secretary in the DPR courts. Irina Dementeva made some Facebook posts, the same “crime” which landed Vlodomyr Zelensky’s wife, Elena, on the list. Western journalists are not safe, either, as Eva K Bartlett, a Canadian journalist known for her work in both Donbas and Gaza, can testify.


This is all it takes to mark you for assassination by the Peacemakers. Gerashenko’s reign of terror does not stop with journalists, either. Dissident politicians are prime targets for Peacemaker’s killers.

Vlodomyr Struk, mayor of Kreminna, was kidnapped by masked men and shot in the heart, with grisly images of his mutilated body leaked soon after. Anton Gerashenko applauded this crime on his Telegram8 account.

There is one less traitor in Ukraine. The mayor of Kreminna in Luhansk region, former deputy of Luhansk parliament was found killed.

Oleg Kalashnikov preceded him in death. A former deputy for Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, Kalashnikov was murdered by unknown assailants at his home. The killer knocked on his front door and shot Kalashnikov dead as soon as he opened the door . Once again, his details, including his address, were posted on Myrotvorets days before his murder.

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Kalashnikov

No charges have ever been filed in Kalashnikov’s death.

These are but a few of the people who have suffered at the hands of the two bloody peacemakers from Kharkov, who turned their criminal empire into a ruthlessly effective machine to violently crush any dissenting voices in the post-Maidan state.

How many more must suffer before these state sponsored terrorists are brought to justice?

Notes:

1
In his 1975 book “Inside the Company”, former agent Phillip Agee revealed the IFCW to be a CIA front. Its purpose was to undermine radical trade unionism and prevent Communist influence within unions around the world. As such, if they are saying that Russia’s transition to capitalism was poorly practiced, you might want to believe them. Agee also founded Covert Action Magazine, the publication who gave me my first break, and for whom I will always be thankful. Please check them out at their site and support their work via donation if you can. Donations allow them to pay their writers.

2
The Verkhovna Rada, usually shortened to just Rada, is the Ukranian legislature.

3
This document “The Russian Octopus” was made by a think tank which is owned and operated by NATO. While I vehemently disagree with their conclusions, I also suggest that anyone who has time read this document. It is incredibly illuminating regarding NATO’s strategy in Ukraine. It shows, in particular, some rather insidious traits of Ukranian nationalism which have soaked through to their NATO masters. For example, they frame the Ukranian army’s mass desertion as evidence of a shadowy Kremlin conspiracy, hatched by agents of influence. The reality is that Russia and Ukraine are deeply connected. Russians and Ukrainians have lived together, in some form or fashion, for centuries throughout both countries. It is understandable that Ukranian Army soldiers did not want to shoot their friends, countrymen and families. However, NATO simply accepts the nationalist narratives and assumes every Ukranian is a violent Russophobe like their pet Nazis. This is not the case, and never has been.

4
OUN is the Organization of Ukranian Nationalists, a group of Nazi collaborator Ukranian nationalists who were active participants in the Holocaust.

5
This is in reference to the Naval rank of Boatswain, given due to Sergey’s service in the Belarussian Marines. Much as in English, this title can be translated a variety of ways. Therefore, you will see him called Botsun, Boatsman, Botsman, Boatswain and many others. None are wrong, per se, simply different forms of the same word. Frankly, I do not care which he prefers, as the man deserves no respect, I first learned of him as “Botsun” and have continued using this name ever since.

6
Anti-terrorist operation zone, the euphemism for Ukraine’s campaign in Donbas

7
Usually I would link to this, however their front page is full of graphic images of dead Russian soldiers in various states of decay. I would not want someone to see that unexpectedly, so I will link their site here instead.

8
Again, as these images are quite grisly, I will link to them here instead of the main text. https://t.me/Pravda_Gerashchenko/1565

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

Post by blindpig » Sat Jun 25, 2022 12:10 am

Ukraine’s Regime is a Terrorist Entity Like al-Qaeda and ISIS
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 23, 2022
Valery Kulikov

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The current Kiev regime can hardly be called a “state” even with certain reservations. Just like the notorious terrorist groups banned in Russia and in many countries around the world, such as Al-Qaeda or ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The behavior of the Kiev authorities is typically terrorist: terror against civilians, fighting under cover of civilians and the social fabric of cities, hostage-taking, intimidation, blackmail, the destruction of the Malaysian Boeing in the Ukrainian sky, the mass murder of unwanted and dissenting voices. And the international community has been silently watching this since 2014, when neo-Nazi authorities terrorized civilians in eastern Ukraine.

It should be recalled that, in response to an enquiry in 2019 by the German news agency Dpa, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Kiev already then pointed out that between 12,800 and 13,000 people died in the conflict in Donbass from April 2014 to December 2018 alone.

However, other calculations have been made in the West, and the results differ considerably from the above. In 2015, for example, German intelligence estimated a total of 50,000 deaths in eastern Ukraine. Even then, there was confidence in Germany that the official figures were “too low and not credible”.

According to annual reports by the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), most civilian casualties occurred in the first two years of the conflict, 2014 (2,546 people were killed then) and 2015 (1,395 people were killed). Similar numbers of civilians killed by the terrorist actions of the Kiev authorities also came from the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).

At the same time, the figures cited for civilian deaths resulting from the aggressive actions of the current authorities in Kiev since 2014 are hardly an objective reflection of the situation. They do not take into account the number of victims of post-traumatic syndrome and stress, how many elderly and civilians have died in eastern Ukraine during this period due to the inability to reach them by ambulance under shelling, or from heart attacks during artillery attacks on civilian towns by Kiev militants. The only thing that has already been established is that old people die more often during shelling because they don’t have time to run to shelter.

On February 15, 9 days before Russia launched its special operation to denazify Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed to the Western media: “What is happening in Donbass is genocide”. Later, the Russian President spoke again about “genocide” in early March, noting that “for eight years, Western partners have turned a blind eye to the genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime against the residents of the Donbass republics”.

The current government in Kiev emerged through a terrorist takeover of government buildings by a group of terrorists, violating the will of the vast majority of its population (literally months before the separatist act of voting in a referendum to preserve the USSR). Since 2014, when Russia’s special operation to denazify Ukraine has not yet begun, Kiev’s militants have regularly shelled not the military barracks of the Donbass militia, but peaceful towns, hospitals, schools, kindergartens and social infrastructure, just as ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists (both banned in Russia) did recently in the Middle East. Are these not terrorist acts by the Kiev regime?

In a report published by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the period February 1 to July 31, 2021, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, acknowledged that Ukrainian military formations bear the lion’s share of the blame for the destruction and deaths. She noted that 77% of the victims of shelling were those of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as 80% of all shells fired during the conflict exploded on the territory of the Donbass People’s Republics. This conclusion by M. Bogner is important because no one can call the UN report “Russian propaganda” and the international community treats its data as objective information which records the guilt of the Ukrainian side.

Moreover, the Ukrainian Nazis do not even hide, but boast of committing terrorist acts, publishing in the Ukrainian media and social networks the results of their terrorist actions in various cities in eastern Ukraine, testifying themselves to their criminal activities.

Recently, the terrorist activity of the Kiev regime, even in the context of the “shell hunger”, has been transferred to Russian territory, to peaceful Russian towns located in the Bryansk and Kursk regions bordering on Ukraine, again resulting in the death of civilians, not the military! One particularly striking confirmation of such terrorist activity by Kiev was the recent strike on Chernomorneftegaz platforms at the Odesskoye field, several dozen kilometers from Odessa, where, as is known, there are no military units and the site itself is purely civilian.

It draws attention to the fact that this strike on Chernomorneftegaz platforms was carried out by missiles brought from Britain or the United States.

But the “sponsorship” of the US and the West in general over the terrorist Kiev regime does not stop there. It has become known that on the eve of the strike, US commercial satellites Worldview-1, Worldview-2 and Worldview-3 photographed the area with the drilling platforms on June 11, 13 and 14 respectively, surveyed the Black Sea area with the Chernomorneftegaz drilling platforms and transmitted all the information thus gathered to Kiev terrorists to plan and launch an attack on this civilian facility.

It is possible that such steps could have been prompted to the Kiev authorities by US “curators”, as Kiev itself had previously been hesitant to strike Russian civilian infrastructure. Moreover, it was the US that could have foreseen the catastrophic consequences of such a strike on Chernomorneftegaz, drawing on its own “lesson” after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

What draws attention is Washington’s repetition of its “sponsorship” of Kiev terrorism, along the lines of similar support in the recent past for the creation and strengthening of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, first in Afghanistan and then elsewhere in the Middle East to counter the USSR/Russia, and a similar policy towards ISIS. At the same time, Washington is not even shy about supporting the Kiev terrorists with multibillion-dollar arms, forcing its NATO allies to do the same, and has also launched a campaign of political support for the Kiev terrorist entity and even for its admission into the European Union!

It is noteworthy that it is for carrying out a special operation to denazify Ukraine, to eliminate the terrorist threat from the Kiev regime, that numerous sanctions have been imposed on Russia by the US and its accomplices. Then why is no one imposing sanctions on the US and its allies for supporting the Nazi, terrorist authorities in Kiev and supplying them with more and more weapons? And what would be the reaction of the same US and the “collective West” if Russia were to use a similar scheme to arm and pit Ireland against the British Ulster? Or if it would support Mexico in its efforts to reclaim Texas, which had been seized exactly like the DPR and LPR?

The terrorist “fervor” of the Kiev authorities can also be clearly seen in a number of recent “initiatives” coming from Kiev regarding possible future attacks on Russian targets. In particular, this can be seen in the threat by Ukrainian General Dmytro Marchenko to blow up the Crimean bridge – again a purely civilian facility. And, moreover, there has been no reaction from the “collective West” to such terrorist plans by Kiev!

Although, according to all international norms, the policies of the current Kiev authorities fall completely under the rubric of terrorism, like al-Qaeda and ISIS, and cannot be endorsed by the international community, why has neither the UN nor other international organizations made such an accusation?

Moreover, not only the current Kiev regime, but all forces and states that support it politically or militarily, under international rules, fall under international sanctions as accomplices of terrorists!

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The Ideology of the Banderists
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 23, 2022
Thierry Meyssan

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If Stepan Bandera was an agent of the Gestapo and left only the memory (positive for some) of the massacres and tortures he organized, Dmytro Dontsov was -and still is- the reference thinker of Ukranian nationalists. It is he who invented Ukrainian racialism and imagined the fanaticism of Ukrainian nationalists as a weapon.

If in previous articles I have presented the history of the Banderist movement from the interwar period to the present day, I would like to talk here about their ideology.

Their reference intellectual, then and now, is Dmytro Dontsov (1883-1973). Although he died in Canada and was buried in the United States, his works have not been translated, but his followers have made them known to us. This absence in the bookstores of other countries explains why he is unknown abroad. However, after a long period of absence, he’s been one of the best-selling authors in Ukraine these recent years.

Feeding like the Nazis on his interpretation of Nietzsche, Dmytro Dontsov called for the birth of a “new man” with “a burning faith and a heart of stone” who would not be afraid to destroy the enemies of Ukraine without mercy. Thinker of the “integral Ukrainian nationalism”, he built a philosophy where everything nationalistic is against Russia and against Jews.

He wanted to create an elite people, far from the “egalitarianism of slaves” of the Russian October Revolution and the “universal ideals” of the French Revolution.

He said that the imagination of real Ukrainians must be “fed by the legend of the last battle”, the “denial of what is” and the “fascinating image of the catastrophe that will bring something new”. They must serve “a categorical order” with “reckless obedience”.

According to him, “Ukrainian nationalism” is characterized by:
“the assertion of the will to live, of power, of expansion” (he promotes “The right of strong races to organize peoples and nations to strengthen the existing culture and civilization”)
“the desire to fight and the awareness of its extremity” (he praises the “creative violence of the initiative minority”)

Its qualities are:

“fanaticism” ;
“immorality”.

The fanaticism refers to the religious character of his doctrine. Dontsov notes that this is what makes the warriors invincible. It is therefore perfectly logical that after the World War Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko agreed to work in Munich with the secret society of the Muslim Brotherhood, or that in 2007 their followers were able to form an Anti-Russian Front with Chechen jihadists.

At the beginning of his work, Dontsov was not inspired by Italian fascism or German national socialism, but he appears to be marked by the same reasoning as the Croatian Ustasha, the Romanian Iron Guard, the Slovak Glinka, the Polish Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny.

In contact with the Nazis, Dontsov began to claim a mythical geography and history. The “true Ukrainians” were said to be of Scandinavian or proto-Germanic origin and to have descended from the Varegues, a Viking tribe from Sweden. Their ancestors founded the city of Novgorod in Russia and subdued the Russian Slavs.

In this mythology, the “Ukrainian nationalists” are the Good, while the “Muscovites” are the Evil. It is therefore quite normal that the muse of the Svoboda (Freedom) Party, the MP Irina Farion, declared well before the Russian military intervention: “We came into this world to destroy Moscow”.



In 2015, President Petro Poroshenko and his Prime Minister Arseni Yatsenyuk passed a set of laws that on the one hand banned Communist and Nazi symbols and on the other rehabilitated

Banderist symbols. In practice, since no one claimed to be a Nazi, the monuments to the victory of the Red Army over the Nazis were destroyed and replaced by others in honor of Stepan Bandera -who was responsible for the murder of 1.6 million of his compatriots- and his master thinker, Dmytro Dontsov.

The Council of Europe criticized these “decommunization” laws, which cast aspersions on regimes in general without mentioning the acts they condemn.

It was as a result of these laws that the motto of the Banderists became part of the official discourse: “Glory to Ukraine”. Of course, I have nothing against this slogan, any more than I have against the cry of the Muslims “Allah Akbar!”, but after hearing it sung by the jihadists who wanted to cut my throat I can no longer think that “God is great!” and I am still haunted by what the jihadists mean by it.

Similarly, it makes sense that Ukraine has a legal framework that legalizes a form of racial discrimination. On July 21, 2021, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law, introduced at his initiative, on the “indigenous peoples of Ukraine. It states that Tatars and Karaite Jews have “the right to full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms” (sic). This text, which seems very generous, is not at all so, because it is interpreted by default. It completes the texts recognizing the rights of Ukrainians of Scandinavian or proto-Germanic origin. In fact, it is used by the Courts to deny the rights of Ukrainians who do not recognize themselves in the general definition, nor in one of these minorities, in other words in those who say they are Slavic of Slavic origin. The latter people are not allowed to bring before a court their “right to full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

On March 20, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in a video posted on his Telegram account, “Any activity on the part of politicians participating in dividing society or collaborating with the enemy will not succeed, and will receive a severe response.” With that, he banned 11 political parties (Opposition Platform – For Life, Sharij’s Party, Nachi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, Derjava, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists, Bloc of Volodymyr Saldo). While most of them were not represented in the single chamber, the Verkhovna Rada, Opposition Platform-For Life was the second largest party in the country. It received 13 per cent of the vote and won 43 of 450 deputies.

Also on March 20, President Zelensky signed decrees banning for five years three opposition channels that had been “suspended” for several months. In addition, he merged all remaining channels under the control of the Security and Defense Council.

So there is no more freedom of expression, neither for politicians nor for journalists. Ukrainian democracy is dead, not from Russian military intervention, but from the will of its own government.

A Council for the Development of Libraries was created on May 5, 2022. Among other things, it must decide on the Russian books that are overloading the shelves. The Minister of Culture and Information Policy, journalist Oleksandr Tkachenko, said that they could become a raw material for printing Ukrainian books on recycled paper.

Book burnings are a classic of dictatorships. This time, we won’t burn anything in public, but we will recycle the paper. It is less conspicuous and more ecological.

Now let’s come to the way of making war. One peculiarity of the Ukrainian army is noteworthy: it does not pick up the bodies of its dead soldiers. All other armies in the world do not hesitate to put themselves in danger for that. To give a dignified burial to their dead is indispensable in their eyes. Not to do so would have disastrous consequences on the morale of their companions. So why does the Ukrainian army act differently?

If I understand Dmytro Dontsov’s thinking, this is a preparation for the eschatological battle between good and evil. According to Scandinavian mythology, when a battle was fought by the Varegues, the Valkyries came down to the battlefield riding wolves. They decided who of the brave Vikings would die. Then they took their souls to Valhalla to form with them the future army of the “last battle”. Thus, the men fallen on the field of honor were not victims of the fate, but were chosen for a glorious destiny.

Image

Universal history teaches us conflicts that have lasted for decades and that have exhausted the economies of the countries that participated in them. However, he does not give us a single example of a conflict that lasts forever. All wars end sooner or later and not always with the unconditional victory of one of the parties. Sometimes, exhausted by the confrontation, the parties decide to seek peace, a conditional peace that benefits both. In any case, the conflict phase inevitably ends, which pushes the participants to understand what relationship can be built on the day after.It is an important aspect, since the end of hostilities implies reaching certain agreements, both territorial and economic. And if the parties to the conflict have not completely burned all the bridges, as a rule, the process of peaceful resolution between them is less painful.

Currently, the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine has entered a phase that contains no miracles and no surprises. The units of the Ukrainian Army are methodically destroyed and forced to retreat from their positions [at least in Donbass, the main battle, with positional clashes in other areas of the front, in which Ukraine tries to counterattack, for the moment, without great successes- Ed ], abandoning territories to the militias and soldiers of the Russian Army. The Ukrainian economy has fallen into a kind of coma and is no longer able to maintain the fighting capacity of the army and territorial defense units and aid from the West is not coming on the scale that was announced from the highest tribunes.

Of course, the opinions of analysts and military experts differ, but most openly warn that the point of no return has passed and Ukraine's defeat may come in early autumn. In the current reality, the parties to the conflict, both the direct participants and those who are in the shadows, must think about how to build their relationships the day after .

It is naive to expect such prudence from Ukraine, since those who wield power in the country, including all sorts of political swindlers, will not be in the aftermath . Hence, they cling to their happy present with all their strength, aware that their days are numbered and that they will end up displaced at the end of the conflict unless it is resolved in favor of Ukraine, something that is basically impossible.

That is why they do not ask for help to cease hostilities or to help the civilian population suffering from the war, but instead demand "1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple rocket launch systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, 1,000 drones." Nor do they care how many Ukrainians will die on the front lines in this senseless conflict collectively encouraged by the West, which decided to paint the post-Soviet state in shades of brown and throw it into battle.

Judging by the growing reluctance to hand over promised weapons, many European politicians seem to be thinking about how EU countries will rebuild relations with Russia the day after . A relationship that, as experience shows, the European Union needs more than Russia.

Freedom-loving France has been the first to raise its voice about the need to establish a dialogue with Russia. She did it in the mouth of her president, Emmanuel Macron. In an embellished, but at the same time concrete, way, he appealed to European politicians to be more cautious and not cross that line that would prevent the return to a constructive dialogue in the future. It was harshly criticized by Hillary Clinton, who described this position as outdated and stated that "the ultimate success must be the defeat of Russia." But if memory serves me right, Joe Biden is the president of the United States and only he has the ability to speak for the state, while Clinton is now a retired figure. Despite the attacks of yesterday's heroesMacron's stance has received support from other European politicians, who have recently felt the power of the economic sanctions imposed against Russia.

“It is not only Emmanuel Macron who says it. This position reflects reality: Russia will continue to exist after the peace talks and it will be necessary to clearly define how we intend to coexist with it. It will be very difficult, but we are obliged to relate to Russia on this continent," said Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy.

In the current situation, many may have already thought that they have been involved in an adventure led and implemented by the United States on the territory of Ukraine for nothing. Europe is suffering serious losses, at the moment only economic, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the authorities of the EU countries to explain to their population the drop in quality of life that is a consequence of their anti-Putin policy.

Currently only Hungary may speak openly of its refusal to interfere in what is going on, but in the future the number of countries showing their neutrality will increase. For now, the population must understand that by supplying arms to the Ukrainian regime and thus prolonging the military phase of the conflict, they may be blowing up all the bridges, thereby depriving themselves of the opportunity to resume dialogue with Russia, which will be important as winter is coming.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/24/24893/#more-24893

Google Translator

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

Encircled grouping in Gorsko-Golden Cauldron
June 24, 11:43

Image

Official information about the encircled grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Gorsky and Zolote.

Enemy units encircled in Gorskoe and Zolote according to the Russian Ministry of Defense:

3rd mechanized battalion of the 24th mechanized brigade,
15th mountain assault battalion of the 128th mountain assault brigade
42nd motorized infantry battalion of the 57th motorized infantry brigade
70 -th battalion of the 101st territorial defense
brigade brigade artillery group of the 57th motorized infantry brigade formation of the Nazis of the "Right Sector"
detachment of foreign mercenaries.

The actual size of the group:

about 1800 military personnel, 120 Right Sector Nazis, up to 80 foreign mercenaries,
as well as more than 40 armored fighting vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars

. On the morning of June 24, our troops control about half of Zolote.

Also reported. that in 2 days in the area of ​​Lisichansk and Gorsky with Zoloty more than 800 enemy soldiers and officers surrendered.
In the Lisichansk region alone, about 1,000 enemy soldiers and officers were killed in 2 days. Taking into account the wounded, losses of up to 5 thousand appear in 2 days. Only near Lisichansk.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7697215.html

Map of Gorski kotl
June 24, 12:13

Image

In addition to https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7697215.html

The official map of the Gorsky cauldron from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Situation on the morning of June 24th.
Presented in today's report of the Russian Ministry of Defense https://t.me/boris_rozhin/54857
In the morning, half of Zolote was controlled and Gorsky was being cleaned up.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7697499.html

Google Translator

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

Ukraine SitRep - Zolote Cauldron Closes - Lysichansk Blocked
In the last situation report about the war in Ukraine I discussed the situation near Lysichansk.

The Ukrainian leadership is still sending new units into the Lysichansk cauldron in the east. The Russians do not mind that. Their job is to "demilitarize" Ukraine. To enclose more troops in one swoop makes that easier.

Image

The distance between the red Russian held area at the the top to the one at the bottom at the most narrow gap is a mere 15 kilometer or some 9 miles. There is only one open road running through it from west to east which is used for pushing resupplies to the Ukrainian troops in Lysichansk.

The map has since changed significantly:

Jun 16
Image

What developed was first a smaller cauldron around Zolote at the bottom of the map.

Jun 18
Image

This was a classic move done by the book.

Jun 20
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Then a battalion of Ukrainian troops that was supposed to hold the villages in the upper area of the pocket retreated. Some say they were ordered to leave, others claim they mutinited. The later is more likely as these were amateur infantry from the Territorial Defense Forces who, without sufficient support, had been send to replace better troops that were ordered back.

Jun 22
Image

The Russians on the eastern wing moved west to take 5 villages in one day along the pocket's northern border.

Jun 24
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That put the lid onto the cauldron which immediately began to cook the estimated 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers who were inside.

The above maps are quite rough. A more detailed one from the Russian side shows that several towns within the Zolote cauldron have not yet been cleared.

Jun 24
Image

In today's report the Russian Defense Ministry claims:

Successful offensive of Russian units towards Lugansk within 5 days has resulted in the liberation of Loskutovka, Podlesnoye, Mirnaya Dolina, Shchebkaryer, Vrubovka, Nyrkovo, Nikiolayevka, Novoivanovka, Ustinovka and Ray-Aleksandrovka.
Group of Ukrainian units has been completely isolated near Gorskoye and Zolotoye.

This pocket has encircled four battalions: 3rd Mechanised Battalion of 24th Mechanised Brigade, 15th Mountain Assault Battalion of 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, 42nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, 70th Battalion of 101st Territorial Defence Brigade, as well as an artillery group of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, a group of Nazis from Right Sector organisation and a detachment of foreign mercenaries.

In total, the Gorskoye pocket has isolated up to 2 thousand people: about 1,800 servicemen, 120 Nazis from Right Sector, up to 80 foreign mercenaries, as well as over 40 armoured combat vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars.

41 servicemen abandoned their resistance and surrendered voluntarily just over the past 24 hours.

According to the prisoners, the encircled Ukrainian units are exhausted. The units are currently manned by less than 40%. Higher Ukrainian command has lost control over these units. Armament, munitions, fuel and other logistic supply is completely stopped.

Russian troops are straitening the Gorskoye encirclement by launching uninterrupted attacks at the enemy. Half of Zolotoye had been taken under control over yesterday.


Since this morning some 600 have additionally surrendered. The others will likely follow later today or tomorrow.

Also this morning the Ukrainian deputy commander for Luhansk province announced that the soldiers and foreign mercenaries who held out in the industrial area of Sevierodonetzk east of Lysichansk were told to retreat to Lysichansk. In fact a full retreat from Lysichansk further west seemed to be likely.

But that was no longer really possible for the 10-15,000 soldiers in and around the city as a bridge on the single road that leads to the west has been dropped overnight onto the railway tracks below.

Bridge marked in red

Image

A Russian helicopter performed that mission. Here is how the bridge now looks.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Correction (19:00 utc) This sections was wrong and has been corrected. A bridge was bombed to cut the escape route from Lysichansk but it was a different one than I first wrote. That does not change the conclusion

Bridge marked in red - This map is of a different bridge.

Image

This map is of the bridge that was actually destroyed. It is at the north-west of the Lysichansk refinery I discussed in the previous situation report.

Bridge marked in red

Image

A Russian helicopter performed that mission and it now seems that there was a bigger landing of airborne troops west of the refinery.

Here is how the bridge is now said to be looking. Correction (17:30 utc): The picture does not show the bridge on the map.

Correction (19:00 utc) The picture is of the destroyed bridge but it was geo-located wrongly. But that the bridge on the map is now damaged was reported by a source that is usually correct. I still assume that it is in fact so. Again the map was wrong, not the picture of the bridge.

Sorry for this 'fog of war' confusion. The tactical effects of the incident mentioned below stays the same. [end of both corrections]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Image

There are still side roads and dirt tracks that can be used but the whole area west of Luhansk is under Russian fire control. The long convoy that would be needed for a retreat can not pass without being severely molested.

The big Lysichansk cauldron has thereby also closed. Despite the still necessary cleanup of the city and two or three small villages one can state that the former Ukrainian province Luhansk, now the Luhansk People's Republic, has been liberated from Ukraine.

On the Russian side some 30-40 Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG) have been involved in the whole operation. Most of them can now resupply and rest to later be used elsewhere.

Posted by b on June 24, 2022 at 14:37 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/06/l ... .html#more

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

forwarded from
Readovka
Map of hostilities and the situation on the fronts on the evening of June 24

Today marks the fourth month since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine. It was marked by the final completion of the history of the Gorsko-Golden Cauldron - the People's Militia of the LPR and the Russian Ministry of Defense officially announced the liberation of these settlements and the surrounding areas adjacent to them from the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that had been holding here. Events here began to develop rapidly literally in the last week. After the long-awaited capture by the allied forces of Vrubovka from one end of the outlined boiler, and Toshkovka - on the other, the accelerated closure of the "golden" ring began - Chikhirovo , Mirnaya Dolina ,Paradise-Aleksandrovka . In Rai-Aleksandrovka, Russian troops cut the last road connecting the militants who were in the operational encirclement with Lisichansk , after which the cauldron was finally “decorated”. Today, Gorskoye and Zolote were also taken by the allied forces, and the majority of the militants surrendered . Until the complete liberation of the Lugansk region , only Severodonetsk and Lisichansk now remain.

⚔️Let's move on to the situation on the fronts:

▫️Izyum-Slavic Front
There were reports of the capture by our troops of the settlement Sidorovo , for which there were long battles. This village is one of the key points from which an offensive will be launched from the north towards Slavyansk .

▫️Lugansk Front
The denouement of events in the Gorsko-Golden fortified area inevitably led to the approach of the denouement of another "node" - Severodonetsko-Lysichansky . From Severodonetsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already officially retreating, and in the meantime, the allied forces have taken Sirotino and Voronovo . In Lisichansk, ours had already entered the city, fighting began in the industrial zone on the southern outskirts. There are also battles for Belaya Gora - one of the southern suburbs. At the same time, traffic is developing from Nikolaevka towards the Lisichansky Oil Refinery with the obvious goal of closing the city from the western side, and the cleanup of Volcheyarovka is also ongoing.. There are reports that a strategically important bridge at the exit from Lysichansk has been blown up - thus, it will be possible to escape from there only by leaving the equipment.

▫️Donetsk Front
In the area of ​​Vuhledar , a tense situation persists. Fierce battles in the Pavlovka-Nikolskoye-Yegorovka triangle, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are almost continuously attacking with the support of tanks. Ours are actively shooting back. Pavlovka remains with the enemy for now.

🚀Arrivals
In the morning, militants from Lisichansk launched "Tochka-U" towards Lugansk . She was shot down by air defense forces over the village of Teplichny , several houses were damaged. According to the trajectory of the flying rocket , it was determined that the target of the strike, most likely, was the building of the city administration. Stakhanov and Bryanka were also under attack .
The shelling of Donetsk does not stop - a woman died today in the Petrovsky district , a seriously wounded child died in the hospital in the evening, they could not save him. It was not a good morning in Kherson - as a result of the terrorist attack , the
the car of a member of the regional CAA Dmitry Savluchenko. The only person who died was the politician himself, who was driving.

🌎Four
additional HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), which the White House announced on Thursday, will be delivered to Kiev in mid-July, CNN said.

👁From the interesting
The Verkhovna Rada introduced a bill on the ban on the departure of men from Ukraine, as well as on the possibility of conscripting people with disabilities into military service with their consent.

Image

***

forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Summary of hostilities on June 24, 2022 from

Vladislav Coal

🎯Kharkiv direction - front line without changes.

🎯PAVLOGRAD ARCH:

🏹The northern flank of the arc (from Izyum to Zolotoy) - in the area of ​​​​Izyum and Slavyansk - pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​​​Vernopolye, Kurulka, Dolina, Bogorodichny, there is information about the liberation of Sidorovo. In Severodonetsk , the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to retreat, using it the Russians liberated Sirotino and Voronovo. Fights are going on to prevent the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Borovskoye and the industrial zone of Severodonetsk. There is no exact information on the strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the left bank of the Seversky Donets.

🏹Central Front (from Zolote to Marinka) - the cleaning of the boiler in Zolote-Gorsky continues . There is no final information on the number of those surrounded, the RF Ministry of Defense voices the figure of 2000 militants. To the north, fighting continues for Belaya Gora, Lisichansk is blockaded from the south, and fighting is underway for the southern industrial zone. To the west, fighting is taking place in the area of ​​Volcheyarovka (there is still no confirmation of its control) and north-west of Nikolaevka, in the direction of the Lisichansky Oil Refinery. To the south, in the direction of Artemovsk , artillery work continues on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine along the Lisichansk-Artemovsk highway, up to Soledar. The battles for Klinovoe also continue. In the direction of Svetlodarsk , the release of Kodema is reported. Near Avdiivka and Maryinka- also unchanged.

🏹The southern flank of the arc (from the Dnieper River to Marinka) - the NM of the DPR are conducting defensive battles between Pavlovka captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the villages of Yegorovka and Nikolskoye. The village of Shevchenko is in the gray zone.

🎯Kherson-Nikolaev direction - the front line is unchanged.

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 24, 2022

▪️In the north of the Kharkov region , the RF Armed Forces continue their offensive in the vicinity of Verkhniy Saltov and Pitomnik .

▪️In the Izyum direction, Ukrainian DRGs are trying to reach Izyum from the west, trying to divert the Russian Armed Forces from the Donbass and cut off logistics routes.

▪️Subdivisions of the Yug grouping of the RF Armed Forces under the command of General of the Army Surovikin completed the defeat of the AFU grouping in Gorsky-Zolotoye .
➖There were up to 2,000 people in the Mountain Cauldron : about 1,800 military personnel, 120 Right Sector Nazis, and up to 80 foreign mercenaries.

▪️The allied forces of the group of troops "Center" of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under the command of Colonel General Lapin blocked Lisichansk from the south.
➖In the south , there are fights at the RTI plant, the gelatin factory and the Lisichansk glass factory, as well as in Belaya Gora .
➖Despite the barrage fire of the RF Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to withdraw forces from Lisichansk to reserve positions. Part of the servicemen of the 57th brigade fled from the occupied lines.
➖The units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remaining in Severodonetsk are trying to cross the Seversky Donets and leave the city.

▪️The offensive of the Russian Armed Forces continues in the Soledar direction
➖Fighting continues on the section of the Bakhmut-Lysichansk highway between Yakovlevka and Berestov .
➖The Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out rocket attacks on Stakhanov , Bryanka and Teplichny.

▪️In the Ugledar direction, the RF Armed Forces are holding back the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Yegorovka and Nikolsky .

▪️Positional battles and mutual shelling of the sides continue in the vicinity of Avdiivka .

▪️In the Zaporozhye direction , the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were suppressed in Hulyaipole, Staroukrainka, Balabino and Kushugum.

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction, the parties are engaged in artillery duels: the RF Armed Forces attacked enemy positions in the village of Shesterenka .

Image

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Severodonetsko-Lysichansk direction
as of 22.00 June 24, 2022

🔻The grouping of troops "South" under the command of General of the Army Surovikin completed the defeat of the encircled grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the "Gorsky cauldron". Russian troops and units of the People's Militia of the LPR liberated the settlements of GORSKOE and ZOLOTOE .

There were up to two thousand people in the "Mountain Cauldron": about 1800 military personnel, 120 Nazis of the "Right Sector", up to 80 foreign mercenaries; as well as more than 40 units of armored combat vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars. 41 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially laid down their arms.

🔻Allied forces are mopping up the southern outskirts of LYSICHANSK . Formations and military units of the group of troops "Center" of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under the command of Colonel General Lapin blocked the city from the south

▪️Fierce battles are going on in the industrial zones on the southern outskirts of LISICHANSK at the gelatin factory and the factory of rubber products . Militia units are cleaning up the Lisichansk glass factory.

Tank subunits of the 17th brigade fire indiscriminately in order to deter the offensive of the RF Armed Forces in the south of LISICHANSK.

▪️Despite the fire control of the route from LISICHANSK, a partial withdrawal of forces to reserve positions began. At the same time, some units arbitrarily leave their positions: 60 servicemen of the 57th motorized brigade retreated from the given lines.

▪️There is an intensive shelling of the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in certain areas of SEVERODONETSK and LYSICHANSK . The remaining units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to leave SEVERODONETSK, independently forcing the Seversky Donets River .

Artillery units and aviation of the RF Armed Forces destroyed the fortified areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in MALORYAZANTSEVO and NOVODRUZHESK .

Image

***

forwarded from
Ministry of Defense of Russia
⚠️ It has been reliably established that the specialists of the 83rd Center for Information and Psychological Operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing another cynical provocation to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of delivering strikes on potentially dangerous objects, as a result of which hundreds of civilians in Odessa may suffer.

🔹To do this, on the territory of the cemetery of those who died from the plague in the 19th century (Privoz area, Chumka hill, Vodoprovodnaya street), militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are concentrating large-caliber artillery and foreign-made MLRS . In the event of a strike by the Russian Armed Forces on the accumulation of equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this area, the Ukrainian side intends to disseminate information in the media about the destruction of burials and the emergence of a biological hazard in Odessa, allegedly due to the fault of Russian military personnel.

❗️These facts once again demonstrate the indifference of the Ukrainian authorities to the fate of civilians and complete disregard for the provisions of international humanitarian law. All this is happening with the tacit consent of the countries of the "civilized" West, which continue to turn a blind eye to the numerous war crimes of the Kyiv regime.

***

forwarded from
KORNILOV
On February 25, all Ukrainian media reported how “two enemy shells” hit the SBU building in Chernihiv, causing it to burn down. Today, Politico, citing a "high-ranking Ukrainian official," reported that the Chernihiv head of the SBU stupidly burned this building "for no reason," simply because he did not have time to evacuate secret documents from there. These are the "enemy shells"😂

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦 The situation in the Soledar-Bakhmut direction
as of 20.00 June 24, 2022

▪️The units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which previously managed to withdraw from Gorsky and Zolote , are preparing for the defense of Bakhmut (Artemovsk). Due to heavy losses in reconnaissance equipment, Ukrainian units use advanced gunners and observers to monitor the movement of the Russian Armed Forces behind the front line.

▪️Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut and Soledar carried out a series of rocket attacks on the settlement. Stakhanov, Bryanka, Teplichnoye .

▪️In addition, shelling of the western part of Gorlovka from the side of the settlement was recorded. Leninskoe .

▪️In the area of ​​N. p. Klinovoye and Pokrovskoye artillery duels continue. The Wagner PMC units operating in this direction have not yet taken active offensive actions.

▪️Fighting continues on the section of the Bakhmut-Lysichansk highway between Yakovlevka and Berestov .

▪️Additional units of the 72nd OMB and 26th OBR arrived near New York to strike at Russian positions and divert from the Soledar and Lugansk directions.

▪️The forces of the 112th Terodefense Brigade were withdrawn to Konstantinovka to restore combat capability .

Image

***

forwarded from
Kadyrov_95
1:21
0:49
0:54
The liberation of the settlements of Zolote and Gorskoye will be included in military textbooks as the most effective special operation in terms of the military economy. For each cartridge spent, our special forces received a huge arsenal of foreign-style captured weapons.

A large number of Javelins, mortar installations and completely different types of ammunition were left to our fighters by the fleeing nationalists and Bandera. Almost every trench is littered with grenades, cartridges and other supplies that can be safely used to further advance our troops.

Now the fighters of the special police regiment named after the Hero of Russia Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic continue to persecute the Ukronazis and Bandera, who are trying to hide from retribution. In parallel, work is underway to clean up settlements. In the near future, we will clear the entire territory of Donbass from the enemy. We intend to go to the bitter end and will never deviate from the intended goal! AHMAT-POWER!

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

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

Post by blindpig » Sat Jun 25, 2022 1:32 pm

The routine of war
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/25/2022

Original Article: DonRF

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Yesterday, the opponent distributed through the digital press a map of possible attacks, which are not limited to the territory of the former Ukraine. I have no doubt that the bombing will not be limited to that territory. In at least three areas, American 155-millimeter howitzers have been used on the territory of the Russian Federation. Why wouldn't they use HIMARS too? They will, I'm sure they will. I don't think it will be in big cities, but if Ukraine boasts about how many Ukrainian citizens it can kill, for them the citizens of the Russian Federation are nothing but dust.

Meanwhile, the conflict has become familiar and imperceptible in the news field. There are three regions of the Russian Federation where this is not the case. These are Briansk, Kursk and Belgorod. There is potential danger in Rostov and Voronezh and there will be other regions. For all the others, everything is limited to images in the news. It is neither good nor bad, life is like that. Each person sees what affects him and what he sees only on television is an abstract image.

But the images are not pleasant for us: an aircraft crashed in the Ryazan region. According to a spokesperson told RIA Novosti, one victim was transferred to the Ryazan hospital and the others to the regional clinical hospital. It was an accident of an IL-76. The equipment involved in transportation is wearing out.

According to the RPL, on Friday night, Ukrainian troops bombarded the city of Stakhanov and the towns of Brianka and Teplichnoe using Tochka-U missiles [the same ammunition that caused dozens of victims in Kramatorsk and Donetsk in the first weeks of the war. war and for which Ukraine accused Russia, despite the fact that it is the Kiev troops, not the Russian troops, that use that ammunition- Ed ]. Ukrainian troops also opened fire on the Church of the Annunciation in the Kubishevsky district of Donetsk. A civilian born in 1948 was killed in the bombing. Two more people were injured.

The bombings of the DPR and the RPL continue. It is Donetsk that is suffering the most. Ukraine continues to hit military targets : a church and residential buildings. A six-year-old boy who had been injured in the Makeevka shelling died on Thursday.

But there are also positive points: Gorskoe and Zolotoe are ours and the enemy has withdrawn particularly from Severodonetsk: "We will have to withdraw our troops from Severodonetsk because there is no point in defending destroyed positions and the number of casualties is increasing." The enemy retreats explaining that the city is 90% destroyed and that it is time to deal with Lisichansk. For residents of other cities, it is a reason to think about their future prospects. For the current authorities, the ideal Ukraine is a mountain of cement, broken bricks and corpses in the southeast and Lviv as part of the European Union.

Currently, the battle is taking place on the outskirts of Lisichansk. In addition, there are missile attacks by Russian forces in Krivoy Rog, Odessa and Nikolaev. Enemy positions near Zaporozhie are being shelled. There are battles near Ugledar, where the enemy, who has sent reserves, tries to attack. A terrorist attack has been prevented in Kherson.

In short, we are moving forward and liberating cities. That's the main. The information policy… we do not have an information policy. We have military analysts who want to dispose of the sons of Azov, who want to imprison the volunteers, there are guards and there are doomsayers, but there is no information policy. But is that something new? Personally, I have ceased to be surprised.

Going back to the beginning, the conflict is becoming routine. If all goes as planned, it might be a good thing. If not? If a mobilization and martial law is necessary? There are some who think that we can finish off seven people in one blow and that on the other side are the Ukrainian workers forced to go to the front by the criminal Zelensky regime. Is that what the Ukrainian defectors being shown around the country are saying? Of course not. Audiences are important. And ads for customers.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/25/24900/#more-24900

Google Translator

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Neo-Nazis and Foreign Fighters Among Thousands of Surrounded Forces in Donbass
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 24, 2022

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Up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops, nationalists and foreign fighters have been surrounded by the Russian forces and the Donbass militias, Moscow claimed on Friday. The forces were encircled in two neighboring towns in the Lugansk People’s Republic.

Four Ukrainian battalions. as well as an artillery unit are among those trapped, the Defense Ministry announced. The encircled forces also include around 120 fighters from the notorious Ukrainian ‘Right Sector,’ a neo-Nazi group of up to 80 foreign fighters, according to the ministry.

The troops have been surrounded in the towns of Gorskoye and Zolotoye, located south of the major cities of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, which have recently become one of the major targets for both sides amid the continued fighting for the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The Russian military has also claimed that the trapped units have lost over 60% of their strength. According to the defense ministry, 41 Ukrainian soldiers encircled in the area have surrendered. The Defense Ministry has also published a video supposedly showing those who have laid down their arms.

The head of the Ukrainian Gorskoye military administration, Aleksey Babchenko, confirmed to the Ukrainian media on Friday that the town has been fully seized by the Russian forces and the Donbass militias.

Sergey Gaidai, who Ukraine calls the head of the “Lugansk Oblast,” has also said on Telegram that the Ukrainian forces might soon retreat from Lisichansk since their defensive positions had been destroyed by the Russian forces and there is “little sense” in staying.

The Russian Air Force has also successfully hit a Ukrainian artillery battery equipped with the US-made M777 howitzers in the Kharkov region. Earlier, Washington vowed to supply 90 such artillery pieces to Kiev, according to a May report by the New York Times.

The news comes just days after the Russian military claimed to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in a strike on a shipbuilding plant in the Ukrainian port of Nikolaev. Last week, the defense ministry also claimed to have killed scores of Ukrainian officers after striking a compound where a meeting of commanders of several Ukrainian units was taking place.

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements. The Minsk Protocol was designed to give the regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

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

Russian Ops in Ukraine (June 24, 2022): Russian Encirclement Closes on Ukrainian Forces
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 24, 2022



Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for June 24, 2022

– Russian forces encircle, kill, capture, or drive out 2,000+ Ukrainian forces near Severodonetsk;
– Ukrainian forces ordered to withdraw from Severodonetsk;
– Lysychansk next to be encircled;
– HIMARS now in the hands of Ukrainian troops, more on the way;
– Western analysts begin to admit limits to Western aid to Ukraine including recently proposed Gray Eagle drone shipments;
– US Congress members want F-15, F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots;
– Ukraine’s military industrial support in the West is outmatched by Russia;

References:

Institute for the Study of War (ISW) – Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 23, 2022:
https://www.understandingwar.org/back…
AP (via Defense News) – US to send Ukraine rocket systems, other aid in new package:
https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/…
Foreign Policy – ‘It’s Not Afghanistan’: Ukrainian Pilots Push Back on U.S.-Provided Drones:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/21/…
War on the Rocks – GETTING DRONES READY FOR CONVENTIONAL WAR:
https://warontherocks.com/2022/06/get…
Congressman Adam Kinzinger – Kinzinger & Houlahan Introduce Ukraine Fighter Pilots Act:
https://kinzinger.house.gov/news/docu…
CSIS Missile Defense Project – Russian Air and Missile Defense:
https://missilethreat.csis.org/system…

Alexander Mercouris – Day of Disaster for Ukraine in Donbass, UK Military Think Tank Confirms US Unable to Re-Arm Ukraine (RUSI article: The Return of Industrial Warfare):


The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) – The Return of Industrial Warfare:
https://rusi.org/explore-our-research…
RUSI – Funding:
https://rusi.org/about/support-rusi/f…
RUSI – Russia’s Ukraine Invasion: The Most Dangerous Phase is Upon Us:
https://rusi.org/explore-our-research…
Al Jazeera – As Kyiv claims political victory, Russia advances in east Ukraine:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6…
The Guardian – EU leaders to grant Ukraine candidate status in blow to Putin:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202…

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... an-forces/

NATO Blockades Kaliningrad
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 24, 2022
Christopher Black

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With the success of Russia’s operations in Ukraine, we have to be concerned about NATO reacting to their strategic defeat by shifting their aggression not only to intense economic and propaganda warfare against Russia but also against Russia’s position in the Baltic region.

The blockade imposed on Kaliningrad on June 20th by Lithuania, a NATO member, and approved by the European Union, on the pretext of enforcing their illegal ‘sanctions,” is a direct act of war against Russia which will lead to immediate action by Russia to end the blockade, and follows the NATO logic which has been expressed openly for some time.

In February 2016, The Atlantic Council, the NATO think tank in the USA, issued a report called, “Alliance At Risk.”

In that report they stated,

“The Russian invasion of Crimea, its support for separatists, and its invasion of eastern Ukraine have effectively ripped up the post-Cold War settlement of Europe. Russia is now a de facto strategic adversary. Even more dangerously, the threat is potentially existential, because Putin has constructed an international dynamic that could put Russia on a collision course with NATO. At the center of this collision would be the significant Russian-speaking populations in the Baltic States…’

The document uses language that indicates that the NATO powers do not recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Kaliningrad that was established at the end of the Second World War, claiming that Russia “has ripped up” the post-Cold War settlement of Europe.

NATO has continuously increased its presence in the area. A multinational battle group, led by soldiers from the US Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, was stationed in Poland, and is now joined by the 82nd Airborne Division not far from the country’s border with Kaliningrad. Canadian army units are now in Latvia, near Riga, along with other NATO forces. The unit is part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, which is intended, they pretend, “to deter potential Russian aggression” and on June 19th the US journal Politico reported that 650 German soldiers had joined other NATO units and were now in Lithuania to protect it “from Russian aggression.”

This of course is exactly in line with the demands of the Alliance At Risk Report that called for a NATO force to be placed in Poland.

We have to wonder whether Biden’s visit to the US 82nd Airborne Division that was recently sent to Poland was really about events in Ukraine or something else, that being, to create another threat against Russia at Kaliningrad. The press restrictions on reporting the movements of the Division and their purpose are unusually secret. We can speculate that they are linked to the statement made in an interview on March 10th by General Waldermar Skrzpczak, former commander of Polish land forces, who stated that,

“The enclave has been under Russian occupation since 1945,” stressing that the territory historically belonged to Prussia and Poland, and that, “We have the right to have disputes over the territory occupied by Russia.” There is no historical basis for such a claim but this statement did not come out of nowhere. It was clearly designed to provoke a Russian response and get people in the west used to the idea that Russia is“occupying foreign territory” in order to manipulate the western public into supporting a move to seize the oblast.

“Dealing with Kaliningrad first is imperative”

Several American think tanks have called for the seizure and stated that taking the region was key if the alliance wants to deprive Russia of local ground and air superiority, and use of the Russian Baltic Fleet’s homeport.

They stressed that NATO must work up “strong nerves” to invade Kaliningrad and pointing out that “Russian propaganda will trumpet the ‘sacred soil of the motherland,’ and Russian leaders will threaten nuclear retaliation.”

That report isn’t the first time a US think tank has proposed “neutralising” Russia’s Kaliningrad in a conflict.

In 2017, the RAND Corporation issued its own report on the prospects of a conflict in Kaliningrad, questioning whether Russia would even treat an attack on Kaliningrad as ‘an attack on the Russian homeland.’

Just days before Russia began its operations in Ukraine, a US B52H strategic bomber carried out a simulated bombing of the Russian Baltic Fleet’s Kaliningrad base. Previously, Russian and NATO aircraft have had encounters over local airspace, with one incident seeing a Russian jet fighter chasing away a Spanish Air Force aircraft that approached close to the plane carrying Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as he travelled over the area.

On March 10, the same Jamestown Foundation again stated that the US and NATO should seize Kaliningrad, beginning with a blockade of the oblast by closing the road and rail links through Lithuania and Poland, as well as cutting the natural gas pipelines to it, hoping to cause unrest among the population A direct attack could follow.

On March 28th the Pentagon announced that,

In coordination with the German government, six US Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft are scheduled to arrive at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany on that date in order to, “bolster readiness, enhance NATO’s collective defense posture and further increase air integration capabilities with our allies and partner nations.’

They stated,

“These Growlers …. specialize in flying electronic warfare missions, using a suite of jamming sensors to confuse enemy radars, greatly aiding in the ability to conduct suppression of enemy air defense operations.”

“They are not deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine. They are being deployed completely in keeping with our efforts to bolster NATO’s deterrence and defense capabilities along that eastern flank.”

These aircraft clearly would be useful to them in the event of an operation against Kaliningrad to suppress Russian air defences and represent a direct threat against Russia.

All these American and NATO think tanks dress up their ideas for aggression as a response to “Russia’s hostile plans’ but the real reason is to push Russia out of its main naval base protecting Russia’s access to the North Sea and Atlantic, to threaten and control the approaches St. Petersburg itself, and to attempt a blockade of the city and exports and imports through it. Memories of the Nazi siege of Leningrad in WWII come quickly to mind.

With the success of Russia’s operations in Ukraine, and the inability of NATO to react except through economic warfare and propaganda, and, with the coming crisis in Europe with their refusal to pay for Russian gas and oil supplies we can expect them to try to shift the blame for their self-created crisis to Russia. The Kaliningrad Oblast is clearly a focus in their planning.

A day later, the Russian foreign ministry reacted, as reported in TASS, that

“On June 21, head of the EU mission in Moscow Markus Ederer was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. A resolute protest was expressed to the EU representative over the introduction of unilateral anti-Russian restrictions on cargo transit between the Kaliningrad Region and the rest of the Russian Federation. The inadmissibility of such actions that violate the EU’s corresponding legal and political obligations and lead to the escalation of tensions was pointed out,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“We demanded restoring the normal function of the Kaliningrad transit without delay. Otherwise, retaliatory measures will follow.”


While there are some initial comments in the Russian and other media that Kaliningrad could be supplied by sea, the difficulties of doing so and the insult of the blockade, which as I stated is an act of war by Lithuania, make it more likely that direct action will be taken against Lithuania by Russia, for what else can “retaliatory measures” mean otherwise. For this blockade is different from the general economic warfare being conducted against Russia. This is the beginning of a siege of a major Russian city and military base by NATO and is a direct threat to St. Petersburg. It cannot be tolerated.

Of course the danger is that this blockade is meant to provoke Russia into attacking a NATO member, which Russia has said it will not do, in order for NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. But Russia can rightly argue that it was attacked by NATO, not only by the supply of weapons to Ukraine but also by using Lithuania to impose this blockade on a Russian city, and all bets are now off. We shall see.

We know that NATO was created with the objective of crushing the USSR. Its creation was a negation of the United Nations which it successfully pushed aside when it attacked Yugoslavia (and China) in 1999. It is the armed fist of western capital against all socialist nations and those capitalist nations or mixed economies of the world trying to maintain their independence, against Russia, and China and all the nations that try to maintain their sovereignty and the freedom of their peoples to determine their own destinies. It is our task to expose it for what it is so that the world can resist it before the NATO gang’s reckless and criminal aggression provokes a general world war, which the folly of the blockade of Kaliningrad can lead us to.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... liningrad/

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Restoration of Mariupol will take up to 5 years
June 25, 11:53

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The DPR says that the full restoration of Mariupol will take from 3 to 5 years.

For comparison. The plan for the restoration of Sevastopol after the Great Patriotic War (the city was very badly destroyed, after the liberation there were only 10,000 civilians in the city) was approved in 1945 and, according to Stalin's order, included the attraction of serious resources from all over the USSR (Sevastopol was among the 15 priority cities for recovery). The main tasks were supposed to be completed in 3-4 years, for which, under the government of the USSR, separate departments were created to deal with the expenditure of a special budget.

By 1951, the main tasks of restoring the city were generally resolved (including by involving German and Romanian prisoners of war who cleared the rubble and helped build new residential buildings). The current look of the city center, just then, was formed. The full completion of the restoration of the city was completed by 1954.

In the case of Mariupol, now the authorities are facing similar tasks - a heavily destroyed city that needs to be revived in a fairly short historical period.

Given the experience of restoring Grozny after the Chechen wars and Crimea after the Ukrainian occupation, the task of restoring Mariupol seems to be quite solvable. For the authorities, this is a great way to show that Russia will restore all the liberated territories. Moreover, here we are actually restoring our own, since the DPR and LPR will become part of Russia after the end of the NMD, and Mariupol is de facto a Russian city already.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7698993.html

Briefing on the "moral and strategic" necessity of partitioning Russia
June 25, 9:39 am

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A little about the goals of the enemy in the ongoing war.

Briefing on the "moral and strategic" necessity of partitioning Russia

The U.S. government's Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe ( CSCE ) briefed on the "moral and strategic" need to partition Russia Reich. We were told stories about how he liked to indulge in a flight of fancy, looking at the architectural models of the new Berlin, which was to be built after the German victory in the war, despite the fact that the Allies were already approaching from both sides. Delusions of future grandeur, while everything around him was collapsing.
Feeling omnipotent after a string of great successes can often lead to thinking of yourself as a permanent winner, incapable of defeat. It enters the realm of delusion when the facts on the ground contradict the notion of victory. Such perceptions currently dominate a large part of the US foreign policy community.

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Yes, you read that right: the discussion about the “necessity” of dividing Russia for “moral and strategic” reasons.
What is this US Government Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, you ask?
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the US Helsinki Commission, is an independent commission of the US federal government. For more than 45 years, the Commission has monitored compliance with the Helsinki Accords and strengthened comprehensive security by promoting human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 57 countries of the OSCE region.
In short, this is another of the millions of committees run and funded by the US government. Earlier today, the US government held a discussion about the "necessity" of partitioning Russia.

This group is led by four women and one man, all of whom have gone through the Regime Change NGO Complex, be it the International Crisis Group, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, the German Marshall Fund, the Soros Foundation, and so on. on the. There are too many bands they have collaborated on to list, so we won't do it. Instead, here are their names and biographies:

Fatima Tlis - Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (Centre for Regime Change)
Botakoz Kasymbekova - Oxus Society, Fellow at the Institute of History and Social Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University
Erika Marat - National Defense University (USA) - University National Defense (USA)
Hannah Hopko - Chair of the Democracy in Action Conference
Casey Michel - Hudson Institution

These are our typical "swamp creatures" who profit from the suffering of those targeted by the US for regime change. Their views always coincide with the policy of the US State Department, no matter how they formulate their words. Pure coincidence, of course.

What is remarkable about this discussion is the shift from the “spread of freedom and democracy” to the need to “decolonize” Russia.

The export of democracy has been one of the main concepts used to justify post-9/11 US expansionism and interventionism. It was the product of the neoconservatives who held the helm of US foreign policy under George W. Bush. The failure of the US to spread democracy in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, etc. has tarnished these neocons, resulting in reputational damage. But since responsibility for failure has been a foreign concept in the US for some time now , these neocons have taken time out to lick their wounds and then rehabilitate their image by joining the opposition to Trump, branding themselves as “defenders of democracy”, whether at home or outside. abroad. They managed to successfully sneak back into the corridors of power.

These neo-conservatives have managed to take the helm of politics back into their own hands, and in tandem with the liberal interventionists, they are happily dragging the West into open conflict with Russia, increasing their support for Ukraine and trying to provoke Russia into an overreaction, for example by pushing Lithuania to cut off the transit of goods from the Proper Russia in the Kaliningrad region. Their matron is Vicki “Fuck the EU” Nuland, a woman in charge of Russia policy who has slid easily through White House administrations, whether Democrat or Republican.

At the beginning of this war, the stated goal of the US was to weaken Russian forces in the theater of conflict as much as possible.After the first few weeks of the war, when they were completely absorbed in their own propaganda, the tone shifted towards regime change in Moscow (the most desired goal in the US State Department). After all, Russia needs democracy, and the Russians need to be freed from the dictator Putin so that they can enjoy its fruits like the rest of the Free World, that is, countries that the US likes.

This discussion group is one step further as it tells ordinary Russians that even regime change and democracy are not good enough for them. They demand the division of their country into smaller (more easily controlled) states so that they can be free.Needless to say, this is a propaganda coup for Putin and the Kremlin, as it allows them to portray the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle.

I like to say that the genius of the United States of America lies in its ability to absorb, co-opt, and then monetize any trend that comes its way. “Decolonization of Russia” is just terminology for partitioning it. This symbolizes how the US has managed to use the Awakening for its own foreign policy purposes.

Russia's barbaric war in Ukraine - and before that in Syria, Libya, Georgia and Chechnya - exposed the evil imperial characterRussian Federation before the whole world. His aggression is also the catalyst for a long overdue conversation about Russia's internal empire, given Moscow's dominance over many indigenous non-Russian peoples and the brutal measures the Kremlin has taken to suppress their national expression and self-determination.

Please pay attention to the parts in bold. Yeah, it's funny how these fucking assholes have the audacity to ignore what the US has done to Syria and Libya and blame it on the Russians instead. It's also funny that they're attacking Russia for putting down an al-Qaeda-led insurgency in Chechnya. However, this leads us away from the main thing: the use of American terminology in the service of the American empire.

I have been predicting this to happen for over a decade now and other people have noticed it.
In fact, I wrote two articles about it:

The Desquamation of America https://niccolo.substack.com/p/the-desq ... of-america - The US is moving from a mercantilist empire to an ideological empire that includes the awakening of

Turbo America https ://niccolo.substack.com/p/turbo-america - The US seeks global hegemony in a multipolar world.

I am sure that many of you will take the same position as I did before; that the use of military terminology in the service of the empire is a cynical ploy. I don't believe in it anymore. I think they are true believers. Chechens, Volga Tatars, Komi, Yakuts, all the “indigenous” peoples suffering from Russian colonization, all yearn for freedom, all seek to free the American who is inside them, screaming for him to come out. They are us blacks who still suffer from a legacy of slavery and segregation, they are Sioux on the reservation, they are intimidated transgender people, they are an oppressed WP journalist from a wealthy family who went to a Swiss boarding school.

My readers are well aware that Western reporting on the war in Ukraine has been so propagandistic as to render it useless until very recently. The actual situation on the ground simply became too obvious to continue to insist that the Ukrainians were on the verge of defeating Russia. This is what makes the USGov discussion group on partitioning Russia delusional. For whom exactly is this being done, except to convince themselves and justify their own busyness?

In my recent article Arrogance, I explained how dangerous the course the US has chosen to go against Russia and China at the same time, uniting the two states in an existential alliance.

In "Incompetence" https://niccolo.substack.com/p/incompetencewe looked at how the sanctions regime against Russia has boomeranged against the US and the EU (and harmed other countries such as African countries) without destroying the Russian economy, which is the actual purpose of these sanctions.

We can now safely add misconceptions to arrogance and incompetence when describing US foreign policy today. If you think that's bad enough, U.S. officials are reportedly happy to plunge the world into a global recession and growing famine (starvation) to ensure Russia doesn't win in Ukraine:

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Europeans and North Americans must sacrifice their standard of living to the U.S. could triumph in Ukraine. Africans may also have to starve. This is for a good cause - the decolonization of Russia. How can you say no ?

(c) Niccolo Soldo

https://niccolo.substack.com/p/delusion - cink

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7698878.html

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

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